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Sudan's Turabi Defends Kony

The Monitor (Kampala)
NEWS
January 31, 2006
Posted to the web January 31, 2006

By Frank Nyakairu & Agencies
Kampala
THE former Speaker of the Sudanese Assembly, Dr Hassan al-Turabi, has defended
the Lords Resistance Army leader, Joseph Kony, saying he does not kill or
abduct children.
Turabi who was speaker at the time when Sudan strongly supported the LRA (1996-
99), was speaking in an interview with the UK's The Telegraph newspaper. He
said Sudan supported LRA at the time because Uganda backed the Sudan Peoples
Liberation Army in southern Sudan, which was fighting the Khartoum government.
Turabi said: "It's natural. In all wars people do the same. If there's a state
of war between you and the other side, then you arm the other side's opposition
don't you?" Turabi acquitted the LRA of murdering child captives. "They don't
kill them," he said.
Kony, who has fought the Ugandan government for 20 years, is accused of a
multiplicity of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the International
Criminal Court. Reports have estimated that 12,000 people have been killed
since 2000 and over 20,000 children have been abducted and used as child
soldiers or sex slaves by the LRA.
Peace talks and military operations have failed to wipe out the LRA rebels. In
2001, Sudan said it had stopped support to the LRA but some people in its army
have reportedly continued to support the rebels.
Turabi also defended Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qa'eda network.
After being expelled from Saudi Arabia, Osama lived in Sudan from 1991 to 1996.
Turabi said Osama was only a businessman.

   

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