Moments before dying, LRA leader's mother said: "Tell Joseph Kony to make peace"

Commentary by Peter Eichstaedt from his blog post - The good, the bad, the ugly - Saturday, November 14, 2009. Excerpts:

This past week, Norah Anek, the 86-year-old mother of Joseph Kony, the leader of the militia-cult Lord's Resistance Army, passed away. She was buried not far from where she gave birth to Kony in the town of Adek, about an hour's drive southeast of Gulu in northern Uganda.

According to the nurse who was present at her death, "Moments before dying she said, 'Tell Joseph Kony to make peace,'"

She earlier had said that Kony's problem, the thing that drives him, was that he is possesed by evil spirits.

One can only hope that she was able to find some peace, having been saddled with the unenviable fame of having given birth to perhaps one the world's most notorious and deadly cult leaders.

Norah Anek's explanation for her son's behavior, possession by spirits, contains a nugget of wisdom that apparently cannot be grasped by those who continue to think and advocate appeasement as a way to deal with Kony and his vicious militia.

The latest of these statements surfaced on November 6, titled, "Elements of a New Strategy to Disarm the LRA," written by François Grignon, Africa Program Director of the International Crisis Group.

[...]

As I wrote in First Kill Your Family: Child Soldiers of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army, I was in Nabanga, South Sudan, in July 2006 when the first convoy of supplies was delivered to Kony and his LRA.

The gesture had doubtful merit even back then. Feed Kony as long as he stayed at the peace talks? It worked for a while, but it wasn't long before Kony and the LRA were back to killing, looting and abducting, even as food supplies were being delivered.

This aiding and abetting of an indicted war criminal, which was illegal, reached a depressing height in the spring of 2008 when Kony rounded up some 500 abductees from the Central African Republic, the DR Congo, and South Sudan. Yet, it continued.

It was done while Kony's opportunistic cheerleader, David Matsanga, proclaimed that Kony was going to sign the negotiated peace deal, which he did not, in April or May, and then again at the end of November.

The UN, meanwhile, was actively attempting to keep it all quiet because they were afraid that Kony would abandon the peace talks because of the logical outrage that would be generated. This was immoral.

The December 14 attack on Kony's camps in Garamba National Park failed, we all know.

It is clear that the LRA's capacity to intercept information about the pending attack, flee from it, and then go on an extended killing rampage had been enabled by the international community's "feed the lion" approach.

[...]

Kony, afterall, is an Africa problem, not one that needs to be dealt with by either the US or any European countries. Where are the leaders of the DR Congo and South Sudan? Why should the US have to call them up and hand them a pot of money so they will do their jobs?

Where are the African leaders who are so quick to condemn western nations who dole out aid with strings attached, such as insuring that aid money is spend for the purpose it was intended. Why do they shrink into the shadows when there is work to be done?

The citizens of the DRC and South Sudan are dying at the hands of the LRA. Why does the US or EU need to bribe these leaders into action?

[...] 

Forget more peace talks. Kony has more than humiliated the international community already with his lies, with his looting and killing.

Kony's mother had it right when she said her son was possessed. She knew, unlike some people, that we're not dealing with a rational person. Kony needs to be treated like the psychopathic killer that he is.

Maybe just once, finally, countries in the region (with EU and US support) can do the right thing: find and capture Kony, send him to The Hague, and end the madness.

See Grigin's posting at: http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=6381&l=1
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Posted By Peter Eichstaedt to Peter Eichstaedt at 11/14/2009 07:41:00 AM

Northern Uganda: Dispute and warnings over DDT-spraying

Email received today, addressed to Uganda Watch:

DDT: Government puts the people in Northern Uganda on dangerous health risks

Dear Sirs,

I'm a science journalist of ugandan origin based in Cologne, Germany. I have a PhD in Genetics and worked for six years at the University Hospital in Cologne.

Please inform the people of Uganda that the government puts people in Northern Uganda on dangerous health risks - especially the children.

Quote:

“I would like to assure organics farmers in Apac that DDT is not bad as some people might think, and it is going to be sprayed inside the house but not in the field.” he said. The farmers however said they will not allow their houses to be sprayed with the DDT because of its toxicity and economic effects on their products.”

The director of the Research Triangle Institute Dr. John Bahana said this program of indoor residual spraying will cover districts like Apac, Oyam, Kitgum, Pader, Gulu and Amuru.

Source:

Lango farmers oppose minister in dispute over DDT-spraying

(adungu, News and backgrounds by young radio journalists in Northern Uganda)

http://www.adungu.org/?p=70#more-70


I wrote a commentary to this article which was deleted less than two hours later. I don’t know why.

Here is my commentary:

The farmers in Apac are right. DDT is harmful.

Researchers led by the University of Pretoria in South Africa studied 3,310 boys born to women from the Limpopo Province, where DDT spraying was carried out in high-risk areas between 1995 and 2003 to control malaria. The two-year study included 2,396 boys whose mothers had been exposed to DDT and 914 whose mothers had not.

The study compared boys born to women in the 109 villages that were sprayed, with those born to women from the 97 villages that were not.

Women who lived in villages sprayed with DDT to reduce malaria gave birth to 33 per cent more baby boys with urogenital birth defects (UGBD) between 2004 and 2006 than women in unsprayed villages, according to research published online by the UK-based urology journal BJUI.

And women who stayed at home in sprayed villages, rather than being a student or working, had 41 per cent more baby boys with UGBDs, such as missing testicles or problems with their urethra or penis.

Science Daily, October 23, 2009

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091023093221.htm


Journal reference:

Bornman et al. DDT and urogenital malformations in newborn boys in a malarial area.
BJU International, 2009; DOI: 10.1111/j.1464-410X.2009.09003.x


Best Regards,

Joe Otim Dramiga

[end of email]