LRA condemns war threats

2007-01-25 16:39

Nairobi - Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels accused on Thursday south Sudanese President Salva Kiir of inciting violence against them after a newspaper reported him vowing to "hunt them down".

The LRA have been engaged in peace talks with the Ugandan government under south Sudanese mediation since July, but this month quit talks in the capital, Juba, saying they feared south Sudanese forces would attack them.

The Ugandan Daily Monitor reported on Tuesday that Kiir made a belligerent speech in Arabic on a tour of south Sudan.

"The LRA rebels are a threat to the civil population," the Monitor quoted him as saying. "This is not the responsibility of Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army (SPLA) alone - everybody with a gun should join hands... and hunt them down."

His remarks followed comments from Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in which he vowed to "get rid of the LRA from Sudan," prompting the LRA delegates to quit talks in Juba.

Alternative venue for talks

"LRA protest and condemn in the strongest terms, (Salva Kiir's) statements... that amount to incitement of the people of south Sudan," said LRA spokesperson Obonyo Olweny.

South Sudanese officials were not immediately available to confirm or clarify Kiir's reported remarks.

Olweny reiterated the LRA's demand for an alternative venue for peace talks in either Kenya or South Africa. The Ugandan government has refused to change the venue.

Under a truce signed in August and renewed last month, the LRA have until the end of January to assemble in two places in south Sudan - one on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border; the other on the Ugandan border.

The truce raised hopes of an end to a brutal 20-year war that has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted 1.7 million in northern Uganda.

But both sides have accused each other of violations.

Officials say they are losing patience with the LRA, whom they accuse of continuing to kill Sudanese civilians.

The LRA has threatened to send their fighters back into Uganda, raising fears of new assaults on a civilian population already traumatised by war.

- Reuters