South Sudan orders Uganda to evacuate rebel assembly point
The South Sudan army, the SPLA , has ordered the Ugandan army UPDF to vacate areas surrounding Owiny-ki-Bul, one of two designated assembly points.
The move, that has pleased the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) has drawn protest from the Uganda government.
According to Ugandan Daily Monitor, chief mediator Riek Machar presented a harmonised paper to the two parties at the Juba talks, late Tuesday, flatly rejecting the LRA’s request for permission to travel to Ri-Kwangba but also ordered the UPDF to quit all areas close to Owiny-ki-Bul.
Oddly, many of the areas in question are UPDF military bases in South Sudan.
A source said Dr Machar asked the UPDF to withdraw from Aruu, Palotaka and Magwi areas, where the Uganda army is heavily deployed.
“It was suggested that the Ugandan forces withdraw from their bases to give the LRA confidence to return to Owiny-ki-Bul,” the source said.
In the moments that followed the signing of the August 26 truce, the LRA refused to assemble at Owiny-ki-Bul and claimed that the assembly point had been besieged by the UPDF. They also claimed that the area was infested with mines.
“The paper that was given to us last night [Tuesday], looks somewhat favourable and we hope our friends in government also find it favourable,” said Godfrey Ayo, the rebels’ chief publicist. A source said Kampala was incensed by the Machar document and raised objections. The government delegation preferred not to debate the matter at the meeting and said the issue of UPDF’s deployment in South Sudan was not part of the negotiators’ mandate.
Capt. Paddy Ankunda, the delegation’s publicist, told Daily Monitor shortly after the meeting that, “Our view is that this [withdrawal of troops] should not be part of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement because the UPDF is in a bigger Sudan under a protocol with the Khartoum government.”
Sudan opened its borders to the UPDF in March 2003 at the peak of the army’s operation Iron Fist.
But while Machar threw out the LRA’s request to cross River Nile and move to Western Equatoria, their preferred area of assembly, the rebel’s second in command Vincent Otti, announced yesterday that his fighters would not assemble at Owiny-ki-Bul.
“I don’t mind the rejection,” he said via satellite phone. “But I have asked my forces to remain in the wilderness like they have always been used to, even with this new development and I shall also stay here while the peace negotiations carry on.”
Otti said his people have kept complaining that the UPDF is following them up.
“I have asked them to use their guerrilla tactics and hide from them. But if this intensifies, do not be surprised to hear that they have clashed with the UPDF because they are looking for this themselves, ” Otti said.
Unconfirmed reports from South Sudan indicated that the security situation along the major highways to Juba has deteriorated with news trickling in of a suspected attack on civilians.
Military sources in Juba and Kampala said unidentified gunmen stopped a convoy of vehicles on Tuesday and abducted five civilians.
“They [gunmen] shot at the vehicles, deflated the tyres and abducted people before they ran away,” the Juba source said.
Two Ugandan businessmen, James Busiki and John Gabayo, who said they were travelling to Juba via Yei, told Daily Monitor yesterday that they had postponed their journey until the situation on the Juba road improves.
Due to the security concerns, many traders are forced to move under military escort. The security deficiencies follow a massacre last week that claimed 41 civilians.
(Daily Monitor)