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Uganda's Lord Army Rebels Kill 173 Refugees
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A
file photo of LRA followers
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KAMPALA,
February 22 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Uganda's the
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels massacred scores of civilians at a
refugee camp in northern Uganda, sources said Sunday, February 22,
with one missionary putting the death toll at more than 170.
"I
have just been there, and I have managed to confirm that 173 people
were killed of which 57 had already been buried while others were
still burning in their houses," Roman Catholic missionary Sebat
Ayala told Agence France-Presse (AFP) by phone from the northern town
of Lira.
The
attack was carried out late on Saturday, February 21, in Barlonyo
displaced people's camp, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Lira
and lasted three hours, he said.
Army
spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza said he only "can confirm that
there was a massacre in a displaced people's camp and people were
burnt in their houses".
He
said he was not immediately able to provide an accurate death toll.
Local
journalist Joe Wacha, who is based in Lira, described the scene of the
massacre as "terrible."
"People
had started burying the dead and I saw 57 bodies being buried while
over 400 huts were burnt to ashes and smoke still billowed from some
of the houses and from some of the bodies," Wacha told AFP by
telephone.
Earlier
this month at another camp near Lira, LRA rebels killed about 50
people after infiltrating the facility disguised as regular government
troops.
The
LRA rebels, who have no clear political agenda, have been terrorizing
north Uganda for the past 18 years, reported the BBC News Online.
The
group is infamous for its atrocities against civilians and abductions
of thousands of children.
It
has been condemned by international human rights groups and U.N. aid
agencies.
Led
by Joseph Kony, who claims to have spiritual powers, the rebels have
terrorized northern and northeastern Uganda, forcing an estimated 1.2
million people to flee their homes and live in congested and squalid
conditions in camps set up by the army.
The
army claims that by housing the displaced in these camps, it is able
to guard them against rebel abductions conducted by the LRA to fill
its fighting ranks.
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