UGANDA 4/6/2004 22:12 NAMOKORA: DIRECT WITNESS ACCOUNTS REAPPRAISE DEATH TOLL General, Brief Twenty-two dead, 12 wounded (including 6 children), an unconfirmed number of missing and 147 shacks torched: this is the new dramatic toll of the attack carried out on Thursday night by the rebels of the LRA (lordæ Resistance Army) against the Kalabong displaced camp (not Talabong as previously reported), 5km north of Namokora, 60km east of Kitgum, in North Uganda. The news was reported this evening by MISNA sources in Kitgum, reporting an eye-witness account of Father Guido Miotti, Comboni missionary originally from Valtellina (Italy) and parish priest of Namokora, among the first to enter the camp after the massacre. æe are aware that a toll of 35 dead is circulating, but for the moment we do not have the elements to confirm this. We know that there are many missing, but we are still not able to make a final count, because the survivors of the displaced camp of Kalabong (around 2,000 people) fled and sought refuge in Namokora? continue the MISNA sources, specifying that a definitive estimate will be possible only tomorrow after the arrival on the scene of a delegation of the Italian Avsi NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation) that will bring emergency aid to the survivors. Farah Muktar, representative of the OCHA (United Nations Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs) in Uganda, in the afternoon referred to some international news agencies a toll of at least 35 dead and 10 wounded. The Ugandan military spokesman, Lieutenant Paddy Ankunda, instead speaks of 23 civilians and two rebels killed. Based on a reconstruction based on the testimony of Father Miotti, a large group of rebels penetrated into the camp on Thursday evening at around 6:30p.m, reaping hours of panic among the people and perpetrating vicious acts of violence particularly against children. Two soldiers were killed in the confrontation ?in reality it appears that they were men of the local self-defence militias created by the population and that operate in support of the armed forces to contain the rebels ?and an LRA rebel. Since 1986, the rebels commanded by Joseph Kony (that include a large number of child-soldiers) reap death and destruction in the northern zones of the nation, without the government of Kampala being able to halt the violence on a military or negotiation level. The victims of the conflict are estimated to be over 100-thousand, 25,000 minors abducted and over one million (1,500,000 according to other sources) displaced. [BO] N¬±êï‰Ç²,µçhžØ^"wèr‰§zÜ(®Hm¶Ÿÿà "ú ¢g(º
