South Sudan armed forces confess to civilian killing
Oct 22, 2006 (JUBA) — Southern Sudan soldiers have confessed to massacring civilians in ambushes that claimed around 40 lives, authorities in the region said on Sunday after arresting the troops.
“Some 15 people have been arrested. They are from southern Sudan armed forces,” said Major General Wilson Deng, a south Sudan commander who is monitoring a truce between the Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Kampala government.
“We are still going on with the investigations since others are still on the run,” he added.
The soldiers were arrested in the past three days after they carried out raids near the south Sudan capital of Juba. The attacks were initially said to be linked to peace talks between the Ugandan government and the LRA.
Deng said the arrested soldiers had confessed to attacking vehicles and villages in raids that spread panic in a region trying to recover from 21 years of fighting between the ex-rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and the Khartoum government.
“They raided a place called Gumba — about four kilometres from Juba — and they killed some people, but the SPLA forces intercepted them as they were leaving the place with their loot. They confessed being responsible for the ambushes,” Deng explained.
The Ugandan army, which has had troops deployed in southern Sudan since last year under an arrangement with Khartoum, denied responsibility for the attacks, saying the LRA was to blame for them.
The LRA also flatly denied the attacks, however, and has threatened to sue two newspapers, the Ugandan state-run New Vision and the independent The Monitor, which carried reports last week suggesting that the LRA, reputed for its brutality, had carried out the raids.
It has also asked the government to write an apology for the allegation.
Officials have speculated that the attacks could have been organised by opponents of the south Sudan government in a bid to undermine the Ugandan peace process.
Mediated by the region’s vice president Riek Machar, the process aims to end two decades of insurgency in northern Uganda.
The Ugandan warring sides have in the past traded accusations of attacks on civilian targets both in northern Uganda and southern Sudan.
(AFP)