'Ugandan rebels flee to CAR'

2007-02-20 16:39

Kampala - A group of Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) guerrillas has reached the Central African Republic (CAR) and joined the rebels fighting the government there, said the Ugandan military on Tuesday.

The LRA rebels, who were supposed to gather in two places in Sudan according to a landmark truce signed in August last year, are instead steadily moving to the CAR by the hundreds.

Ugandan Major Felix Kulayigye said the rebels fear being attacked as the government in Kampala is negotiating with Congolese authorities about the possibility of jointly flushing them from their hide-outs.

The CAR is a land-locked state that borders Sudan to the east and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to the south, where several rebel groups are fighting government troops in a push for a greater share of power.

The New Vision newspaper reported on Tuesday that "at least 40 LRA rebels have crossed into the CAR where they have joined with a rebel group that is fighting the government in (the capital) Bangui.

"Another group of about 400 LRA have left their hide-out in the Congolese jungles of Garamba and is heading in the same direction.

'Linked to APRD'

"The LRA advance party has already linked up with the rebels of the Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy (APRD) who are fighting the government in the CAR."

Major Kulayigye confirmed the report saying that the rebels are unsure of their fate due to the ongoing talks between Kinshasa and Kampala.

Leaders of the LRA, a bush army which has been fighting a 20-year insurgency that has displaced nearly two million people in northern Uganda, have been holed-up on the fringes of a game park in the north-east of the DRC after being flushed out of their bases in southern Sudan last year.

The peace talks, that began in July 2006 to end the war that has left thousands of people dead or maimed, have stalled continuously as the LRA has demanded that the venue of the negotiations be shifted from southern Sudan, a request the Ugandan government has shunned.

- SAPA