Ugandan army says killed 8 LRA rebels
June 26, 2006 (KAMPALA) — Ugandan troops killed eight northern rebels in clashes last week, keeping up the pressure on fugitive guerrillas who have called for peace talks with the government, the army said on Monday.
There is no ceasefire and fresh clashes have broken out as Uganda decides whether to meet representatives of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in neighbouring Sudan.
“Eight LRA fighters were killed last week as they tried to raid camps in the north,” said Uganda’s army spokesman Major Felix Kulayigye. “Our position is clear: operations continue.”
Four LRA rebels were also killed by Sudanese forces in southern Sudan last week, a state governor said.
Northern Uganda had been relatively quiet in recent weeks.
LRA leader Joseph Kony, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) with four of his commanders, met southern Sudanese officials in May and June, his first known meeting with mediators in years.
Sudan’s southern regional government says it wants to broker an end to the 19-year conflict between the LRA and the Ugandan government, which has uprooted almost two million people in northern Uganda and destabilised southern Sudan.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni is being urged by ICC supporters not to negotiate with any of the wanted men, but he has given Kony until July 31 to surrender and receive amnesty.
Last week the Ugandan envoy in the Sudanese regional capital of Juba said his government would soon send a delegation to meet LRA representatives waiting in the town, but did not say when.
Government sources said Kampala was waiting for an invitation from southern Sudan’s President Salva Kiir. The talks have been organised by Kiir’s deputy, Riek Machar.
Uganda’s government blames the collapse of past talks on the rebels, saying they have used negotiations to rearm and abduct more recruits. But many people in northern Uganda say Museveni has always preferred force to negotiations.
He has urged United Nations peacekeepers in Democratic Republic of Congo to disarm the LRA, who crossed into the country from Sudan last year. LRA fighters killed eight Guatemalan U.N. troops there in January.
(Reuters)