A commander of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has surrendered in northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and is in the custody of Congolese authorities, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Opiyo Makasi, reported to be the rebel group's operations and logistics commander, gave himself up along with his wife and they were transferred to Kinshasa on October 14, said Kemal Saiki, spokesperson for the UN mission in Congo (Monuc).Revising an earlier version he gave which said Makasi had given himself up to UN peacekeepers, Saiki said the LRA officer had surrendered to Congolese police at Dungu in DRC's northern Orientale province, which borders Sudan. "He was supposed to be handed over to Monuc," the UN spokesperson said, adding Makasi was being held by the Congolese authorities.
LRA leaders, whose brutal 20-year war in northern Uganda killed tens of thousands of people and displaced two million more, signed a truce with Uganda last year but have refused to quit their jungle hideouts in eastern DRC.
Saiki said the UN mission believed Makasi should be eligible for Monuc's demobilisation and repatriation programme for ex-combatants who turned themselves in, meaning he should be sent back to Uganda. "There was a request from Monuc that he be handed over for DDRRR [disarmament, demobilisation, repatriation, resettlement and reintegration] ... there has been no response so far from the Congolese," he said. There was no immediate comment from the Congolese government.
Makasi is not one of the four top LRA commanders indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for crimes such as killing civilians, slicing body parts off victims and kidnapping thousands of children to serve as fighters and sex slaves. Those four, including LRA leader and self-proclaimed mystic Joseph Kony and his deputy, Vincent Otti, remain at large.