Global Policy Forum

Uganda is pushing for "regional cooperation" in its efforts to hunt down and apprehend the leadership and remaining fighters of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group, who are believed to be hiding in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Following a meeting with his Sudanese counterpart, Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein, in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, last week, Ugandan Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi called for a coordinated approach between the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF), the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the Congolese and Sudanese national armies, and the United Nations mission in the DRC, known as MONUC.

In November 2005 UPDF operations against LRA bases in Sudan forced a group of fighters led by the second-in-command, Vincent Otti, to cross into the jungles of eastern DRC and set up camp in the Garamba National Park. The Ugandan army claims the group has since been joined by the elusive LRA leader Joseph Kony and is formulating a plan to mount further attacks on Uganda. The LRA has traditionally launched its attacks on northern Uganda from bases in southern Sudan.

Deputy army spokesman Cap Paddy Ankunda confirmed via telephone that excessive pressure by UPDF had made finding safe hideouts within Sudanese territory impossible for the LRA. "They could no longer get food and could not abduct, so they had to move to Garamba. We estimate the group of LRA there could be around 120 in total, including families and fighters," he said.

"We are looking for regional action, where all the parties affected by Kony being in Garamba jointly act and come up with a mechanism and arrangement where Kony can be apprehended and brought to book. We know this is where Kony currently is." Arrest warrants for the top tiers of the LRA leadership, including Kony and Otti, were issued in 2005 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, where they have been indicted for war crimes.

"[Through] working with the Sudan government, SPLA, Congo government and MONUC, we want to capture Kony and a few of his associates and hand them over to The Hague so as to end impunity," said Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni at the launch of a joint monitoring committee for northern Uganda on 4 May. "If for some reason the ICC did not want to prosecute Kony, we would prosecute him ourselves."

The army has persistently threatened to enter DRC if the LRA were to mount any attacks against Uganda from across the border, through exercising its right to self-defence. "If the regional powers, governments and the international community allow us to enter Congo," said the Ugandan army's Ankunda, "we would be more than willing to help, because the LRA certainly poses a threat to regional peace and security."

The LRA has been fighting against the Ugandan government for almost two decades in a brutal, undulating conflict characterised by the abduction and forced conscription of thousands of children into the rebel ranks. Tens of thousands have been killed and almost 2 million people - or 90 percent of the population of northern Uganda - have been forced to live in squalid camps for the internally displaced.

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