Sides accuse each other of supporting LRA

Sudan's warring parties have accused each other of arming and supporting the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), an insurgent group which is waging war against the Ugandan government from hideouts inside Sudan. On Monday, the Sudanese government said it had information that the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) was supplying weapons to the LRA, Uganda's independent 'Monitor' newspaper reported. "SPLA is actually providing LRA with arms. This is not an allegation. We have evidence. We are compiling the information and a report will be out very soon," the paper quoted Sirajudin Hamid, the Sudanese ambassador to Uganda, as saying. However, the SPLM denied the accusations. "That is preposterous," spokesman George Garang told IRIN on Wednesday. "What people know is that it is Sudan which is arming, harbouring and supplying assistance to the LRA." He reiterated earlier SPLM/A claims that the LRA had helped Sudanese forces to recapture Torit, a key southern garrison town, which fell to the rebels on 1 September. The latest accusations follow the extension of a military protocol signed in March between Sudan and Uganda, which allows the Ugandan army to hunt down the LRA in southern Sudan. The Ugandan authorities have said they are looking into the allegations. "We have a mechanism in place. We will use official channels to handle these suspicions," Shaban Bantariza, the Ugandan army spokesman, told IRIN on Wednesday. He said the SPLM/A was trying to antagonise Kampala and Khartoum because it was unhappy with the latest extension of the military protocol. "The latest protocol says we are not to harbour support for SPLM/A," Bantariza said. "I think the SPLM/A is trying to antagonise us along with Sudan, just to give the impression that we are having an alliance with the wrong people."