Voices from the Ground Blog: Why President Obama sent US soldiers to hunt down LRA’s Leader
28 min readClarifying facts about US military advisers
You may have seen the recent media coverage of President Obama’s to send approximately 100 military personnel to LRA-affected to assist in regional efforts to address the LRA crisis. Resolve and other NGOs are supportive of this initiative as part of our efforts to expand President Obama’s implementation of his LRA strategy, which seeks to protect civilians from the LRA, apprehend senior LRA leaders, improve DDRRR efforts, and increase humanitarian aid to affected communities.
Some of the media coverage of the White House announcement has been misleading, giving the impression that these personnel will be directly participating in operations against the LRA. Please find below several clarifying facts about the advisers deployment, an joint NGO press release issue expressing support for the deployment, and the White House statement announcing the initiative.
Please feel free to contact me with any comments or questions.
Best,
Paul Ronan
Director of Advocacy, Resolve
+1 315.569.8051.
Clarifying facts about US military advisers
The advisers will assist regional military forces, not directly participate in operations: These advisers will be deployed to Uganda, as well as areas of Congo, CAR, and South Sudan affected by LRA violence to assist and advise regional military forces, primarily the Ugandan military (UPDF). However, they will not be participating directly in operations against the LRA. They are combat-equipped, but will only use their weapons in self-defense.
Advisers will be tasked with improving regional efforts to protect civilians and encourage LRA defections, as well as apprehend senior LRA commanders: The Obama Administration has been very clear that these advisers will not be solely focused on offensive operations to apprehend senior LRA commanders. They will also seek to improve regional coordination to protect civilians and encourage LRA fighters and commanders to defect peacefully. They are very aware of the lessons learned from Operation Lightning Thunder and the Christmas Massacres. However, continued advocacy with the Obama Administration will be crucial to reinforce the importance of civilian protection and defections in the coming months.
The US military advisers will have a mandate to meet with civilians as well as military forces: The US military advisers deployed to the field will be working primarily with regional military forces. However, US officials have informed us that they will also be seeking to build relationships with civilians and civil society in LRA-affected areas to gain a more complete understanding of civilian protection challenges. They will also seek to monitor the human rights behavior of military forces in the field.
JOINT NGO PRESS RELEASE
October 14, 2011
Resolve, Enough Project, Invisible Children, and the Voice Project
Contact:
Resolve: Paul Ronan, paul@theresolve.org, 315.569.8051.
Human Rights NGOs welcome White House decision to deploy US military advisers to LRA-affected areas
A coalition of human rights and anti-genocide NGOs welcomed the announcement today by the White House that the United States will be deploying military advisers to areas of central Africa decimated by Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) violence. The White House announced that the advisers will seek to assist ongoing regional efforts to protect civilians from rebel atrocities and to apprehend Joseph Kony and senior LRA commanders.
“By deploying these advisers, President Obama is showing decisive leadership to help regional governments finally bring an end to the LRA’s mass atrocities,” said Paul Ronan, Director of Advocacy at Resolve. “These advisers can make a positive difference on the ground by keeping civilians safe and improving military operations to apprehend the LRA’s top commanders.”
In a special briefing hosted today, White House officials emphasized that the deployment of advisers was part of broader efforts being led by the State Department to implement President Obama’s comprehensive strategy to help mitigate and eliminate the threat posed by the LRA to civilians and regional stability. President Obama released the strategy in response to bipartisan legislation that passed last year with historic levels of support from Congress and the American public.
“The deployment of these advisers demonstrates that President Obama is on the right track, and that he’s taking seriously the calls from hundreds of thousands of young Americans that want to see an end to the senseless LRA violence once and for all,” said Ben Keesey, Executive Director of Invisible Children.
The advisers will work with the regional militaries that are pursuing the LRA, which is currently operating in the tri-border region between Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, and newly independent South Sudan. To date, regional military operations have been hampered by logistical shortcomings, lack of intelligence on where LRA commanders are operating, poor coordination between military forces, and lack of a targeted apprehension strategy. The Ugandan army, the most capable force in the coalition, has also withdrawn significant numbers of troops from LRA-affected areas recently.
The advisers can play a crucial role in helping regional militaries overcome these challenges as well as monitoring their human rights behavior and helping them improve relations with local communities. Embedded with the regional armies and deployed in key LRA-affected areas, the military advisers should be tasked with improving U.S. oversight of mission planning and execution and assisting in planning and coordinating effective strategies to protect civilians, apprehend senior LRA commanders, and encourage defections from the rebel group.
“If part of a larger multinational strategy, the deployment of U.S. advisers can help play a catalytic role,” said John Prendergast, Co-Founder of the Enough Project. “Missing elements include more capable forces dedicated to the apprehension of Joseph Kony and protection of civilians, and an intelligence and logistics surge from the U.S. to help those forces succeed.”
“It’s also critical that the deployment of U.S. advisers be matched by intensified U.S. diplomatic efforts to get regional governments, especially Congo and Uganda, to quit squabbling and start cooperating,” added Ronan. “Civilians have suffered from LRA atrocities for too long while regional governments have dragged their feet.”
White House officials also emphasized that improving protection of civilians and encouraging LRA fighters to defect, two of the four strategic objectives of President Obama’s LRA strategy, will be keystones of the advisers’ portfolio. The Administration has also announced plans to boost civilian early-warning systems by expanding mobile phone and radio networks in LRA affected areas.
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TEXT OF THE LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THE PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE OF THE SENATE
October 14, 2011
Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)
For more than two decades, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has murdered, raped, and kidnapped tens of thousands of men, women, and children in central Africa. The LRA continues to commit atrocities across the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and South Sudan that have a disproportionate impact on regional security. Since 2008, the United States has supported regional military efforts to pursue the LRA and protect local communities.
Even with some limited U.S. assistance, however, regional military efforts have thus far been unsuccessful in removing LRA leader Joseph Kony or his top commanders from the battlefield. In the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009, Public Law 111-172, enacted May 24, 2010, the Congress also expressed support for increased, comprehensive U.S. efforts to help mitigate and eliminate the threat posed by the LRA to civilians and regional stability.
In furtherance of the Congress’s stated policy, I have authorized a small number of combat-equipped U.S. forces to deploy to central Africa to provide assistance to regional forces that are working toward the removal of Joseph Kony from the battlefield. I believe that deploying these U.S. Armed Forces furthers U.S. national security interests and foreign policy and will be a significant contribution toward counter-LRA efforts in central Africa.
On October 12, the initial team of U.S. military personnel with appropriate combat equipment deployed to Uganda. During the next month, additional forces will deploy, including a second combat-equipped team and associated headquarters, communications, and logistics personnel. The total number of U.S. military personnel deploying for this mission is approximately 100.
These forces will act as advisors to partner forces that have the goal of removing from the battlefield Joseph Kony and other senior leadership of the LRA. Our forces will provide information, advice, and assistance to select partner nation forces. Subject to the approval of each respective host nation, elements of these U.S. forces will deploy into Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The support provided by U.S. forces will enhance regional efforts against the LRA. However, although the U.S. forces are combat-equipped, they will only be providing information, advice, and assistance to partner nation forces, and they will not themselves engage LRA forces unless necessary for self-defense. All appropriate precautions have been taken to ensure the safety of U.S. military personnel during their deployment.
I have directed this deployment, which is in the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States, pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct U.S. foreign relations and as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive. I am making this report as part of my efforts to keep the Congress fully informed, consistent with the War Powers Resolution (Public Law 93-148). I appreciate the support of the Congress in this action.
Sincerely,
BARACK OBAMA
# # #
Guest Blog: New Report on memorialization in Northern Uganda
April 5, 2011 by admin
“WE CAN’T BE SURE WHO KILLED US: JRP/ICTJ RELEASES A NEW REPORT ON MEMORIALIZATION IN NORTHERN UGANDA”
By Lindsay McClain
It was the Rwot Moo [the anointed, hereditary clan chief] who first thought about organizing this memorial service. He was of the view that after we lost very many people in Atiak, something should be done in their memory. He also thought that since children of many tribes were killed in the massacre, this could make them annoyed with the people of Atiak… That is the reason that we invite all these people who lost their children in the massacre, so that they are able to learn exactly what happened and know that it was not in our wish that these things happened…
-Male survivor explaining why Atiak holds a memorial service for the 1995 massacre
On March 4th, the Justice and Reconciliation Project (JRP), in partnership with the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), launched a new report on memory and memorialization in northern Uganda in an effort to share how memorials impact communities who suffered during conflict. Memorialization is an important factor in efforts to rebuild communities and provide reparation and remedy for gross violations of human rights.
The report, titled “We Can’t Be Sure Who Killed Us: Memory and Memorialization in Post-Conflict Northern Uganda,” examines the role memorialization has played in northern Uganda’s transitional justice (TJ) process. (more…)
An open letter from Bishop Eduardo
February 8, 2011 by admin
Last year I arrived in the town of Yambio, the capital of the South Sudan state of Western Equatoria, to look at the impact of LRA attacks in the region. One of the first people I met was Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussula, who not only took the time to talk with me about the conflict but also helped me travel to visit refugees and displaced persons in the far-flung villages and camps away from the capital. I have tremendous respect for Bishop Eduardo and his commitmen
I couldn’t agree more with his conclusion that, “It will be completely absurd and shameful for the Newly Independent South Sudan to have its first noble duty to begin fighting the LRA out of the Southern Sudan instead of reorganizing itself with first thing first – which is peace for its war traumatized citizens.
We have suffered so much from a war that is not our own and have often felt forgotten and ignored by our own governments and by the international community. The U.S. new strategy or similar tends to give us hope. I implore you to implement it and to begin those efforts today.”
Find his entire letter below.
— Paul
OPEN LETTER TO WHOM THE DESTRUCTION OF HUMAN LIFE MATTERS
LRA ATROCITIES MAY COMPROMISE PEACE IN THE NEW BORN NATION OF SOUTHERN SUDAN
Dear Sir/Madam,
Ref. APPEAL FOR PEACE IN THE LRA DEVASTED AREA OF WESTERN EQUATORIA, S. SUDAN
This is a critical and historic moment for Sudan. The decades’ old project of building the national identity of the Sudanese people is now facing the possibility of the re-construction of the country, including its geography. After a long history of suffering finally the people of South Sudan are in the process of achieving their self-determination. The run up to the referendum was tense with the possibility of eruption of violence which lead to really war. The hand of God Almighty has been with us and has granted us a peaceful referendum. We who live in Western Equatoria State where the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has been very active and destructive were never sure we would be able to contact the referendum in peace.
As a matter of fact, the preparation for democratic right of self-determination was a project, which many useful hands were
required. Because, we know, that this project for life was heavily paid for through atrocities, loss of life, discrimination and the waste of generations of potential by successive regimes since independence.
The situation of the LRA has not improved since before, during and after the referendum. Last month we lost a religious Nun into the hands of LRA in northern Congo on 17th January, from 22nd to 25th December over 17 people have been abducted in Maridi and Ibba counties, as well as around Yambio county respectively, with nine dead and seven wounded in the same counties. From 13th to 18th January to 07th February there has been sporadic appearance and killings, abduction, wounding and displacement of the people in Western Equatoria by the LRA. Our worries continue to increase as the rain season is getting closer and people are preparing to cultivate their fields this year.
Honestly for us in the Southern Sudan, we are committed to take this historic momentum of self-determination as an opportunity to learn from the devastating mistakes made by Northern governments as well as the LRA. We hope, as we have opted for independence, that we will need to choose democracy over repression, embrace diversity over division,
defend human rights and justice over abuses, empower transparency and accountability over corruption and nepotism, and promote equality between men and women over discrimination. Above all choose Peace over War.
As one of the representatives of civil society, human right religious groups in the LRA-affected areas of, southern Sudan, I am writing to ask you to urgently implement the new strategy that the US government released last year 2010 on tackling the problem of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). It seems without implementation of the strategy, the words on paper are remaining meaningless and many of us, who live with the daily threat of the LRA, will continue to suffer.
Each day that goes by without a solution to the problem of the LRA is another day of terror and pain for those of us living under constant threat of renewed attacks. Already, the LRA has brutally killed more than 2,700 of our family members and abducted over 3,500 others since they began their latest wave of killings in September 2008. Many of our children are still in the hands of the LRA. We do not know if they are alive or dead. Those who have managed to escape the LRA bear the physical and mental scars of what they have suffered and will never be the same again. We have few means to help them re-adjust and integrate back into our communities, but we are trying to do what we can.
With over 500,000 people displaced from their homes, our lives are not easy. We no longer have access to our fields, our schools are not functioning, and we struggle to fight off diseases and to find enough food to feed our families.
In this period as we move closer to the rain season, we are particularly afraid of more attacks by the LRA. We remember the Christmas massacres of 2008, and when the LRA killed at least 865 civilians during the Christmas period, and the Makombo massacre of December 2009, when 345 civilians were killed and also in similar manner, on 14th of August 2009 in one of my parishes of Ezo was attacked and more 26 faithful were killed and more than 30 were abducted. At this time of the year, when we should be preparing for the historical Southern Sudan independence, we instead mourn our loved ones and we live each day in fear of more LRA attacks.
My dear people of God, I personally, fully agree with the American Government’s strategy’s overall goal for the people of central Africa to be “free from the threat of LRA violence and have the freedom to pursue their livelihoods.” I also welcome the strategy’s four strategic objectives to: a) increase protection of civilians; b) apprehend or remove from the battlefield Joseph Kony and senior commanders; c) promote the defection, disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of remaining LRA fighters; and d) increase humanitarian access and provide continued relief to affected communities. But I
also add the strategy of Peace negotiation initiative as a genuine option.
Please, do not delay a day longer in implementing this strategy. I implore you to find the financial resources and the political will to turn the goals and objectives of this strategy into reality. For us, this is a matter of life and death.
In particular, I urge you to prioritize the protection of our communities at risk of continued LRA attacks. While the presence of UN peacekeepers has given some help, it has been not nearly enough. For example, in northern Congo’s Haut Uele District, MONUSCO peacekeepers provide some protection in certain communities, but there are currently no peacekeepers in Southern Sudan, Western EQUATORIA State and northern Congo’s Bas Uele District (Congo), one of the areas worst
affected by LRA attacks. Where peacekeepers are deployed, they rarely leave their bases and have sometimes proven unable – or unwilling – to prevent or respond to LRA attacks less than a kilometre from their bases. Painfully, the UNIMIS in the Sudan do not have chapter seven, (I have no justification of this point) which can enable them to protect the civilian, as such the local population has no faith in them at all.
I would appreciate your recognition of a lack of communications infrastructure and good roads has made it difficult for us to report on attacks in a timely way or send out calls for help. I am glad that support in this area has been identified as a priority action the US Government’s strategy. I hope this will include urgent efforts to expand cell phone coverage in the LRA affected areas, to implement early warning systems though HF radios, and to rehabilitate key roads and airstrips.
All I am quite convinced of is that the LRA problem in our communities will not be resolved until Joseph Kony and the other senior leaders are made to leave the forest and come home. As long as the LRA’s top leaders evade capture, I fear they will only continue to abduct our children, who in turn will be trained to replace any lower and mid-level combatants who escape, defect, or are killed.
Efforts to pursue the LRA have relied on our own national armies, but to date this has not worked. The leaders of the LRA remain at large. I urge you to pursue other options and to look for support beyond our borders. I hope you will work together to take this idea forward.
I recommend that the apprehension of senior LRA leaders, through a professional law enforcement operation, taking all necessary steps to minimize harm to civilians, be a vital component of any comprehensive strategy to end the LRA threat. The UN has repeatedly confirmed its commitment to ending impunity and holding to account individuals responsible for serious violations of international law. Supporting apprehension of individuals wanted on existing arrest warrants is therefore within the mandate of the Secretary General and the UN.
The US strategy is a welcome first step in recognizing that the apprehension of LRA leaders is necessary, but that strategy fails to describe how such a force would be operationalized.
The Secretary General can play a key role in facilitating the arrest of senior LRA commanders as part of a broader strategy to address the crisis by:
- Encouraging member states to put together a law enforcement operation capable of apprehending LRA leaders and holding them to account for the crimes committed and to do so in coordination with the governments of countries affected by the LRA.
- Encouraging the Security Council to work with the African Union to, if necessary, provide a multilateral mandate for an emergency multinational force to apprehend senior LRA commanders and protect civilians.
In summary I recommend these as possible way to immediate remedy to the atrocities of the LRA on us:
- Expand the U.S. Engagement and other International bodies: By dedicating a significant new staff and resources. Work also with regional and international partners. Special pressure by the International community should be put on the four regional governments in the areas affected by the LRA to bring quick mutual solution to the LRA crisis.
- The LRA may be the immediate difficulty to pose to the new expectant Southern Sudan, so it is very encumbered that solution should be found before July 9th 2011.
- Peace Negotiation: Offer chance for peace talk between the LRA and Ugandan Rebels. Find corridors to Kony to initiate some sort of dialogue with him in search for peace. Military option alone cannot solve the problem anyhow.
- Protect Civilians: By massively expand radio and mobile phone networks. Improve the effectiveness of national militaries, Community Vigilantes (arrow boys) and raising UNNIMIS chapter to seven. Also ensure that local voices are heard.
- Stop Senior LRA Commanders: Apprehend Joseph Kony and top LRA Commanders. Encourage LRA commanders to defect. Very rigorously cut off external support to the LRA.
- Facilitate Escape: Help people escape from the LRA. Also ensure those who escape can return home.
- Help Communities survive and rebuild: By finding a way to reach people in need of emergency aid, increase aid to disrupted communities. Address the conflict’s root causes.
It will be completely absurd and shameful for the Newly Independent South Sudan to have its first noble duty to begin fighting the LRA out of the Southern Sudan instead of reorganizing itself with first thing first – which is peace for its war traumatized citizens.
We have suffered so much from a war that is not our own and have often felt forgotten and ignored by our own governments and by the international community. The U.S. new strategy or similar tends to give us hope. I implore you to implement it and to begin those efforts today.
Please continue to pray for true peace in the Sudan!
Yours sincerely,
Barani Eduardo Hiiboro KUSSALA
Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio,
Southern Sudan
Congolese clergy: “We cannot keep silent”
January 28, 2011 by admin
Last February I spent a morning having tea with Fr. Benoit Kinalegu, a Congolese priest living in Dungu, a small town at the heart of LRA-affected areas in northern Congo. Fr. Kinalegu has led efforts by the local Catholic Church to document LRA violence in the region and is an outspoken peace advocate (check out this recent piece by the Pulitzer Center). As I sipped tea and took notes, Fr. Benoit talked about the frustration felt by the local community, whose efforts to rebuild after Congo’s own civil war had been severely disrupted by the LRA, as well as his own travels to many of the outlying towns that had suffered from rebel attacks. 
Earlier this week I received an email from Fr. Kinalegu containing a statement about continued insecurity in the region and recommendations for international action to help stop LRA violence, issued by the local clergy of the Dungu-Doruma Catholic diocese. They lost one of their own this month, when unknown gunmen (potentially LRA, but as yet unverified) attacked a humanitarian convoy, killing Sister Jeanne Yengane. Sister Yengane was a local health worker on a trip to provide care to communities in remote areas.
Fr. Kinalegu wrote to us about the church’s investigation into the killing. He noted that LRA atrocities in northern Congo have increased significantly over the past few weeks amidst rumors that LRA leader Joseph Kony has crossed from Central African Republic back into northeastern Congo. Our team has been hearing these reports as well.
Fr. Benoit joined all the clergy of the diocese in issuing a statement (full-length French version here) about the urgency of ending the violence. Some selections are below, roughly translated:
We, the clergy (priests, nuns and religious) of the Diocese of Dungu-Doruma, led by our pastor, are meeting this Saturday 22/01/2011 in the precincts of the Cathedral Parish rectory of Holy Martyrs of Uganda Dungu-Uye, to move to scrutinize the various events that have tormented our people and ourselves (such as LRA incursions, assassinations, abductions, and mutilations), peaking on this day with the murder of the late Reverend Sister Jeanne YENGANE, an optometrist doctor. Peace to her soul! Enough is enough![…]
For the love of our people we can not keep silent against the trivialization of facts (namely, the presence of LRA rebels and their attacks) by the central government through its statements that… those who sow death are “local bandits” or local LRA sympathizers.[…]
We are convinced that the international community knows where LRA leader Joseph Kony is located, and has the efficient, modern and sophisticated means to be able to capture him and put him out of harm’s way, so that he will be brought to justice and stop making our district a theater of historic levels of atrocities. […]
The statement from local clergy also made recommendations, including a call to strengthen the capacity of the Congolese military to protect communities there from LRA attacks, a commission to investigate Sr. Yengane’s death, and accountability for all those who are responsible for perpetrating atrocities in the region.
— Paul
Obama’s LRA To-Do List Item Three: Seek Viable Alternatives to the Ugandan Military in Apprehending Senior LRA Commanders
January 11, 2011 by admin
President Obama’s strategy to help stop violence perpetrated by the LRA provides a broad blueprint for action. For that blueprint to become a legitimate path to peace, the administration must take immediate steps to put it into action. We’re partnering with our friends at the Enough Project to outline six steps the Administration should take to kick-start implementation of the strategy (read our posts on step #1 and #2). Ultimately, the success of the strategy will be judged by whether it actually keeps people in central Africa safe from LRA attacks, but by taking these six steps President Obama can demonstrate he’s serious about achieving that goal.
Item 3: Seek viable alternatives to the Ugandan military in apprehending senior LRA commanders
Joseph Kony and other senior LRA commanders are the cornerstones of the LRA’s structure and its ability to conduct widespread attacks across central Africa. Apprehending this top echelon of commanders would cripple the rebel group’s 
ability to carry out its campaign of violence and be a step towards justice for the hundreds of thousands of victims and survivors of LRA atrocities. Apprehending these commanders could also support broader efforts to protect civilians from further attacks and help give abducted children and adults a chance to escape and return to their homes.
President Obama recognizes the importance of apprehending LRA commanders, making it one of the four Strategic Objectives of the LRA strategy he released in November 2010. However, his strategy relies on continued support to the Ugandan military to accomplish the task, raising serious concerns about his willingness to do what’s really necessary to stop Kony and top LRA commanders.
The Ugandan military, supported by the US, has been pursuing LRA commanders in Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan for more than 25 months with limited success. They have captured or killed several senior LRA commanders and protected some towns from LRA raids, but have been unable to protect civilians from a wave of reprisal attacks that have killed more than 2,300 civilians and displaced 400,000 more. Uganda’s military is also increasingly preoccupied with other priorities at home and in Somalia. Continued human rights abuses by Ugandan military and security forces within Uganda raise further concerns for continued US support.
Though support to the Ugandan military may be the most effective strategy to apprehend senior commanders in the short term, President Obama’s leadership is urgently needed to find viable alternatives. He should work with international and regional partners, including the United Nations Security Council and the African Union, to seek a multilateral mandate and more effective forces to apprehend LRA commanders and protect civilians.
Additionally, President Obama should reinvigorate regional efforts to encourage mid-level and senior LRA commanders to defect from the LRA. The US should also pressure the Ugandan government to ensure more rapid progress on rebuilding northern Uganda as research indicates that opportunities for work will encourage LRA commanders to leave the rebel group. Finally, the Ugandan government should establish clear legal guidelines and precedent for receiving LRA commanders who defect as this is key to convincing LRA commanders still in the bush to lay down their arms.
By taking these actions, President Obama can help move his strategy from a piece of paper to proactive action on the ground to prevent LRA commanders from holding hundreds of thousands of people across central Africa hostage.
A Letter to the President: 34 central Africa civil society groups write to Obama
January 7, 2011 by admin
We received a copy of this letter a few days before Christmas and wanted to share it. The letter was sent to President Obama from 34 civil society, human rights, and religious groups in northern Congo, Central African Republic, and Southern Sudan, calling for urgent implementation of the new strategy released by the US government last month on tackling the problem of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The letter is a powerful explanation of the current situation in these countries. I was especially struck by the groups description of how the LRA violence affects their communities:
“Each day that goes by without a solution to the problem of the LRA is another day of terror and pain for those of us living under constant threat of renewed attacks. Already, the LRA has brutally killed more than 2,300 of our family members and abducted over 3,000 others since they began their latest wave of killings in September 2008. Many of our children are still in the hands of the LRA. We do not know if they are alive or dead. Those who have managed to escape the LRA bear the physical and mental scars of what they have suffered and will never be the same again. We have few means to help them re-adjust and integrate back into our communities, but we are trying to do what we can.
With over 400,000 people displaced from their homes, our lives are not easy. We no longer have access to our fields, our schools are not functioning, and we struggle to fight off diseases and to find enough food to feed our families.”
I was also struck their call for President Obama to take action, writing “Please, do not delay a day longer in implementing this strategy. We implore you to find the financial resources and the political will to turn the goals and objectives of this strategy into reality. For us, this is a matter of life and death.”
While we are thankful there were fewer reports of LRA violence this Christmas season than in 2008 and 2009, there were still reports of killings and abductions by the LRA in northern Congo, South Sudan and eastern CAR. We hope that this letter will encourage President Obama and the other leaders copied to respond to this call for action and work quickly to establish peace.
— Paul
December 21, 2010
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
CC:
H.E. Joseph Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of Congo
H.E. François Bozize, President of the Central African Republic
H.E. Omar al-Bashir, President of Sudan
H.E. Salva Kiir, President of the Government of Southern Sudan
Urgent appeal from central African civil society on ending the menace of the Lord’s Resistance Army
Your Excellency:
As the representatives of 34 civil society, human rights, and religious groups in the LRA-affected areas of northern Congo, Central African Republic, and Southern Sudan, we are writing to ask you to urgently implement the new strategy that the US government released last month on tackling the problem of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Without implementation of the strategy, the words on paper will remain meaningless and many of us, who live with the daily threat of the LRA, will continue to suffer.
Each day that goes by without a solution to the problem of the LRA is another day of terror and pain for those of us living under constant threat of renewed attacks. Already, the LRA has brutally killed more than 2,300 of our family members and abducted over 3,000 others since they began their latest wave of killings in September 2008. Many of our children are still in the hands of the LRA. We do not know if they are alive or dead. Those who have managed to escape the LRA bear the physical and mental scars of what they have suffered and will never be the same again. We have few means to help them re-adjust and integrate back into our communities, but we are trying to do what we can.
With over 400,000 people displaced from their homes, our lives are not easy. We no longer have access to our fields, our schools are not functioning, and we struggle to fight off diseases and to find enough food to feed our families.
In this month of December, we are particularly afraid of more attacks by the LRA. We remember the Christmas massacres of 2008, when the LRA killed at least 865 civilians during the Christmas period, and the Makombo massacre of December 2009, when 345 civilians were killed. During these attacks, our family members were killed in unimaginably savage ways: their heads crushed with clubs or machetes; their faces disfigured; and their genitals, mouths, ears, legs and arms cut off, for no reason other than to terrorize. At this time of the year, when we should be celebrating Christmas, we instead mourn our loved ones and we live each day in fear of more LRA attacks.
Your excellency, we fully agree with the strategy’s overall goal for the people of central Africa to be “free from the threat of LRA violence and have the freedom to pursue their livelihoods.” We also welcome the strategy’s four strategic objectives to: a) increase protection of civilians; b) apprehend or remove from the battlefield Joseph Kony and senior commanders; c) promote the defection, disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of remaining LRA fighters; and d) increase humanitarian access and provide continued relief to affected communities.
We also appreciate the commitment in the strategy to transitional justice and rebuilding of war-affected communities in Uganda. In northern Uganda, communities are still struggling to overcome the legacy of the war, in which tens of thousands of people were abducted by the LRA and more than 1.6 million displaced during the conflict.
We appreciate your recognition that a combination of both military and non-military components are required and that resolving the LRA problem will require coordination and participation from a wide array of regional, multilateral, and international partners.
Please, do not delay a day longer in implementing this strategy. We implore you to find the financial resources and the political will to turn the goals and objectives of this strategy into reality. For us, this is a matter of life and death.
In particular, we urge you to prioritize the protection of our communities at risk of continued LRA attacks. While the presence of UN peacekeepers has given some help, it has been not nearly enough. For example, in northern Congo’s Haut Uele District, MONUSCO peacekeepers provide some protection in certain communities, but there are currently no peacekeepers in northern Congo’s Bas Uele District (Congo), one of the areas worst affected by LRA attacks. Where peacekeepers are deployed, they rarely leave their bases and have sometimes proven unable – or unwilling – to prevent or respond to LRA attacks less than a kilometer from their bases. This was the case in both Ngilima and Duru, two towns with a MONUSCO presence that have suffered numerous attacks in recent months. The UN missions in CAR (MINURCAT and BINUCA) and Sudan (UNMIS/UNAMID) are also not focused on the LRA problem, and have few or no peacekeepers deployed in LRA-affected areas.
We appreciate your recognition that a lack of communications infrastructure and good roads has made it difficult for us to report on attacks in a timely way or send out calls for help. We are glad that support in this area has been identified as a priority action in your strategy. We hope this will include urgent efforts to expand cell phone coverage in the LRA affected areas, to implement early warning systems through HF radios, and to rehabilitate key roads and airstrips.
We fully agree that the LRA problem in our communities will not be resolved until Joseph Kony and the other senior leaders are captured and brought to justice. As long as the LRA’s top leaders evade capture, we fear they will only continue to abduct our children, who in turn will be trained to replace any lower and mid-level combatants who escape, defect, or are killed.
Efforts to pursue the LRA have relied on our own national armies, but to date this has not attained the expected objectives. The LRA rebels continue to carry out killings and other abuses against civilians and this rebellion has still not been eradicated. The leaders of the LRA are still on the run and have intensified their modus operandi. We invite you to consider other options, such as a significant reinforcement of our respective armies’ operational capacity (logistically) and support by an army from a country with experience of this type of guerrilla warfare, with the principal objective being the capture of Joseph Kony and his remaining henchmen to be brought to international justice. We hope that you will work together to advance this idea.
We also ask that international sanctions be imposed on any government or person identified as supporting the LRA.
We have suffered so much from a war that is not our own and have often felt forgotten and ignored by our own governments and by the international community. This new strategy has given us hope. We implore you to implement it and to begin those efforts today.
Yours sincerely,
Representatives of the following 34 civil society, human rights, and religious groups in the LRA-affected areas of northern Congo, Central African Republic, and Southern
Sudan:
Organizations from northern Congo:
1. Action pour le développement et le Bien-être social (ADEBES), Faradje
2. AOG, Niangara
3. Association ASSAHU, Niangara
4. Association des Déplacés, Niangara
5. Association des Pécheurs, Niangara
6. Association Féminines pour la Promotion de Femmes d’Ango
7. CDJP, Haut Uélé
8. Centre d’Accompagnement des Femmes et Enfants Vulnérables (CAFEV), Dungu
9. COMICO, Niangara
10. Commission Justice et Paix, Haut Uélé
11. Conscience, Dungu
12. Croix Rouge, Niangara
13. FEC, Niangara
14. FEPACO, Niangara
15. L’église Catholique, Niangara
16. L’église CECA 20, Niangara
17. L’Église CECA 16, Niangara
18. L’église Kimbanguiste, Niangara
19. La Coordination de la Société Civile du Territoire du Dungu
20. Paix et Droit de l’Homme Aujourd’hui (PDHA), Haut Uélé
21. REGED, Niangara
22. Réseau de Défense de Droits Humains à Niangara
23. Société Civile d’Ango
24. Société Civile de Niangara
25. SODENIA, Niangara
26. Union des Déplaces d’Ango
27. VTO, Niangara
Organizations from Central African Republic:
1. La Coalition Centrafricaine pour la CPI
2. Le Réseau des ONGs des Droits de l’Homme en Centrafrique
3. Vitalité Plus
Religious Representatives from Southern Sudan:
1. Rt. Rev. Peter Munde Yacoub, ECS Bishop of Yambio Diocese
2. Rt. Rev. Wilson E. Kamani, ECS Bishop of Ibba Diocese
3. Rt. Rev. Bismark M. Avokaya, ECS Bishop of Mundri Diocese
4. Rt. Rev. Samuel Enosa Peni, ECS Bishop of Nzara Diocese
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