Alfred Wasike
20 December 2002
Kampala — THE anti-LRA Operation Iron Fist has been 80% successful in the last six months. Now documents captured by the UPDF reveal that LRA chief Joseph Kony has just 514 fighters.
The "LRA Parade State as on October 28, 2002" indicates that Kony has 48 officers, 218 men, 154 male recruits, 10 female recruits, 54 women, 34 mothers and 51 children, the army said yesterday.
It said of these, 300 are combatants, the rest recruits, mothers and children. The army said details were obtained after an encounter with the rebels on November 1.
Addressing the weekly President's Office press briefing, army spokesperson Maj. Shaban Bantariza revealed, "Operation Iron Fist has achieved tremendous success. We have reached more than 80% victory. But the peace teams have achieved nothing since there is no Kony co-operation."
"We have killed more than 229 LRA rebels, rescued more than 1,025 captives, captured more than 59 LRA rebels and received more than 81 defectors. We've captured 75 guns, 1,100 rounds of ammunition and many bombs," Bantariza said."We have lost 23 in action, got 33 casualties, lost four rifles and one of our people went missing in action," he said.
The records captured from Kony show that he has 125 fighters in his operations' room with five officers, 32 men, 36 male recruits, 10 female recruits, 16 women, 12 mothers and 14 children.
Kony has 77 fighters in his support department with five officers, 203 men, 16 male recruits, nine women, 10 mothers and 14 children. He has 41 fighters in his air defence department with four officers, 10 men, six male recruits, eight women, five mothers and eight children.
Bantariza said Kony has 14 fighters in his administration, with two officers, two men, three women, three mothers and four children. He has two officers and 10 men under his commander called Mzee Banya. He has 11 fighters in his military police, with one officer, four men, a male recruit, one mother and a child.
He has a brigade called Sinia, with five officers, 27 men and nine women. Stocree brigade has 18 officers, 82 men and 95 male recruits.
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