Rights group: Rebels' abuses demand action

NEW YORK, May 19 (UPI) -- International action is needed to stop abductions and sexual violence by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda and Sudan, Human Rights Watch said.

Since February, the insurgent LRA has carried out at least 100 abductions in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and southern Sudan, the human rights organization said Monday in a news release issued from New York.

Documents indicate boys were subjected to military training or forced to act as servants, girls are being used as sex slaves and villages have been pillaged, Human Rights Watch said.

The abuses occurred as peace talks between the Ugandan government and the LRA faltered, HRW said.

The International Criminal Court charged LRA leader Joseph Kony and others for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Human Rights Watch called upon the international community to help execute ICC-issued arrest warrants.

"Kony and the LRA took advantage of the breathing room given to them and appear to be terrorizing civilians yet again," said Richard Dicker, Human Rights Watch's international justice director. "Concerned governments and U.N. officials cannot sit by while the LRA goes on a criminal rampage, committing heinous abuses against children and other people."