The Monitor (Kampala)
August 26, 2003
Posted to the web August 26, 2003
Patrick E. Angonu
Kampala
UPDF soldiers on August 25 launched a cordon-and-search operation here against the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels led by Mr Joseph Kony.
The operation saw motorists being barred from using the risky Soroti-Moroto highway.
The rebels have recently intensified attacks on civilian targets here, and on Sunday they killed a popular science teacher from Teso College Aloet.
John Elamu, the head of the Biology department at Teso College, was shot dead on August 24 along the Tubur-Arapai road.
He was returning to Teso College from his home village of Apalaet, 17km north of Soroti town.
The councillor representing Tubur sub-county in the Soroti district council, Mr Charles Elasu, last week complained to President Museveni that the LRA are flying their red flag in the area - suggesting that the rebels consider Tubur to be their stronghold.
"By killing Elamu, they have killed a teacher who knew biology well and who will be really hard to replace," mourned the Soroti Principal Education Officer, Mr Michael Etoyu Oumo.
Elamu had taught at Teso College for 17 years after he fled from Amuria SSS at the height of the Uganda People's Army rebellion in Teso in the late 1980s.
"All these young doctors from Teso and many others [were taught by Elamu]," Oumo said.
