[allAfrica.com] [Akwa_Ibom_State] Kony Escapes UPDF Onslaught New Vision (Kampala) NEWS August 4, 2004 Posted to the web August 4, 2004 Kampala Talking with a lisp that he tries to hide, Lt. Col. Sam Kiwanuka, the burly and battle-hardened officer with a large sunburnt baby face, recounted with obvious glee, the recent UPDF success against Kony. "We received intelligence and confirmed that Kony's camp was a very short distance behind the SPAF lines. The Commander-in-Chief, President Yoweri Museveni, sent Afande Kale Kaihura to Juba to negotiate with the Sudan authorities on this matter. But we kept working and receiving more intelligence on Kony's whereabouts and activities," he said. Refering to a large military map of southern Sudan spread out on a rock where we were seated, Kiwanuka said, "After we had confirmed that he was behind the agreed red line of the Juba-Nisitu-Torit road, I received orders to move my soldiers from Aruu junction, where we have a tactical headquarters. Torit is 63 miles west of Malu, while Juba is 15km north of Malu and Nisitu is eight kilometres to the west. Kony's camp is four kilometres from Malu. Issuing loud orders to the soldiers under his command to keep monitoring the sophisticated global poisoning systems and other state-of-the-art equipment which the army is using to plot the coordinates of the possible points where the fleeing bands of LRA could be hiding and other tasks, he lowered his voice, looked into the misty distance and recalled, "We walked and covered the 65km-distance from Sunday night, July 25, through Monday. We rested on Tuesday to freshen my boys. We set up a tactical headquarters here (Malu) with the help of some Uganda loving friends in the SPAF. In fact I want to specifically thank Sgt. Tiberio Owen Bernado, Cpl. Peter Valeriano Bohol, Sgt. Nimeiry Giza Lege and Pte James Ladu. I also want to specially thank Afande Kale and Capt. Younes Bagada of the UPDF, who coordinated for us very well in Juba and in Nisitu for helping us with translations from Arabic to English." "So at night, I planned and drew battle lines with my troops. I deployed two crack mobile units to move out in cow-horn strategy to encircle them. We had received information that Kony was using Malu as his observation position (OP) to look out for us. Our SPAF friends had given us concrete information that Kony was personally present with his slaves, including wives, children and troops," he added. "We took advantage of the bright moonlight and crawled close to his defences. We carefully advanced from the east and the west from about 2:00am and took strategic positions. We had them within very comfortable firing range," he said, while rubbing his hands with glee. He added that he deployed a battalion to block the Malu-Nisitu road, a likely escape route. We took cover and observed them throughout the night. We waited until 11:30am when we launched an attack. I called for our deadly choppers that came 45 minutes later to give us air cover. The choppers' deadly firepower devastated their camp and scattered them." "Our target was to overrun and destroy Kony's three defences. There was one for Kony, his wives and his top commanders' wives. There was one in the middle and the third in Nisitu for Odhiambo (one of Kony's top dogs). We chanced on Kony who was going to a bathroom (a structure made from a mix of acacia branches, mud/wattle and tall elephant grass woven to strengthen it). One of my boys decided to chase him. I swear Kony grabbed his satellite phone, ran and vanished through our fingers," he said, looking beyond the wooded plains where the LRA had plantations of bhang and other crops. "We combed the area, captured his women and discovered more than three kilograms of ready-bhang and more than 489 SMG rifles, G2s, bazooka bombs, RPG (rocket propelled grenades) bombs/pipes/fuses, man-pack radios, walkie talkies, solar panels, APMs (anti personnel mines), 12.7mm chains, night binoculars, SMG empty magazines, G3 magazines, magazine pouches, 60 mortar pipes, assortments of ammunition, 12.7mm tripods, pips of different ranks, accumulator battery, grenades, many documents including albums of photographs of Kony and his other top dogs like "brigadier" Banya. But we shall catch or kill him soon. At least we are working with the SPAF on this project," he stressed.   =============================================================================   Copyright © 2004 New Vision. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). =============================================================================