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RR RUEHGI RUEHRN RUEHROV
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R 281052Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY KAMPALA
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INFO RUEHKH/AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM 0799
RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
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RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
RUEPGBA/CDR USEUCOM INTEL VAIHINGEN GE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 KAMPALA 000431 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT PASS TO USAID AND OFDA 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL PREF MOPS MARR UG SU CG CT
SUBJECT: UGANDA/DRC: CAPTURED LRA OFFICER TELLS HIS 
STORY 
 
KAMPALA 00000431  001.2 OF 004 
 
 
¶1. Summary:  The following is the account of Lord's 
Resistance Army (LRA) Colonel Thomas Kwoyelo, who was 
injured and captured by the Ugandan Peoples Defense 
Forces (UPDF) on February 3 during a firefight.  Kwoyelo 
had been a senior officer until LRA leader Joseph Kony 
decided to execute LRA deputy leader, Vincent Otti, and 
arrest other LRA members who supported the peace process 
in October 2007.  Though Kwoyelo's account does not 
offer much new information, he confirms that the UPDF- 
led regional military action called Operation Lightening 
Thunder (now called Rudia II) has disrupted the LRA's 
communications and command and control because of fears 
on the part of Kony of using satellite telephones. 
Kwoyelo detailed Sudanese training and equipment 
received prior to the signing the Comprehensive Peace 
Accord (CPA) in January 2005.  Kwyolo also said that 
Kony is not interested in making a peace deal.  Finally, 
KwoyeloQs story corroborates other accounts of humane 
treatment of captured and rescued escapees by the UPDF. 
End Summary. 
 
- - - - - - 
BACKGROUND 
- - - - - - 
 
¶2.  Els De Temmerman, an internationally recognized 
journalist interviewed captured LRA Colonel Thomas 
Kwoyelo.  The following is the majority of the New 
Vision interview of Kwoyelo, the former commander of the 
Sinia Brigade of the LRA that ran on April 26 entitled 
"I May Have Been Shot By My Own Brother".  Begin text: 
"Colonel" Thomas Kwoyelo, the former commander of the 
Sinia Brigade of the Lord's Resistance Army, was injured 
and captured on February 3 by the joint forces of 
Uganda, Congo and Southern Sudan.  He talked to Els De 
Temmerman. 
 
- - - - - - - - - 
SUDANESE SUPPORT 
- - - - - - - - - 
 
¶3.  Q:  When did you first go to Sudan? 
 
A:  I went there in 1997.  But other groups had gone 
earlier.  There was a brief cease-fire in 1993 when the 
first peace talks took place in Cwero Sub-county.  That 
is when a group, led by Second-in-Command Komakech, 
started going to Sudan.  Komakech later died in a 
Khartoum hospital. 
 
¶4.  Q:  What kind of support did you get from the 
Government of Khartoum? 
 
A:  We received three trucks of food every month.  Later 
it was reduced to two trucks.  As for weapons and 
ammunition, but the time I arrived, there were already a 
lot of supplies.  The Khartoum government trained us on 
how to use the big guns.  We were taught how to use SPG9 
and B10 bombs.  The training took place in an open space 
in Juba.  We also received a SAM7 anti-aircraft gun and 
12.7mm guns.  As for ammunition, they would bring us one 
or two trucks of cartridges and bullets on a regular 
basis.  Contacts with the Khartoum Government passed 
through the LRA ambassador, called Lt. Col. Kayeng, who 
was based in Juba. 
 
¶5.  Q:  Up to when did you receive supplies from 
Khartoum? 
 
A:  When Southern Sudan got autonomy (in January 2005), 
the supply line was cut off. 
 
¶6.  Q:  There are reports that units went to collect 
arms from the Central African Republic and that there 
were airdrops in Congo. 
 
A:  I cannot confirm those reports.  At least I did not 
witness any of that. 
 
¶7.  Q:  How do you explain the new uniforms and arms 
 
KAMPALA 00000431  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
Kony displayed during the peace talks? 
 
A:  I was still held up in southern Sudan when the talks 
started.  I found the new uniforms and guns upon arrival 
in Garamba.  When I asked where they came from, I was 
told they had been seized during a clash with the UN 
forces. 
 
¶8.  Q:  Many people wonder how Kony was able to sustain 
his rebellion for all this time.  Apart from Khartoum, 
where else did he get support from? 
 
A:  When the rift between Kony and (his deputy, Vincent) 
Otti occurred and Otti was killed, Kony ordered his 
troops to go back to Sudan and unearth ammunition we had 
buried there.  Although part of it had been removed by 
the Ugandan Peoples Defense Forces (UPDF), some was 
brought back to the camp.  Kony also received money and 
phones from delegations who visited him in Garamba. 
Some of the money was used to buy tents, gumboots, soap 
and other things. 
 
¶9.  Q:  Did you hear the name Olara Otunnu (former UN 
Deputy Secretary-General) mentioned in the LRA? 
 
A:  I heard that name around 1996, when our relations 
with the Khartoum Government were still intact and Otti 
Lagony was still alive.  I was told he came and met 
Kony.  We were living in homesteads in southern Sudan at 
the time.  But I don't know who he was or why he came. 
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
KONY EXECUTES DEPUTY, ARRESTS KWOYELO 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶10.  Q:  Did you witness the execution of Vincent Otti? 
 
A:  I did not see it because I was arrested just before 
Otti's arrest.  But I heard the gunshots.  Otti was 
killed together with Ben Accelam and Otim Record.  All 
of us were accused of being in favor of the peace talks 
and wanting to surrender to the Government of Uganda. 
Kony believed the talks were a way to get him out and 
have him arrested.  He considered all those who were for 
peace talks as enemies. 
 
¶11.  Q:  What exactly happened to you? 
 
A:  I was disarmed, blindfolded and tied for one week. 
All my escorts were disarmed, tied and put in different 
camps.  Later, they were distributed to different units. 
I spent about one year in detention in First Brigade in 
Garamba and was then kept as a prisoner in Kony's 
Central Brigade.  Up to the day I got shot, on February 
3, 2009, I was under arrest. 
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
OPERATION LIGHTNING THUNDER 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶12.  Q:  What did you do on December 14, 2008, when your 
camp was attacked by the joint forces of Congo, Uganda 
and Southern Sudan? 
 
A:  I was taken along with Kony's group.  They would 
give me a gun before we started marching and take it 
away from me every evening.  We had been prepared for 
the joint offensive.  A day earlier, Kony called all his 
officers and addressed them.  "Everybody should know 
that there will be war," he told us.  The Congolese, 
Ugandan and Southern Sudanese forces would jointly 
attack.  He also said the war would be from the air. 
 
¶13.  Q:  How did Kony know? 
 
A:  He told us God had spoken to him.  He insisted he 
had received a vision of what was going to happen.  When 
one of the commanders asked whether we should not leave 
the camp, he said "God had told him we would be punished 
if we vacated the camp."  "Everybody should stay," he 
 
KAMPALA 00000431  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
said. "The planes will come and bomb but nobody will 
die."  The next morning, at around 9:00 a.m., four 
gunships came.  They bombed until around midday.  In all 
those bombings, I never saw a dead body. 
 
¶14.  Q:  How did you survive that attack? 
 
A:  Kony mobilized everybody and we moved northwards in 
a big group.  After two days, he addressed us in the 
wilderness.  He ordered us to abduct as many as possible 
since the Congolese and Sudanese had agreed to fight him 
together with Uganda.  "If even Jesus abducted his 
disciples, why not me?" he said.  He then mixed all the 
units, separated them into small groups of 5, 10 up to 
25 and sent them in all directions.  Kony, together with 
his wives and about 50 escorts, set off following the 
trail we had come from.  I have not seen him since. 
 
¶15. Q:  When did you last see Kony's deputy, Okot 
Odhiambo? 
 
A:  I last saw him the day Vincent Otti was killed, on 
October 2, 2007.  I don't know where he is. 
 
¶16.  Q:  How did Operation Lightning Thunder affect the 
LRA? 
 
A:  All military assemblies were suspended.  There were 
no more fixed camps.  Every small group was mobile all 
the time.  The communication among the groups was also 
disrupted.  Kony no longer used Thuraya satellite 
phones.  If he did, he said, he would be shot within 
seconds by a MIG jet fighter.  He is only using radio 
calls these days but very irregularly.  He could switch 
off for three weeks.  As a result, the control and 
command structures were disorganized.  It had become 
difficult for Kony to give orders. 
 
¶17.  Q:  Why did the commanders of those small units not 
seize this opportunity to escape? 
 
A:  They fear the International Criminal Court (ICC). 
Kony told us every LRA commander was on the ICC list. 
Reports that only three commanders were indicted were 
propaganda, he said. "If you leave, the ICC will be 
waiting for you," he kept telling us.  We believed him. 
Kony is very convincing.  Only now that I am out do I 
realize that the reality is very different. 
 
- - - - - - - - - 
KWOYELO CAPTURED 
- - - - - - - - - 
 
¶18.  Q:  How did you come out? 
 
A:  I was in a smaller unit belonging to Central 
Brigade.  We were only 20 members, including four women. 
The brigade commander had told us we were going to meet 
Kony's head of security.  We slept in the bush near Duru 
(a Congolese village) the night before.  When we started 
walking the next morning, we ran into the combined 
forces.  I was the second in line.  The first, a young 
boy was shot dead.  As I tried to run away, I got a 
bullet in the back which came out through my belly.  Two 
boys tried to carry me but they could not cross the 
river.  They removed my gun and left me behind.  I felt 
like my soul had left my body.  I must have passed out. 
At around 11:00 a.m. I heard voices, followed by three 
gunshots.  A group of UPDF soldiers was following the 
trail of blood.  I waited until one of them was very 
close.  Then I called out to him.  He ran away and 
returned with the rest of his unit.  They surrounded me. 
One soldier who spoke Acholi asked my name.  I said I 
was Kwoyelo.  He then asked where I was from.  They 
ordered me to come forward with my hands up.  I crawled 
towards them, trying to raise my hands. 
 
When they saw the blood oozing from my wound, they said: 
"Wait, we shall come for you." They asked where my gun 
was and I told them it had been taken away.  They spread 
 
KAMPALA 00000431  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
an army fatigue on the ground and carried me onto it. 
At that moment, I saw my older cousin-brother, Aranja, 
who is a soldier in UPDF.  He had not recognized me 
since I had been abducted when I was very young.  I told 
him the names of his father and sister and we hugged. 
It was a very emotional moment.  They took me to their 
camp, put me on a drip and gave me porridge and tea. 
All along, I have been treated well by the UPDF. 
 
¶19.  Q:  Reports say you were in charge of the killing 
of 10 students of Jimmy SSekasi hotel school in 2001. 
 
A:  This is not true.  Accelam Smart, who was then a 
major, was the commander of the operation.  Some LRA 
members had gone to loot food in Koch Sub-county.  The 
civilians had captured them and killed one of them. 
Smart then ordered massive killings of civilians.  I was 
in Palaro when it happened. 
 
¶20.  Q:  How do you feel about the atrocities committed 
by the LRA? 
 
A:  I feel bad.  My own uncle and his three children 
were killed by the LRA.  My situation in the bush was 
like that of a dog and his master.  When you tell a dog 
to do something, it will act as instructed.  All orders 
came from Kony.  He was the chairman.  He ordered 
attacks, abductions, ambushes.  It was upon the 
individual commander to show restraint or exaggerate. 
When you were ordered to ambush a vehicle and return 
with money and goods, it was up to the commander to kill 
all the passengers or to keep some alive.  But it was 
impossible to question any of Kony's orders.  He would 
believe you were against him and kill you. 
 
¶21.  Q:  What do you want to do now? 
 
A:  I want to join the UPDF. 
 
- - - - - 
COMMENT 
- - - - - 
 
¶22.  Kwoyelo's fate remains uncertain.  Our political 
contacts tell us that he will receive amnesty, but some 
military officers say they want Kwoyelo tried because he 
was fighting when he was captured.  KwoyeloQs humane 
treatment confirms other accounts of the UPDFQs respect 
for human rights during the operation. 
HOOVER