(AFP) – Mar 15, 2008

JUBA, Sudan (AFP) — Sudanese renegades frustrated with not being absorbed into the military -- and not Ugandan rebels initially suspected -- were behind recent attacks in south Sudan, officials said on Saturday.

Major General Peter Parnyang of the Sudan People's Liberation Army said that fighters who belonged to the former rebel organisation when it was battling the Arab north during Sudan's two-decade civil war were behind the attacks.

They were now in SPLA custody and confessed to carrying out the raids in January and February, looting and abducting people, out of frustration for not being integrated into the military at the end of the civil war.

"We have a lot of ex-soldiers, and you can't tell how many went home with their guns... When they did that, they wanted to bring attention to themselves," Parnyang said.

About a dozen people died in the attacks that the south Sudan army believes were carried out by around 300 raiders.

The UN Mission in Sudan has yet to conclude who was behind the raids, which were initially blamed on Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army.

"The group calls itself the No-Unit," said James Gakdet, press secretary to the vice president of southern Sudan, Riek Machar.

By orchestrating the attack, the group was trying to "find a way of bringing their issues up," he said.

Machar is the chief mediator of peace talks between the Ugandan government and LRA being conducted in Juba, the capital of south Sudan, where both sides are expected to sign a final peace agreement later this month.

Nevertheless, some people rescued after being abducted in the raids have given a different version of events.

"We believe it is more," Parnyang said. "But that's what we have."

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