Ugandan army dislodges rebel leader from mountainous hideout in Sudan

KAMPALA, March 30, 2004 (New Vision) — Joseph Kony has fled his hideout in southern Sudan’s forested Imatong mountains, which have been occupied by the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).

Protagonists to the decade-old civil war in Sudan have often fought for the control of Imatong and upper Talanga mountains, which have large caves supplied with water springs. For 10 years, and every time after a round of killings, abductions and destruction of property in northern Uganda, Kony rebels retreat to the mountainous region.

The scarcely populated region stretches over 80km and runs along Kitgum and Kotido district borders. The mountains descend into the uninhabited Lipan hunting grounds.

“The army has now dislodged Kony and his loyalists from Imatong. They have fled down to the Katire plains. This is a victory for us. The army will now stay in those caves as another operation goes on to hunt him down in the plains,” army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza said.

He said the army had learnt from captured rebels that Kony had ordered his commanders in the north to stop attacking internally displaced people’s (IDP) camps in Uganda. “Kony’s message issued through LRA officer Sam Kolo is that no more attacks on IDPs because whenever such attack is attempted he loses more fighters. He has also told Kolo to initiate peace talks,” Bantariza said.

He said Kony’s fresh orders through Sam Kolo nullify the earlier one to his deputy, Vincent Otti, to attack the camps. He said Kony wanted the camps attacked to force the army to withdraw from Sudan and to put the government on pressure for a negotiated end.

“Our position is clear. We are not going to make mistakes of the past. We are not quitting Imatong and those other sanctuaries of Kony in Sudan. At the same time, we shall hunt them all over the north,” Bantariza said.

Since 1983, the mountain region had been a safe enclave for the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) from aerial bombardments by the Sudan government army.

Later the Sudan government raised the Equatoria Defence Forces (EDF), a militia from the indigenous Acholi, Langi and Lotuko tribes, which fought and dislodged the SPLA from most of the region.