Angelo Izama
21 September 2008
Kampala — Fears of a renewed offensive by the LRA, following the rebel group's attacks in South Sudan and eastern DR Congo, have emerged and are likely to turn the spotlight on northern Uganda's stalled peace process and the failure of Uganda, DR Congo and South Sudan to see through a regional military programme to flush out the rebels.
The attacks, which have been reported by religious authorities as well as the Government of South Sudan, carry the signature brutality of the group which has been encamped in northeastern DR Congo since the end of 2005.
South Sudan's Sudanese People's Liberation Army have confirmed that one of its soldiers was killed and others injured by suspected LRA rebels in Sakure, a village in Western Equatoria Province, the latest of such attacks by the increasingly restive rebels.
The South Sudan army says the attack by the LRA had been repulsed and that it went on hot pursuit after the rebels inside Congolese territory.
Up to 50 pupils are reported to have been kidnapped on Wednesday from Kiliwa Primary School in DR Congo. This was followed by another raid the next day, this time aimed at a Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) unit on the South Sudan-DR Congo border. In all, houses, schools, churches and health centres were looted and burned, especially on the Congolese side.
It is unclear what sparked off the latest wave of violence by the LRA. Sources say the Congolese national army as well as United Nations peacekeepers have deployed in the area, another sign that the situation has deteriorated and could be the explanation for the rebels' lashing out.
This week the most senior United States legislator on Africa, Senator Russell Feingold, appealed to US President George W. Bush to quickly help find a solution to the LRA problem, saying peace talks have failed. He urged Washington to devote more diplomatic and other resources to the problem.
"Rather than intensify efforts to engage and pressure Kony to accept the agreement, the United States and others have downscaled our efforts," Sen. Feingold said adding that "without expanded resources and capacity focused on this problem, a completely new offensive runs a high risk of exacerbating the region's volatility".
The senator has recommended more co-ordination between donor agencies and asked the US government to convene a high-level donor conference to focus on the rebuilding of the north - an idea favoured by Mr Tim Shortley, the senior advisor to the Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Dr Jendayi Frazer, who has been involved with peace process.
The peace process with the rebels, whose leaders are still being sought for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, hit a snag with LRA leader Joseph Kony failing to sign the final peace agreement in April.
The return to violence by the LRA will make the argument for continued dialogue and eventual signing of the final deal more tenuous.
"The current violence impacts negatively on our struggle to conclude the northern Uganda conflict rapidly and peacefully," said Dr Ruhakana Rugunda on Saturday, who headed the Uganda government negotiating side at the peace talks in Juba and is also internal affairs minister.
The latest effort by Acholi cultural and religious leaders to revive the peace process only promises to continue some kind of dialogue according to a joint statement they released on Thursday, together with the chief mediator, Dr Riek Machar, and the LRA representative, Mr David Matsanga-Nyekorach.
The rebels earlier this month gave UN Special Envoy Joaquim Chissano a cold shoulder by refusing to honour a meeting with him.
In a desperate letter dated September 18 from the Catholic Diocese in Dungu, DR Congo, Fr. Benoit Kinalegu, told his regional bishop that LRA attacks have been reported in Duru, Nambia and Kiliwa. Fr. Kinalegu said local reports in Duru and Nambia showed that the LRA had kidnapped its local chiefs while an assault on a market in Kiliwa saw the razing of houses and abduction of 50 young people.
"They began ransacking in the market, burnt down houses, schoolrooms," the letter says noting that LRA combatants had earlier approached locals pretending that they wanted to give up their weapons only to burst into violence after receiving instructions on their satellite phones.
"A woman was hurt in the back by a machete [strike] when she wanted to take her child out of the hands of the attackers," said the diocesan report released on Friday.
Other sources say the LRA attacks on the Congolese can be attributed to the souring of relations with local communities who are resisting the rebel presence. Elements of the rebel group have reportedly raped local girls and intimidated the authorities.
Worse news was reported on Friday by another priest, Fr. Abbot André Walia, who said the entire population of Dungu was on the run after LRA ransacked the town and surrounding areas, abducting secondary school students and forcing the local Comboni missionaries to flee into the forest after their church was vandalised and set on fire.
"Yesterday [Thursday] we had information of two dead bodies lying on the soil but this morning our sources say there are three," the clergyman said, appealing to the area authorities and the Kinshasa government to intervene.
Northern Uganda's two-decade civil war killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 2 million, destabilising parts of South Sudan and mineral-rich Congo.
In June, LRA fighters killed 23 people, including 14 SPLA soldiers, in a similar attack at Nabanga on the Congo border. Although the reported rebel areas of operation are quite some distance from the Ugandan broder, the increasingly fluid security situation will cast a shadow over the normalisation of life in northern Uganda especially in light of the incomplete peace process which begun promisingly in July 2006.
The rebels have refused to sign, demanding that the ICC indictments against their leaders be lifted first.
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