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Kony |
By Vision Reporter
At least four other LRA commanders, who have been discharged from the rebel army, are missing.
LRA leader Joseph Kony on Thursday told Gulu District chairman Norbert Mao by satellite phone that he had expelled five commanders, who he accused of plotting to kill him. But six weeks after the stand-off, only one of them, the director of operations, Opiyo Makasi, has surfaced.
Makasi, who fled on October 2 after being tipped off about his imminent arrest, reported to Nakiliwa Police Station in eastern DR Congo and was flown back to Uganda 10 days ago.
The fate of the other four, identified by Kony as (Sunday) Otto, (Richard) Odong-Kau, Okema and Pak-Pala, is unknown.
Kony accused them of serving the agenda of the enemies of LRA, along with his second-in-command Vincent Otti, whom he said was under arrest.
“He accused the Ugandan government of having infiltrated the LRA, naming Sunday Otto as a mole of UPDF,” Mao said.
He further quoted Kony as saying: “They should leave the LRA. I have discharged them. They might join Makasi there any time. If they have not yet reached, they might still be on the way.”
But as of yesterday, none of them had reported to either the Sudanese or Congolese authorities. “There is no information about them. No information from Congolese authorities and no information from MONUC (the UN peacekeeping force in Congo),” Charles Wagaba, Uganda’s envoy in Kinshasa said.
“We have not heard from them. Nobody has reported anywhere in South Sudan,” said a source in the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). “They have not surfaced anywhere. It is possible that they are dead,” said Lt. Chris Magezi, the army spokesman for northern Uganda.
While little is known about Okema and ‘Pak-Pala’, thought to be a pseudonym, the two others, Odong-kau and Otto are notorious characters in northern Uganda.
Both had come out of the bush earlier and received amnesty, but later rejoined Kony.
Odong-kau surrendered in late 2003 in Pajule, Pader District. He soon became involved in criminal activities. He is accused of killing a Catholic priest during a robbery in Gulu and was involved in other robberies in Bweyale.
He was arrested in 2006 at the Malaba border post in Busia while trying to smuggle two of Kony’s wives and their children back to Garamba, the LRA base in eastern Congo.
Odong-kau was released and disappeared shortly afterwards, only to resurface in Garamba, where he was spotted by one of the visiting teams.
Otto, who commanded the massacre in Gere Gere (Pader) in October 2002 in which civilians were cooked, defected in 2004. Despite the fact that he was granted amnesty, he continued working as an informer for the LRA.
At one point, he was ordered by Otti to monitor the security at the airport in a bid to hit UPDF helicopters. He was also used to try and kill prominent people in Gulu, including Walter Ochora.
Otto was arrested by the security forces, who had intercepted his communication, and cautioned. He was later released and ran back to the LRA, where he remained very close to Otti.
The fact that they had returned to the bush after previously surrendering to the UPDF must have raised the LRA leader’s suspicions.
“Since they have been here, Kony might think they went back to spy on him, especially when things were not going well for them,” Magezi commented.
Meanwhile, the office of the chief mediator, Dr. Riek Machar, has been asked to contact the LRA and demand to see Otti before proceeding with the consultation.
“We have made this a condition to continue with the consultations,” said Mao. “We cannot go to Ri-Kwangba unless we are very clear about the fate of Otti and the others. Even a prisoner has a right to be visited.”
The confusion reigning in the LRA ranks could undermine the whole peace process, Mao warned.
“This poses a huge challenge to the entire peace process and the cessation-of-hostilities monitoring team. According to the agreement, the security of the entire LRA is in their hands.”
The SPLA was supposed to be responsible for the security of the LRA during the peace process.
Some observers believe the five have been killed by Kony, considering the grave accusations levelled against them by the LRA leader.
“Kony is just preparing the public psychologically,” an intelligence source said. “He wants to create a situation where their killing seems justified.”
Asked if he believed the five were still alive, Mao said: “If Kony has been deceiving us, he will be caught in his own web of lies. In that case, he will end up being the loser as his credibility will have totally collapsed.”
Published on: Saturday, 10th November, 2007
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