Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06KHARTOUM2468
2006-10-09 14:56:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Khartoum
Cable title:  

SUDAN/UGANDA: MONITORS SAY LRA HAS DISPERSED FROM

Tags:  MARR PREL SU UG CG 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO3532
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHKH #2468 2821456
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 091456Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4889
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L KHARTOUM 002468 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/09/2016
TAGS: MARR PREL SU UG CG
SUBJECT: SUDAN/UGANDA: MONITORS SAY LRA HAS DISPERSED FROM
ASSEMBY AREA

REF: KHARTOUM 2425

Classified By: CDA R. Powers, Reasons: 1.4 (b) and (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L KHARTOUM 002468

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/09/2016
TAGS: MARR PREL SU UG CG
SUBJECT: SUDAN/UGANDA: MONITORS SAY LRA HAS DISPERSED FROM
ASSEMBY AREA

REF: KHARTOUM 2425

Classified By: CDA R. Powers, Reasons: 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) combatants who had
assembled at Owiny-Kibul just north of the Sudan-Uganda
border have now dispersed, according to Sudan People's
Liberation Army (SPLA) chief Gen. Oyai Deng. Deng said at
least one LRA group, under senior commander "Dominic" was
reported near Juba. Deng said the SPLA had intercepted
communications indicating that the group planned to cross the
Nile from east to west at a point either north or south of
Juba. He said the SPLA believes the group intends to attempt
to reunite with LRA chief Joseph Kony somewhere in the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).


2. (C) Deng had just been briefed by SPLA General Wilson
Deng, who had traveled to the Owiny-Kibul area with a group
of observers from the LRA peace talks now underway in Juba.
The talks are moderated by Government of Southern Sudan
(GoSS) Vice President Riek Machar. The observers included
representatives from the LRA, the Uganda People's Defence
Forces (UPDF),the SPLA and leaders of the ethnic Acholi
community in northern Uganda.


3. (C) The observers planned to brief Machar and the peace
talks delegates on the evening of October 6. Separately,
negotiators reported that discussion of a proposed
"comprehensive" package of social and political reforms in
Uganda had broken down. Machar was expected to brief the
press on these developments.


4. (C) Privately, SPLA chief of staff Deng blamed both the
LRA and the UPDF for the debacle. "The LRA are not serious,"
Deng said, "but Uganda made a big mistake in deploying near
Owiny-Kibul." The UPDF had not "surrounded" the assembly
point, Deng said, but had deployed in significant numbers to
prevent the assembled LRA combatants from crossing back into
Uganda or moving west to cross the Nile and reunite with
other LRA forces in DRC. UPDF Fourth Division Commander Col.
Charles Otema admitted on October 4 that the UPDF had
deployed in significant numbers west of the assembly point to
prevent a Nile crossing.


5. (C) It was not immediately clear how the UPDF or the SPLA
would react to these developments. GoSS Vice President
Machar told visiting Sudan Programs Group Director Lauren
Landis September 29 that the UPDF, present in southern Sudan
since 2002, had been "confined to barracks" for the duration
of the peace talks.
HUME