K'jong Deployed in Teso
New Vision (Kampala)
September 9, 2003
Posted to the web September 9, 2003
Kampala
The agreement between leaders of Karamoja and Teso regions to unite and fight rebels yielded fruit yesterday with the deployment of Karimojong vigilantes along the Katakwi-Moroto border, reports Emmy Allio.
Local authorities said over 50,000 Karimojong would be mobilised and deployed to fight Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels.
The army deployed the Karimojong militia who were part of the Anti-Stock Theft Unit (ASTU) in Katakwi, a senior official of the Arrow Group said.
Brig. Kale Kaihura, the military assistant to President Yoweri Museveni, said the first group to be deployed are those from ASTU.
Kaihura, who also camped in Soroti said, "There is big mobilisation here. The support the army is receiving from the population is overwhelming."
Army spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza said, "The ASTU were already a trained group of mainly Karimojong. I see their deployment in Teso region as being inevitable."
State minister for health Capt. Mike Mukula said, "I believe that over 50,000 Karimojong are ready for action against Kony rebels. They have the guns and experience. All that they need is the command which the UPDF will provide."
Teso and Karimojong leaders met in Soroti last week. In a meeting organised by Mukula and the economic monitoring state minister, John Omwony Ojok, the leaders agreed to mobilise Karimojong militias.
"The potential to confront and defeat Kony rebels is overwhelming among the Karimojong. Kony knows that he has never succeeded in Karamoja. Just wait," Ojok said.
Elsewhere in Teso, recruitment and training of the youth to swell the Arrow Group continues in earnest.
Arrow Group coordinator Musa Ecweru and his officers were yesterday combing parts of Katakwi district.
"We learnt that a rebel was shot and injured. We must find out where he is hiding," he said.
