Bounty mooted for LRA leaders

2006-01-11 22:37

Kampala - Bounties should be offered for the capture of the top leaders of Uganda's notorious Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) as a part of a concerted effort to end the group's brutal nearly 20-year war in northern Uganda, a leading international policy group said on Wednesday.

The International Crisis Group (CG) said rewards should be advertised and paid to ex-rebels or civilians who can provide information leading to the arrest and prosecution of elusive LRA supremo Joseph Kony and four top deputies who have been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

"A bounty like that used in conjunction with the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia should be offered to private citizens for capture or assistance in capturing indictees alive," the group said in a report that urged a multi-pronged approach to ending the crisis.

"It would have to be small enough not to attract mercenary elements, but large enough to encourage non-indicted LRA rebels to consider turning against the leadership," the CG said, stressing that the rewards should be part of the larger plan.

Co-operation

"In isolation, military, diplomatic, political, and judicial strategies have no realistic prospect of success," it said.

"All these pieces have to be substantially enhanced and to fit together to have any hope of making peace a reality."

It said the bounty scheme should be complimented by enhanced military co-operation between Uganda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - the three nations where the LRA is active - as well as stepped up international humanitarian aid for the war-ravaged region and UN support for mediation.

Since the ICC unsealed war crimes indictments for Kony and his four chief lieutenants in October, Uganda and Sudan, particularly the autonomous government in south Sudan, have improved anti-LRA military links but the Crisis Group said it suspected elements in Khartoum were still helping the rebels.

"There are credible reports that elements of Sudanese military intelligence still aid them," it said, noting that Kony is believed to be holed up near the town of Juba in southern Sudan.

Sanctuary

"Konys location roughly 100km north of Juba indicates he is still being given sanctuary by elements in the government," it said, without providing further details.

The LRA has waged a bloody war in northern Uganda since 1988, ostensibly to replace President Yoweri Museveni's government with one based on the Biblical 10 Commandments.

But it has become far more well-known for its brutality toward civilians, tens of thousands of whom have been killed and some 1.6 million of whom have fled their homes, fearing attacks during which the rebels kill, maim, loot and abduct children.

- AFP