Parliament Wants South African Mercenaries to 'Eliminate' Rebels
African Eye News Service (Nelspruit)
July 8, 2002
Posted to the web July 8, 2003
Andrew Kaggwa
Kampala
Uganda's parliamentary defence committee has proposed hiring South African mercenaries to "eliminate" rebels who are destabilising parts of the country.
The committee said mercenaries should be used to track and eliminate Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) leader Joseph Kony in a bid to end 17 years of bloody guerrilla war in northern Uganda.
The public recommendation, to Uganda's internal affairs minister Ruhakana Rugunda and state minister Kezimbira Miyingo , comes in apparent response to LRA's abduction of over 56 rural schoolgirls in Soroti in eastern Uganda last week and the earlier kidnapping of 44 trainee priests.
Uganda's army has managed to rescue 34 of the girls, but believe the rest have already been spirited out of the country.
Ugandans fear that the kidnapping marks the spread of LRA's religious-based terror campaign into previously untouched regions of the country.
Defence committee member Patrick Apuun said this week Uganda needed to learn to "cut the head off the snake" like governments had in other strife-torn African nations such as Angola.
"Angola also faced a never-ending war and growing civilian casualties. They only turned the tide by hiring South African mercenaries, people like Executive Outcomes, to retrain their army and help eliminate the rebels," said Apuun.
"In fact, Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi would probably still be alive today if it wasn't for these mercenaries." Apuun added that Uganda would probably be able save on its growing military expenditure by paying a "one-off" fee to mercenaries to assassinate Kony and other LRA leaders.
"It would be a good investment even if we had to borrow the money to finish this Kony nuisance," said Apuun.
Fellow committee member Aggrey Awori said that the mere threat of using South Africa mercenaries might curtail LRA activities because of the mercenaries reputation from places like Angola and Sierra Leone.
The inflammatory proposals, which have been described as "panicked thinking" by Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni, have been publicly praised.
The LRA, whose political ideology is vague but which includes claims the Kony is a spirit medium with supernatural powers, is notorious for abducting children for training as combat soldiers, and mutilating villagers suspected of 'collaborating' with government forces. The most common mutilations include cutting off lips, noses, and limbs.
Young girls abducted by the LRA are forced into prostitution for its combat squads, or as sex slaves for its militia commanders. The United Nations estimates that 10 000 children have been abducted by the rebels and taken to bases in southern Sudan.
Uganda's military has, however, also been accused to atrocities against villagers believed to harbour or aid LRA fighters.
"The suggestion that we hire mercenaries is simply panicked thinking, and betrays a lack of confidence in our won army," said Museveni.
South Africa's high commissioner too Uganda, Bavumille Vilikazi, described the committee's suggestions as "extremely disturbing" and warned that south Africa had outlawed mercenaries.
"South Africa has legislated against mercenaries because of their bloody record for destabilising African economies. These people are vultures, who profit off war and death," said Vilikazi.
"If Uganda does need assistance, then South Africa would only be able to contribute by assisting with official peace keepers like we have in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo." Although Museveni did not comment on Vilikazi's apparent offer, he did reject a counter-proposal by local Catholic bishops calling for UN 'blue berets' to be deployed in northern Uganda to stabalise the region and secure the country's borders.
Uganda accuses neighbouring Sudan of arming and providing bases for the LRA. Sudan in turn accuses Uganda of supporting John Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Army.
The tensions have, however, eased since Sudan gave Uganda's army permission to pursue LRA cross-border raiders back to their mountain camps in Sudan.
It is these strikes which, local pundits believe, sparked the LRA's offensive into Soroti. At least three 50-men bands of rebels under the command of LRA brigadier Otti Lagony attacked the town's high school and carried off 56 girls.
The Uganda People's Defence Force's third division gave chase, under the command of Colonel Andrew Gutti, and managed to rescue 34 of the girls during a series of running gun-battles. The rebels rear guard is believed to be in the Kotido district in Karamoja, but military officers fear the remaining girls have already been spirited across the border into Sudan.
LRA fighters claim to be trying to impose a biblical regime in Uganda, and believe bullets fired by Ugandan soldiers are harmless as long as LRA rebels have sprinkled themselves with water blessed by Kony.
