What has Kony been up to?

By Barbara Among 
   
ON May 24, last year, President Barack Obama signed a law that would enable the US to be more in fighting the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) of Joseph Kony.

The LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act received a lot of support from American legislators and the public. In fact, it is the most widely supported legislation in recent US history. The law committed the US to help civilians threatened by the LRA.

In November 2010, the US government outlined four goals: capturing the LRA’s top leaders, protecting civilians from attacks, persuading LRA fighters to defect and provide assistance to affected people.

On Tuesday, as organisations worldwide observed one year after Obama signed the law, it was observed that a lot more has to be done. Although the LRA have fled from Uganda and have not committed any crimes at home since 2005, they are still brutal.

According to the NGO Human Rights Watch, Kony’s men have killed 2,400 people and abducted 3,400 others in the DR Congo, Central African Republic and southern Sudan since 2008.

In the first four months of 2011, the LRA attacked at least 120 times, killing 81 people and abducting 193. Of these attacks, 97 were in Congo. The attacks have led to the displacement of over 38,000 Congolese since the beginning of this year.

The impact of LRA brutality is still felt in northern Uganda, where it originated. LRA conducted a brutal campaign of killings, rapes, mutilations and mass abductions of children for 25 years.

Subsequently, three LRA leaders, Joseph Kony and his deputies Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen, are being sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) following arrest warrants issued in July 2005 for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

A joint operation dubbed-Lightning Thunder in December 2008 by the DRC, Sudan and Ugandan armies in Garamba forest failed to capture Kony. It, however, weakened the LRA and its commanders were either captured or killed.

The LRA have split into small groups of about 20, roaming the remote parts of DRC, CAR and southern Sudan. Most of the areas are so remote that the residents cannot easily communicate to their governments when attacked by the LRA. When they attack, they have one to two days to commit their atrocities before information gets to the governments, often by word of mouth.

In a dispatch published on the Congolese Episcopal Conference website, Archbishop Etienne Ung’Eyowun of Bondo, stated that many civilians had abandoned their homes due to LRA attacks. They rely on food from the Church and humanitarian organisations.

“Insecurity stems from the fact that there are few army troops, poorly equipped, while there are no UN forces. The population is, therefore, alarmed and they group together in towns, abandoning their villages, which are most exposed to the LRA,” the archbishop explained.

Recently, however, armed LRA combatants have begun attacking Congolese army bases. Apparently they get away with such attacks due to weaknesses in the Congolese army, who sometimes flee with civilians when the LRA attack.

Accounts from people who escaped from the LRA, show that their command structure is still intact. Scattered LRA groups communicate with each other. The rebels are also training new fighters.

Ugandan army spokesman, Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye, said although the LRA are elusive, they are a weakened force. “We have soldiers in DR Congo and we are pursuing Kony and his commanders,” he said.

Asked whether the UPDF was close to catching Kony he said: “Not as far as I know.”

Separately, an army officer told Saturday Vision that Kony had been difficult to catch because he roams between DRC and CAR in the Garamba forest. The forest is so big that it takes about 40 minutes to fly from one end to the other, by helicopter. The fact that the rebels operate in small groups further makes them difficult to destroy.

Obama’s government has focused on providing logistical support to Ugandan-led operations against the LRA since 2008.

Several humanitarian organisations are now calling upon the US government to step up efforts to protect civilians from the LRA’s attacks.

The organisations urged the Obama administration to appoint a special envoy for the African Great Lakes region to support stronger UN peacekeeping and intensify efforts to arrest Kony.

“Congress gave the Obama administration a mandate to end LRA atrocities and help affected communities recover,” said Michael Poffenberger, executive director of Resolve. “The administration has improved some of its efforts, but has failed in civilian protection.”

“Many of us believed that President Obama’s commitment to addressing the LRA threat would help stop our suffering,” said Abbé Benoit Kinalegu of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission in Dungu, Haut Uele, Congo. “Yet one year later, we continue to live in fear as the LRA’s attacks have shown no signs of decreasing,” he added.

Recently, the head of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM), General Carter F. Ham, said the American military was facilitating armies in the region. He, however, expressed cautiousness regarding how long it would take to capture Kony. “It is not easy to try to find one man or one small group in a very large area” said the general.