KAMPALA, Sept 6, 2005 (Xinhua via COMTEX)
-- The Ugandan army has said that the 19-year-old civil war in the
north is over with more than 90 percent of the region safe now.
Army spokesman Lt. Col. Shaban Bantariza
was quoted on Tuesday by Radio Uganda as saying that what remain now are
battles fearing spilt groups of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels
in some areas of Pader and Kitgum.
Bantariza said that most of the LRA commanders had either been killed in action, surrendered, captured or given up fighting altogether.
The spokesman said John Kony, leader of the notorious LRA rebel group has fled from Kit valley into north Sudan to escape Ugandan army hot pursuit.
He said Kony and his remaining commanders fled the area after loosing 16 of his combatants recently.
Four LRA fighters were shot dead in Pader district on Sunday while 12 others were killed on Monday in River Aswa in Gulu district, according to Bantariza.
He added that Kony crossed the red line between Jabuleni and Tolit into Juba.
LRA rebels, based in southern Sudan, have killed tens of thousands civilians, displaced over 1.4 million people in their 19- year rebellions in northern Uganda.
The Ugandan government has asked the Sudanese government to launch a joint operation against Kony's remnants.