US envoy appeals to Sudan to step up bid to capture LRA rebel leader

By Jude Luggya

KAMPALA, Aug 6, 2004 (New Vision) — The US ambassador [to Uganda], Jimmy Kolker, has asked the Sudanese government to step up its efforts to capture Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army [LRA].

Kolker was participating in a car-wash drive at Garden City shopping centre in Kampala on Wednesday.

“We have been putting pressure on the Sudanese government to arrest Kony, and we encourage them to play their role effectively to restore peace in northern Uganda,” Kolker said.

Last Friday [30 July], Brig Muhammad Habib of the Sudan Peoples’ Armed Forces said they would capture Kony and hand him over in seven days, or kill him if he tried to resist.

The car wash was organized by Three Hours Away, an initiative formed by two Ugandan artists, Richard Kaweesa and Jose Chameleone, to raise money to improve sanitation in internally displaced people’s camps in northern Uganda.

Kolker said his government had over the years contributed to relief and peace programmes in northern Uganda.