Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06KHARTOUM1322
2006-06-05 14:37:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Khartoum
Cable title:  

SOUTHERN SUDAN: LATEST INFORMATION ON THE LORD,S

Tags:  PREL PGOV PTER PHUM UG SU CG 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO8025
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHKH #1322/01 1561437
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 051437Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3049
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHKI/AMEMBASSY KINSHASA PRIORITY 0026
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0056
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 001322 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/SPG

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/05/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PTER PHUM UG SU CG
SUBJECT: SOUTHERN SUDAN: LATEST INFORMATION ON THE LORD,S
RESISTANCE ARMY


Classified By: CGJ RWhitehead for reasons 1.5 (B) and (D)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 001322

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/SPG

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/05/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PTER PHUM UG SU CG
SUBJECT: SOUTHERN SUDAN: LATEST INFORMATION ON THE LORD,S
RESISTANCE ARMY


Classified By: CGJ RWhitehead for reasons 1.5 (B) and (D)


1. (SBU) Summary. Ugandan officials have confirmed that the
GOU has accepted the concept of contact with the Lord,s
Resistance Army (LRA),but they were uncertain on the
modalities. An initial meeting was postponed due to Vice
President Machar,s travel to Khartoum but is expected to
take place sometime the week on June 3. The Ugandans offered
negative comments about Machar,s well documented provision
of USD 20,000 to Kony. Rumors of an LRA attack between Juba
and Torit may be inaccurate. End summary.

--------------
Details of LRA Meeting Unclear
--------------


2. (C) Head of Chancery Charles Mukaga and a political
officer from the Ugandan Consulate in Juba told CG that
President Museveni is still willing to engage in contact with
the LRA but that the GOU was displeased by direct GoSS aid to
Kony and company. They said that the an LRA delegation had
been scheduled to come to Juba on May 29, but that the visit
was postponed due to Machar,s travel to Khartoum for
SPLM/NCP talks.


3. (C) Mukaga expressed uncertainty about Ugandan
participation in the initial talks. He said that &he
thought8 that consular officials would be involved and
&probably8 there would be a delegation from Kampala. He
admitted that he had little guidance from Uganda and no
particulars on modalities from the GoSS. He shied away from
the notion that the GoSS would play a mediating role.

--------------
Backlash over Kony Cash
--------------


4. (C) In reference to Machar,s last meeting with Kony,
Mukaga said that the GOU was not pleased that Machar had
given USD 20 thousand to Kony with a warning not to buy arms,
an event that provided footage for a news clip on BBC and
CNN. The Ugandans saw Kony as unreliable and likely to break
his word. Mukaga claimed, for example, that a unit of LRA
had recently traversed Sudanese territory from Garamba Park
and staged a raid near Nimule, a claim that UNMIS could not
substantiate, although it was unclear if the alleged attack
took place on Sudanese or Ugandan soil. The political
officer confirmed that Ugandan troops remain in static
positions within southern Sudan but for now have ceased all
operations and patrols.


5. (SBU) The BBC news clip also showed two Europeans, one
identified as Simon Simon and a second who Mukaga said his
sources had identified as Douglas Johnson, a British academic
and Sudan expert who was a member of the Abyei Boundary
Commission. We have not confirmed this claim from other
sources, although the figure on the news clip was identified
as Johnson by someone who participated the same week in the
Rift Valley Institute in Rumbek at which Johnson presented a
paper.


6. (C) A well connected SPLM official confided to CG that
Machar, who has been coy about assistance to the LRA, had not
expected the news clip to air. He said that the Ugandans had
released it, possibly to embarrass Machar in retaliation for
support provided to the LRA, and noted that cutting a deal
with Kony does not mean that justice might not be served
later, as in the case of Charles Taylor. We do not know if
any direct support continues to flow, although UNMIS has
reported unusual air activity over Garamba Park in DRC and
believes that chartered aircraft may be flying in.

--------------
Next Meeting
--------------


7. (C) A different SPLM source informed CG on June 2 that a
LRA delegation will come to Juba sometime next week. Vincent
Otti may head this group, but Joseph Kony is not expected to
come. The GoSS does not know who will come from the Ugandan
side, although Machar reportedly hopes that the Ugandan Vice
President will attend.

--------------
Attack on Torit Road
--------------


8. (SBU) On June 1, Catholic Archbishop of Juba Paulino

KHARTOUM 00001322 002 OF 002


Lukudu Loro told CG that a catechist had been murdered two
days earlier in an LRA raid on the Torit Road 47 miles east
of Juba. The murder received press play, but UNMIS is not
convinced that the LRA was involved and thinks that this may
have been an act of routine banditry, although the
possibility of a renegade LRA remnant remaining east of the
Nile cannot be completely ruled out.
STEINFELD