| Uganda's prison escapees join rebels in Congo |
| www.chinaview.cn 2006-03-05 13:37:09 |
| KAMPALA, March 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Seventy of the prisoners who recently escaped from Arua Central Prison have joined the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in Garamba National Park in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), local press reported on Sunday. A total of 408 inmates broke out of the prison compound in northwestern Uganda last
Saturday shortly after President Yoweri Museveni was declared the winner of the February 23 presidential elections. The escapees included five suspected People's Redemption Army (PRA) rebels and Hassan Yerego, a former commander of the rebel West Nile Bank Front (WNBF). The WNBF and LRA rebels are operating in Aba, Faradje and Watsain northeastern DRC where the PRA is based, security source was quoted by Sunday Vision as saying. Police investigations into the prisoners' escape are narrowing in on the possibility of an inside job, with fingers pointing at senior prison officers. Commissioner of Prisons Johnson Byabasaija said 130 of the escapees have been re-arrested and charged with escaping from lawful custody. Seven prison warders, including senior wardens Silas Drama and Musa Gibi, have been arrested. Byabasaija blamed
the
escape on negligence of the wardens. "I am wondering why the few wardens decided to open all the cells at once contrary to the traditional system of opening the cells one at a time," he said. The inmates escaped as supporters of the ruling National Resistance Movement filled the streets of Arua town celebrating Museveni's re-election. Byabasaija said "I am very sure that we shall re-arrest all of them. I am not a person who gives up quickly. We shall catch them even if they are in Congo." Enditem |
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