Peace talks stalling - setback in UPDF General's killing

Bad news.

The peace talks in Juba have resulted in stalemate - it's reported that LRA soldiers killed a UPDF Captain yesterday.

Please pray.

Story taken from the Daily Monitor, below:


Rebels kill UPDF Captain
FRANK NYAKAIRU, EMMANUEL GYEZAHO & PAUL HARERA
Army detains LRA negotiator, impounds food
KAMPALA/ JUBA

THE stalemate over peace talks between the government and Kony rebels could have worsened yesterday after the LRA killed a UPDF Captain on Tuesday.
The fallen army officer is Capt. Sam Mugarura, the operations and training officer of the South Sudan-based 91st Battalion.

But the acrimony has now sucked in the government of South Sudan after independent monitors in Juba accused the UPDF of impounding an SPLA truck carrying food supplies for the LRA and detaining a top rebel negotiator.

The UPDF has denied detaining the rebel delegate but admit to impounding the truck.
Rei Achama, who doubles as rebel leader, Joseph Kony's aide de camp, was reportedly detained on Tuesday afternoon in Nisitu, a small dusty town 14km south of Juba, along with five SPLA soldiers, as he ferried food for LRA rebels on their way back to Owiny-Ki-bul, one of two South Sudan assembly points.

Maj. Gen. Wilson Deng, the chairperson of the Cessation of Hostilities Monitoring Team, told Daily Monitor yesterday that the truck was a second shipment of food supplies to the rebels. "It was the second truck after the rebels preferred maize grains to flour. So the UPDF there stopped the truck and arrested the SPLA escorts and driver and the LRA monitor Rei Achama."
Achama was once on the LRA negotiating team in Juba.

Although Deng said the South Sudan government had not yet received an explanation from Kampala, the SPLA had already made a report to the mediator, South Sudan Vice President Reik Machar.
Army spokesman Maj. Felix Kulayigye, however, told Daily Monitor that the SPLA truck was "simply intercepted."

"We did not ambush it [truck]," he said, "but where was it going with these supplies? This is our area of operation."

Kulayigye protested what he said was a gross violation of the August 26 truce by continued food supplies to LRA rebels outside the designated assembly points.
He said the incident occurred after the UPDF had pursued a trail of sinister rebel movements in the moments that followed Capt. Mugarura's death.

"We followed a trail after the ambush and it revealed there was food like maize, rice, beans and sodas," said Kulayigye. "So when the truck appeared, the onus was on
us to discover what the truck was carrying. The checking was simply pursuant to the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement."

The LRA's second in command, Vincent Otti, yesterday confirmed via satellite phone that his forces killed Mugarura.
Otti, however, said Mugarura was killed as he attempted to shoot at the rebels an allegation Kulayigye denied.

"My people tell me that if he [Mugarura] didn't attempt to shoot, they would have captured him alive," Otti said. "We seized his SMG riffle, walkie-talkie, personal documents, a domestic radio and his uniform. His escorts ran away."

Kulayigye, however, said Mugarura was slain in a deliberate ambush 115kms north west of Owiny-Ki-bul on his way to a unit headquarters.

"He walked ahead of his troops after they reached a point where the vehicle could not travel further and fell in an ambush where the first bullet put him off this world," Kulayigye said.

At a Media Centre press briefing in Kampala yesterday, the State Minister for Defence, Ms Ruth Nankabirwa, said "We expect an immediate step to be taken by the mediator.

“I don't know what step but we cannot continue looking at people [LRA] violating the agreement they signed themselves. They [LRA] have provoked us so much."

She criticised the mediators for continued supply of food to the rebels outside the assembly points.

The stalemate over peace talks entered day three yesterday as the two negotiating parties remained at their hotels all day. The talks are awaiting reports into alleged clashes between LRA and UPDF in Bilinyang on Sunday and Monday, which Kampala has denied.