30 June 2008
Juba — The government of South Sudan yesterday ordered Ugandan troops hunting LRA rebels to leave its territory.
South Sudan's Vice-President Riek Machar said the decision was intended to avoid past mistakes, saying the UPDF abducted and killed a South Sudanese man during anti-LRA operations this month.
"If there are any forces in Sudan that are UPDF, these should move back to Ugandan territory," he told the South Sudanese assembly.
"If the option to fight the LRA is going to be made, (South Sudan) can handle this on its own."
Uganda, which has had troops pursuing LRA forces in southern Sudan since 2002, said it would keep its soldiers there to stop the rebels returning to northern Uganda and threatening Ugandan security.
Army spokesman Major Paddy Ankunda said the Government had received no formal communication telling its soldiers to leave.
"We have troops in southern Sudan under an arrangement with the government there, because the threat by LRA rebels still exists," he told Reuters.
Uganda's two-decade civil war uprooted two million people.
At an African Union summit in Egypt yesterday, the top US diplomat for Africa said the LRA's fugitive leader Joseph Kony was re-arming, and said the United Nations should boost its peacekeeping force in Congo to contain or catch him.
Two years of peace talks between Kampala and the LRA broke down in April prompting Uganda, Sudan and Congo to threaten a joint military offensive against the guerrillas.
Jendayi Frazer, the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said the talks established a mechanism for reconstructing war-torn northern Uganda and had been positive. However, she said LRA violence against Congolese civilians demanded a response.
"We need to pursue other avenues, particularly since he has increased his attacks against local villages, forcing into service women, children," Frazer told reporters on the sidelines of the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh.
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