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Uganda: LRA Denies Abductions as Kony Arrives for Deal
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The Nation (Nairobi)
31 March 2008
Posted to the web 31 March 2008
Frank Nyakairu
Juba
The Lord's Resistance Army has denied being behind the abductions and rape committed in Central African Republic committed last month.
Meanwhile, separate sources told Daily Monitor Sunday that Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army and some of his top commanders have arrived at Ri-Kwangba, eastern Congo DR, a sign that this week's deal could be signed.
Mr Kony will sign his part of the agreement on Thursday while President Yoweri Museveni signs on Saturday, April 5.
The Government of southern Sudan said Sunday that it had invited seven presidents for the grand ceremony.
"We invited leaders of all the Great Lakes Countries, South Africa, Mozambique, USA, Canada and the EU representatives but we have not yet got a response," said Southern Sudan's agricultural minister, Dr Samson Kwaje who is also responsible for peace talks.
If the agreement is signed, it will be the first of its kind in 21 years of war between Mr Kony's LRA and Museveni's Government.
Mr Kony and two of his top deputies are wanted for multiple war crimes by ICC prosecutors in The Hague.
Meanwhile, a UN report at the weekend accused the LRA who it said had established a base in the remote and vast Central African Republic, of carrying out rapes.
But the rebels' chief negotiator David Nyekorach-Matsanga said: "That report is biased, ill-intentioned .the LRA has its troops in Ri-Kwangba we challenge the UN team to prove that those people are LRA."
The report said 150 people are being held in Central African Republic, by armed men who local officials say are rebels from Uganda's LRA. Most of the villagers abducted were women and girls, and some have been gang-raped, a UN official said at the weekend.
Mboli Nani, MP for Obo in south-eastern CAR, said that some of those who had escaped from the rebels testified they had been beaten by their abductors. He said the armed men spoke English, Arabic and Lingala.
"The style they used is the style of the LRA," Mr Nani told the BBC. "They attack in the night slowly and quietly - they take people and they steal goods."
The head of Ocha, the UN's humanitarian affairs agency in CAR, Mr Jean-Sebastien Munier, told the BBC that the area where the kidnappings occurred was extremely remote and difficult to access. "We cannot confirm it is official LRA - it could be a dissident branch," he said, after the return of UN fact-finding team from the region.
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LRA's Matsanga said "some groups are pretending to be LRA and if this is not carefully handled, they will be sabotaging the delicate peace process."
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