Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07KHARTOUM143
2007-01-30 15:18:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Khartoum
Cable title:  

SO. SUDAN: UPDATE ON UNMIS PKO KILLING AND LRA

Tags:  PREL PGOV MARR PHUM SU UG CG KE 
pdf how-to read a cable
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TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5944
INFO RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 000143 

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DEPT FOR AF/EX, AF/SPG, AND AF/RSA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/29/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV MARR PHUM SU UG CG KE
SUBJECT: SO. SUDAN: UPDATE ON UNMIS PKO KILLING AND LRA

REF: KHARTOUM 00039

Classified By: P/E Chief E. Whitaker, Reason: Section 1.4 (b) and (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 000143

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SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/EX, AF/SPG, AND AF/RSA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/29/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV MARR PHUM SU UG CG KE
SUBJECT: SO. SUDAN: UPDATE ON UNMIS PKO KILLING AND LRA

REF: KHARTOUM 00039

Classified By: P/E Chief E. Whitaker, Reason: Section 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: A January 26 ambush of a UN peacekeeping
convoy southeast of Juba left one Indian peacekeeper dead and
one injured. The Ugandan rebel group Lord's Resistance Army
(LRA) is suspected of responsibility for the attack. The
incident follows a breakdown in peace talks between the LRA
and the Government of Uganda (GOU),mediated by the
Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS). The attack also
coincides with reports of LRA looting of food supplies in
villages south and east of Juba, LRA movement and attempted
movement toward Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo,
and efforts to shift peace talks from Juba to Nairobi. GOSS
officials have reacted angrily to the latest attacks, and to
the idea of moving the peace talks. The GOSS also continues
to accuse its northern partners in the Government of National
Unity (GNU) of supporting the LRA and other illegal armed
groups in the South. End Summary.

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Attack Kills Indian Peacekeeper
--------------


2. (U) The UMMIS convoy came under attack January 26 along a
road about 125 kilometers southeast of Juba. The driver of
one of the UNMIS vehicles, an Indian national, was shot and
died later at a local hospital. A second Indian national was
injured but survived. The convoy was accompanying personnel
in a UN-sponsored demining operation in an area called Opari
along the road between Torit, the capital of south Sudan's
Eastern Equatoria state, and south of Magwi. This is an
increasingly significant trade route between Southern Sudan
and Uganda.


3. (U) UN security personnel, GOSS officials, and senior
leadership of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA)
blamed the Ugandan rebel group Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)
for the attack. The LRA is also blamed for a recent attack
on a vehicle belonging to the German government's development

agency GTZ. An employee of the UN's World Food Program
(WFP),traveling as a passenger in the GTZ vehicle, was
killed in that attack. The GTZ vehicle was also involved in
the demining program.


4. (SBU) Immediately following the latest incident, UN
security personnel pressed the SPLA to attempt to secure
agreement from the LRA not to attack demining operations.
SPLA Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Maj. General Bior
Ajang reacted angrily to the proposal, citing GOSS efforts to
mediate peace talks between the LRA and the Ugandan
government. GOSS has provided food to the LRA at two
assembly points, Bior pointed out, but the LRA has instead
attacked and raided foodstuffs from southern Sudanese
villages east and south of Juba. The SPLA had shown
forbearance and had not "declared war" on the LRA, Bior said,
but he saw little utility in attempting to negotiate specific
protection for deminers. Bior nevertheless promised to
provide additional protection to UN personnel.

--------------
Focus on the LRA
--------------


5. (C) Roads east and south of Juba, linking the Southern
Sudanese capital to Uganda, Kenya, and the Eastern Equatoria
region of Southern Sudan, have been plagued by ambushes and
other attacks since approximately mid-October 2006. The UN
currently requires armed escorts for vehicles moving in areas
affected by the insecurity, and has tightened security
restrictions in the wake of the latest incident. There is no
UN movement on the route south of Torit towards Opari in
Eastern Equatoria without force troops for the time being.
UN-related LRA or assembly area humanitarian intervention and
similar activity is suspended in Equatoria until reviewed
February 1. Earlier attacks were attributed to a variety of
potential perpetrators, including the LRA, Southern Sudanese
militia, possibly supported by Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and
Khartoum, as well as "ordinary" bandits. There is a
near-consensus among UN, GOSS, SPLA, and local officials,
however, that most or all of the latest incidents are the
responsibility of the LRA.


6. (C) An SPLA officer, who had accompanied LRA leader Joseph
Kony,s mother to meet with him late last year, told ConGen
that two hours earlier on January 26 the SPLA had been
involved in a firefight with LRA near the southern assembly
area of Ri-Kwangba, resulting in the wounding and capturing
of one LRA member. The wounded LRA fighter is reportedly in

KHARTOUM 00000143 002 OF 002


the Magwe hospital under SPLA control.


7. (SBU) UN and SPLA sources also report that:

-- There have been several recent attacks on Ugandan trade
vehicles moving people and goods from Uganda into Southern
Sudan;

-- At least three villages near Nimule, on the Uganda/Sudan
border, have had most of their stores of foodstuffs raided in
the last month by presumed LRA attackers;

-- Some LRA elements, who had moved into southern Sudan under
terms of the cessation of hostilities agreement negotiated in
the current peace talks, have moved back into northern Uganda;

-- Other LRA elements are attempting to cross the Nile from
east to west, perhaps with the intent of reuniting with LRA
leadership on the Sudan/Congo border. One of these groups,
attempting to cross the Nile at a location north of Juba, was
recently repulsed; and

-- LRA leaders Kony and Vincent Otti, recently residing in
Congo's Garamba National Park, now claim to be "far" from
that location and unable to meet with potential mediators at
the Ri-Kwangba assembly point in Sudan.


8. (C) A senior UN security officer informed ConGen that he
spoke with Otti immediately after the Opari attack and that
Otti denied that the incident was an LRA action.

--------------
Breakdown in Peace Talks
--------------


9. (C) Meanwhile, GOSS-mediated peace talks are at an
impasse. The LRA has withdrawn from the talks, citing
anti-LRA rhetoric by GOSS President Salva Kiir at ceremonies
in Juba on January 9 marking the second anniversary of the
signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) (reftel).
LRA spokesmen have also complained of statements by Sudan
President Omar el-Beshir at the same event, in which he
suggested the Khartoum-based SAF might join with the SPLA to
take military action against the LRA. Few in Juba considered
this a serious proposal, and SPLA sources say there has been
no follow up to this suggestion from SAF. In his January 9
speech, Kiir specifically accused SAF of continuing to
support the LRA. In this regard, an SPLA contact has
reported to ConGen that he observed new tents and a GOS flag
at an LRA campsite near the Ri-Kwangba assembly point last
August, and he asserted these were likely supplied by
Khartoum.


10. (C) GOSS Vice President Riek Machar, chief mediator in
the talks, has attempted to arrange meetings with LRA
leadership at the two designated assembly points: Ri-Kwangba
on the Congo border, west of the Nile, and Owiny-Kibul near
the Uganda border, east of the Nile. Machar traveled to
Owiny-Kibul recently, but LRA elements assembled to meet him
fled before the meeting could take place.


11. (C) GOSS officials have responded with dismay to
proposals by the LRA to move the peace talks to Nairobi.
However, according to GOSS sources, former Mozambican
President Joaquim Chissano continues to urge that the idea be
considered. Chissano also proposes the incorporation of four
other African states as observers in the peace talks.
Chissano was recently named Special Representative of the UN
Secretary General with responsibility for the LRA problem.

SIPDIS


12. (C) An aide to GOSS VP Machar said he remains hopeful
peace talks will resume within one or two weeks, and said
Machar remains in telephone contact with LRA leadership.
POWERS