http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2006/10/mil-061003-irin0
1.htm
 

UGANDA: Monitoring team finds no rebels at assembly area

OWINY KI-BUL, 3 Oct 2006 (IRIN) - A fact-finding team consisting of parties
to talks between the Ugandan government and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)
left one of the assembly points, Owiny Ki-Bul, southern Sudan, without
establishing the presence of the LRA rebels in the area.

The team, which came from the southern Sudan capital of Juba, where the
talks are taking place, came to verify complaints by both the LRA and the
Ugandan government over alleged violations of a Cessation of Hostilities
Agreement signed on 26 August in Juba.

"Security has been of concern. There has been an absence of security and the
LRA force here has taken this into consideration," Col Michael Anywar, head
of the LRA monitoring team, said on Tuesday when asked why the rebels had
not turned up at the assembly point despite the monitoring team's arrival on
Monday.

The Ugandan government had said the LRA violated the agreement by not
assembling troops at Owiny-Ki-Bul as required. For their part, the LRA
accused the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) of surrounding its troops
at Ngomoromo and Puger, south of Owiny Ki-Bul, at Parajok and Palutaka, east
of Owiny Ki-Bul, as well as other areas near the assembly point.

The monitoring team left on Tuesday for Palutaka, where they were to verify
the LRA's claim that the UPDF had deployed in the area in violation of the
Cessation of Hostilities Agreement. They were also due to visit Parajok, 15
km from Owiny Ki-Bul.

On Monday, the monitoring team found a small camp that had been abandoned by
the LRA rebels some four kilometres before Owiny Ki-Bul. Strewn around the
camp, where about 45 fighters had been staying, were several bags of maize,
beans, sugar and flour. "They left in a hurry on Wednesday," Julius Onyala
Samuel, the local chief said.

The fact-finding team comprises three representatives each from the LRA and
the UPDF, as well as officials of the mediation team from the Sudan People's
Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). 

The team, led by SPLM/A Gen Wilson Deng, who is also second-in-command of
the mediation team, arrived in the area on Monday to verify whether the LRA
had assembled at the camp and whether or not the UDPF had "surrounded" the
area as the LRA claimed. 

"The rebels wrote a note saying they were fleeing because they had heard
that the Ugandan army was approaching the area," Onyala told the team. "They
asked whoever found the note to cover the food they were leaving behind."

However, Onyala and SPLA officers on the ground told the monitoring team
that the UPDF soldiers the rebels were referring to were escorting a team of
journalists to Owiny Ki-Bul from the Ugandan capital, Kampala. The press
trip was organised by the Ugandan government to enable journalists to meet
LRA fighters. 

At Parajok, the journalists were told by the UPDF that an SPLM/A escort,
expected at the border, was not available to take them to Owiny Ki-Bul. 

At Owiny Ki-Bul on Monday, SPLM/A officers told IRIN they turned back the
UPDF because its presence in the area would have constituted a breach of the
Cessation of Hostilities Agreement signed on 26 August.

The monitoring team will present its findings to the delegates attending the
Juba peace talks later this week.


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