CONGO SIASA - US should not repeat Ugandan failures against the LRA

This blog Congo Siasa, by author Jason Stearns, does a really good job of keeping up with what's going on in Congo... Part of the post is below, the rest you can find on his site, the link is here for you as well.

http://congosiasa.blogspot.com/2011/10/guest-blog-us-should-not-repeat-ugandan.html

This guest blog was written by Ledio Cakaj. He has worked almost exclusively on the LRA conflict for the last three years as a consultant with various organizations. Most recently he was part of an international group of experts looking into possible ways to deal with the LRA. 

On 14 October 2011, President Obama announced in a letter to Congress his decision to deploy “a small number of combat-equipped U.S. forces … to central Africa to provide assistance to regional forces that are working toward the removal of Joseph Kony from the battlefield.”

Kony is the founder and leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan rebel group which for more than two decades waged civil conflict in Northern Uganda before moving to bases in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2006. Since the end of 2008 the Ugandan army with significant US support, has hunted the highly mobile LRA in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic (CAR) and South Sudan. The aid from the US over the last three years includes logistics and intelligence to the Ugandans to the tune of about $40 million.

US troop deployment to central Africa is part of a larger US strategy to deal with the LRA that was unveiled on 24 November 2010. Obama’s recent announcement and the related media fanfare just shy of the strategy’s one-year anniversary are somewhat anachronistic, given that the current campaign against the LRA has largely stalled. Total numbers of armed LRA combatants today are virtually unchanged compared to last November – at about 350 – and the leadership of the rebel group remains intact.

In the meantime LRA groups have conducted numerous accounts in all three countries. Since December 2008, the LRA has purportedly killed over 3,000 people and caused the displacement of 440,000. The majority of killings and displacements have taken place in DRC.

Friction between the pursuing Ugandan troops and the regional armies, particularly the Congolese (FARDC), is one of many reasons for the shortcomings of the current efforts. Despite public pronouncements from Kampala and Kinshasa hailing the Ugandan-Congolese cooperation, the situation on the ground is dire. A recent Ugandan army internal report stated that FARDC troops have openly threatened to shoot Ugandan soldiers in DRC while a Congolese army officer told a journalist that the Ugandans were intent on looting Congolese resources. Ugandan officials accuse some FARDC commanders originating from  the Kivus of being pro-Rwanda and anti-Uganda. The history of the Ugandan-Rwandese conflict played out in Congolese territory in the late 1990s and early 2000s and the abuses by both sides are firmly rooted at the heart of the current hostilities.

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The rest of the post can be found here:  http://congosiasa.blogspot.com/2011/10/guest-blog-us-should-not-repeat-ugandan.html

Joseph Kony and The Lord's Resistance Army

The fight against a man and his army, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)... People who have terrorized Northern Uganda, DR Congo, CAR and Southern Sudan - for decades.

So, what or who is the LRA? Below are some articles which I've taken some sections from... The original articles are referenced in each section, and at the end of this post.

What is the Lord's Resistance Army? 

October 14th, 2011

The Lord's Resistance Army, formed in the late 1980s, is a sectarian military and religious group that operates in northern Uganda and South Sudan. It has committed numerous abuses and atrocities such as abducting, raping, maiming and killing civilians, including women and children, according toglobalsecurity.org. Its members are known for hacking off the lips and ears of their victims, looting villages and burning huts, and stealing clothes and medicine from the communities they terrorize, CNN has reported.

On Friday, President Barack Obama announced that he is sending about 100 U.S. troops to Africa to help hunt down the group's leaders.

The Lord's Resistance Army has sought to overthrow the Ugandan government and has contributed to instability across the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan.

It is led by Joseph Kony, who professes to have spiritual powers. He is often "underrated" as a leader, according to a 2011 Jane's report on the group. Kony has claimed to be possessed by spirits who dictate the group's strategy. Jane's notes that the tactic has served him well, enabling him to speak to followers who have mixed beliefs. By portraying himself as a medium with supernatural abilities, his authority becomes harder to question within the ranks.

U.S. military personnel will advise regional forces working to target Kony and other senior leaders. The president said the troops will not engage Kony's forces "unless necessary for self-defense."

The Lord's Resistance Army is sophisticated and less like the ragtag group of fighters it is sometimes portrayed as, Jane's says. It has benefited from the military experience of former Ugandan military officers and years of combat in Sudan.

International aid convoys and non-government organizations operating in the region have been threatened by the Lord's Resistance Army, according to numerous reports. Human Rights Watch, in a letter released in May, urged the U.S. government to step up its effort to protect people from the group.

Obama orders U.S. troops to help chase down African 'army' leader

Joe Sterling, CNN

updated 7:22 AM EST, Tue October 18, 2011

"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," Obama said in letter sent Friday to House Speaker John Boehner and Daniel Inouye, the president pro tempore of the Senate. Kony is the head of the Lord's Resistance Army.

U.S. military personnel advising regional forces working to target Kony and other senior leaders will not engage Kony's forces "unless necessary for self-defense," Obama said.

Fighting a Terror Kingpin in Africa 

October 17th, 2011

By Daniel R. DePetris - Special to CNN

The mission?  To provide assistance to the region’s governments in their fight against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a notorious and inhumane insurgent group that has been terrorizing the region since its creation in 1987.  While an overt generalization, the group could perhaps be described as a small-time Christian version of Al’Qaeda led by Joseph Kony—a cult-like figure as equally delusional as the former AQ emir Osama bin-Laden.

This comparison may seem farfetched to some.  But to innocent Africans in the Sub-Sahara who have experienced the sharp edge of the LRA, it is a perfectly suitable parallel.  Much like the late bin Laden, Joseph Kony claims to speak to his subjects on the behalf of God.  Kony’s LRA group has no qualms about targeting civilians, whether it includes killing a bystander during an operation against the Ugandan Government or deliberately kidnapping a small child from his family—only to drug and brainwash him to join their cause.

Tens of thousands of men, women, and children have been murdered as a result of LRA rampages, which often include the razing of entire villages and the kidnapping of young girls and boys to refurbish its rank-and-file.  It is not uncommon for the girls who are abducted to be converted into sex slaves or forced into marriages with LRA fighters.  The boys who are snatched up have two choices, which are not really choices at all.  Either they fight to the death for Kony’s apocalyptic worldview, or they can expect to be executed and dumped into a mass grave filled with their victims.

Civil society organizations and international aid groups have long documented LRA abuse, with reports that are so disturbing (note of caution) that even people without a full heart feel queasy after reading them.

This is not the first time the United States has tried to weaken Kony.  In 2008, President George W. Bush sent a small team of counterterrorism advisors to Uganda in order to train the Ugandan military for an offensive against his cult.  President Bush personally authorized the order to assist the Ugandan and Congolese armed forces in the jungle dividing the two nations, where at the time it was believed the bulk of the LRA was holed up.  American military officials, packed with satellite technology and human assets on the ground, coordinated with both countries in the assault, which was such a dismal failure that by the time the armies reached their desired location, Kony and his band of animals were already long gone.

President Obama has followed in the footsteps of his predecessor when it comes to the anti-LRA campaign.  In May 2010, Obama signed the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009 to reassure its Central African allies that Washington will help punish the LRA’s leadership for their butchery with technical intelligence and logistical assistance.  The deployment of 100 fully armed U.S. military advisorscomplements this effort, which the weak governments of Central Africa would like nothing more than to complete.

The articles referenced above are listed here:

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/14/what-is-the-lords-resistance-army/?iref=allsearch
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/14/world/africa/africa-obama-troops/index.html?iref=allsearch
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/17/fighting-a-terror-kingpin-in-africa/?iref=allsearch

Let's pray that this time around the forces sent to remove Kony and the LRA will be more effective, for the sake of the civilians who are directly impacted by this deranged man and his army.