Uganda claims victory
2004-01-01 13:13
Kampala - Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni claimed on Thursday that government troops had "decisively defeated" rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and vowed the group's leader, Joseph Kony, would soon be killed.
"The Kony terror in the northeast has been defeated decisively," said Museveni in his New Year address to the nation.
"Given the improved equipment of the UPDF (Ugandan army), it is only a matter of time before the UPDF kills (rebel leaders) Vincent Otti and Kony just as we killed many of the bandit leaders," said Museveni.
The LRA took up arms against Museveni's government in 1988, ostensibly in a bid to replace it with an administration that would enforce the biblical Ten Commandments.
The group is infamous for its atrocities against civilians and abductions of thousands of children, and has been condemned by human rights groups and United Nations aid agencies.
- AFP