South Sudan Says Ugandan Behind Attacks on Civilians, Orders them to Leave

June 30, 2008 (JUBA) — Vice President of southern Sudan government has pointed figures at the Ugandan army saying they are responsible of recent attacks in the border areas with Uganda. He further ordered the Ugandan troops who hunting the LRA rebels to leave the country.

A Ugandan soldier in May 2007. Riek Machar who is also the chief mediator of the Ugandan peace talks had last March innocented the Ugandan rebels from accusations of committing attacks against civilians in different part of the greater equatorial.

Speaking to the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly, Machar said that according to the findings of a committee sent to investigate the attacks, the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) is to blame on recent attacks in Western Equatoria State.

"I sent the committee to go and investigate it. The rest of the evidence is there. Indeed, it didn’t turn out to be the LRA, but they were UPDF," Machar told parliament in Juba.

According to documents presented to parliament, the ceasefire monitoring team attached to the Ugandan peace talks investigated an alleged LRA attack close to the Sudanese-Ugandan border in which a 31-year-old man was abducted.

They reported that about 30 gunmen raided a homestead at Nyongwa village on June 19, looted food and household goods and abducted Jino Moga Mandara.

The abductee was found dead three days later, apparently with a head injury and stab wound seemingly from a bayonet, three kilometres (two miles) away from the homestead on the route down which the attacker beat a retreat.

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