Post by AuntieSocial on Mar 28, 2004 19:46:13 GMT -5
Ugandan army claims killing 52 rebels in battle[/b]
Click Here to read the article on the originating site
Publication: Borneo Press
Publication Date: March 22, 2004
KAMPALA (AFP) - The Ugandan army said Sunday that it had killed 52 rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) during a fierce weekend battle when a group of insurgents crossed the border from hide-outs in southern Sudan.
"A group of about 100 rebels crossed over from southern Sudan on Friday and yesterday (Saturday) they had contact with our forces," army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza told AFP.
"We killed 52 of them," he added.
Bantariza said the battle took place in Bibia, some 85 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of Gulu town, and that the group of rebels was under the command of LRA's number two Vincent Otti, whose fate remained unknown after the clash.
The army used ground troops and aerial fire-power during the battle and that government troops suffered no casualties, he said.
The army's claim could not be independently confirmed.
"We have recovered 20 rifles so far and a big number of other assorted goods and ammunition," Bantariza said.
The LRA took up arms against President Yoweri Museveni's government in 1988.
The rebel group is notorious for atrocities against civilians and abductions of thousands of children, who are forced to serve as soldiers or concubines, and has been condemned by human rights groups and UN aid agencies.
Its precise goals are unclear, mainly because, unlike most of the world's rebel groups, it has no relations with the outside world.
The stated aim of the group, whose leader is former altar boy and catechist Joseph Kony, was to set up a regime based on the biblical Ten Commandments.
Suspected LRA insurgents are accused of killing more than 200 civilians in a camp for displaced people in northern Uganda on February 21.
Bantariza claimed that the LRA group of fighters wanted to engage government troops on Ugandan soil to prevent the army from pursuing them into neighbouring Sudan, where Kony is thought to be hiding.
"They did not want us to go to Sudan, so they wanted to engage us here so that Kony should not be disturbed," said Bantariza.
Uganda said earlier this month that Sudan had extended by three months an agreement under which Ugandan troops are allowed to carry out search-and-destroy raids against the LRA in southern Sudan.
The announcement came although Uganda has recently renewed a longstanding accusation that the Khartoum government was supporting and harbouring LRA fighters, an allegation denied by Khartoum.
Click Here to read the article on the originating site
Publication: Borneo Press
Publication Date: March 22, 2004
KAMPALA (AFP) - The Ugandan army said Sunday that it had killed 52 rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) during a fierce weekend battle when a group of insurgents crossed the border from hide-outs in southern Sudan.
"A group of about 100 rebels crossed over from southern Sudan on Friday and yesterday (Saturday) they had contact with our forces," army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza told AFP.
"We killed 52 of them," he added.
Bantariza said the battle took place in Bibia, some 85 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of Gulu town, and that the group of rebels was under the command of LRA's number two Vincent Otti, whose fate remained unknown after the clash.
The army used ground troops and aerial fire-power during the battle and that government troops suffered no casualties, he said.
The army's claim could not be independently confirmed.
"We have recovered 20 rifles so far and a big number of other assorted goods and ammunition," Bantariza said.
The LRA took up arms against President Yoweri Museveni's government in 1988.
The rebel group is notorious for atrocities against civilians and abductions of thousands of children, who are forced to serve as soldiers or concubines, and has been condemned by human rights groups and UN aid agencies.
Its precise goals are unclear, mainly because, unlike most of the world's rebel groups, it has no relations with the outside world.
The stated aim of the group, whose leader is former altar boy and catechist Joseph Kony, was to set up a regime based on the biblical Ten Commandments.
Suspected LRA insurgents are accused of killing more than 200 civilians in a camp for displaced people in northern Uganda on February 21.
Bantariza claimed that the LRA group of fighters wanted to engage government troops on Ugandan soil to prevent the army from pursuing them into neighbouring Sudan, where Kony is thought to be hiding.
"They did not want us to go to Sudan, so they wanted to engage us here so that Kony should not be disturbed," said Bantariza.
Uganda said earlier this month that Sudan had extended by three months an agreement under which Ugandan troops are allowed to carry out search-and-destroy raids against the LRA in southern Sudan.
The announcement came although Uganda has recently renewed a longstanding accusation that the Khartoum government was supporting and harbouring LRA fighters, an allegation denied by Khartoum.
