Salva Kiir denies death of Ugandan rebel leader
November 7, 2007 (KAMPALA) — The President of Southern Sudan government, Salva Kiir, yesterday told journalists at the UN headquarters in New York that he believes Vincent Otti, the rebel LRA’s second most senior commander who is rumoured dead, may be simply ill.
Gen. Kiir, who began his trip to the US with a stop UN stop on Tuesday, told a journalist from the Inner City Press (a US news agency) – who asked him whether he knew if Vincent Otti is alive, that; “There are reports that Otti is dead; some of these reports say that Joseph Kony killed him. These are rumours; someone can be sick and then become restored.”
Kiir also met Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, according to a UN report and later told journalists that he has just built bridges between Eritrea and the National Congress Party of Omar al-Bashir. He said he aims to do the same between El-Bashir and George Bush.
Talking about the South Sudan-mediated talks between the LRA and Kampala, Kiir said there is almost peace in Uganda, that an LRA delegation is in Kampala, and that if a peace agreement is signed, “the local community” will ask the ICC to drop the indictments (against the LRA leadership).
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an official of the South Sudan Government told the French News Agency that; “As of now, (Vincent) Otti is missing…we do not know whether he is dead or alive.” “Last month, there was a clash within the LRA, the one group (allied to rebel leader Joseph Kony) wanted to give up fighting and come out of the bush, while Otti’s group wanted to keep fighting,” said the official.
The South Sudan government officials largely maintain regular contact with the LRA leaders who are hiding in the jungles of northeastern DR Congo and South Sudan.
The deputy chief of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army rebels is missing after a dispute within the group over stuttering peace talks with the government, an official said Wednesday. The
LRA official told AFP claims in Ugandan newspapers that the rebel figure, Vincent Otti, was killed last month were “rubbish” and insisted he was alive.
Ugandan newspapers today, quoting intelligence sources, reported Wednesday that Otti was executed last month along with his key allies in Congo’s Garamba National Park.
“Otti was killed… during a high command meeting that Kony convened as his base in Garamba,” according to documents obtained by the state-run New Vision newspaper.
It said Kony wanted the death to remain secret “to avoid mass desertions by those who supported Otti or those who would be scared by this new development.”
“Executed along with Otti are his two wives and several commanders with perceived loyalties to him,” a source told independent Daily Monitor newspaper.
Both Ugandan dailies said Odhiambo was promoted to replace Otti, the long-time deputy and public face of the notoriously brutal rebel group.
But LRA official Martin Ojul, who is holding consultations with the public and local leaders in northern Uganda on the peace talks, rejected the claims.
(Monitor/AFP)