Uganda’s LRA rebels to end within two months: Sudanese diplomat

KAMPALA, Feb 17, 2004 (Xinhua) — Sudanese Ambassador to Uganda Siraj al-Din Hamid has said that within two months, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels “will cease to be a fighting force.”

Hamid told local media on Monday that the Ugandan rebels, many of whom have fled to the Sudan to escape the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) offensive in northern Uganda, had created problems for themselves by raiding the Marila villages near Juba in the southern part of the Sudan.

“I am sure that the Marila tribe will retaliate and I think they must be preparing to attack Kony’s (rebel leader) camps,” the Sudanese ambassador was quoted Tuesday by The New Vision as saying.

He said the Sudan was prepared to help investigate the LRA leader Joseph Kony, and get him arrested.

“Kony’s days are numbered not only because of the peace process in the Sudan but because of the internal problem they have created in the southern Sudan,” he said.

On the question what would happen if the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an international warrant of arrest for Kony and asked the Sudanese government to arrest and hand over Kony, the ambassador said, “To arrest a suspect, the Rome Convention of 1998 mandates seeking the cooperation of the parties involved. The Sudan will readily comply with the ICC request.”

The ICC has accepted the invitation of the Ugandan government to investigate and prosecute the LRA leadership for terrorism and committing the most barbaric atrocities against the people of Uganda when President Yoweri Museveni visited London last month.