Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels said on Monday they want to leave assembly areas in south Sudan agreed under a truce and head back to Uganda in a move the army warned would restart the country’s 20-year war.
”We are unwelcome in Sudan so [we] have to go back to Uganda,” LRA spokesperson Obonyo Olweny told Reuters by telephone from Nairobi. ”We foresee that is the only logical option.”
But army spokesperson Major Felix Kulayigye said the LRA would be attacked if they tried to re-enter Uganda.
”We shall hit them,” he said. ”Any attempt to come back to northern Uganda would be taken as a resumption of war.”
The LRA’s comments came days after they said they would not resume talks in the south Sudanese capital, Juba, because of concerns for their security after Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir vowed to ”get rid of the LRA from Sudan”.
A landmark truce renewed in November gave the rebels until the end of January to gather in two places in southern Sudan — on the borders of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, near LRA leaders’ jungle hideouts.
But the stop-start peace process has faltered in recent months, with both sides accusing each other of violations and the LRA accusing mediators in south Sudan’s government of failing to stop the Ugandan army attacking them in Sudan.
Firepower
Olweny said the group east of the Nile who were supposed to meet near the Uganda border would probably go back to Uganda.
”They know they can’t stop us going back. If necessary we shall use our firepower,” Olweny said.
But he added the LRA high command had not yet issued a final order sending the fighters back. LRA commanders were unavailable for comment.
The new United Nations envoy for Uganda’s conflict, former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano, left Uganda for Juba on Monday to attend the resumption of talks.
The negotiations, which started in July, have raised hopes of an end to a conflict that has killed tens of thousands and displaced 1,7-million.
Riek Machar, the chief mediator, told Reuters on Friday he expected talks to continue on Monday, despite Bashir’s remarks.
But Olweny said the LRA would not join talks in Juba.
Aid agencies fear the LRA would again wreak havoc on a population already traumatised by war if they went back.
LRA fighters are notorious for killing civilians, mutilating victims and abducting children.
Many Ugandans fear the LRA will never make peace unless the International Criminal Court revokes indictments for war crimes against their top five leaders. — Reuters