/ 23 September 2005

Ugandan rebel deputy chief ‘seeks asylum in DRC’

The deputy chief of Uganda’s notorious rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Vincent Otti, is seeking political asylum in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda’s defence minister said on Friday.

Otti, the long-time deputy to elusive LRA supremo Joseph Kony, has requested asylum from authorities in Kinshasa who have yet to make any decision on the matter, the minister, Amama Mbabazi, told reporters in Kampala.

”Otti’s group has declared their presence in the DRC and have requested political asylum,” he said. ”I am waiting to hear their [the DRC government’s] response.”

In Kinshasa, however, DRC government spokesperson Henri Mova Sakanyi denied authorities have had any such request from Otti.

”We have not received any asylum request concerning Ugandan rebels nor have we gotten any request for the extradition of LRA rebels on Congolese soil,” he said.

Mbabazi would not say whether the DRC has confirmed receipt of the alleged asylum request from Otti who, according to Kampala, fled southern Sudan with about 60 fighters into the DRC last week under pressure from Ugandan troops.

”We have told the authorities in the DRC about the LRA’s presence, but they already knew about it,” he said, adding that the rebels crossed into the DRC at a village known as Aba.

Mbabazi could not say where Otti and the fighters are at the moment or how or when they requested asylum from Kinshasa.

On Monday, the Ugandan army said Otti and the fighters had fled Ugandan military operations in southern Sudan — conducted under a 2002 agreement between Kampala and Khartoum — into the jungles of the eastern DRC.

”It is possible that they are asking for political asylum in order to avoid any harassment and have some time to rest and reorganise, or it could be a deception,” Mbazazi said. ”Whatever it is, we will find out soon.”

Despite the LRA presence in the eastern DRC, the minister said Uganda has no plans to send troops into the country as it did in the late 1990s.

”We think that the Congolese authorities and Monuc [the United Nations mission in the DRC] will do the needful,” he said. ”So, therefore it will not be necessary to take action in self-defence.”

In addition, Mbabazu said Otti’s boss, Kony, remains holed up in southern Sudan, and Kampala is asking Khartoum for permission to pursue him.

”Kony is 40km north of the Red Line and we have asked the Sudanese government to engage them,” he said.

The Red Line is the border up to which the Khartoum government allows the Ugandan army to launch military operations against the LRA.

For nearly two decades, the LRA has operated bases in both northern Uganda and southern Sudan, from where they launch brutal attacks on villages in both countries, displacing masses of people.

The group took over leadership of a rebellion in northern Uganda in 1988 and vowed to overthrow the government of President Yoweri Museveni and replace it with one based on the biblical Ten Commandments.

The LRA is, however, notorious for atrocities committed against civilians and abducting villagers as bearers, child-soldier conscripts and sex slaves.

The conflict has displaced more than 1,6-million people, who are living in crowded and unhealthy camps in northern Uganda, most of which are prone to attacks. — Sapa-AFP