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Africa Subsaharan

Uganda: Tapped LRA Radio Calls Pin Ongwen On Killings, Crimes

2016-12-10

[All Africa] Secret communication intercepts by the Ugandan army and police have come in handy for prosecution at The Hague to build its case that former Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a perennial thorn in Africa's side commander Dominic Ongwen co-planned and commanded attacks against civilians, church institutions and military targets in northern Uganda. The trial of Ongwen, who surrendered in January 2015, began on Tuesday at the International Criminal Court (ICC) where he is charged with 70 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. In a lengthy evidence presented to the court over two days, the ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and senior trial lawyer Benjamin Gumpert played what they said were intercepted radio call communications between Ongwen and other LRA commanders, including the leader Joseph Kony ... The Lords Resistance Army is a religious and military group formed in 1987. It is led by Joseph Kony, who proclaims himself the spokesperson of God and a spirit medium, and who is periodically possessed by demons, Beelzebub and Legion prominent among them. Kony advises his soldiers to draw crosses on their chests as a protection against bullets. This does't work, but nobody outside the LRA minds. The group is based on a hodge podge of apocalyptic Christianity, mysticism, and traditional Acholi religion, and claims to be establishing a theocratic state based on an odd interpretation of the Ten Commandments. The LRA is famous for systematic criminal conduct, including murder, abduction, mutilation, sexual enslavement of women and children, forcing children to participate in hostilities, and occasional cannibalism. The LRA operates mainly in northern Uganda and also in parts of Sudan, Central African Republic and DR Congo... In one such audio, Ongwen is recorded as reporting to Kony: "We are beginning to kill civilians seriously right now. I have deployed squads for killings and people will hear [about it] on the radio." In another audio recording, the former commander of LRA's powerful Sinia Brigade is presented as reporting to his boss and former LRA deputy commander Vincent Otti after an attack on Odek Internally Displaced People's (IDP) camp: "I have just come from shooting people, over. Let the people wait to hear about the waya (LRA slang for civilians), we have shot all of them." The prosecution side states that the evidence showed Ongwen was a "murderer and rapist." The audios, prosecution said, were obtained from the Internal Security Organisation (ISO), Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) and Uganda Police Force that set different bases in northern Uganda to eavesdrop LRA communication at the height of the insurgency. The LRA communicated using High Frequency Radio and had a "reliable" method of communicating by radio, prosecution said, adding that the intercepts were reliable, unaffected by the fallibility of the human memory. "They provide a unique opportunity to step inside the mind of Ongwen," Mr Gumpert submitted to the court. Ongwen, who was in court sandwiched between three guards, looked unfazed. One person in the public gallery walked out sobbing as prosecution presented graphic details of how babies were burnt in huts, women indiscriminately raped, civilians chopped with machetes or bludgeoned to death with clubs during LRA attacks on the four IDP camps. Speaking about the May 19, 2004 attack on Lukodi IDP camp, senior trial lawyer Gumpert said the "damage done was so bad that the camp had to be closed...Dominic Ongwen conceived, planned and executed the attack." The defence will begin making its submissions mid-January, next year. The Prosecution said the radio message intercepts were corroborated with hand-written logs by the UPDF, ISO and police spies. Senior Ugandan security officials will appear as prosecution witnesses, Mr Gumpert said.

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Africa Subsaharan

Uganda captures high-ranking LRA member

2012-05-14

[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Ugandan troops have captured a senior member of the Lord's Resistance Army ... The Lord's Resistance Army is a religious and military group formed in 1987. It is led by Joseph Kony, who proclaims himself the spokesperson of God and a spirit medium, and who is periodically possessed by demons, Beelzebub and Legion prominent among them. Kony advises his soldiers to draw crosses on their chests as a protection against bullets. This does't work, but nobody outside the LRA minds. The group is based on a hodge podge of apocalyptic Christianity, mysticism, and traditional Acholi religion, and claims to be establishing a theocratic state based on an odd interpretation of the Ten Commandments. The LRA is famous for systematic criminal conduct, including murder, abduction, mutilation, sexual enslavement of women and kiddies, forcing children to participate in hostilities, and occasional cannibalism. The LRA operates mainly in northern Uganda and also in parts of Sudan, Central African Republic and DR Congo... in a milestone arrest that could signal they are closing in on notorious rebel leader Joseph Kony. Caesar Acellam, considered the fourth-highest ranking member of the LRA, was tossed in the calaboose Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! by Ugandan forces in Central African Republic, and was flown to the South Sudanese headquarters of the regional armies hunting the LRA. "My coming out will have a big impact for the people still in the bush to come out and end this war soon," Acellam told news hounds. Acellam, aged 49, a tall man walking with a limp from an old wound, was flown to the base in the South Sudanese town of Nzara for medical checkups. The Ugandan army is leading a US-backed African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... force tasked with capturing the LRA's leaders, several of whom are wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... in The Hague. Acellam was captured Saturday and made available a day later to confirm his arrest following a brief firefight near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. "The general of the division, Caesar Acellam, who has fought in the jungle since 1984, is from now on in the hands of the Ugandan Army," Acellam told news hounds, referring to himself in the third person. The LRA's top three commanders are Okot Odhiambo, Dominic Ongwen and Kony. All are on the lam and wanted by the International Criminal Court along with another man, Vincent Otti, who is however thought to be dead. "He's a big fish," Ugandan army front man Felix Kulayigye said of Acellam, who was captured along with a Ugandan woman, a Central African teenager and a baby. None of them was hurt in the arrest. "The fact that Caesar Acellam is prisoner is a major step for us towards ending the rebellion," Kulayigye said. Ugandan army units had reportedly waited in ambush for three weeks for the rebel after they tracked his group of around 30 fighters, army sources said. However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... Acellam split from his men a few days ago, for reasons that were not immediately clear. He surrendered after the army fired a few shots.

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Africa Subsaharan

LRA deputy Otti is dead, Sudanese official says

2008-01-24

Vincent Otti, the deputy commander of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, is dead, the vice president of south Sudan said on Wednesday. I'm going to assume this is accurate and invite the Fat Lady to sing a few verses. The statement by Riek Machar, who is mediating talks in Juba between the rebels and the Ugandan government, was the first authoritative announcement of Otti's death following unconfirmed reports that he had been killed late last year. "I was officially informed by (LRA leader) Joseph Kony that Vincent Otti is dead," Machar told reporters in Juba, south Sudan's capital. "What? He's dead? But the last time I saw him he looked so healthy...?" "Sure did. Right up until I shot him. Now, not so good." Numerous LRA deserters have said that Kony, whose 20-year rebellion killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted 2 million before a ceasefire last year, shot dead his number two last October, after accusing him of spying for the government. Machar did not confirm the cause of Otti's death. "Hey, Vincent!" "Yeah, Boss?" "[BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]" Otti, regarded as the brains behind the group in contrast to the volatile Kony, was a prime mover behind the LRA joining peace talks that began last year in Juba. LRA spokesman Godfrey Ayoo said he would make a statement shortly. Kony has also dismissed his chief peace negotiator, "Oh, Martin?" "Yeah, Boss?" "[BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]" accusing him of profiting from talks with the government, an official said, raising fears of a wobble in the peace process. "The chairman of the LRA has with disgrace dismissed Martin Ojul the leader of the LRA peace team ... who he accuses of making money from the peace process and intentionally delaying it," David Matsanga, who replaced Ojul, told Reuters by phone. "Oh, David!" "Michelin sandals, don't fail me now!" Two weeks ago, Uganda's Sunday Monitor published an article saying President Yoweri Museveni had given a $200,000 gift to Kony's negotiators, which reportedly angered the rebel leader. The Uganda government has given Kony until Jan. 31 to sign a deal or risk a returning to war. Machar said he was confident a deal would be reached soon, but did not commit to a time frame.

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Africa Subsaharan

LRA bigshot surrenders in DRC

2007-10-24

A commander of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has surrendered in northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and is in the custody of Congolese authorities, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Opiyo Makasi, reported to be the rebel group's operations and logistics commander, gave himself up along with his wife and they were transferred to Kinshasa on October 14, said Kemal Saiki, spokesperson for the UN mission in Congo (Monuc). Revising an earlier version he gave which said Makasi had given himself up to UN peacekeepers, Saiki said the LRA officer had surrendered to Congolese police at Dungu in DRC's northern Orientale province, which borders Sudan. "He was supposed to be handed over to Monuc," the UN spokesperson said, adding Makasi was being held by the Congolese authorities. LRA leaders, whose brutal 20-year war in northern Uganda killed tens of thousands of people and displaced two million more, signed a truce with Uganda last year but have refused to quit their jungle hideouts in eastern DRC. Saiki said the UN mission believed Makasi should be eligible for Monuc's demobilisation and repatriation programme for ex-combatants who turned themselves in, meaning he should be sent back to Uganda. "There was a request from Monuc that he be handed over for DDRRR [disarmament, demobilisation, repatriation, resettlement and reintegration] ... there has been no response so far from the Congolese," he said. There was no immediate comment from the Congolese government. Makasi is not one of the four top LRA commanders indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for crimes such as killing civilians, slicing body parts off victims and kidnapping thousands of children to serve as fighters and sex slaves. Those four, including LRA leader and self-proclaimed mystic Joseph Kony and his deputy, Vincent Otti, remain at large.

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Africa Subsaharan

Uganda: Arrest LRA rebel leaders - ICC

2007-09-08

(SomaliNet) The court Director for International Cooperation has asked the 105 state parties to enforce the warrants issued against the indicted top four Lord Resistance Army commanders, since the International Criminal Court does not have its own police to execute arrest warrants. Ms Beatrice Le Fraper du Hellen recently said the 105 state parties (members to Rome Statute) should ensure that LRA leader Joseph Kony, his deputy, Vincent Otti and top commanders, Dominic Ogwen and Okot Odiambo are arrested and surrendered to The Hague for trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. “Those arrest warrants must be executed and enforced by Uganda, DR Congo and other 105 state parties to the Rome Statute. Kony and his commanders must be jailed,” Ms Fraper said in an interview with Daily Monitor in The Hague. Kony and his commanders face 33 counts that include abduction of civilians, murder, sexual enslavement, mutilation and forceful recruitment of children as fighters, porters and sex slaves to serve the LRA. The fifth indicted LRA commander, Raska Lukwiya, was killed in August last year in a battle with the government forces in Kitgum District. Ms Fraper said in order to speedup the arrest of the commanders, the rebels should be isolated by cutting off their financial and supply network to ensure they don’t re-arm and get food. She said there is no contradiction in the search for peace and justice in northern Uganda since the two processes are complimentary. The LRA insurgency has displaced over 1.7 million people, claimed 100,000 lives and over 75,000 children and women have been abducted.

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Africa Subsaharan

No renewal of truce in Uganda

2007-03-01

A cessation of hostilities in the 20-year civil war between the Ugandan government and Lord's Resistance Army has expired, with no new deal in sight. Both sides have warned that they will retaliate if attacked. A fragile truce has been in place for six months but talks were halted when the rebels walked out in December. The LRA accuses the Uganda government of violating the truce and says it will fight if President Yoweri Museveni will not talk to them. "We are not going to renew the truce because there are no peace talks at the moment. But if we are attacked, we shall retaliate and then continue fighting," LRA Deputy Commander Vincent Otti told AFP news agency by satellite phone., a few hours before the ceasefire expired at midnight (2100GMT Wednesday). "We feel like we want to negotiate peace with the government, but if Museveni refuses to talk, we shall go back to the barrel of the gun and fight a prolonged war." Leaders of the Acholi people in northern Uganda are making a fresh attempt to reconcile the government and LRA. They are to meet in the next few days across the border in southern Sudan, to try to restart talks between the two sides In August last year when the LRA and the Ugandan government agreed to stop fighting, hopes were high that one of the most deadly and savage civil wars in Africa might be coming to an end. The two sides agreed to meet and talk in southern Sudan. But negotiations soon stopped because of fundamental disagreement on vital areas like power sharing and reform of the Ugandan army. International Criminal Court indictments against the LRA leadership for human rights abuses proved another obstacle. Now the LRA claims the Ugandan government has violated the ceasefire. The Ugandan government alleges that LRA fighters have gone back into the bush in the Central African Republic and the eastern Congo.

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Africa Subsaharan

Ugandan army claims LRA rebels and leaders in CAR

2007-02-25

Uganda's army said Friday that 400 rebel Lord's Resistance Army fighters and their leaders have moved into the Central African Republic, dashing hopes of a renewal of stalled peace talks. "The LRA leaders Joseph Kony and Vincent Otti crossed (into CAR) with their fighters," army spokesman Major Felix Kulaije told AFP by telephone. The northern Ugandan rebels had entered the CAR earlier this week through Tambura in southern Sudan, which has borders with both countries, and started to link up with local rebel groups. "We have information that they crossed over to the CAR early in the week and we are still monitoring this," Kulaije said. "This means prolonging the problem, frustrating the peace process, further violating the cessation of hostility agreement and making the whole affair a regional problem." The LRA denied the accusation, stating that the move would not be in their interest. "There is no military gain in moving to the Central African Republic at the moment," LRA spokesman Obonyo Olweny told AFP in Nairobi by telephone. The LRA has refused to resume peace talks with the Ugandan government in the southern Sudanese capital Juba, expressing safety fears and accusing the chief Sudanese mediator of bias. A truce agreement between Kampala and the rebels is due to expire at the end of the month. Kulaije said that Uganda was prepared to extend the agreement, but that the LRA delegation needed to come to Juba.

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Africa Subsaharan

Egeland meets Kony

2006-11-13

UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland met overnight with Joseph Kony, the elusive leader of Uganda's notorious rebel Lord's Resistance Army and one of the world's most-wanted war crimes suspects. But the brief meeting, hoped to boost peace talks to end northern Uganda's brutal, two-decade war, ended inconclusively, with Mr Kony griping about Kampala and war crimes charges and denying the rebels hold captives, officials said. Despite that, Mr Egeland said he thought it had been "an important meeting because it was the first time we have been able to impress on the highest command of the LRA the whole range of humanitarian issues." I'm sure you made a big impression on a natural-born killer. Mr Egeland and Mr Kony, who arrived two hours late, shook hands at a remote jungle clearing on the border between southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the top rebel leadership is based. The elusive rebel supremo, who emerged from the bush on foot with heavily armed guards, then met Mr Egeland under a green UN tent in what is believed to be the shadowy guerrilla leader's highest-level international contact ever. After the 10-minute meeting, Mr Kony, clad in civilian garb with sunglasses, a cap and a green shirt, said the LRA are holding no one against their will, adding: "We don't have any children or wounded, only combatants." Lots and lots of eleven-year old combatants. Eleven-year old girl combatants. It's a natural thing in that part of the world, Mr. Egeland, you wouldn't understand. On his arrival at the heavily guarded site, where he first met Mr Kony's number two Vincent Otti for 40 minutes, Mr Egeland said he wanted "to talk about women, children and (the) sick" allegedly held by the LRA.

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Africa Subsaharan

UGANDA: We will sign peace deal but hide until indictments lifted - LRA leader

2006-09-15

(IRIN) - The Lords Resistance Army (LRA), the Ugandan rebel group, has promised to sign a final agreement to end fighting in the north once peace talks with the government are concluded, but said its leaders would remain in hiding until arrest warrants are lifted. "Our delegation will sign an agreement, but we shall stay where we are until the warrants are withdrawn," said Vincent Otti, LRA deputy commander, in a phone-in radio programme on Wednesday by satellite telephone from southern Sudan. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has indicted Otti, LRA leader Joseph Kony and three other commanders on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for atrocities allegedly committed by the group against civilians in northern Uganda over the past 20 years. Otti also said he was willing to personally lead the LRA delegation in the peace talks if the ICC dropped the charges against him and his co-accused. Alternatively, Otti would participate in the talks if the government delegation and mediators met him in one of the assembly sites in southern Sudan where LRA fighters are gathering under a cessation of hostilities pact reached last month. The leader of the southern Sudanese government, Riek Machar, is mediating the talks in the city of Juba. "If the delegates of Uganda come to where I am, I will lead my delegates to the peace talks myself. I fear kidnapping, but if I'm with my people I will defend myself if someone came to kidnap me," Otti said on KFM radio. He said that an amnesty offer from Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni meant little as long as the ICC indictment remained in force. "I would be with the president in Kampala, but the pressure would not allow the president to protect me. Even if the African Union agreed with the Ugandan government, the external pressure would be too much for them," he said.

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Africa Subsaharan

Kony hears from God. Ugandan rebels want SA to mediate

2006-08-17

Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in Uganda on Wednesday asked South Africa to join efforts to mediate faltering peace talks with the Ugandan government aimed at ending two decades of fighting. The announcement from LRA supremo murderer Joseph Kony, through his deputy thug, Vincent Otti, came a day after the rebels won a 72-hour break in peace talks with the government in order to mourn the death of a top commander -- and International Criminal Court fugitive -- killed by the army over the weekend. They should have more of these breaks. In a statement, Otti said South Africa has a successful track record in conflict resolution in Africa. "I, Lieutenant General Vincent Otti, deputy chairperson of the high command and second-in-command of the Lord's Resistance Army, do hereby appeal to the government of the Republic of South Africa to come and act as co-mediator," he said. He said South African mediation would complement the efforts of the government of southern Sudan in the ongoing peace talks, which are taking place in southern Sudan. Face-to-face talks are expected to resume on Friday, when the insurgents will declare their stand on accountability and reconciliation. Officials said the rebels chose South Africa in order to exert pressure on Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's government to be serious in efforts to end the insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than two million others. In addition, they argued that the chief mediator, southern Sudan Vice-President Riak Machar, "was not new in the Ugandan peace process," and thus there was fear of bias, according to an unnamed official. The LRA has warned that Uganda's refusal to match its unilateral truce, its insistence that the rebels disarm and surrender, as well as its death threats to top commanders are stymying the talks. Killing the top commanders does make it more difficult for them to 'negotiate'. "In order for the Juba negotiations to be meaningful, successful and binding, the [LRA] ... calls upon the government of Uganda to respond positively and declare a cessation of hostilities and respect the agenda and code of conduct agreed upon by the negotiating parties, the mediators and facilitators," Otti explained. "Please stop killing us!" The Ugandan government insists any truce agreement with the rebels will be at the end of the peace process, arguing that the insurgents would take advantage of a cessation of hostilities to regroup, rearm and recruit new fighters. What's the word in Arabic for that, um .. um .. oh yeah .. hudna. Over the weekend, the army said it had killed Major General Raska Lukwiya in northern Uganda. On Wednesday, meanwhile, the Ugandan army said troops killed four rebels, including a commander allegedly involved in last year's slaying of a British tourist in northern Uganda. Army spokesperson Lieutenant Chris Magezi said Reagan Akena, a junior LRA commander, and three fighters were killed in an ambush on Monday in Amuru district. "[Akena] was responsible for the killing of Steve Wills, the British tourist who was killed in Murchison Falls Park in November," the spokesperson said. Excellent! Who put the starch in the army's shorts?

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Africa Subsaharan

Uganda rebels declare ceasefire

2006-08-06

Uganda's Lords Resistance Army has declared a unilateral ceasefire with peace talks due to start next week, but the government has yet to reciprocate the gesture. A spokesman for the LRA confirmed the decision on Friday from the rebel group's base in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He said the laying down of arms had been ordered by the deputy commander, Vincent Otti, acting on behalf of Joseph Kony, the LRA leader. "I order all of our field commanders to, with immediate effect, cease all forms of hostilities against UPDF (Ugandan army) positions and others," Otti said in the statement. "We hope that the government reciprocate this gesture of goodwill." In the capital, Kampala, a spokesman, Robert Kabushenga, said the government would not declare a ceasefire but confirmed the Uganda delegation would return to peace talks in Juba, the capital of autonomous southern Sudan next week.

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Africa Subsaharan

LRA Rebels Ask for Peace Talks With Uganda Government

2005-12-04

The rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has called for the resumption of peace talks with the Ugandan government, a call mediators say rekindles hope for a peaceful settlement of the 20-year civil war in the north of the country. The chief mediator in the on-and-off talks and former Ugandan minister, Betty Bigombe, said on Wednesday that LRA deputy commander Vincent Otti had contacted her and expressed willingness to resume talks with the government. Otti, the number two in the LRA hierarchy, called the BBC on Tuesday to announce that the rebels were willing to negotiate an end to the brutal war that has ravaged northern Uganda. In October, the Hague-based ICC issued arrest warrants for Kony, Otti and three other LRA commanders, one of whom has since died. Otti told BBC radio that he was willing to cooperate with the ICC, but added that government officials should also face justice at the same court because they "were responsible for some of the crimes committed in northern Uganda." Otti maintained that he was speaking with the permission of rebel leader Joseph Kony. The Uganda government welcomed the offer but hoped it was "serious and genuine". Attempts to hold peace talks between the rebels and the government collapsed last December when last-minute hitches thwarted the signing of the first ceasefire agreement. Within hours, President Yoweri Museveni ordered the resumption of the military campaign against the rebellion - a move observers said curtailed any further peace attempts. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and over 1.5 million displaced in northern Uganda since the beginning of the conflict.

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