New LRA Sudan, misleading information
By Sisto Olur
November 6, 2006 — Hallo, give me a break! A Ugandan daily newspaper, Monitor published in its Sunday’s edition of 5th November titled “New LRA” group emerges in Sudan and further charged that it is the same group that is behind the killings of the 41 civilians about two weeks ago on Juba-Nimule and Torit roads respectively. While the GOSS reacted swiftly by arresting and parading those involved and even declared that they are Sudanese and the arrested people even confessed that they have links with Khartoum. However, what needs clarifications is the fresh allegation that a new LRA group has emerged in Sudan. Vice President, Dr. Riak Machar, currently engages the LRA under Joseph Kony in peace talk in Juba the capital of South Sudan facilitated.
No doubt we acknowledge the existence of other militia groups such as the South Sudan Defence Forces (SSDF), Equatoria Defence Force (EDF) and the Mundari Militia that stayed outside at the time of signing the Sudan peace accord known as Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), but all of them later joined and are now part of the GOSS forming what is called “Joint Integrated Forces”. It is also important to note that in a post-war situation like that of the South Sudan, providing security to civilian population could be a nightmare because during the 20 years of civil war people managed to acquire weapons and some are now using them to get what they want through violent to achieve their ill-conceived goals.
The fact that the situation in the South Sudan remains chaotic right from the time and before signing the historic CPA people are still looking at Khartoum as the trouble shooter and fomenters of violence and want to keep the South in a state of instability and make it ungovernable and are working hard to disrupt the forthcoming referendum scheduled for the year 2011 by supporting armed groups still under their control. The Khartoum regime that assisted the LRA with weapons and other military hardwires in the past did so in a revenge for the alleged Ugandan support they gave to the SPLA in their bush war against successive regimes in Khartoum that lasted 20 years and this is not a secret anymore, and even Ugandan President Museveni acknowledged and gave the reasons why he supported and continue to support the black people of South Sudan. The reasons for Khartoum for giving all what the LRA needed to fight their proxy war against Kampala government is not convincing, especially when they say that they want to rule Uganda by applying the Ten Commandments.
In addition to that Khartoum forced and dubbed the LRA to include religious ideology as a condition to get what they want for their existence by people like Dr. Hassan al Turabi the main brain behind the regime at the time before being sidelined, and eventually put under house arrest through internal and external pressure. Joseph Kony who inherited a rebel movement from his niece Alice Auma Lakwena now in exile in Kenya and later renamed it Lord Resistance Army (LRA) from the previous name “The Holy Spirit” failed to convince influential Acholi and other Ugandan opposition groups both inside and outside Uganda to play the political game in their attempts to remove Museveni from power. That is why the LRA remained largely a northern-based rebellion and Acholi dominated movement without national character. Talk to Ugandan intellectuals from other region they will confirm this with more details.
Now coming back to the issue of the new LRA Sudan as reported by the Monitor and quoting a source who said that they are “mainly from Acholi community in South Sudan, and that they had gone silent after the signing of the CPA, but are now active”. First of all, what I would like the readers to know is that the writer is and an Acholi with close contacts with other Acholis both at home and here in the Diaspora. I even visited home less than a year ago and did not come across such information. But what I know is that few Acholi youth were recruited and joined some militia groups in Equatoria to fight against the SPLA at the time, but with the advancement of the SPLA forces and success to capture strategic positions such as the fall of Torit and the surrounding villages those tribal militias disappeared into the wilderness and some even joined the advancing SPLA forces. It is also important to note that Acholi were not alone in opposing the SPLA in the beginning of the war, which started in 1983.
The small Acholi community of South Sudan should not be singled out as the people behind the current unrest prevailing in Equatoria region. Furthermore, when you look at the above allegation there is no truth in it whatsoever, because if there is a new LRA Sudan now in existence some where in South Sudan, as reported in Monitor newspaper, then the composition of such a force can not come from one single tribe. There should be no comparison between the LRA of Joseph Kony and other armed groups in Equatoria region that are now engaged in banditry activities to disrupt the already fragile peace brought about by the signing of the CPA a year ago. When the incident took place on the 29th October, the first suspects were the LRA but it soon emerged that it is suicidal for Kony to order his troops to go on the offensive either against the UPDF with his delegation in Juba talking peace.
However, with time people will know who are exactly behind the killings of innocent unarmed civilians who are going about their daily lives. Finally, for suspicions not to continue lingering in the minds of people it is important that both the government of Uganda and LRA delegations now in Juba talk seriously and find a political settlement to the conflict so that peace once more return to the people of Northern Uganda and the IDP go back to their villages and start leading normal live. Without peace in Northern Uganda, there will be no peace also in South Sudan. I am sure both peoples want to live side by side and in total PEACE.
*The auther is a Sudanese based in Norway. He can be reached at
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