Ugandan rebels still getting aid from Sudan, says ICG

Sudanese military officers have continued to aid the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), despite international arrest warrants for the rebel group's leaders, an international thinktank has said. "There are credible reports that elements of Sudanese military intelligence still aid them [the LRA]," said the International Crisis Group (ICG) in a report. "[LRA leader Joseph] Kony's location roughly 100 km north of Juba [in southern Sudan] indicates he is still being given sanctuary by elements in the government," it said on Wednesday. The ICG said, however, that while the Sudanese government had admitted using Kony as a destabilisation strategy against a rebellion in the south in the past, any support currently being given to the LRA did not reflect official policy. Sudan had in the past named Uganda as a supporter of the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLM/A). Following the signing of a peace agreement to end a 21-year war between the SPLM/A and the Khartoum-based government in January 2005, relations between Uganda and Sudan thawed. Sudan eventually allowed Ugandan forces to pursue the LRA - with the assistance of its own army and the SPLM/A - north of the Juba-Torit road, also known as the "red line". "Spoilers within the ruling National Congress Party and military, who continue to exert full control over the security structures of the new government, are hostile towards the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and the LRA remains a tempting tool with which to help scuttle the agreement," the ICG noted. In the briefing paper, "A Strategy for Ending Northern Uganda's Crisis", the ICG called for the creation of a comprehensive approach featuring both military and non-military elements to defeat the LRA. It recommended a trilateral agreement between the governments of Uganda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which it said would offer a truly regional response to the problem. Hundreds of LRA rebels also moved into northeastern DRC in September 2005. "In isolation, military, diplomatic, political and judicial strategies have no realistic prospect of success," said John Prendergast, a senior adviser with ICG. "All these pieces have to be substantially enhanced and fit together to have any hope of making peace a reality." The LRA has fought against the government of Uganda for close to 20 years, and the conflict has displaced some 1.7 million people in northern Uganda. The rebels operate from bases in neighbouring southern Sudan and frequently attack civilian targets in the region.