Army says no time limit for LRA pursuit

The Uganda People's Defence Forces is not bound by time in its pursuit of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) inside Sudan, where the LRA had bases from which it was launching attacks in northern Uganda, the army spokesman told IRIN on Thursday. Under an agreement concluded between the Ugandan and Sudanese governments in March, the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) were authorised to pursue the LRA inside Sudanese territory, within limited periods. However, the Ugandan government has asserted that the terms and duration of the anti-LRA campaign can be amended by agreement between the Ugandan and Sudanese defence ministers. The Ugandan authorities last week confirmed that the current deadline had been extended from 19 May to the end of June. This was the second extension of the deadline for the operation to pursue and fight the LRA in Sudan According to Maj Shaban Bantariza, the UPDF spokesman, time is not a factor for the Ugandan army, in its pursuit of LRA inside Sudan. "For us, the time frame is not important. We shall continue until we defeat them all," he told IRIN. His remarks followed reports that the UPDF had killed some 67 LRA fighters inside Sudan. The government-owned New Vision newspaper reported on Thursday that a top commander, Otim Okelo Lumumba, was among those killed. Lumumba, the LRA's chief signals officer, was killed on Wednesday morning during a fierce battle in the Imotong Hills, some 50 km from the Uganda-Sudan border, the paper said. The latest figure brought to at least 200 the number of LRA fighters the UPDF had so far killed since launching its intensive anti-LRA campaign inside Sudan in April, according to Bantariza. "That is what we should expect, that's what we are working hard for," he said. "For us, it is a good success." The UPDF had driven the rebel forces into gorges, mountains and caves, thereby severely curtailing their logistics and fighting capacity, according to Bantariza. "But they have to get out and look for food. When they come out, we follow them." All the 67 rebels killed in Wednesday's fighting were combatants who had come out of hiding to look for food, according to the Ugandan army spokesman. At least 2,000 LRA fighters were still trapped in the mountains of southern Sudan, he said. (Previous reports had put the number reportedly trapped at 1,000.) "Their capacity is dwindling. There were about 200 of them fighting only about 40 of our boys. When they [LRA] couldn't run any more, they settled for a fight. They are definitely getting weaker," Bantariza said. "Those who come out are only combatants. Sick people and weaker people are left behind. It also gives us a chance to rescue some of the abducted children and women," he added. Previously supported by Sudan, in retaliation for Uganda's support for the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, the LRA has fought the Uganda government since the late 1980s, from bases in southern Sudan. The low-intensity war has resulted in severe humanitarian consequences in northern Uganda, where the LRA has abducted about 12,000 children and caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, according to humanitarian sources. Bantariza also confirmed a report carried by The New Vision on Wednesday that at least eight children who had recently escaped from LRA captivity in southern Sudan would be flown back to northern Uganda on Thursday. Quoting Bantariza, the paper said that the children had been received by Sudanese authorities in the southern Sudanese town of Juba, where they had been under the care of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) for a week. Bantariza told IRIN that he had personally communicated with Ugandan soldiers on the ground, and had confirmed that there were seven former captives. "They are seven, that is what I know. But I am not sure if they are all children. They can't all just be children. Some have come of age while in captivity," he said. Mads Oyen, a UNICEF official in Uganda, told IRIN that there was a "possibility" that some abductees were waiting in Juba to be flown back to northern Uganda, but he could not confirm their number or identities.