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Uganda: MONUC Threatens to Attack LRA Rebels
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New Vision (Kampala)
23 April 2008
Posted to the web 24 April 2008
Barbara Among
Kampala
THE United Nations Peace keeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, (MONUC), has threatened to flush out the LRA rebels from their Garamba base in eastern Congo if they fail to sign the peace agreement.
The MONUC head of regional relations unit, Gani Are, said the mission was setting up a new base in the Congolese town of Dungu to deal with the LRA.
"We are deploying our soldiers in Dungu. We have a military plan for the LRA. We are waiting for the Congolese army to ask for our help and we get in," Are said.
He was speaking during a workshop on peace and security in the Great Lakes region at Imperial Royale Hotel, Kampala, on Tuesday.
The logistics base in Dungu would be used for surveillance and intelligence work, he added. It was also aimed at preventing the LRA from crossing in and out of the Central African Republic.
The LRA have been moving between South Sudan and the Central African Republic via Dungu, where they attacked villages, looted and abducted hundreds of civilians in recent months.
Gani Are said the Nairobi and Ngurdoto agreements, signed last year between Kampala and Kinshasa, mandated MONUC to fight negative forces in Congo.
"We are definitely prepared for it. The LRA falls within our mandate."
The UN mission learnt lessons from the humiliating incident in January 2006, when eight Guatemalan peacekeepers were killed by the LRA, he stressed.
"We carried out intelligence work and know the group we are dealing with and this will not happen again."
Gani Are estimated that 1,573 Ugandan remnant combatants were holed up in eastern Congo, of which the LRA combatants and their families were around 1,200.
He said MONUC had repatriated 435 Ugandan combatants and their families in the last five years.
Meanwhile, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno Ocampo, has expressed concern over the mass abductions by the LRA in recent months.
"The prosecutor is concerned about the reports of new mass abductions allegedly committed by the LRA as well as reports that the abductees were being subjected to military training," the ICC said yesterday.
"These are worrying developments and provide additional urgency to executing the warrants of arrest."
The UN estimates that 150 villagers, mainly children and women, were abducted from Obo village in Central African Republic since February, while The United Nations Children's Fund reported that another 200 were abducted from the DR Congo in the same period.
In addition, 55 children were reported abducted from South Sudan, according to the chief mediator in the peace talks, Riek Machar.
Amnesty International has called upon the three governments and the United Nations to unite for their liberation.
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"Those who have committed those crimes should also be brought to book," said Godfrey Biarhange, Amnesty International's researcher for the Central African region.
i really do not understand how a small rebel movement can hold a government hostage, with all the atrocities committed by Kony and his men and yet the Ugandan military could not simply move in and flush them out. Thanks to the UN peacekeepers for this initiative of cleaning out the LRA...go for it amnd do a good job Blue Helmets I mean who is Kony to dictate terms.
Go blue helmet go. Please help the innocence people. No more bloodshed. Hope DRCongo people live with peace and prosperety.
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