UGANDA/DRC: CAPTURED LRA OFFICER TELLS HIS STORY

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SUBJECT: UGANDA/DRC: CAPTURED LRA OFFICER TELLS HIS STORY

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1. Summary: The following is the account of Lord's Resistance Army
(LRA) Colonel Thomas Kwoyelo, who was injured and captured by the
Ugandan Peoples Defense Forces (UPDF) on February 3 during a
firefight. Kwoyelo had been a senior officer until LRA leader
Joseph Kony decided to execute LRA deputy leader, Vincent Otti, and
arrest other LRA members who supported the peace process in October

2007. Though Kwoyelo's account does not offer much new information,
he confirms that the UPDF-led regional military action called
Operation Lightening Thunder (now called Rudia II) has disrupted the
LRA's communications and command and control because of fears on the
part of Kony of using satellite telephones. Kwoyelo detailed
Sudanese training and equipment received prior to the signing the
Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) in January 2005. Kwyolo also said
that Kony is not interested in making a peace deal. Finally,
Kwoyelo's story corroborates other accounts of humane treatment of
captured and rescued escapees by the UPDF. End Summary.

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BACKGROUND
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2. Els De Temmerman, an internationally recognized journalist
interviewed captured LRA Colonel Thomas Kwoyelo. The following is
the majority of the New Vision interview of Kwoyelo, the former
commander of the Sinia Brigade of the LRA that ran on April 26
entitled "I May Have Been Shot By My Own Brother". Begin text:
"Colonel" Thomas Kwoyelo, the former commander of the Sinia Brigade
of the Lord's Resistance Army, was injured and captured on February
3 by the joint forces of Uganda, Congo and Southern Sudan. He
talked to Els De Temmerman.

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SUDANESE SUPPORT
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3. Q: When did you first go to Sudan?

A: I went there in 1997. But other groups had gone earlier. There
was a brief cease-fire in 1993 when the first peace talks took place
in Cwero Sub-county. That is when a group, led by Second-in-Command
Komakech, started going to Sudan. Komakech later died in a Khartoum
hospital.


4. Q: What kind of support did you get from the Government of
Khartoum?

A: We received three trucks of food every month. Later it was
reduced to two trucks. As for weapons and ammunition, but the time
I arrived, there were already a lot of supplies. The Khartoum
government trained us on how to use the big guns. We were taught
how to use SPG9 and B10 bombs. The training took place in an open
space in Juba. We also received a SAM7 anti-aircraft gun and 12.7mm
guns. As for ammunition, they would bring us one or two trucks of
cartridges and bullets on a regular basis. Contacts with the
Khartoum Government passed through the LRA ambassador, called Lt.
Col. Kayeng, who was based in Juba.


5. Q: Up to when did you receive supplies from Khartoum?

A: When Southern Sudan got autonomy (in January 2005),the supply
line was cut off.


6. Q: There are reports that units went to collect arms from the
Central African Republic and that there were airdrops in Congo.

A: I cannot confirm those reports. At least I did not witness any
of that.


7. Q: How do you explain the new uniforms and arms Kony displayed
during the peace talks?

A: I was still held up in southern Sudan when the talks started. I
found the new uniforms and guns upon arrival in Garamba. When I
asked where they came from, I was told they had been seized during a
clash with the UN forces.


8. Q: Many people wonder how Kony was able to sustain his
rebellion for all this time. Apart from Khartoum, where else did he
get support from?

A: When the rift between Kony and (his deputy, Vincent) Otti
occurred and Otti was killed, Kony ordered his troops to go back to

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Sudan and unearth ammunition we had buried there. Although part of
it had been removed by the Ugandan Peoples Defense Forces (UPDF),
some was brought back to the camp. Kony also received money and
phones from delegations who visited him in Garamba. Some of the
money was used to buy tents, gumboots, soap and other things.


9. Q: Did you hear the name Olara Otunnu (former UN Deputy
Secretary-General) mentioned in the LRA?

A: I heard that name around 1996, when our relations with the
Khartoum Government were still intact and Otti Lagony was still
alive. I was told he came and met Kony. We were living in
homesteads in southern Sudan at the time. But I don't know who he
was or why he came.

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KONY EXECUTES DEPUTY, ARRESTS KWOYELO
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10. Q: Did you witness the execution of Vincent Otti?

A: I did not see it because I was arrested just before Otti's
arrest. But I heard the gunshots. Otti was killed together with
Ben Accelam and Otim Record. All of us were accused of being in
favor of the peace talks and wanting to surrender to the Government
of Uganda. Kony believed the talks were a way to get him out and
have him arrested. He considered all those who were for peace talks
as enemies.


11. Q: What exactly happened to you?

A: I was disarmed, blindfolded and tied for one week. All my
escorts were disarmed, tied and put in different camps. Later, they
were distributed to different units. I spent about one year in
detention in First Brigade in Garamba and was then kept as a
prisoner in Kony's Central Brigade. Up to the day I got shot, on
February 3, 2009, I was under arrest.

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OPERATION LIGHTNING THUNDER
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12. Q: What did you do on December 14, 2008, when your camp was
attacked by the joint forces of Congo, Uganda and Southern Sudan?

A: I was taken along with Kony's group. They would give me a gun
before we started marching and take it away from me every evening.
We had been prepared for the joint offensive. A day earlier, Kony
called all his officers and addressed them. "Everybody should know
that there will be war," he told us. The Congolese, Ugandan and
Southern Sudanese forces would jointly attack. He also said the war
would be from the air.


13. Q: How did Kony know?

A: He told us God had spoken to him. He insisted he had received a
vision of what was going to happen. When one of the commanders
asked whether we should not leave the camp, he said "God had told
him we would be punished if we vacated the camp." "Everybody should
stay," he said. "The planes will come and bomb but nobody will die."
The next morning, at around 9:00 a.m., four gunships came. They
bombed until around midday. In all those bombings, I never saw a
dead body.


14. Q: How did you survive that attack?

A: Kony mobilized everybody and we moved northwards in a big group.
After two days, he addressed us in the wilderness. He ordered us
to abduct as many as possible since the Congolese and Sudanese had
agreed to fight him together with Uganda. "If even Jesus abducted
his disciples, why not me?" he said. He then mixed all the units,
separated them into small groups of 5, 10 up to 25 and sent them in
all directions. Kony, together with his wives and about 50 escorts,
set off following the trail we had come from. I have not seen him
since.


15. Q: When did you last see Kony's deputy, Okot Odhiambo?

A: I last saw him the day Vincent Otti was killed, on October 2,

2007. I don't know where he is.


16. Q: How did Operation Lightning Thunder affect the LRA?

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A: All military assemblies were suspended. There were no more
fixed camps. Every small group was mobile all the time. The
communication among the groups was also disrupted. Kony no longer
used Thuraya satellite phones. If he did, he said, he would be shot
within seconds by a MIG jet fighter. He is only using radio calls
these days but very irregularly. He could switch off for three
weeks. As a result, the control and command structures were
disorganized. It had become difficult for Kony to give orders.


17. Q: Why did the commanders of those small units not seize this
opportunity to escape?

A: They fear the International Criminal Court (ICC). Kony told us
every LRA commander was on the ICC list. Reports that only three
commanders were indicted were propaganda, he said. "If you leave,
the ICC will be waiting for you," he kept telling us. We believed
him. Kony is very convincing. Only now that I am out do I realize
that the reality is very different.

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KWOYELO CAPTURED
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18. Q: How did you come out?

A: I was in a smaller unit belonging to Central Brigade. We were
only 20 members, including four women. The brigade commander had
told us we were going to meet Kony's head of security. We slept in
the bush near Duru (a Congolese village) the night before. When we
started walking the next morning, we ran into the combined forces.
I was the second in line. The first, a young boy was shot dead. As
I tried to run away, I got a bullet in the back which came out
through my belly. Two boys tried to carry me but they could not
cross the river. They removed my gun and left me behind. I felt
like my soul had left my body. I must have passed out. At around
11:00 a.m. I heard voices, followed by three gunshots. A group of
UPDF soldiers was following the trail of blood. I waited until one
of them was very close. Then I called out to him. He ran away and
returned with the rest of his unit. They surrounded me. One
soldier who spoke Acholi asked my name. I said I was Kwoyelo. He
then asked where I was from. They ordered me to come forward with
my hands up. I crawled towards them, trying to raise my hands.

When they saw the blood oozing from my wound, they said: "Wait, we
shall come for you." They asked where my gun was and I told them it
had been taken away. They spread an army fatigue on the ground and
carried me onto it. At that moment, I saw my older cousin-brother,
Aranja, who is a soldier in UPDF. He had not recognized me since I
had been abducted when I was very young. I told him the names of
his father and sister and we hugged. It was a very emotional
moment. They took me to their camp, put me on a drip and gave me
porridge and tea. All along, I have been treated well by the UPDF.


19. Q: Reports say you were in charge of the killing of 10
students of Jimmy SSekasi hotel school in 2001.

A: This is not true. Accelam Smart, who was then a major, was the
commander of the operation. Some LRA members had gone to loot food
in Koch Sub-county. The civilians had captured them and killed one
of them. Smart then ordered massive killings of civilians. I was
in Palaro when it happened.


20. Q: How do you feel about the atrocities committed by the LRA?

A: I feel bad. My own uncle and his three children were killed by
the LRA. My situation in the bush was like that of a dog and his
master. When you tell a dog to do something, it will act as
instructed. All orders came from Kony. He was the chairman. He
ordered attacks, abductions, ambushes. It was upon the individual
commander to show restraint or exaggerate. When you were ordered to
ambush a vehicle and return with money and goods, it was up to the
commander to kill all the passengers or to keep some alive. But it
was impossible to question any of Kony's orders. He would believe
you were against him and kill you.


21. Q: What do you want to do now?

A: I want to join the UPDF.

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COMMENT

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22. Kwoyelo's fate remains uncertain. Our political contacts tell
us that he will receive amnesty, but some military officers say they
want Kwoyelo tried because he was fighting when he was captured.
Kwoyelo's humane treatment confirms other accounts of the UPDF's
respect for human rights during the operation.
HOOVER