VIII. Response from the LRA

In an interview with a Human Rights Watch researcher on January 27, 2009, the LRA's chief peace negotiator, David Nyekorach-Matsanga, claimed that the bulk of LRA combatants were not in Congo at the time of the attacks. He said that the attacks could have been carried out by a number of different groups, including local Congolese militia groups and a Ugandan army battalion made up of former LRA combatants.[122]

In a radio interview with Voice of America also on January 27, Matsanga called for an international force to safeguard the assembling of LRA combatants at Rikwangba, the place in southern Sudan designated as the LRA's assembly point under the peace process. "The LRA are committed to peace," he said. "General Kony a week ago instructed me to initiate a peace condition, and I put the conditions to the government of Uganda." Matsanga has been negotiating with the Ugandan government on behalf of the LRA for the past two years, but many observers close to the peace process question the degree to which he represents the LRA leader or has any influence with him, and whether he is still in communication with Kony.[123]

Human Rights Watch has documented serious abuses committed by the Ugandan and Congolese armies and the SPLA in places and times not covered in this report.[124] But Human Rights Watch researchers found no evidence that the attacks on civilians documented here were carried out by anyone other than LRA combatants. In interviews with our researchers, former LRA combatants recounted the specific orders given by Kony to LRA combatants to carry out the September killings, marking a change in strategy by Kony in relation to local Congolese populations. Children abducted during these attacks, some of whom later managed to escape, described clearly how they were taken to the LRA camps in Garamba National Park, how they were addressed by Joseph Kony, how they were abused, and how they witnessed others being abused and killed by LRA combatants. Witnesses to the attacks, some of whom had interacted with LRA combatants prior to the attacks, identified their attackers as LRA. Dozens of victims and witnesses also repeatedly described the assailants' inability to speak Congolese languages, and their dreadlocks and unkempt appearance, all characteristics typical of LRA combatants. The tactics documented in this report are typical of LRA tactics used in northern Uganda and southern Sudan over many previous years.[125]