Uganda's LRA rebels say will fight any army attack

GULU, Uganda, Oct 4 (Reuters) Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels will defend themselves against any army attack in northern Uganda, but remain committed to peace talks, the movement's deputy leader Vincent Otti said today.

''If the LRA collide with the UPDF (Ugandan army), they will fight. That is what the UPDF wants. But for us, we don't want to fight, we want to talk,'' Otti said by satellite telephone from the bush near the Sudan-Congo border.

''The peace process will bring peace in northern Uganda,'' he added in the conversation with a Reuters reporter in the northern Ugandan town of Gulu.

Otti was reacting to the Ugandan army's announcement it had resumed operations against rebels in the north who had failed to assemble at two locations under a truce that expired last month.

Otti said there were still some rebels hiding out in northern Uganda because poor communications to the remote area meant they had not received orders to gather at the camps.

''Those who are left in northern Uganda will not do any harm to the UPDF. They will not attack civilians, we will not ambush vehicles, but if the UPDF attacks us we will defend ourselves,'' Otti said, adding the LRA needed more time to move fighters.

Earlier, army spokesman Felix Kulayigye said an LRA commander, known just as Kweylo, was still in northern Uganda -- the epicentre of the two-decade war that has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted nearly 2 million others.

REUTERS MS PM1601