SO. SUDAN: UPDATE ON UNMIS PKO KILLING AND LRA

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