South Sudan donates food to Uganda LRA rebels
Sept 4, 2006 (KAMPALA) -– Sudan First Vice President and, President of the Government of Southern Sudan, Salva Kiir, has sent seven truckloads of food to Ugandan rebel Lord Resistance Army leader, days Joseph Kony sent out a request for help.
The consignment of mainly beans, posho, rice, oil and medicine, left the Southern Sudan capital, Juba on Saturday for Nabanga, a remote border area between Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The consignment was dispatched as Kony cleared the first group of trusted troops and commanders at his base in Garamba National Park to trek to the designated assembly points in Southern Sudan. These fighters are supposed to assemble in DRCongo at Ri-Kwangba in Western Equatoria State on the western side of River Nile.
Kony’s approval comes with only about two weeks left to the expiry of the assembly deadline. “Kony has already sent his first group. We expect it to arrive at Ri-Kwangba on Sunday (yesterday) or Monday (today),” said Lt-Gen Daniel Awet, the GOSS security minister.
“We dispatched seven trucks of food so when this group arrives, they have something to eat,” he said. “We don’t expect Kony to come but he could be somewhere near his forces.”
However, Gulu District Chairman Nobert Mao told Daily Monitor yesterday that Kony was busy consulting. “I have been in touch with Kony. He says he is consulting with his team on how to move to South Sudan,” Mao said in an interview yesterday.
According to the landmark truce signed between the LRA and government, which came into effect last week, the rebels have less than three weeks to assemble at Owiny-ki-Bul in Eastern Equatoria State on the eastern side of the River Nile and in the DRC at Ri-Kwangba in Western Equatoria State on the western side of River Nile.
“He has to abide with the agreement signed. If he doesn’t, then he will be violating the cessation of hostilities agreement,” Mao said moments before he flew out to Juba.
He said Kony had agreed with all the terms of truce but only protested against the safe routes announced by the army last week. “The only thing Kony has protested is on the safe routes announced by the army last week. Everything is fine,” Mao said. However, there is growing concern whether the elusive LRA leader would show up in Sudan.
Kony, his deputy Vincent Otti and top commanders; Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen are on the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) list of wanted men. They have been indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Kony and Otti have in the past expressed fear about their safety in South Sudan. They are afraid the ICC could engineer their arrest.
But President Yoweri Museveni has pledged a blanket amnesty for them if the rebels agreed to end one of Africa’s longest insurgencies. The chief mediator who is also the Southern Sudan Vice-President, Riek Machar, at the weekend visited Owiny-Ki-bul in the Equatorial Province, for an on-spot assessment. Kony and his fighters have rejected the assembly point saying it’s heavily mined.
“Apart from on-spot assessment of the area, Machar is launching the cessation of hostilities officially in Owiny-Ki-bul. It is also his mission to give his assurance to the LRA that the area is safe,” a top SPLM official monitoring the talks, said.
(Daily Monitor/ST)