By Sylvester Onyang
Nov 9, 2003
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KAMPALA - A man who escaped from rebel captivity has said the LRA's deputy commander, Mr Charles Tabuley, reportedly killed by the UPDF in Pader district last week, is alive. Mr Isaac Ochola, who says he escaped from the Lord's Resistance Army rebel bases in Pader, told Sunday Monitor, Friday at the paper's offices in Kampala, that he saw Tabuley being transported away from the camp where he had been brought wounded. He said the rebel commander was wounded in battle with the army at a separate place outside the camp. Ochola said Tabuley was wounded in the shoulder and is currently being treated in Juba, southern Sudan. He said Tabuley received first aid at the rebel camp before being carried by his fighters for further treatment. The Army Spokesman, Maj. Shaban Bantariza, told Sunday Monitor, Friday that the UPDF still maintains its position that the rebel commander is dead. "Those are their allies trying to revive the morale of their boys. We declared him dead after having established the truth. They are taking his body to Kony who wants it in Southern Sudan", said Bantariza. He added that UPDF could not give the public a wrong impression about Tabuley. "Won't we appear liars if we say he is dead and then we engage him again," Bantariza said. He said he had also received other reports that Tabuley was hiding in his home village in Teso and was being treated with local medicinal herbs. The spokesman accused Radio Ayo, broadcasting from Germany, of being the source for transmitting such information - to confuse Ugandans. Ochola claimed that a piece of cloth was tied around the shoulder of Tabuley's left arm, to prevent excessive bleeding from his wounded scalp. "I know Tabuley very well. His local Iteso name is Obilyeng. I was the one cooking for him while at the camp and I know he is alive and under treatment in Sudan," the 25-year-old Ochola said. The latter bore a fresh wound which he says he sustained while fleeing from the rebels last Sunday. Ochola said he was among seven abductees who fled from the camp on that day, as UPDF hunted Tabuley. "The rebels stopped guarding us because they were engaged by the UPDF - and that was the right time for us to escape. Fourteen rebels were killed by the UPDF during the fighting," Ochola recounted. He said when the army reached the camp on Sunday; the rebels had taken away the wounded Tabuley. Ochola said he was abducted in August when the LRA attacked Teso College Aloet, in Soroti, after killing one of the teachers. He said he was forced to carry a 50kg bag of maize flour to the rebel bases in Pader. He recounted further that the LRA plan to continue their attacks in Teso, in the hope of capturing Soroti Flying School to use it as a surveillance and supplies base. He narrated further that many abducted children are exchanged for arms, in southern Sudan. |
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