Uganda wants more action against rebels in Congo

KAMPALA, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Uganda called on Thursday for more action to catch rebels who killed eight Guatemalan peacekeepers last week in the jungles of neighbouring Congo.

Fighters from Uganda’s notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group entered Congo’s remote Garamba Park last year, and on Jan. 23 they fought off a U.N. force of Guatemalan commandos trying to kill or capture the LRA’s deputy leader, Vincent Otti.

It was the second deadliest attack in the history of the U.N. mission MONUC, the world body’s biggest peacekeeping force. But Uganda’s Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa said he hoped it would not spell the end of attempts to crush the LRA in Congo.

“It is our hope to see more (attempts to catch Otti),” Kutesa told a news conference in Uganda’s capital Kampala.

“We have support from everyone in the Security Council in calling on the DRC (Congo) government, Sudan, MONUC and (the U.N. force in Sudan) UNAMIS to do everything possible to make sure the negative forces of the LRA are disarmed and apprehended.”

The LRA is notorious for targeting civilians and abducting children, and in October the International Criminal Court in The Hague unsealed arrest warrants for its top leaders.

They include Otti in Congo and Joseph Kony, the LRA’s self-professed prophet leader, who is believed to be in volatile southern Sudan where his cult-like group has long had bases.

Kutesa said he was in talks with Khartoum to extend a deal that lets Ugandan troops hunt the LRA in southern Sudan, but which expired on January 19. “They seem agreeable,” he said.

Some 1.6 million people live in camps in northern Uganda because of two decades of LRA insurgency, and on Thursday Kutesa said the government was forming a new team of donor nations and aid agencies to improve their living conditions.

He said Britain, the United States, Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark would all be involved, “together with some representation from credible non-governmental organisations”.

Read Another Article

Van Gogh killer ‘honoured to be compared to bin Laden’
Vicars thank God for sex toys

Related News Articles Topic(s): Lord's Resistance Army Subscribe to Religion News Blog updates Subscribe to Religion News Blog [What is this?] Get Religion News Blog's headline by Email [What is this?] Follow Religion News Blog at Twitter Find Related Information Use our custom search engines to find additional research resources on religions and cults: ApologeticsSearch.com: Search for apologetics articles, books, videos, and other research resources across 135 Christian apologetics websites and blogs. CounterCultSearch.com: Search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, and cults experts -- as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims -- across 260+ websites, blogs and forums dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support. Find Related Religion & Spirituality Books at Amazon.com Lord's Resistance Army Possibly related... or Most Popular Religion News Articles Kent Hovind: Evangelist arrested on federal charges Beast’s real mark devalued to ’616′ Muslim Woman Gives Sex Advice on Arab TV Michael Jackson Confirms Conversion to Islam Kent Hovind, ‘Dr. Dino,’ guilty on all counts The fall and rise of Carlton Pearson Search False prophet Harold Camping sets another date for rapture: May 21, 2011 Watch the film Theo van Gogh was murdered for Kent Hovind — Dr. Dino — sentenced to 10 years in prison

Search Religion News Blog