Ugandan rebels carry out village massacre

Rebels massacred 192 villagers in a weekend attack on a crowded camp described by officials as of the bloodiest atrocities of northern Uganda's long-running war. Heavily armed guerrillas from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), most of them child soldiers, struck Barnlooyo camp, about 150 miles north of Kampala, on Saturday evening.

Rebels massacred 192 villagers in a weekend attack on a crowded camp described by officials as of the bloodiest atrocities of northern Uganda's long-running war. Heavily armed guerrillas from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), most of them child soldiers, struck Barnlooyo camp, about 150 miles north of Kampala, on Saturday evening.

Attacking with mortars and assault rifles, the rebels set ablaze grass-thatched huts where hundreds of terrified residents were cowering. Charles Anjiro, a local MP from nearby Lira town, helped count the bodies yesterday. "The scene is terrible, it's the worst situation I've ever seen," he said.

A district official confirmed the death toll at 192. Fr Sebhat Ayele, a Catholic missionary from Eritrea, said: "I saw one hut with seven family members still burning and three people in the next hut were also burning."

The massacre has again highlighted the inability of the Ugandan army to defeat the LRA. Led by the mysterious and ruthless Joseph Kony, the 18-year bush insurgency has mutated into one of the world's most bizarre yet brutal conflicts.

Although Mr Kony claims to be driven by religious impulse - he believes he is an emissary of God, and wishes to rule Uganda using the Ten Commandments - his brutal tactics usually target the civilians he claims to liberate.

LRA soldiers attack remote settlements, mutilating adults and snatching children into captivity. The abductees are frog-marched to bush training camps where they are indoctrinated, handed weapons and forced to fight, completing the circle of conflict.

Local religious workers believe abducted children make up 90 per cent of the LRA forces. The terror tactics have turned northern Uganda into a vast ghostland, forcing an estimated million people to flee their homes for poorly protected camps such as the one attacked on Saturday night.

A small local militia force defending Barnlooyo was quickly outnumbered and outgunned, witnesses said. Most of the 5,000 residents fled into the bush but those trapped in their homes were shot or burnt to death.

President George Bush placed the LRA on its list of world terror groups, and the Hague-based International Criminal Court is investigating the leadership. Its chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, said: "The court could help stop these kinds of crimes."

But local religious leaders fear the manhunt could prolong the conflict. "[It] would practically close once and for all the path to peaceful negotiation as a means to end this long war," said Fr Carlos Rodriguez Soto, a local Spanish missionary. The army, the Ugandan People's Defence Force (UPDF), demands that Fr Rodriguez leave northern Uganda "for making false statements".

The war is complicated by deep-seated distrust of the army by the local Acholi population. Critics say the troops use brutal counter-insurgency tactics, including strafing by helicopter gunships, against an army of forcibly recruited children.

A confidential survey by a local charity submitted to western donors says the UPDF claimed to have killed 966 rebels in 2003, most of whom were child abductees.

The immediate prospects for peace look slim. Both the LRA and President Yoweri Museveni have been reluctant to engage in peace negotiations. Mr Kony has remained elusive, reluctant to engage in even phone conversations with government officials.

Instead, the tempo of violence has steadily increased. Eighteen months ago, the Ugandan army launched "Operation Iron Fist", an ill-fated military offensive to crush the LRA. Although the operation flushed the rebels from bases in neighbouring Sudan - where they have enjoyed the support of the fundamentalist regime - it triggered a sharp increase in attacks on civilians in Uganda.

Since then 10,000 more children have been abducted to mount LRA attacks, aid workers say. The insurgency has also spread to parts of eastern Uganda. Sudan says it has stopped supporting Mr Kony, a claim viewed with scepticism by Ugandan officials.