My friend and fellow reporter, Henry Mukasa of the New Vision newspaper in Kampala, this week contacted the former spokesman for Lord's Resistance Army's former negotiating team.
The former spokesman, Obonyo Olweny, says that the self-proclaimed spokesman and chief negotiator for the LRA, David Matsanga, does not represent the LRA and never has.
By so doing, Olweny has shed light on the chaos behind the scenes of the LRA, which has been under attack by the Ugandan army since December 14, and at this point appears to be scrambling for its life.
Most significantly, in his response to these charges, Matsanga has revealed that a new rebel group may be emerging in northern Uganda called the Uganda People's Liberation Front/Army.
Who are these people and what do they want? Matsanga says they're an Acholi cabal based in London and headed by a man named Ladit Balgara.
If the Acholi diaspora are forming a new rebel group, does this mean they've written off LRA leader Joseph Kony, the self-proclaimed prophet and spirit medium meant to lead the Acholi?
Could Uganda President Yoweri Museveni be on the verge of victory at last?
These issues will be dealt with in future dispatches.
Olweny is a former English teacher and currently a resident of Nairobi, I believe, and Henry and I spend a lot of time with him in July 2006 when the peace talks were beginning between the LRA and Uganda in Juba, South Sudan.
After Olweny and the leaders of the former negotiators, Martin Ojul, in particular, were supposedly fired by Kony in early 2008 -- in a surprise announcement made by Matsanga, not Kony -- Olweny dropped out of sight, only to re-emerge this week.
Ojul, by the way, now lives in Kampala on a Ugandan government salary.
The Olweny-Matsanga dispute has revealed one reality of the LRA: Kony keeps his own council.
According to sources at the late November meeting between Kony and the Acholi religious and cultural leaders, Kony knew nothing about the peace agreement that has been negotiated for two and a half years. When his fellow Acholi tried to explain it to him, including the Catholic archbishop from Gulu, Kony became angry and called them traitors.
“Kony never saw the text of the agreement until the day of signing. Is that normal?” Olweny told New Vision. Now, to be fair, Olweny here may be confirming earlier reports, but could also be simply repeating them.
But what he also said is more interesting:
“Since the attack on LRA bases in the DRC, I don’t think he (Matsanga) has talked to Kony. Kony is under pressure. He hardly talks to anyone,” Olweny said.
“Kony sees Matsanga as responsible for the attack. He misled him,” he added.
This is an amazing charge, but probably true. Matsanga should be looking over his shoulder. Yet, Matsanga continues to speak for the LRA.
As I've said before, Matsanga is in this for the money. As previously noted, Matsanga was stopped in the airport in Juba this past April, just a couple of days after he has successfully duped the entire international community into believing Kony was prepared to sign a peace deal.
Matsanga had $20,000 in cash, his pay for three months work as the LRA negotiation team leader. Matsanga then fled, and deputy, the Dr. James Obita, a western educated Acholi, took over.
Obita managed to pull yet another layer of wool over the world's eyes, and convinced everyone that Kony would sign the deal in May. Again Kony didn't show. Obita dropped out of sight. Obita then accepted amnesty from the government and reportedly is also collecting govenment money.
Would Matsanga keep quiet if Uganda offered him a job and a house in Kampala? Hmmm.
In the interim from May to about October, Matsanga saw an opening, and with no one openly disputing his claim, he re-emerged and convinced the world that Kony would sign a deal at the end of November.
Despite Olweny's remarks, Matsanga maintains that he is in contact with Kony, despite a statement said to be from the LRA "high command" this past weekend, that Matsanga was fired.
Matsanga explained it this way: “This group of former LRA delegates have teamed up with self-confessed paupers and senior militarists in Nairobi and London, namely Obonyo Olweny and Alex Oloya, under a new outfit called Uganda Peoples Liberation Front/Army (UPLF) headed by Ladit Balgara based in London to cause mayhem for the people of northern Uganda,” Matsanga said in an email sent to The New Vision.
“They issue unsigned statements using the LRA letterheads that Obonyo acquired during his spokesman tenure one year ago.”
“Those who have plotted against me have lost in the past and will lose on this round. They have been advised (by Kony) to desist from such malicious acts and work with me to bring peace in northern Uganda,” Matsanga said.
When asked to describe Matsanga's motivations, Olweny said, "He is the one asking for money in the name of LRA and the blood of the suffering people in the north. We began the peace process in Juba and he came from London begging to join the LRA delegation. You tell him he has failed to deliver the peace agreement he promised to his paymasters,” he added.
It is clear that Olweny is enjoying Matsanga's failures, because his "paymasters" are the UN, which has been funding the peace talks.
Asked whether it was true that he had joined a new rebel front (UPLF/A), Olweny said: “I think Matsanga is running out of his mind.”
That is not a denial, rather it's an attempt to disparage the messanger.
Matsanga blamed what he called “merchants of conflicts in Uganda based in London” for sowing discord in the LRA to derail the peace process.
Sowing discord in the LRA? That assumes there has been unity.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Rampage or runaways?
More conflicting information, or perhaps non-information, is coming out of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo as Uganda's army pursues the rebel Lord's Resistance Army.
In a story written by Henry Mukasa, the government-owned daily, New Vision, quotes Gen. Patrick Kankiriho as claiming to have "engaged" forces led by the LRA's deputy, Okot Odhiambo, 30km north of Doruma on Monday.
That would put them right on the border with South Sudan, or even in that country, and he claims that two were killed and two were captured two."
Speaking from Dungu, the general said that now eight LRA fighters have been captured and 38 killed since the offensive was launched on December 14, 2008. Over 21 rebels have surrendered to the allies in various parts of Congo and South Sudan and nine captives were rescued.
“We have reached a stage of ‘search and destroy’ for fighters and rescue for captives. We rescue the abductees and the combatants who want to fight us, we engage them,” Kankiriho explained.
The commander said after the battle, two sub-machine guns, four full magazines, two empty magazines and two Sudanese uniforms were recovered.
In another battle on Sunday, Kankiriho said four rebels were killed south of Lagoro. One was captured, two women rescued north of Doruma, while another rebel surrendered with his gun at Yambio in Sudan.
Kankiriho explained that the joint forces had tightened their noose around Kony and his scattered fighters in the vast and densely- forested Garamba National Park in Congo.
“You think he is asking for ceasefire for nothing? The man is under immense pressure. Big, big pressure. We shall get him,” he stressed.
Despite this tough talk, the UN is reporting a different side of the story.
Reuters news agency says that the UN now puts the total civilian dead at the hands of the LRA at 537, since the Dec. 14th attack on LRA camps in northeastern DRC.
Another 408 people had been kidnapped by the rebels, according to UN High Commission on Refugees, and more than 104,000 people are thought to have been forced from their homes into the bush by the violence.
"The displaced population is in dire need of food, shelter, medicines, clothes and other aid items. The area, which by itself poses immense logistical challenges due to the lack of roads or their poor condition, remains highly volatile," UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said in a statement in Geneva.
As most are wondering, what has happened to LRA leader Joseph Kony, the self-proclaimed prophet and spirit medium?
The Ugandan general refused to say, arguing that this would pre-empt army action drive the Kony further underground. He advised the critics of the military offensive to wait for photographs that show the recent successes.
The New Vision also reported that the Central African Republic (CAR) began deploying more troops on its border with Congo to guard against incursions by the LRA.
Kankiriho said the group was composed of families of rebel commanders and a few fighters guarding them, led by Odhiambo, who is reportedly wounded.
In a story written by Henry Mukasa, the government-owned daily, New Vision, quotes Gen. Patrick Kankiriho as claiming to have "engaged" forces led by the LRA's deputy, Okot Odhiambo, 30km north of Doruma on Monday.
That would put them right on the border with South Sudan, or even in that country, and he claims that two were killed and two were captured two."
Speaking from Dungu, the general said that now eight LRA fighters have been captured and 38 killed since the offensive was launched on December 14, 2008. Over 21 rebels have surrendered to the allies in various parts of Congo and South Sudan and nine captives were rescued.
“We have reached a stage of ‘search and destroy’ for fighters and rescue for captives. We rescue the abductees and the combatants who want to fight us, we engage them,” Kankiriho explained.
The commander said after the battle, two sub-machine guns, four full magazines, two empty magazines and two Sudanese uniforms were recovered.
In another battle on Sunday, Kankiriho said four rebels were killed south of Lagoro. One was captured, two women rescued north of Doruma, while another rebel surrendered with his gun at Yambio in Sudan.
Kankiriho explained that the joint forces had tightened their noose around Kony and his scattered fighters in the vast and densely- forested Garamba National Park in Congo.
“You think he is asking for ceasefire for nothing? The man is under immense pressure. Big, big pressure. We shall get him,” he stressed.
Despite this tough talk, the UN is reporting a different side of the story.
Reuters news agency says that the UN now puts the total civilian dead at the hands of the LRA at 537, since the Dec. 14th attack on LRA camps in northeastern DRC.
Another 408 people had been kidnapped by the rebels, according to UN High Commission on Refugees, and more than 104,000 people are thought to have been forced from their homes into the bush by the violence.
"The displaced population is in dire need of food, shelter, medicines, clothes and other aid items. The area, which by itself poses immense logistical challenges due to the lack of roads or their poor condition, remains highly volatile," UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said in a statement in Geneva.
As most are wondering, what has happened to LRA leader Joseph Kony, the self-proclaimed prophet and spirit medium?
The Ugandan general refused to say, arguing that this would pre-empt army action drive the Kony further underground. He advised the critics of the military offensive to wait for photographs that show the recent successes.
The New Vision also reported that the Central African Republic (CAR) began deploying more troops on its border with Congo to guard against incursions by the LRA.
Kankiriho said the group was composed of families of rebel commanders and a few fighters guarding them, led by Odhiambo, who is reportedly wounded.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Kony fires Matsanga, others
In a statement said to be from the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and issued in Paris this weekend, the guerrilla force has apparently fired what's left of its negotiating team, according to the Sudan Tribune, on-line edition.
This is a simpering end to a bizarre and tortured history of negotiations between the LRA and Uganda that has had little or no credibility since they began two-and-a-half years ago in Juba, South Sudan.
The most immediate effect is that it means the end of David Nyekorach-Matsanga's claims that he speaks for the LRA.
As mentioned in an early edition of this blog, Matsanga's credibility was sabotaged in last spring when he announced that he was heading a new team of LRA negotiators
He claimed to be in touch with the LRA's leader, the self-proclaimed prophet and spirit medium Joseph Kony, who had agreed to sign the peace deal with Uganda that had been negotiated by the earlier, and perhaps even less credible team.
Matsanga even convinced the international community to fly him to The Hague, Netherlands, along with a couple of Kampala lawyers, to make an appeal to the International Criminal Court.
The court has indictments against Kony and his remaining two top commanders for war crimes and crimes against humanity pending since 2005.
These Matsanga claimed were why Kony wouldn't sign.
Therefore the court should drop the indictments and let Kony go free, he said. The court didn't, of course, and sent Matsanga packing.
Reality dawned on the international community in late April 2008 when Kony didn't show at a pre-arranged site to sign the peace deal, despite the presence of hundreds of "officials" to witness the event.
When it was revealed that Matsanga had never talked with Kony and had duped the entire assembled cadre of blithering apologists for this, Africa's most vicious and demonic cult, he fled the jungle enclave.
As the Sudan Tribune notes, he was arrested at the Juba airport with a letter from Uganda President Yoweri Museveni and $20,000 in cash. The money was his pay from the international community for his "work" as team leader. The letter showed that Matsanga had been used by Museveni.
But the lunacy didn't stop. Others in the so-called negotiating team said it all had been a misunderstanding and that Kony would sign the deal a month later. Again, Kony's didn't show.
By this time, Kony's marauders had already completed an extended raid across portions of South Sudan and into the Central African Republic, killing, looting and abducting hundreds of people to bolster its force.
Then Matsanga resurfaced, again claiming he was the spokesman for the LRA and that Kony would sign the deal. Then for the third time last year, people from northern Uganda, the UN, and the international community traipsed to the jungle.
Again, Kony didn't sign, and as mentioned in earlier entries, threatened the ethnic leaders from the north, calling them traitors.
Kony was finally attacked on Dec. 14 in his camps in northern DRC by the Uganda army, which propelled Kony's LRA on the bloodiest rampage in the militia-cult's history.
The apparent official statement, meanwhile, ends all contacts with Matsanga and a couple of women named Miss Abalo and Justine Labeja, both presumable from northern Uganda.
The statement was also reportedly sent to all of the official parties who have been involved in the so-called negotiations, including the United Nations, African Union, non-governmental organisations, UN special envoy to the talks, Joachim Chissano, and presidents of the DRC, Kenya, Southern Sudan, Central African Republic, Uganda, and various international observers.
What this means is unclear, but one can guess. First of all, it means that Kony has finally acknowledged that the peace talks were a farce and nothing more than a ruse for him and his negotiating "team" to collect per diem payment from the international community.
Rumors were that in order to be part of the team, one had to share the cash with Kony. This was in addition to the tons of food that was shipped to the jungle each month for Kony by the Catholic Charity, Caritas, and paid for by the blithering apologists.
Now that he has been attacked, Kony has realized it's over and the gravy train has stopped rolling his way.
What is next, is anyone's guess. My prediction is that Kony will regroup his beleaguered forces and take them to the CAR. In the meanwhile, he'll be desperately reaching out to anyone willing to provide him arms and cash, as he continues to loot and kill innocents in the region.
What we can expect is a slow but steady devolution of the region into the same bloody no-man's land that Kony created for 20 years in northern Uganda.
This is a simpering end to a bizarre and tortured history of negotiations between the LRA and Uganda that has had little or no credibility since they began two-and-a-half years ago in Juba, South Sudan.
The most immediate effect is that it means the end of David Nyekorach-Matsanga's claims that he speaks for the LRA.
As mentioned in an early edition of this blog, Matsanga's credibility was sabotaged in last spring when he announced that he was heading a new team of LRA negotiators
He claimed to be in touch with the LRA's leader, the self-proclaimed prophet and spirit medium Joseph Kony, who had agreed to sign the peace deal with Uganda that had been negotiated by the earlier, and perhaps even less credible team.
Matsanga even convinced the international community to fly him to The Hague, Netherlands, along with a couple of Kampala lawyers, to make an appeal to the International Criminal Court.
The court has indictments against Kony and his remaining two top commanders for war crimes and crimes against humanity pending since 2005.
These Matsanga claimed were why Kony wouldn't sign.
Therefore the court should drop the indictments and let Kony go free, he said. The court didn't, of course, and sent Matsanga packing.
Reality dawned on the international community in late April 2008 when Kony didn't show at a pre-arranged site to sign the peace deal, despite the presence of hundreds of "officials" to witness the event.
When it was revealed that Matsanga had never talked with Kony and had duped the entire assembled cadre of blithering apologists for this, Africa's most vicious and demonic cult, he fled the jungle enclave.
As the Sudan Tribune notes, he was arrested at the Juba airport with a letter from Uganda President Yoweri Museveni and $20,000 in cash. The money was his pay from the international community for his "work" as team leader. The letter showed that Matsanga had been used by Museveni.
But the lunacy didn't stop. Others in the so-called negotiating team said it all had been a misunderstanding and that Kony would sign the deal a month later. Again, Kony's didn't show.
By this time, Kony's marauders had already completed an extended raid across portions of South Sudan and into the Central African Republic, killing, looting and abducting hundreds of people to bolster its force.
Then Matsanga resurfaced, again claiming he was the spokesman for the LRA and that Kony would sign the deal. Then for the third time last year, people from northern Uganda, the UN, and the international community traipsed to the jungle.
Again, Kony didn't sign, and as mentioned in earlier entries, threatened the ethnic leaders from the north, calling them traitors.
Kony was finally attacked on Dec. 14 in his camps in northern DRC by the Uganda army, which propelled Kony's LRA on the bloodiest rampage in the militia-cult's history.
The apparent official statement, meanwhile, ends all contacts with Matsanga and a couple of women named Miss Abalo and Justine Labeja, both presumable from northern Uganda.
The statement was also reportedly sent to all of the official parties who have been involved in the so-called negotiations, including the United Nations, African Union, non-governmental organisations, UN special envoy to the talks, Joachim Chissano, and presidents of the DRC, Kenya, Southern Sudan, Central African Republic, Uganda, and various international observers.
What this means is unclear, but one can guess. First of all, it means that Kony has finally acknowledged that the peace talks were a farce and nothing more than a ruse for him and his negotiating "team" to collect per diem payment from the international community.
Rumors were that in order to be part of the team, one had to share the cash with Kony. This was in addition to the tons of food that was shipped to the jungle each month for Kony by the Catholic Charity, Caritas, and paid for by the blithering apologists.
Now that he has been attacked, Kony has realized it's over and the gravy train has stopped rolling his way.
What is next, is anyone's guess. My prediction is that Kony will regroup his beleaguered forces and take them to the CAR. In the meanwhile, he'll be desperately reaching out to anyone willing to provide him arms and cash, as he continues to loot and kill innocents in the region.
What we can expect is a slow but steady devolution of the region into the same bloody no-man's land that Kony created for 20 years in northern Uganda.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Offensive Against Kony Backfires
The December 14 assault on Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) camps in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) surprised many.
The offensive came after LRA leader Joseph Kony had rebuffed the international community three times in 2008 by failing to sign a peace deal with Uganda that had been negotiated over the previous two years.
The latest one came at the end of November.
I was on the plane from Entebbe, Uganda, to Juba, South Sudan, on Thanksgiving Day with the delegation of some 15 elders and cultural leaders from northern Uganda who had been summoned to the jungle by Kony.
Kony had called for them for last-minute consultations before signing the agreement –or so many thought -- on Nov. 30 or Dec. 1.
I sat beside one of the elders, who smiled and shrugged when I asked if Kony would sign this time.
His doubts proved to be well founded. Sources at the elders’ meeting with Kony said that he knew little of the agreement and threatened them for pressuring him to sign it.
Kony’s latest snub gave Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who was prepared to sign the deal if Kony did, the excuse he needed –along with the blessing of the international community and cooperation from DRC and South Sudan – to launch an assault.
But it was botched, as some had feared. Uganda has only created a bigger problem for the region and the prospect of a protracted and bloody conflict repeating what northern Uganda has suffered for 20 years.
The first hint that the offensive was mishandled came when word spread that Ugandan ground forces arrived at the main LRA camp two days after Ugandan jets and helicopter gun-ships bombed it.
They found nothing but burned huts.
Only recently has Uganda found some mass graves, which some say contain the bodies of LRA fighters killed in the attack. And, only in the past week has Uganda reported accepting escaped captives of the LRA and some defecting fighters.
This, however, has prompted Kampala to claim the offensive, which is ongoing, a success.
On New Year’s Eve, some two weeks after it began, Museveni was quoted in the New Vision newspaper as saying, “Our aim was to disrupt Kony and it was successful. Our initial plan was to scatter and stop him from causing terror.”
But the assault appears to have had the opposite effect. Kony has killed more people and sewn more terror in the following two weeks than during the entire preceding year.
Museveni calls that a success?
And the killing continues, with the latest reports that Kony is headed to the Central African Republic, to yet another failed African state where he can regroup.
One of the most bloody alleged LRA massacre took place in the village of Gurba, about ten kilometres from the town of Doruma in northeastern DRC.
Details are sketchy, but according to United Nations reports, the LRA hacked to death between 45 to 60 people who’d sought sanctuary in a Gurba church.
According to witnesses, body parts were scattered in and around the church. This alleged atrocity typifies the LRA’s methods.
For me, it was particularly disturbing. I had been to Doruma in June and met and talked with people there. I’d spent a couple of hours with a young school teacher there named Raymond Rpiolebeyo, who taught third grade at the Ecole Primer Ndolomo, a Catholic school.
On Easter weekend last year, he had been cycling to Gurba to spend the holiday with his family when he was abducted by the LRA, who then proceeded to loot the village.
Raymond escaped, however, and returned to Doruma. I spoke to him at length about his experiences with the LRA. He confessed that he was nervous because he knew the LRA could come back and he didn’t want to contemplate that fate.
The UN reported that about 200 people were killed in Doruma and the surrounding villages by the LRA in the days after Christmas. It is impossible to know if Raymond is still alive, and perhaps I’ll never know. I can only hope.
While the Doruma area appears to have suffered the brunt of the LRA’s senseless slaughter of civilians, estimates are that more than 500 people now have been killed by the widely scattered LRA units.
The coming year promises to be deadly for those unfortunate to live in the region where the DRC, South Sudan and the CAR meet.
Museveni’s stated aim of “scattering” the LRA has certainly been accomplished, but that of stopping LRA terror has not. By not planning and executing an effective attack on Kony, the Ugandan leader has inadvertently fueled the rebel’s terror campaign.
And he has set the stage for the same abysmal conditions that existed in northern Uganda for 20 years.
Scattered LRA units are now operating semi-independently, and this time reportedly killing, looting and abducting villagers in three countries.
From 1986 to 2006, Museveni was unable to capture or control Kony in northern Uganda or South Sudan. Even though the LRA is now being pursued by forces from DRC, South Sudan as well as Uganda, the result undoubtedly will be the same.
The offensive came after LRA leader Joseph Kony had rebuffed the international community three times in 2008 by failing to sign a peace deal with Uganda that had been negotiated over the previous two years.
The latest one came at the end of November.
I was on the plane from Entebbe, Uganda, to Juba, South Sudan, on Thanksgiving Day with the delegation of some 15 elders and cultural leaders from northern Uganda who had been summoned to the jungle by Kony.
Kony had called for them for last-minute consultations before signing the agreement –or so many thought -- on Nov. 30 or Dec. 1.
I sat beside one of the elders, who smiled and shrugged when I asked if Kony would sign this time.
His doubts proved to be well founded. Sources at the elders’ meeting with Kony said that he knew little of the agreement and threatened them for pressuring him to sign it.
Kony’s latest snub gave Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who was prepared to sign the deal if Kony did, the excuse he needed –along with the blessing of the international community and cooperation from DRC and South Sudan – to launch an assault.
But it was botched, as some had feared. Uganda has only created a bigger problem for the region and the prospect of a protracted and bloody conflict repeating what northern Uganda has suffered for 20 years.
The first hint that the offensive was mishandled came when word spread that Ugandan ground forces arrived at the main LRA camp two days after Ugandan jets and helicopter gun-ships bombed it.
They found nothing but burned huts.
Only recently has Uganda found some mass graves, which some say contain the bodies of LRA fighters killed in the attack. And, only in the past week has Uganda reported accepting escaped captives of the LRA and some defecting fighters.
This, however, has prompted Kampala to claim the offensive, which is ongoing, a success.
On New Year’s Eve, some two weeks after it began, Museveni was quoted in the New Vision newspaper as saying, “Our aim was to disrupt Kony and it was successful. Our initial plan was to scatter and stop him from causing terror.”
But the assault appears to have had the opposite effect. Kony has killed more people and sewn more terror in the following two weeks than during the entire preceding year.
Museveni calls that a success?
And the killing continues, with the latest reports that Kony is headed to the Central African Republic, to yet another failed African state where he can regroup.
One of the most bloody alleged LRA massacre took place in the village of Gurba, about ten kilometres from the town of Doruma in northeastern DRC.
Details are sketchy, but according to United Nations reports, the LRA hacked to death between 45 to 60 people who’d sought sanctuary in a Gurba church.
According to witnesses, body parts were scattered in and around the church. This alleged atrocity typifies the LRA’s methods.
For me, it was particularly disturbing. I had been to Doruma in June and met and talked with people there. I’d spent a couple of hours with a young school teacher there named Raymond Rpiolebeyo, who taught third grade at the Ecole Primer Ndolomo, a Catholic school.
On Easter weekend last year, he had been cycling to Gurba to spend the holiday with his family when he was abducted by the LRA, who then proceeded to loot the village.
Raymond escaped, however, and returned to Doruma. I spoke to him at length about his experiences with the LRA. He confessed that he was nervous because he knew the LRA could come back and he didn’t want to contemplate that fate.
The UN reported that about 200 people were killed in Doruma and the surrounding villages by the LRA in the days after Christmas. It is impossible to know if Raymond is still alive, and perhaps I’ll never know. I can only hope.
While the Doruma area appears to have suffered the brunt of the LRA’s senseless slaughter of civilians, estimates are that more than 500 people now have been killed by the widely scattered LRA units.
The coming year promises to be deadly for those unfortunate to live in the region where the DRC, South Sudan and the CAR meet.
Museveni’s stated aim of “scattering” the LRA has certainly been accomplished, but that of stopping LRA terror has not. By not planning and executing an effective attack on Kony, the Ugandan leader has inadvertently fueled the rebel’s terror campaign.
And he has set the stage for the same abysmal conditions that existed in northern Uganda for 20 years.
Scattered LRA units are now operating semi-independently, and this time reportedly killing, looting and abducting villagers in three countries.
From 1986 to 2006, Museveni was unable to capture or control Kony in northern Uganda or South Sudan. Even though the LRA is now being pursued by forces from DRC, South Sudan as well as Uganda, the result undoubtedly will be the same.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
LRA kills 50 in South Sudan
The rampaging Lord's Resistance Army on January 5 killed another 50 people in South Sudan, according to officials in the regional capital of Juba.
The UN's news service, IRIN, reports that the fifty are feared to have been killed and at least nine abducted in attacks on villages in southwest Sudan, near the border with Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
"We received reports from the state that they abducted seven men and two women," Bashir Bhandi, head of the Southern Sudanese Parliamentary Committee on Communication, told IRIN on 6 January.
Since mid-December, the LRA has killed some 500 people following a Dec. 14 attack on the LRA camps in the Garamba National Park in northeastern DRC.
The surge in violence follows a Ugandan-led offensive, with Southern Sudan and DRC forces, against the rebel group after its reclusive leader Joseph Kony failed once again to sign a Sudan-mediated peace agreement in early December.
"The number of people they killed or kidnapped has gone above 50," Bhandi told IRIN. "They loot and kill. They take them to the forest. None of the people they have taken to the forest has been found alive. They kill them."
"I am told that our military is not ready to face the LRA and the citizens are digging up guns they kept in the ground for their own defence," Jimmy Wongo, an MP from the area said.
"How the LRA can manage to abduct seven men and two women yesterday I don't understand." The Southern Sudan Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Martin Ellia Lomuro, said officials had done everything to try to halt the killings.
"We did not only close our borders, we supported also the regional initiative to control the LRA," Lomuro told IRIN. "What is happening in Western Equatoria is very strange," he added. "It is a serious matter of concern to both the Legislative Assembly and the executive."
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), has reported that LRA groups had mounted raids in different locations in north-east DRC in the first days of January.
Also in northeastern DRC, a team from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reached the town of Faradje, which the LRA attacked on 25 and 26 December, killing some 70 people and prompting 40,000 to flee.
"Our mission found Faradje pillaged and destroyed by fire," UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva. More than 800 houses, three schools, government buildings and health centres had been burned, with most families losing their annual harvest in the fire, according to UNHCR.
The UN's news service, IRIN, reports that the fifty are feared to have been killed and at least nine abducted in attacks on villages in southwest Sudan, near the border with Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
"We received reports from the state that they abducted seven men and two women," Bashir Bhandi, head of the Southern Sudanese Parliamentary Committee on Communication, told IRIN on 6 January.
Since mid-December, the LRA has killed some 500 people following a Dec. 14 attack on the LRA camps in the Garamba National Park in northeastern DRC.
The surge in violence follows a Ugandan-led offensive, with Southern Sudan and DRC forces, against the rebel group after its reclusive leader Joseph Kony failed once again to sign a Sudan-mediated peace agreement in early December.
"The number of people they killed or kidnapped has gone above 50," Bhandi told IRIN. "They loot and kill. They take them to the forest. None of the people they have taken to the forest has been found alive. They kill them."
"I am told that our military is not ready to face the LRA and the citizens are digging up guns they kept in the ground for their own defence," Jimmy Wongo, an MP from the area said.
"How the LRA can manage to abduct seven men and two women yesterday I don't understand." The Southern Sudan Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Martin Ellia Lomuro, said officials had done everything to try to halt the killings.
"We did not only close our borders, we supported also the regional initiative to control the LRA," Lomuro told IRIN. "What is happening in Western Equatoria is very strange," he added. "It is a serious matter of concern to both the Legislative Assembly and the executive."
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), has reported that LRA groups had mounted raids in different locations in north-east DRC in the first days of January.
Also in northeastern DRC, a team from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reached the town of Faradje, which the LRA attacked on 25 and 26 December, killing some 70 people and prompting 40,000 to flee.
"Our mission found Faradje pillaged and destroyed by fire," UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva. More than 800 houses, three schools, government buildings and health centres had been burned, with most families losing their annual harvest in the fire, according to UNHCR.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
LRA attacks park, rampage continues
Some 20 people were killed in an attack by the Lord's Resistance Army on a park ranger station in northern Democratic Republic of Congo, local officials told the Reuters news agency on Monday.
The attack apparently came last Friday when dozens of LRA fighters fired on the headquarters of the Garamba National Park in the town of Negero, in Congo's Orientale province.
"Ten people were killed, including two women, two park rangers, an electrician and five other civilians who have not yet been identified," Orientale's Deputy Governor Joseph Bangakya told Reuters.
In addition, 10 LRA fighters were killed in what was described as a four-hour gunbattle with armed park rangers and Congolese soldiers based at Negero's airstrip.
The soldiers were stationed there as part of a three-week-old multinational assault on LRA strongholds in northeastern Congo.
But that is not all. In two separate attacks on Sunday, according to Reuters, LRA gunmen attacked the Congolese village of Napopo and attacked Laso, a village in Sudan. It was not immediately known if anyone died in the incidents.
The continuing attacks are yet further evidence that the multinational operation has been a failure and that LRA leader Joseph Kony is not only alive and well, but able to organize attacks at will in various locations in the DRC.
The death toll now in the wake of the botched Dec. 14th attack on Kony's camps is now well over 400, with the BBC reporting that the dead may be as many as 500 people -- all innocent civilians.
"The number of dead just keeps going up. Since the beginning of these operations, it is the civilians who are dying," said Felicien Balani, who heads a coalition of civil society groups, according to Reuters.
Estimated to number between 800 and 1,000 fighters, Ugandan and Congolese officials say the LRA has now splintered into smaller groups. Some are believed to be heading towards neighbouring Central African Republic, where the rebels have carried out raids in the past.
The attack apparently came last Friday when dozens of LRA fighters fired on the headquarters of the Garamba National Park in the town of Negero, in Congo's Orientale province.
"Ten people were killed, including two women, two park rangers, an electrician and five other civilians who have not yet been identified," Orientale's Deputy Governor Joseph Bangakya told Reuters.
In addition, 10 LRA fighters were killed in what was described as a four-hour gunbattle with armed park rangers and Congolese soldiers based at Negero's airstrip.
The soldiers were stationed there as part of a three-week-old multinational assault on LRA strongholds in northeastern Congo.
But that is not all. In two separate attacks on Sunday, according to Reuters, LRA gunmen attacked the Congolese village of Napopo and attacked Laso, a village in Sudan. It was not immediately known if anyone died in the incidents.
The continuing attacks are yet further evidence that the multinational operation has been a failure and that LRA leader Joseph Kony is not only alive and well, but able to organize attacks at will in various locations in the DRC.
The death toll now in the wake of the botched Dec. 14th attack on Kony's camps is now well over 400, with the BBC reporting that the dead may be as many as 500 people -- all innocent civilians.
"The number of dead just keeps going up. Since the beginning of these operations, it is the civilians who are dying," said Felicien Balani, who heads a coalition of civil society groups, according to Reuters.
Estimated to number between 800 and 1,000 fighters, Ugandan and Congolese officials say the LRA has now splintered into smaller groups. Some are believed to be heading towards neighbouring Central African Republic, where the rebels have carried out raids in the past.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Uganda on UN Security Council
Uganda begins a two-year term on the United Nations Security Council this year, and it signals perhaps a new emphasis on African issues for the UN and the world at large.
Uganda’s new position will give it a stronger voice than ever on African affairs as the UN’s leadership councils faced increasingly complex East African issues: Somalia, Darfur, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as Uganda's lingering problems with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
Uganda's presence on the council may prompt more active involvement of the UN in the on-going hunt for the LRA's leader, the self-proclaimed prophet and spirit medium, Joseph Kony.
To date, however, the UN has only served a support role in this military action, which began Dec. 14 with a Ugandan air force strike on Kony's camps in and around the DRC's Garamba National Park.
Kony's scattered forces, thought to be moving to an even more remote and lawless region of the Central African Republic, responded to the attack by killing more than 400 civilians in the region.
Although the hunt for Kony includes Congolese and South Sudanese forces, the fact that the LRA escaped with unknown casualties and can still commit grievous atrocities, shows that these forces need help.
According the East African newspaper, the Uganda's UN ambassador, Francis Butagira, made it clear that Uganda supports international intervention in Somalia, where it has already stationed troops, but curiously wants the UN to leave Zimbabwe alone.
One can speculate here that President Yoweri Museveni, who in 2005 forced the Ugandan parliament to change the constitution, allowing him to be president for life, has his own interests at heart.
If the world steps in to remove Robert Mugabe from control of Zimbabwe, it might set a precedent that Museveni fears. After all, his election in 2006 to a third term was not by a huge margin.
And, it is well known that Museveni maintains a firm grasp on Uganda, which also explains why he discounts any talk of "power-sharing" in African countries, even though this would be a good solution for Zimbabwe, fearing that such will be proposed for Uganda.
The issue of Zimbabwe does not have an international security dimension and thus “does not warrant intervention by the Security Council,” Butagira told UN radio.
Butagira also indicated he supported a delay in International Criminal Court’s pending charges of genocide against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, but added that this should not be viewed as “a blanket endorsement” of Sudan’s policies.
This of course begs the question: how do you solve the on-going genocide in Darfur if you don't pressure the Sudan leadership?
Uganda is not fond of clear answers or firm, decisive action. Regardless, it should be interesting to see how Uganda plays its new role in the UN.
Uganda’s new position will give it a stronger voice than ever on African affairs as the UN’s leadership councils faced increasingly complex East African issues: Somalia, Darfur, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as Uganda's lingering problems with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
Uganda's presence on the council may prompt more active involvement of the UN in the on-going hunt for the LRA's leader, the self-proclaimed prophet and spirit medium, Joseph Kony.
To date, however, the UN has only served a support role in this military action, which began Dec. 14 with a Ugandan air force strike on Kony's camps in and around the DRC's Garamba National Park.
Kony's scattered forces, thought to be moving to an even more remote and lawless region of the Central African Republic, responded to the attack by killing more than 400 civilians in the region.
Although the hunt for Kony includes Congolese and South Sudanese forces, the fact that the LRA escaped with unknown casualties and can still commit grievous atrocities, shows that these forces need help.
According the East African newspaper, the Uganda's UN ambassador, Francis Butagira, made it clear that Uganda supports international intervention in Somalia, where it has already stationed troops, but curiously wants the UN to leave Zimbabwe alone.
One can speculate here that President Yoweri Museveni, who in 2005 forced the Ugandan parliament to change the constitution, allowing him to be president for life, has his own interests at heart.
If the world steps in to remove Robert Mugabe from control of Zimbabwe, it might set a precedent that Museveni fears. After all, his election in 2006 to a third term was not by a huge margin.
And, it is well known that Museveni maintains a firm grasp on Uganda, which also explains why he discounts any talk of "power-sharing" in African countries, even though this would be a good solution for Zimbabwe, fearing that such will be proposed for Uganda.
The issue of Zimbabwe does not have an international security dimension and thus “does not warrant intervention by the Security Council,” Butagira told UN radio.
Butagira also indicated he supported a delay in International Criminal Court’s pending charges of genocide against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, but added that this should not be viewed as “a blanket endorsement” of Sudan’s policies.
This of course begs the question: how do you solve the on-going genocide in Darfur if you don't pressure the Sudan leadership?
Uganda is not fond of clear answers or firm, decisive action. Regardless, it should be interesting to see how Uganda plays its new role in the UN.
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