UNICEF repeats call for release of LRA abductees

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has expressed concern over renewed fighting in northern Uganda, and called for the "immediate and unconditional" release of all the children abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), the Ugandan rebel group which has been fighting in northern Uganda from bases in neighbouring Sudan. The Ugandan military undertook strikes against the LRA in southern Sudan on Sunday, 3 March, following weeks of signals from the Ugandan government that its impatience with the LRA was growing, the agency noted in a statement on Tuesday. Renewed fighting in northern Uganda in the past few weeks, after nearly two years of relative calm, could put thousands of children and young people at risk, UNICEF stated, urging all parties to respect their obligations under international agreements to protect children in wartime. "The abduction of children by the LRA is an intolerable situation that has dragged on for years," said Carol Bellamy, the executive director of UNICEF. "It is time for the LRA, as well as those that have influence with the LRA, to bring about the safe, immediate and unconditional release of these children." After recent violent attacks in Apac, Gulu and Kitgum districts, apparently by the LRA or elements associated with it, the Ugandan army said it had deployed troops along the border areas with Sudan, and that it had had the cooperation of the Sudanese government in its pursuit of LRA fighters who fled into southern Sudan after incursions into Uganda. Tuesday's statement by UNICEF urged the parties to open a dialogue aimed at demobilising all those abducted or recruited by the LRA as children. "With renewed fighting under way, children could be on the front lines," it warned. The LRA, led by Joseph Kony, has fought Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's secular government since 1988, from bases in southern Sudan, ostensibly to establish a rule based on the Biblical Ten Commandments. The US in December included the group - as well as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) operating in western and southwestern Uganda - on its "Terrorist Exclusion List". LRA operations have included the killing and abduction of civilians, the looting of people's goods and destruction of their homes, such that humanitarian officials have described its operations as a war against the civilian population and not the Kampala government. The group had abducted nearly 10,000 children, to be used as soldiers or sex slaves and porters for looted goods, and thousands of them were believed to have died in captivity, UNICEF stated on Tuesday. A registration system supported by the agency puts the number of abducted children still missing at 5,555. In Tuesday's statement, UNICEF noted a declining trend in the number of LRA child abductions in the past three years, which it attributed partly to improved diplomatic relations between Uganda and Sudan. Those improved relations offered greater opportunities for securing the release of abductees and encouraged UNICEF "to look for a breakthrough on behalf of all the children caught in this conflict", Bellamy said. However, the Ugandan army spokesman, Bantariza Shaban, told IRIN on Wednesday that it was one thing for the agency to call for the release of the children and quite another to secure it. "UNICEF is right, but how do we fulfil the recommendation?" he asked. "They need to give us something that is practicable so we can save the children," he added. Bantariza, the Uganda People's Defence Forces' (UPDF) Director of Information and Public Relations, said most of the abducted children had been indoctrinated and become hardened fighters, which was a major source of the frustration for Ugandan soldiers sent to rescue them from their captors. "They [UNICEF] are talking about negotiations. This is a two-way process. We have done all there is to give an opportunity for them [the LRA] to save everyone on the other side, including Kony himself, but we are dealing with intransigent people," he said. "If they [UNICEF] persuaded the LRA on our behalf to release the children, then we could have handled the matters differently. Things would be better," he added. Bantariza admitted that some children had been killed during recent UPDF attacks on LRA positions in southern Sudan, including last weekend's fighting in which the army said it killed at least 80 rebels. "We'd like UNICEF to show us how to extricate children from their hardline commanders. We'd like that very much," he said on Wednesday. "We have done it before, but it is not very easy. Children can be very hard fighters. How do you respond to a 17 year-old child who is trained and only interested in shooting?" Tuesday's statement of concern by UNICEF followed reports by news organisations that LRA rebels on Sunday raided a village in the northern district of Apac, killing four people, torching 28 houses and leaving more than 100 people homeless. On the same night, another gang of alleged LRA collaborators attacked Minakulu sub-county, also in Apac District, according to The New Vision government-owned newspaper. Sunday's attack on Apac followed similar attacks on neighbouring Gulu and Kitgum districts towards the end of February. On Tuesday, The New Vision reported that the sound of heavy gunfire inside Sudan could be heard from Kitgum, as the UPDF shelled the hide-outs of LRA rebels alleged to have been among 300 who attacked Agoro market in Kitgum on 23 February. Uganda's pursuit of the LRA rebels into Sudan was in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter, which allows countries to pursue "their enemies" into another's territory up to a distance of 50 km from the border, Bantariza told IRIN on Monday.