Ugandan rebel leader must leave South Sudan or face SPLA: Garang

By Reuben Olita, The New Vision

KAMPALA, Jan 11, 2005 — Joseph Kony’s LRA rebels must vacate southern Sudan or face the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) following the peace agreement between the SPLA and Khartoum on Sunday.

Uganda president Yoweri Museveni and Chairman of the IGAD Summit of Heads of States (L) and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLA) leader John Garang (R) share a joke during the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the SPLA and the Sudan Government in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, Januray 9, 2005. (Reuters).

SPLA leader and first vice-president designate, Col. John Garang, said the rebels “are unwelcome in our territory.”
He gave Kony 72 hours from Sunday to leave the Sudanese territory.

“They will be treated as enemies of the United Sudan. They have no business being on our territory,” Garang said while answering questions from journalists in Nairobi on Friday after meeting with US secretary of state Colin Powell.

Garang said the order affected all armed groups operating in southern Sudan. President Yoweri Museveni, along with at least a dozen world leaders including Powell, witnessed the signing of the historic agreement.

“It’s our responsibility to ensure that the Sudanese borders in the south are safe. This means no foreign troops will be allowed in and armed groups like the LRA will have to find another place to operate from,” he said.

A peaceful settlement of the LRA war is being brokered by former minister Betty Bigombe but the progress has been slow.

Museveni said the peace deal between the SPLA and Khartoum “will be good for the people of Uganda and Sudan.”