South Sudan puts military on standby over Ugandan rebels

July 1, 2008 (JUBA) — Southern Sudan has ordered its military to attack anyone bearing arms outside Ugandan rebel assembly points in a bid to clampdown on anti-civilian attacks, Vice President Riek Machar said Tuesday.

Rebels from Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) overran a military camp on the Sudan-Congo border on June 4, killing at least 27 people.

A Ugandan military squad raided a town on the Sudan-Uganda border, killing one person on June 14, according to a ceasefire monitoring team.

“The SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) is under instruction that anybody holding arms must be attacked,” Machar told parliament in response to a call from MPs for the government to deploy more forces in the affected areas.

“The army has now deployed,” he added.

The Ugandan military has forces at the border with Sudan, but it remains unclear if and how deeply they have penetrated the country.

Sudan-mediated talks between Uganda and the LRA halted in April when the elusive rebel leader Joseph Kony refused to sign a peace accord, on the grounds of outstanding International Criminal Court war crimes arrest warrants.

(AFP)