LRA rebels deny killing civilians in South Sudan

Oct 20, 2006 (KAMPALA) — Ugandan rebels denied on Friday killing at least 38 civilians in a string of attacks in southern Sudan and accused Uganda’s military of trying to frame them.

South Sudanese officials said unknown gunmen shot dead the victims on Wednesday between the southern capital Juba and the eastern banks of the Nile, where Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) guerrillas have long had bases — and terrorised villagers.

Uganda’s army blamed the LRA, but the rebels’ top commander in the area told Reuters his fighters were blameless.

“No LRA has attacked civilians in southern Sudan,” Caesar Acelam said by satellite telephone.

“If attacks took place, it is more likely UPDF (Uganda People’s Defence Forces) who are deployed around Juba. They do this, then accuse LRA,” he said.

Ugandan army spokesman were not immediately available for comment.

Southern Sudan’s regional government is hosting stop-start peace talks between Uganda and the rebels that began in July.

Under a landmark truce in August, the LRA were supposed to gather at two places in the south, but Uganda’s military has accused them of regrouping to resume hostilities instead.

Independent monitors representing different parties at the talks were investigating who was behind Wednesday’s killings.

The head of the monitoring team said witnesses told him the attacks had been carried out by shabbily dressed young men and women sporting dreadlocks — a trademark of the LRA.

Acelam — who said he was speaking from the eastern assembly point near Uganda’s border, Owiny-Ki-Bul — admitted some of his rebels had scattered north of his position towards Juba, but not as far north as where the killings took place, he said.

“The UPDF surrounded us. We had to move for fear of being attacked,” Acelam said. “They did not go that far.”

Negotiations have stalled in recent days as both Uganda’s army and the LRA accused each other of violating the truce many hoped would draw a line under two decades of war.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was due in Juba this weekend to meet mediators, whose efforts had been hailed as the best chance yet of ending one of Africa’s longest conflicts.

The LRA’s insurgency has killed tens of thousands and displaced 1.7 million in northern Uganda, and has also caused deaths and suffering in impoverished southern Sudan, where the LRA until recently received support from Khartoum.

The rebels’ top leaders are wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and have said they will not sign a peace deal unless the indictments are dropped.

(Reuters)