CNN: LRA operating like rats in South Sudan
“They behave like rats. A rat comes out of a hole, it comes and picks what it wants, it is difficult for you to trace it back to the hole.” said Lt. Gen. Kuol Deim Kuol, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army’s spokesman. He was referring to the LRA and how they are operating in Southern Sudan, CAR, and the Congo. These words come as a result of the recent LRA raids throughout villages in Southern Sudan, which has led to the abduction of 700 people in the last 18 months, a third of those being children. -Braden
Nzara, Sudan (CNN) — Albert Abuda might never see his children again.
Long-haired, dirty men emerged from the dense bush around his village one day. They spoke a language he did not understand, fighting in a conflict equally as foreign and incomprehensible.
They were members of the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA.
They left with more than the year’s harvest. His son is now likely training as a ruthless guerrilla warrior, and his 13-year-old daughter might be forced into commanders’ harems.
Meanwhile, Abuda wastes away in a makeshift camp with others telling similar tales and living on the generosity of nearby villagers who sometimes provide cassava leaves to boil.
“Since I arrived here, life has become miserable to me. As you can see, my body keeps shrinking because there is no proper food,” he said in the town of Nzara in Southern Sudan, where he and the rest of his community have fled.
The LRA, which follows the self-proclaimed spiritual powers of leader Joseph Kony, arose as a rebel movement in the late 1980s among the Acholi people of marginalized northern Uganda. But Kony and his men are no longer in Uganda, and little remains of any group ideology.
Instead, the LRA are known for their seasoned survival skills and brutal tactics of terror, roaming within a weakly-governed nexus where Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and Sudan’s autonomous region of Southern Sudan meet. (more…)
Peace and Conflict Update
A Somali rebel group known as al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the bombings that took place in Kampala last Sunday. The Islamist insurgency stated that they were retaliating against Uganda’s role in the African Union peacekeeping mission stationed in Somalia. The attacks claimed the lives of 76 people, including our dear friend Nate Oteka Henn.
At least 7 people have been killed by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in the Orientale province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the past week. Three children from the region surrounding Aba-Isiro road were abducted during the attacks, making it the second time in one week children from this area have been taken by the LRA. The lament Ugandan rebel group known as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) has continued their violent rampage through the North Kivu province of the DRC, displacing more than 30,000 people in the Beni territory.
Intelligence gathered by the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) has driven spokesman Major General Kuol Deim Kuol to warn the states of Western Bahr El-Ghazal and Equatoria that an attack by the LRA is imminent. A collection of LRA insurgents have reportedly taken refuge in the Central African Republic in an effort to regroup before launching any attacks. Kuol went on to accuse Northern Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) of arming the rebel group in an attempt to destabilize the Southern region of Sudan ahead of a secession referendum posed to take place in early 2011.
Photo: Benedicte Desrus
Peace and Conflict Update
(REUTERS photo/Finbarr O’Reilly)
The Enough Project released a report earlier this week detailing Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) related activity in the conflict-ridden Central African Republic (CAR). According to the report, the Ugandan People’s Defense Force came extremely close to apprehending LRA-rebel leader Joseph Kony in CAR last year, but fell short due to a severe lack of domestic security and multilateral support. The report also calls upon the United States to deliver on their promise of developing a comprehensive strategy to alleviate Central Africa of the LRA.
The Eastern Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has had a conflict-saturated week. The Allied Democratic Force (ADF), an otherwise inactive rebel group from Uganda, attacked and killed at least 16 people earlier today in the village of Mutwanga. The Congolese village sits in the Eastern region of the DRC bordering Uganda, where the government has begun increasing border security after reports of the ADF’s plans to target them. General Amuli Bahigwa of the DRC also confirmed that 80 Ugandan and Rwandan rebels have been killed at the Eastern Congolese border in an operation that began June 1st. The LRA attacked and raided multiple Eastern DRC villages last Sunday in search of food and supplies. At least two people were killed in the process.
Peace and Conflict Update
(AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel leader Joseph Kony is thought to be hiding in the Central African Republic after Ugandan People’s Defense Force (UPDF) officials received word that his army had been looting food in the Eastern region of Hout-Mbomou. Constant pursuit of the LRA has left them little time to regroup and strengthen, UPDF Chief General Aronda Nyakairima said.
Days following a massive troop reduction of United Nations (UN) peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the DRC Country Director for the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Max Hadorn, has deemed security to be the unstable country’s primary issue. The Eastern region of the DRC has seen an influx of LRA-related violence in recent months, with nearly 600 people being abducted and killed this year alone. Alan Doss, head of the UN mission to the DRC, notes that the LRA is currently one of their biggest concerns. Doss was quick to highlight the importance of domestic support in regards to regional development, stating that the UN “can push out an armed group but if the state doesn’t come in with police, justice, roads, schools, then it won’t make a big difference.”
Victims of the LRA insurgency in Northern Ugandan could be receiving financial compensation from the government of Uganda. Ahead of the Presidential and Parliamentary elections being held next February, the Museveni administration has promised to compensate about 10,000 of the LRA’s severely maimed victims.
Obama speaks: the President declares his commitment to the LRA Bill
A message from the President…
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 24, 2010
Statement by the President on the signing of the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009
Today, I signed into law the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009. The legislation crystallizes the commitment of the United States to help bring an end to the brutality and destruction that have been a hallmark of the LRA across several countries for two decades, and to pursue a future of greater security and hope for the people of central Africa.
The Lord’s Resistance Army preys on civilians – killing, raping, and mutilating the people of central Africa; stealing and brutalizing their children; and displacing hundreds of thousands of people. Its leadership, indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, has no agenda and no purpose other than its own survival. It fills its ranks of fighters with the young boys and girls it abducts. By any measure, its actions are an affront to human dignity.
Of the millions affected by the violence, each had an individual story and voice that we must not forget. In northern Uganda, we recall Angelina Atyam’s 14-year old daughter, whom the LRA kidnapped in 1996 and held captive for nearly eight years — one of 139 girls abducted that day from a boarding school. In southern Sudan, we recall John Loboi — a father, a husband, a brother, a local humanitarian assistance worker killed in an ambush while helping others in 2003. Now, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic, the people of Dungu and of Obo, too, have their stories of loss and pain.
We mourn those killed. We pray for those abducted to be freed, and for those wounded to heal. We call on the ranks of the LRA to disarm and surrender. We believe that the leadership of the LRA should be brought to justice.
I signed this bill today recognizing that we must all renew our commitments and strengthen our capabilities to protect and assist civilians caught in the LRA’s wake, to receive those that surrender, and to support efforts to bring the LRA leadership to justice. The Bill reiterates U.S. policy and our commitment to work toward a comprehensive and lasting resolution to the conflict in northern Uganda and other affected areas, including northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, southern Sudan, and the Central African Republic. We will do so in partnership with regional governments and multilateral efforts.
I commend the Government of Uganda for its efforts to stabilize the northern part of the country, for actively supporting transitional and development assistance, and for pursuing reintegration programs for those who surrender and escape from the LRA ranks.
I also want the governments of other LRA-affected countries to know that we are aware of the danger the LRA represents, and we will continue to support efforts to protect civilians and to end this terrible chapter in central African history. For over a decade, the United States has worked with others to respond to the LRA crisis. We have supported peace process and reconciliation, humanitarian assistance and regional recovery, protection of civilians and reintegration for former combatants, and have supported regional governments as they worked to provide for their people’s security. Going forward, we will call on our partners as we all renew our efforts.
I congratulate Congress for seizing on this important issue, and I congratulate the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have mobilized to respond to this unique crisis of conscience. We have heard from the advocacy organizations, non-governmental organizations, faith-based groups, humanitarian actors who lack access, and those who continue to work on this issue in our own government. We have seen your reporting, your websites, your blogs, and your video postcards — you have made the plight of the children visible to us all. Your action represents the very best of American leadership around the world, and we are committed to working with you in pursuit of the future of peace and dignity that the people of who have suffered at the hands of the LRA deserve.
Obama said yes! We got a signing ceremony in the Oval Office!
After a five year quest to get the attention of the United States government, we have done it.
President Obama agreed to a signing ceremony in the Oval Office for the signing of the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act! After the unbelievable rallying we all did to see this bill pass unanimously through Congress, and the props they gave us on the House floor (I’ll never forget that for the rest of my life), we have seen impossible dreams come true.
After the bill’s unanimous passage, we asked the White House for a signing ceremony with the President so that we could hold him accountable to this mandate and see Joseph Kony arrested.
On Saturday, President Obama accepted our request and invited us to the Oval Office on Monday.
Today, Monday, May 24th at 5pm est, Senator Inhofe, Congressmen McGovern and Royce, Jason, Laren, Ben Keesey, Resolve Uganda’s Michael Poffenberger and Lisa Dougan, and the Enough Project’s John Prendergast stood in the Oval Office, circled around President Barack Obama as he signed into law the bill we have carried so far.
Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) commented on the signing of the bill, saying, “This bill’s success is due to the grassroots effort of young people across the U.S. committed to ending the atrocities of Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army.” It has been your rallying, your phone calls, letters, emails, activism, and voices that have won this victory. The war is not over, but the stage has been set for justice.
“Our mission now is to make sure that the President uses the mandate it provides from Congress and the American people to do everything he can to see LRA violence ended once and for all.” - Lisa Dougan, Resolve.
Be proud. We’ll post pictures and details as soon as we have them!
Congolese village writes to Pres. Obama, asking for help against LRA violence
From Resolve Uganda:
A group of human rights defenders in the Congolese town of Niangara issued a powerful letter yesterday decrying LRA violence against their communities and calling on President Obama to develop a strategy to protect civilians and arrest LRA commanders responsible for the rebel group’s attacks there.
The area surrounding Niangara has been perhaps the hardest hit by LRA attacks in recent months. In December LRA rebels killed at least 321 people in the Makombo area outside of Niangara. And dozens more people were killed in a series of attacks nearby in early February. The combination of Ugandan, Congolese and UN troops in the region have not been able to protect civilians or apprehend the LRA commanders responsible for the attacks.
The only way to do justice to this powerful letter is to let the words written by these Congolese civilians speak for themselves…
Public Appeal to President Barack Obama
Attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army in Northeastern Congo
President Barack Obama
White House
Washington D.C.
United States of America
Niangara, May 19, 2010
Your Excellency, Mr. President,
As you prepare to sign a new law to combat the problem of the LRA, we, human rights defenders from Niangara territory in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, write to sound a warning bell.
Since 2009 attacks by the LRA have continued to result in deaths amongst the civilian population. We have suffered too much. We await a strong response from the international community and the Congolese government to end once and for all this LRA phenomenon. A strategy needs to be put in place to protect our people and to save those members of our families who are still held by the LRA.
In this message, addressed to Your Excellency, the President of the United States of America, the population of Niangara deplores the international community’s lack of effective action against the LRA despite our repeated appeals. Nevertheless, local human rights NGOs, who hold documentary evidence on these atrocities, have continued to cry out to attract the attention of the international community and that of the Congolese government. (more…)
We did it! LRA Bill passes Congress!
For those of you watching C-SPAN just now…. we assume you were cheering/crying too!
In the span of one year, we have made history. In April of 2009, 80,000 of us stood in solidarity with the child soldiers trapped in Joseph Kony’s war. In June, we were two-thousand strong on the lawn of Capitol Hill, asking our leaders to consider the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act. In January of this year, we delivered 253,512 signatures to the State Department in support of Kony’s arrest. Our tenacity, annoying phone calls, hundreds of local office lobby meetings, and certainly our sleeping bag assaults (Oklahoma) paid off and the bill has been passed. Getting a bill passed through Congress is an enormous accomplishment. In the last session of Congress, only 3% of bills introduced were actually passed. We’ve done the impossible.
Now, it goes to President Obama’s desk to be signed into law. We expect him to sign the bill into law within the next 10 days.
Lawwwww. We have made it law to pursue Joseph Kony. Let that sink in.
This is confirmation that young people have a powerful political voice. We have asked our government and our President to pursue Joseph Kony and other top LRA commanders, to disarm and disband his militia, and to restore stability to those areas of Africa that have been terrorized by the LRA. They have heard us, and now we will hold them accountable to their commitment.
Our generation has become educated and empowered in the quest to resolve this conflict. While American intervention in foreign conflicts is always complicated and often discouraged, we believe in the moral mandate of the international community to come to the aid of the most vulnerable peoples in the world. There are none more vulnerable than abducted children forced to be soldiers in a region ill-equipped to protect them. We are not advocating international meddling. We are asking our leadership to respond to this unique crisis of conscience with the strategic expertise and capability unique to our nation. This is an entirely solvable conflict. In the aftermath of Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Darfur, it is with our generation’s united voice that we proclaim national self interest is no longer our only priority.
We celebrate this victory with our partners Resolve: Uganda and Enough Project, and now we must pressure the Obama Administration to follow through on this important mandate, to set a precedent for justice, and to protect these children who have too long been trapped in a war against their will. We will see them come home.
Fist pumps and aggressive status updates with too many exclamation points are encouraged. (sorry news feed… making history wins)
Sincerely!!!!!!!!!!!!
Invisible Children.
Could the LRA survive without Kony’s leadership?
Most experts agree that the LRA would dissolve almost immediately if Joseph Kony were apprehended. But this opinion article suggests that it might not be that simple. Either a new leader could rise up, or the small bands of LRA soldiers could continue murdering, pillaging and raping. Even though it seems unlikely, that’s certainly an outcome we should be prepared for.
-Azy
From the Global Post:
…..
The Ugandans and their U.S. advisers think killing Kony will decapitate the LRA — game over. The military and spiritual leader’s charisma has certainly played a part in the LRA’s endurance. But the LRA’s recent surge in violence is on cruise-control, since Americans’ audio-intercept gadgets make it dangerous for Kony to communicate with his men. He’s been running north, even allegedly as far as southern Darfur, while splinter groups have been massacring elsewhere with no need of their leader’s encouragement.
Further, Kony’s LRA grew from the ashes of the equally pestilent Holy Spirit Movement of Alice Lakwena. Once Kony is gone, there is every possibility someone else will take up the torch.
The LRA’s survival is just as much a symptom of state failure. In this vast ungoverned border territory, the security forces of all three countries are simply too weak or too far away to stop the slaughter. An effective strategy must take this into account and focus on three priorities.
First, civilians must be protected. Besides the moral imperative, protecting villagers is crucial to deny the LRA new recruits and safeguard the army’s best source of intelligence. More U.N. peacekeepers and national forces should deploy to patrol villages and frequently used routes day and night. They should help improve roads and put in place human rights monitoring mechanisms.
Second, national armies, the U.N. missions in the Congo and Sudan and civilians should better coordinate their efforts within and across national boundaries. They need to combine counter-insurgency and peacekeeping tactics in innovative ways. For instance, local administrators should register members of existing civilian self-defense groups, agree in writing on their specific tasks, and plan and monitor group activities carefully.
Third, national authorities need to take ownership of the fight. Once the army has bagged Kony, Kampala will probably call off the hunt, and the U.N. will leave sooner or later. Building state institutions is the only way to ward against LRA remnants or any other rogue threats in the longterm.
Hillary Clinton has good reason to wonder at the LRA’s longevity. More than 20 years in the bush is an impressive feat. To stop the nightmare lasting even longer, we must see steps to move beyond the manhunt and tackle the underlying problem of state failure in this forgotten heart of Africa.
Thierry Vircoulon is Central Africa Project Director of the International Crisis Group, which has just released the report LRA: A Regional Strategy beyond Killing Kony.
Read the entire article here.
Another Victory: House Foreign Affairs Committee passes LRA Bill
From RESOLVE Uganda in Washington, D.C.
By Lisa Dougan:
We are thrilled to bring you news that this morning, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs unanimously passed the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act.
Debates between some Committee members over details in the bill had initially threatened to stall its consideration for months, until robust efforts from activists and the bill’s champions in Congress succeeded in convincing leaders of the Foreign Affairs Committee to swiftly pass the Senate version of the bill. In a very rare move, the Committee added the bill to today’s agenda just yesterday afternoon—less than 24 hours before the hearing was to take place.
Consequently, during today’s meeting the Committee members agreed unanimously to support the passage of the Senate version of the bill without amendment. From here, the bill will go to the floor of the House for a full vote, most likely in the next week or two.
Once the bill passes in the House, it will go straight to the President’s desk to be signed into law and implemented. At that point, it will be up to activists to convince President Obama to fully utilize this public mandate for action.
“I’m very pleased that this important, bipartisan legislation will be moving to the House floor,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), an original cosponsor of the bill, said. “It is crucial that the United States commit to a proactive strategy to help bring this conflict to an end and to strengthen humanitarian assistance.”
The unanimous decision by the Foreign Affairs Committee to pass the the bill was a major victory and another step toward an end to LRA atrocities and toward lasting peace in northern Uganda. As emphasized by Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), former Africa subcommittee chairman and an original cosponsor of the bill, “LRA leader Joseph Kony is driving this crisis. Ensuring United States leadership in ending his reign of terror is the goal of this legislation, and the many Americans who have backed it. Kony must be stopped.”
Today’s victory reflects a consensus within Congress and amongst hundreds of thousands of Americans that forging a more effective response to LRA violence necessitates increased US engagement and leadership. As we look forward to the bill’s passage in the House and it’s movement to the President’s desk, we will continue to strongly reiterated that message and amplify the voices of those whose lives have been devastated by Joseph Kony’s campaign of violence.
Our deepest thanks to the thousands of you who have called, written, and met with your Representatives over the past few months and to the 5,500 people who signed the petition to Foreign Affairs Committee leaders over the course of just four days.
Today is further evidence of what our committed voices can accomplish together—and there is certainly much more to accomplish!
Well done, everyone.
The petition worked!
The Bill is now an enormous step closer to Obama’s desk. Thank you for your 5,400+ signatures!
Breaking news from Resolve Uganda:
Tonight, we received word that the House Committee on Foreign Affairs has now agreed to add the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act to the agenda for a vote during tomorrow’s Committee meeting. The bill was initially left off the agenda due to debates over whether to amend or simply pass the same version passed by the Senate last month. If the Committee did not agree to vote on it during tomorrow’s meeting, the bill’s final passage and implementation would have been delayed by months, while LRA atrocities against civilians across central Africa continue unabated.
To overcome this obstacle, more than 5,000 people signed a petition to the Committee’s Congressional leaders, and countless others called their offices to insist that the bill be voted on immediately. Combined with support from the bill’s champions in Congress, it worked.
The Committee’s consideration of the bill will now take place at 10am on Wednesday, April 28th in room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The meeting is open to the public, so DC-area supporters are welcome to join our staff in watching the action.
If the Committee votes in favor of the Senate version of the bill — as we have advocated — all that will be left to secure its passage in Congress will be a vote in the full House of Representatives, at which point it would be sent to President Obama to be signed into law.
Thanks to all those who signed the petition, made phone calls, or helped in gaining the 187 cosponsors now on the House version of the bill that made this major milestone possible.
Sudan’s elections: half horrid, half hopeful
We’ve been tracking Sudan and the “drama,” so to speak, associated with these presidential elections. Votes have been cast, either fairly or unfairly, and it doesn’t look good in the sense that a man who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes is about to become the country’s “legitimate” leader. The official results will be announced April 20.
From The Economist:
It has been a tale of two Sudans. In the north the election has been marred by rigging, intimidation and boycotts, with the near-certain result that President Omar Bashir and his ruling National Congress Party (NCP) will remain firmly in charge. But in the south the former rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), which rules a vast semi-autonomous region, are sure to win handsomely—and pretty fairly. The nationwide voting was extended by two days. Results will not be declared until around April 20th.
The upshot is that most of the world is likely, with varying degrees of cynicism, to accept Mr Bashir as Sudan’s rightful ruler, though he has been indicted by the International Criminal Court at The Hague for alleged war crimes in the western region of Darfur. Just as crucially for Sudan’s future, the SPLM’s entrenchment in the south will mark a big step on the region’s road to complete independence, provided that Mr Bashir co-operates in holding a referendum promised for early next year.
So the elections will have endorsed the status quo. But the manner of the two victories was markedly different. Many northern opposition parties withdrew before the poll. Fiddling the voters’ register, boycotts and blatant rigging all boosted Mr Bashir. Parties backed by the rebels in Darfur, for which several million refugees would have voted, never even entered the race. The Umma party, the strongest northern opposition group, boycotted the polls.
Even so, the NCP left nothing to chance. Its campaign was well organised and flush with cash. Thousands of voters were brought in by buses to marshalling tents near the polling stations, where they were helped to find their names on the register and ushered to the booths. Kitchens run by the NCP provided food and drink to fortify waverers in temperatures reaching 40 degrees centigrade. Local NCP-run authorities, known as “popular committees”, had the power to approve voters at the stations, many of whom had no form of ID.
Read the rest of the article here.
NYTimes: Uganda enlists former rebels to end a war
This is definitely a tough call. I am picturing a long and inconclusive pro-con list in some Ugandan boardroom.
-Azy
From the NY Times:
OBO, Central African Republic — The night is inky, the helicopters are late and Cmdr. Patrick Opiyo Makasi sits near a dying cooking fire on a remote army base, spinning his thoughts into the darkness.
“It was either them or me,” Commander Makasi said of the countless people he has killed. “Them or me.”
The Lord’s Resistance Army, a notoriously brutal rebel group, snatched him from a riverbank when he was 12 years old, more than 20 years ago, and trained him to burn, pillage and slaughter. His name, Makasi, means scissors in Kiswahili, and fellow soldiers said he earned it by shearing off ears and lips.
But now he has a new mission: hunting down his former boss.
In an unorthodox strategy that could help end this seemingly pointless war, the Ugandan Army is deploying special squads of experienced killers to track down the L.R.A.’s leader, Joseph Kony, one of the most wanted men in Africa, who has been on the run for two decades.
These soldiers, like Commander Makasi, are former L.R.A. fighters themselves, and just about all of them were abducted as children. They recently surrendered and are now wading through black rivers and head-high elephant grass across three of the most troubled countries in the world — the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan — where the last remnants of the L.R.A. are believed to be hiding. They say they know all of Mr. Kony’s tricks.
Some critics may not think this wise, putting so much trust in men whose moral compass had been turned upside down for so long.
Read the rest of the article here.
Foreign Policy: Africa’s forever wars
This is the best article I’ve read in a long time about war in Africa. It looks at the big picture, but also gives specific examples. The writer is the New York Times bureau chief for East Africa. He knows his stuff.
The main point is that its a chilling departure from traditional war when rebel leaders like Joseph Kony don’t have political demands. All he wants is money, weapons, and to be feared. You can’t bargain with a man who wants nothing more than he already has.
I pulled out a couple of paragraphs, but it’s really worth reading the entire article.
-Azy
From Foreign Policy, Jeffrey Gettleman:
There is a very simple reason why some of Africa’s bloodiest, most brutal wars never seem to end: They are not really wars. Not in the traditional sense, at least. The combatants don’t have much of an ideology; they don’t have clear goals. They couldn’t care less about taking over capitals or major cities — in fact, they prefer the deep bush, where it is far easier to commit crimes. Today’s rebels seem especially uninterested in winning converts, content instead to steal other people’s children, stick Kalashnikovs or axes in their hands, and make them do the killing. Look closely at some of the continent’s most intractable conflicts, from the rebel-laden creeks of the Niger Delta to the inferno in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and this is what you will find.
….
Child soldiers are an inextricable part of these movements. The LRA, for example, never seized territory; it seized children. Its ranks are filled with brainwashed boys and girls who ransack villages and pound newborn babies to death in wooden mortars. In Congo, as many as one-third of all combatants are under 18. Since the new predatory style of African warfare is motivated and financed by crime, popular support is irrelevant to these rebels. The downside to not caring about winning hearts and minds, though, is that you don’t win many recruits. So abducting and manipulating children becomes the only way to sustain the organized banditry. And children have turned out to be ideal weapons: easily brainwashed, intensely loyal, fearless, and, most importantly, in endless supply.
The many aspects of the LRA massacres in the Congo
The Daily Beast has compiled a collage of briefings, stories, and photos related to the recently uncovered LRA massacres in the Congo.
One links to the Enough Project’s discussion of the highly-coveted mineral in the Congo that is used in almost all cell phones. Another talks about the rapes that accompanied the massacres. Even though it’s not pleasant, these articles and pictures will help you get a 360 view of what happened there last December.
BBC: LRA audio report on recently uncovered attack in Congo
From BBC News:
Listen here to eye witness reports of known LRA commanders leading the attacks in December. This flies in the face of the LRA’s official statements that they had no part in these attacks.
And here is the Human Rights Watch report that details the violence. Some claim that the LRA is no longer a threat. They couldn’t be more wrong.
Peace and Conflict Update
At least ten people were killed this past weekend when the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) attacked three villages in the Central African Republic (CAR). Agoumar, one of the villages in the eastern region of CAR felt the brunt of the attacks when 10 individuals were killed, 50 abducted, and another 22 were wounded. These attacks are the latest in a series in this particular region of CAR. Village elders assume this is due in part to the slim presence of authorities. Meanwhile, a multitude of analysts are saying that a faction of the LRA is now setting up in Darfur, possibly preparing for attacks prior to the 2011 elections, a belief which the Sudanese army denied last week.
A US ambassador to the White House announced on Tuesday that they were ready to support the prosecution of key figures indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC)–most notably, those indicted in the countries of the DR Congo, Uganda, Sudan, and CAR, all of which are heavily affected by the LRA. Special advisor to the prosecutor at the ICC, Beatrice Le Fraper welcomed the news, stating that in the case of Joseph Kony, operational support would aid in his apprehension efforts. In advocacy-related news, The LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009 having recently passed the US senate is now on to the house. Just this week Resolve Uganda released an essential campaign to ensure the passage of the bill. Before the house is able to vote on the bill, it first has to pass the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. This campaign will be a targeted effort to ensure that Howard Berman (D-CA), Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs; Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Ranking Republican on the Committee on Foreign Affairs; Donald Payne (D-NJ), Chair of the Africa Subcommittee; and Chris Smith (R-NJ), Ranking Republican on the Africa Subcommittee become co-sponsors of the bill.
BBC NEWS: D.R. Congo needs new strategy for LRA
FROM BBC NEWS: The head of UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo says a new strategy is needed to prevent massacres by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
Alan Doss spoke to the BBC after evidence emerged of a five day-rampage by the rebel group last December in which more than 300 people died.
He said greater air mobility and better intelligence gathering was needed.
But Mr Doss said the LRA operated in small, highly mobile groups over a wide area, making the UN’s job difficult.
The massacre was one of the worst ever committed by the group, Human Rights Watch said.
“We have to look at this as a problem dealing with small groups that move around a great deal,” said Mr Doss.
“This requires better intelligence gathering, it requires particularly air mobility, and of course co-operation with the local people.”
He added: “It didn’t just happen in one place because… the LRA moves around a lot and these are small units, but of course they can inflict terrible damage.
“But even small groups, moving as they do in the bush, can create havoc. Their best weapon is fear and they create fear by their extremely brutal and violent tactics which we saw again in this latest massacre near Tapili.”
LRA leaders initially claimed to be fighting to install a theocracy in Uganda based on the Biblical Ten Commandments.
But they now roam across Sudan and Central African Republic, as well as DR Congo.
In the latest attack, rebels hacked to death villagers and made others carry looted goods. Some 250 people were abducted.
The UN said it had heard rumours that an attack was to be launched around Christmas, and reinforced its troops in the area.
But they were deployed to towns like Dungu and Niangara rather than the remote villages where the killings took place.
On 13 December, a contingent of LRA rebels crossed the Uele river and arrived at a market in the village of Mabanga Ya Talo.
They pretended to be Congolese soldiers and asked for food and other goods.
Brutally killed
They then asked people to carry the goods back to where they had crossed the river, and when the villagers refused, the rebels turned on them.
Adults were attacked, captured, imprisoned in huts, then taken out and made to act as porters.
Anyone unable to keep up with the forced march was brutally killed.
The acts were repeated in villages all the way to Tapili, about 45km (30 miles) away.
Human Rights Watch, working with local organisations, has verified 321 deaths – but other activists have given far higher estimates.
Witnesses say the stench of death hung over the area for weeks.
Children were a particular target of the LRA.
At least 80 were taken by force – boys to become fighters, girls to be used as sex slaves by LRA fighters.
Months after the fact, LRA massacre in December is uncovered
The situation is more dire than ever. How many more people have to die before the international community makes disarming the LRA a serious priority?
From The New York Times:
TAPILI, Congo — Depleted by an American-backed offensive and seemingly desperate for new conscripts, the Lord’s Resistance Army, one of the most infamous armed groups in Africa, has killed hundreds of villagers in this remote corner of Congo and kidnapped hundreds more, marching them off in a vast human chain, witnesses say.
The massacre and abductions are a major setback to the effort to stamp out the remnants of the group, a primarily Ugandan rebel force that fielded thousands of soldiers in the 1980s and ’90s. But in recent years it has degenerated into a band of several hundred predators living deep in the bush in Congo, Sudan and the Central African Republic with child brides and military-grade weaponry.
The United States is providing the Ugandan Army with millions of dollars’ worth of aid — including fuel, trucks, satellite phones, night-vision goggles and contracted air support — to hunt the fighters down.
It is one of the signature programs of Africom, the new American military command for Africa, which is working with the State Department to employ what officials call “the three D’s” — defense, diplomacy and development — to help African nations stabilize themselves.
These efforts appeared to be succeeding, eliminating up to 60 percent of the Lord’s Resistance Army fighters in the past 18 months, American officials said. But that may have been why the fighters tore off on their raid, late last year, to get as many new conscripts as possible, along with medicine, clothes and food.
They also kidnapped nurses from hospitals, witnesses said, and stripped blood-splattered clothes off corpses for themselves, a sign they are increasingly desperate.
Human Rights Watch, which sent a team to investigate the killings in February, said the L.R.A. killed at least 320 people in this area before January, calling the massacre one of the worst in the group’s 23-year, atrocity-filled history.
Read the rest of the report here.
CNN: U.S. moving to support International Criminal Court
(CNN) — The United States is “prepared to listen and to work with” the International Criminal Court even though the Obama administration is not prepared to sign on to the treaty that established the court, a U.S. diplomat said Wednesday.
The U.S. government announced Tuesday it would support key war crimes prosecutions being pursued by the ICC. They included alleged crimes in four African nations, most notably the indictment of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
“The United States is prepared to listen and to work with the ICC and go through requests that the prosecutor has. And we’re not going to prejudge what those requests are,” Stephen Rapp, U. S. Ambassador-At-Large For War Crimes, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “There may be obstacles under our law. But we’re prepared to do what we can to bring justice to the victims in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Uganda, and Sudan, and in the Central African Republic.”
The ICC was established in 2002 to establish a permanent tribunal that would replace the ad hoc bodies that had pressed war crimes charges in the former Yugoslavia, in Rwanda and in Sierra Leone. The United States, under President George W. Bush had spurned the court because of the concern that U.S. military personnel and diplomats might be charged by the court, and those concerns are shared by the current administration, Rapp said.
“Our concern was that a prosecutor who was not under any kind of accountability, who’s elected for nine years, who doesn’t answer to any kind of national system, could say, ‘Well, over here, we’ve got someone who murdered 200,000 people. Over here, we have maybe some soldiers that came in to protect some of those people and some folks died in collateral damage. We’ll go ahead and prosecute both.’” Rapp said.
“We remain concerned that it might be possible for a prosecutor who’s not accountable to anyone to target an American who’s out doing the work that 3 million Americans are doing around the world today, protecting people from terror and atrocity,” Rapp said.
Despite the concerns, the Obama administration is shifting U.S. policy on global justice by beginning to provide assistance to the ICC.
Rapp defended the court against charges that the ICC had an African-based bias, given that all of the cases brought so far by the ICC involved African nations.
“Three of these cases came from the African countries themselves. The other came from the (U.N.) Security Council,” Rapp said. “Obviously, if similar crimes occur elsewhere, they need to be looked at.”
Beatrice Le Fraper Du Hellen, special adviser to the prosecutor at the ICC, welcomed the announcement of U.S. support.
“We have our shopping list ready of requests for assistance from the American government,” Le Fraper said, “The American government first has to lead on one particular issue: the arrest of sought war criminals. (Sudanese) President al-Bashir, Joseph Kony in Uganda, Bosco Ntaganda, the “Terminator in the Congo” — all those people have arrest warrants against them, arrest warrants issued by the ICC judges, and they need to be arrested now.”
Le Frapper called for the United States and the European powers to help isolate those charged of war crimes.
“In the case of Joseph Kony in Uganda, he is a militia leader surrounded by armed men. We need … the operational support of countries like the U.S., to the DRC, to Uganda, to the Central African Republic, to assist them in mounting an operation to arrest him. They have the will — so it’s a totally legitimate operation, politically, legally — but they need this kind of assistance. And the U.S. has to be the leader.”
She also rejected the criticism from some quarters, that the ICC devoted undue attention to alleged crimes in Africa.
“We feel that we are intervening when the victims need the court to do something for them. And we feel very comfortable about it. If tomorrow there are crimes committed again in Africa against victims, we will intervene again in Africa. No doubt about that, Kenya is probably … our next case. And all the Kenyans want (is for) us to come and help them to prevent violence … so we’re with them.”
With the addition of Bangladesh on March 23, 111 countries have ratified the Treaty of Rome that established the ICC.
Resolve Uganda: the bill’s next steps
From RESOLVE: UGANDA:
Two weeks ago, the United States Senate unanimously passed the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, following a successful activist campaign to overcome one Senator’s attempt to block it. TheAct passed with more bipartisan cosponsors than any Africa-focused legislation in at least three decades, showing the extraordinary results of nationwide lobbying efforts.
If this bill is signed into law, it will constitute the most significant action our leaders have taken to end LRA violence and restore lasting peace in the war’s 24-year history. But before the President can put pen to paper, the House of Representatives must follow the Senate. Getting past this final milestone is going to require one last concerted activist push to add cosponsors to the bill and shore up support from a handful of influential Members of Congress. And all of it has to happen in the next few weeks.
Here’s what you need to know.
First, there are a few key Representatives who lead the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and hold the power to determine the bill’s fate. Before the bill gets voted on by the full House of Representatives, it has to first pass out of committee. So while getting the bill through the House will not require attaining Unanimous Consent, as the Senate bill did, four leaders on the Foreign Affairs Committee nonetheless are able to decide whether or not the bill moves forward. They are Representatives Howard Berman (D-CA), Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs; Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Ranking Republican on the Committee on Foreign Affairs; Donald Payne (D-NJ), Chair of the Africa Subcommittee; and Chris Smith (R-NJ), Ranking Republican on the Africa Subcommittee.
Without all four of these Representatives in agreement about seeing this bill passed quickly, ensuing political battles could easily result in the bill’s death. Crucially, all four Representatives must also agree to pass identical text as the Senate, to avoid a lengthy process of reconciling the two versions of the bill that could endanger its final passage and would further delay action to stop ongoing LRA atrocities.
None of these four are yet cosponsors of the bill, but Representatives Berman (D-CA) and Payne (D-NJ) have both verbally confirmed that they support passing the Senate version of the bill as quickly as possible. Representatives Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Smith (R-NJ) have remained silent so far. That means that if you live near Miami or central New Jersey, your voice could make a critical difference in seeing the bill passed, and we invite you to join the Rep. Ros-Lehtinen call-in blitz or the Rep. Smith call-in blitz campaigns on Facebook today.
Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen and Congressman Smith both have longstanding records in support of ending conflict and defending human rights in Africa, so we are hopeful that as they determine their plans they will choose to support the bill’s immediate passage. Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen is an outspoken advocate for victims of violence in Darfur, where elements of the LRA recently made an incursion. Congressman Smith has a long history of advocating for an end to LRA atrocities, and even spoke at the first ever Lobby Days for Northern Uganda in 2006. But the time to influence their decisions on this legislation is now, as we expect the Committee to consider the bill in the next three weeks.
The second key to getting the bill through the House of Representatives is to simply add more cosponsors. So far, committed activists have attained 164 bipartisan cosponsors in the House, already an accomplishment of historic proportions. Adding more will only increase the pressure on leaders in the House of Representatives to pass the bill quickly and send a clear signal to President Obama about the urgent need for action. Our goal is to reach 218 cosponsors, or 51% of the House.
The best thing you can do to help reach this goal is to sign up now to join our final push for Hometown Shakedown meetings with your Representative in their local office. The Hometown Shakedown was launched November 18th of 2009, and since then more than a hundred meetings have taken place that have resulted in dozens of new cosponsors for the bill. Your Representatives will be home for the April recess until April 9th, which will be the final day of the campaign. So sign up now!
Or, if you are unable to attend or organize a personal meeting, click here to send your Representative an email, or here for instructions on making phone calls to their office.
This is it: the final push to see this bill passed. If we succeed, President Obama will have to become the first American President in the history of this war to speak publicly about how our country will help put an end to Joseph Kony’s campaign of senseless violence once and for all. We have come so far, so let’s get this done.
To sum up:
If you live near Miami, join the Rep. Ros-Lehtinen phone blitz, and if you live in central New Jersey, join the Rep. Smith phone blitz.
And if you live in the other 99% of our country, we need you to help reach 218 House cosponsors on the bill by doing what works best:
- Signing up to organize a Hometown Shakedown meeting;
- Sending an e-mail to your Representative; and
- Getting your friends together to make phone calls to your Representatives.
Enough: LRA thriving in eastern Congo
The LRA is stronger than we had thought, which is not good news. It tells us that the passage of the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act is that much more urgent.
From Enough:
A series of LRA attacks in the Dungu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo this month force us to question the view that the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army is struggling to survive. The apparent level of coordination of the attacks and the victims targeted – including high-ranking officers in the Congolese army – suggest that the LRA may include a larger number of fighters, operating more strategically than Congolese officials have indicated in interviews. These recent attacks also raise a harrowing question for civilians vulnerable to the rebels’ attacks: if the soldiers who are there to protect them are now the ones being targeted and killed, who is left to protect civilians?
Through multiple sources, we learned that about 19 people were killed in LRA attacks in Dungu from March 12 to 14. The LRA is known for its brutality toward civilians, but sources report that eight of the victims in these recent attacks were Congolese soldiers, suggesting a level of confidence on the part of LRA fighters that one would not expect from a militia rumored to be dying out. Moreover, the attacks reportedly took place in the towns of Duru, Bangadi, and Doruma during a short span of time, demonstrating that the group is able to carry out simultaneous, possibly coordinated attacks.
The first in this string of attacks in mid-March was an LRA ambush of Congolese troops in the village of Limbidia, which left two soldiers dead. On the same day, four civilians and two soldiers were killed in the village of Ndorenzi, and a battalion commander and his body guard were killed in Banangbala. On March 13, a family of five was abducted from the village of Nambia; three of the five were killed shortly after their abduction. The next day in the same village, two Congolese soldiers and one female civilian were killed by the LRA when the militia began looting. The attacks have continued in the same areas in Congo where Enough recently documented a series of LRA attacks and abuses by the Congolese army against civilians.
Just days before these attacks occurred in the Dungu region, the U.S. Senate passed a landmark bill that calls for the U.S. to devise a strategy for neutralizing the LRA. But the recent reports are a painful reminder that it will take some time for the legislation to have a positive impact for the villages in the path of the LRA. A first surmountable hurdle is for the House of Representatives to pass a companion LRA bill, which we hope will happen quickly, riding on the momentum of the Senate vote. Meanwhile, communities across eastern Congo, Central African Republic, and southern Sudan will continue to suffer.
Peace and Conflict Update
Recent reports confirm what has been suspected for a short while; Joseph Kony is now in Darfur. Having been pushed out of the Congo and Central African Republic (CAR), Kony is said to have traveled with a small faction of LRA rebels to Darfur. This of course would not be the first case in which the Khartoum regime assists the LRA. Currently, not much is known as to the movement of the LRA, but some fear that Bashir may use the LRA to destabilize the southern region ahead of 2011 elections. Meanwhile, the UN has begun talks with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to begin the withdrawal of their peacekeeping mission while they are experiencing a worsening humanitarian crisis.
Resolve Uganda and their supporters walked away victorious from what turned into an 11-day holdout outside the office of Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK). A compromise was reached early Wednesday morning – an amendment to the bill that specified funding come from existing state funds allocated for foreign aid. The LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009 passed unanimously through the Senate this past Thursday thanks to the concentrated efforts of hundreds of activists across the nation.
Foreign Policy: The LRA has entered Darfur
The LRA has entered Darfur, apparently with Sudanese President Bashir’s approval. This is is not good. Hopefully it will make the Obama administration take notice.
From Foreign Policy:
The Lord’s Resistance Army has come to Darfur, Sudan, and that is not good news for anyone. The Lord’s Resistance Army is a vicious militia led by self-proclaimed messiah Joseph Kony, and though he does not appear to be with the contingent that has moved into Darfur, Kony is widely and rightly regarded as one of the most heinous war criminals still on the loose in the entire world.
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has long operated as a hybrid between a cult and a rebel army. Kony and the LRA originally sprang up in northern Uganda and waged a brutal campaign trying to overthrow that country’s government. Millions of Ugandans fled the fighting, and the LRA engaged in virtually every depravity known in warfare. The LRA’s ranks have been swelled with kidnapped child soldiers, girls are regularly treated as sex slaves, and innocent civilians are maimed and killed in a fashion too brutal to describe. (more…)