Focus on missing child abductees

UGANDA-SUDAN: Focus on missing child abductees The United Nation's Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday reiterated its "grave concern" over the fate of thousands of children abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in southern Sudan, especially in light of the reported abandonment of many of them by the rebel group after a major military offensive by the Ugandan army. "Where are the missing Ugandan children?" the agency asked. "Thousands of children said to be abandoned by LRA rebels must be found and protected," it added. A recent agreement signed by the Ugandan and Sudanese governments has given the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) authorisation to sweep through broad swathes of Sudanese territory in pursuit of the LRA. Previously supported by Sudan, in retaliation for Ugandan support for the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) battling Khartoum, the LRA has fought Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's secular government since 1988, from bases in southern Sudan. LRA leader Joseph Kony had abandoned his "wives" (many of them abductees forced into sexual slavery) and thousands of abducted Ugandan children he had been forcing to fight for him at the Sudanese government-controlled position of Aru [6.32 N 29.52 E], as he fled northwards from a UPDF attack on Lubangatek, according to UPDF spokesman Shaban Bantariza. "We attacked the rebels on Thursday [28 March] and Kony abandoned his captives. They were in their thousands. We are fighting these rebels alone. The operations are still going on," the German press agency (dpa) quoted Bantariza, Director for Information and Public Relations with the UPDF, as saying. According to Bantariza, the LRA had handed over "wives" and younger children - most of whom, he said, had been born in captivity - a week before the Ugandan military offensive began because, being unable to fight, they would have proved a burden for the group in the "difficult days ahead". The children and "wives" now in the hands of the Sudanese government would soon be handed back to the Ugandan government, he added. UNICEF said on Thursday it had asked Uganda for clarification regarding its assertion that the LRA had abandoned children, that they were in the hands of the Sudanese government and would eventually be handed over to humanitarian agencies. So far the UNICEF offices in Uganda and Sudan had received no other indication that children were, in fact, released by the LRA, the agency added. "We need to find out where these children are and then do everything possible to ensure their protection and, ultimately, reunification with their families," UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said in Thursday's statement. Bantariza told IRIN on Wednesday that the Ugandan army's military offensive against the LRA and its bases in southern Sudan - was "proceeding smoothly". "Either way we are happy," he said. "In case LRA runs to other areas, we will go there and get them. The protocol permits that. They [the Sudanese government] gave us no objections to going into areas they control. In any case, we will get assistance from the Sudanese military. They will either arrest them for us, or allow us in." The two countries signed a protocol on 10 March under the terms of which Sudan and Uganda agreed to cooperate and coordinate their efforts "to contain the problems caused by the Lord's Resistance Army across the Sudanese-Ugandan borders". During the operation, which began on 28 March, the UPDF overran five LRA base camps in (Eastern Equatoria) southern Sudan, and by 29 March had captured a cache of arms worth just over US $2 million, according to Bantariza. He said there had been no casualties reported since the operation began. "There are no casualties yet," he told IRIN. "We found abandoned military materials. We know they only fled with light weapons and are moving towards SPLA territory," he said. The SPLA, which has been fighting the Sudanese government since 1983 in the latest phase of the country's civil war, controls large swathes of southern Sudan. While UNICEF has expressed grave concerns over the fate of children caught up in the fighting and urged all parties to regard those caught in the conflict "as children", Bantariza said it would be difficult for the UPDF to guarantee their safety, because most of them had become highly militarised and were combatants. "UNICEF has a problem. They don't know what children they are talking about," he told IRIN. "The definition of children here is not explained. Our situation is such that we cannot talk about children." "Children need not simply be referred to as children. The younger ones who were not combatants and not useful to Kony were sent to the Sudanese government. But he has retained the older ones who are useful to him," he added. Bellamy on Thursday emphasised that Uganda had made clear its military campaign in southern Sudan was designed to destroy the LRA, while also securing the release of thousands of abducted children. However, "we have yet to see any evidence that the children are being rescued", she added. LRA operations have included the killing and abduction of civilians, the looting of people's property and destruction of their homes, to the extent that humanitarian officials have described its operations as a war against the civilian population and not the Kampala government. Uganda and Sudan signed a reconciliation accord in Kenya in December 1999, agreeing to foster and maintain security across their common border, and have since reopened diplomatic missions and exchanged envoys. A breakthrough in the improvement of relations between the two countries became apparent in March, with exchange visits by high-level delegations, followed by the agreement permitting the UPDF to operate on Sudanese territory. According to Justice Africa, a private international organisation promoting peace and human rights in Africa, the process leading to improved relations evolved at the regional level under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) but was also boosted by the US-led war on terror launched after the 11 September events - in which it has secured Khartoum's assistance against terrorism and listed the LRA as a terrorist organisation. "Such progress could not have happened without the additional pressure provided by the US-led 'war on terror' after September 11," Justice Africa said in a report released in March on prospects for peace in the region. However, the London-based organisation also suggested that the Sudanese military could have warned the LRA of the impending Ugandan offensive, enabling it to evacuate its bases before the arrival of the UPDF. According to Justice Africa, the LRA's main military bases were within the security perimeter of the Sudanese army's southern command in Juba - its major garrison in southern Sudan, from where it could easily have dealt with the LRA itself. "The LRA slipped away from its bases in southern Sudan before the Ugandan forces could take any action against them, raising the suspicion that they had been tipped off in advance," it said. The organisation also accused Khartoum of "trying to use the agreement as a pretext" for organising its forces to mount ground operations to "relieve its outlying garrisons" in Eastern Equatoria, where the SPLA maintains a stronghold. According to Bantariza, the SPLA has agreed to permit Ugandan troops safe passage through the territories under its control in southern Sudan but would not involve itself in any fighting between the UPDF and LRA. For its part, Uganda has warned the SPLA - with which it has a close relationship - against taking advantage of its offensive against the LRA by launching attacks on the Sudanese army, the Nairobi-based EastAfrican weekly newspaper reported on Monday. "We have contacts with the SPLA. They have been told not to take advantage of this situation to attack Sudanese government positions," the paper quoted Ugandan Foreign Minister James Wapakhabulo as saying. Meanwhile, UNICEF on Thursday reiterated its stand that the LRA "must unconditionally release the children it has abducted over the years to serve as soldiers, porters and sex slaves." According to figures quoted by the agency, some 5,555 children (from over 10,000 abducted over the last decade) are still missing. "Release by the LRA is essential but that is just the first step," Bellamy said on Thursday. "The children must be found, cared for and given education and a chance to recover. That process can only begin if we have access to them."