GULU, Uganda (Reuters) 29 Sep 2008 - Dressed in a button-down shirt and pressed trousers, a once-fearsome guerrilla from Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) steps on an egg.
Six former commanders follow suit, walking barefoot on the now-broken egg, placed atop of two branches in a T-shape. Dancers chant nearby.
"Our sons, we'd like to thank you for coming back," says Constantino Okot Ngomlokojo, chairman of the traditional courts for northern Uganda's Acholi ethnic group.
In Gulu town -- the center of LRA leader Joseph Kony's two-decade rebellion -- former rebels undergo the first of three cleansing rituals for a war that has become notorious for the use of mutilation, abduction and murder.
Rebels and Uganda's government agreed in February on how to deal with war crimes committed during the 22-year war in the north that has killed tens of thousands of people.
But peace remains as elusive as the LRA's self-proclaimed prophet leader, Kony, who has repeatedly failed to sign a final agreement, saying he wanted more explanation on a raft of deals signed at talks in neighboring south Sudan.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) wants Kony and two deputies for crimes like rape, murder and kidnapping. Rebels have vowed not to disarm until the charges are lifted.
Sitting beneath ancient mango trees at the ceremony, Captain Vincent Okema, formerly an LRA fighter for 15 years, said he had been waiting for this day for a long time but does not think peace will last.
"Kony is just deceiving people. He will not sign. I was one of his body guards and he told me that he will die in the bush," said Okema, who left the rebels last year.
"I can't judge people's feelings about me, but I want to go back home."
FORGIVENESS
Washing sweet potatoes in a village near the cleansing ceremony, Pamela Acieng said rebels should be forgiven for abducting her husband for four years and killing his brother.
"For the sake of peace, we can forgive, but they must face justice," the mother-of-four said.
Returning rebels do three cleansing rites before being accepted back into Acholi society. First a rebel like Captain Okema steps on an egg, which symbolizes purity, in a ritual in Gulu. He then returns to his village to do the same rite again.
Only later will Okema perform the "Mato oput" ceremony in which parties can confess crimes to their families, ask for forgiveness and pay damages.
"Anything they ask, I will do," Okema says when asked if he will make a confession.
Kampala and LRA rebels have agreed to set up a special division within the High Court to deal with more severe crimes. Lesser offences will be dealt with by traditional justice.
ICC supporters say only a judicial process with stiff jail terms for grave crimes is acceptable.
In a refugee camp some 470 km (300 miles) north of the capital, 73-year-old Genecio Oryem said he cannot forgive the rebels who left him to eke out a meager living making ropes.
"I have lost all my children . I am an old man, I can't go back to my village because I have no one to build me a home," the frail man said.
Sitting next to Oryem in the camp of thatched mud huts, 80-year-old Angelina Akech agreed. "I don't see the rebels so how can I forgive?"
Source: Reuters via Yahoo Xtra News 29 September 2008.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Forgiveness for ex Ugandan rebels starts on an egg
GULU, Uganda (Reuters) - Dressed in a button-down shirt and pressed trousers, a once-fearsome guerrilla from Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) steps on an egg.
Six former commanders follow suit, walking barefoot on the now-broken egg, placed atop of two branches in a T-shape. Dancers chant nearby.
"Our sons, we'd like to thank you for coming back," says Constantino Okot Ngomlokojo, chairman of the traditional courts for northern Uganda's Acholi ethnic group.
In Gulu town -- the center of LRA leader Joseph Kony's two-decade rebellion -- former rebels undergo the first of three cleansing rituals for a war that has become notorious for the use of mutilation, abduction and murder.
Rebels and Uganda's government agreed in February on how to deal with war crimes committed during the 22-year war in the north that has killed tens of thousands of people.
But peace remains as elusive as the LRA's self-proclaimed prophet leader, Kony, who has repeatedly failed to sign a final agreement, saying he wanted more explanation on a raft of deals signed at talks in neighboring south Sudan.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) wants Kony and two deputies for crimes like rape, murder and kidnapping. Rebels have vowed not to disarm until the charges are lifted.
Sitting beneath ancient mango trees at the ceremony, Captain Vincent Okema, formerly an LRA fighter for 15 years, said he had been waiting for this day for a long time but does not think peace will last.
"Kony is just deceiving people. He will not sign. I was one of his body guards and he told me that he will die in the bush," said Okema, who left the rebels last year.
"I can't judge people's feelings about me, but I want to go back home."
FORGIVENESS
Washing sweet potatoes in a village near the cleansing ceremony, Pamela Acieng said rebels should be forgiven for abducting her husband for four years and killing his brother.
"For the sake of peace, we can forgive, but they must face justice," the mother-of-four said.
Returning rebels do three cleansing rites before being accepted back into Acholi society. First a rebel like Captain Okema steps on an egg, which symbolizes purity, in a ritual in Gulu. He then returns to his village to do the same rite again.
Only later will Okema perform the "Mato oput" ceremony in which parties can confess crimes to their families, ask for forgiveness and pay damages.
"Anything they ask, I will do," Okema says when asked if he will make a confession.
Kampala and LRA rebels have agreed to set up a special division within the High Court to deal with more severe crimes. Lesser offences will be dealt with by traditional justice.
ICC supporters say only a judicial process with stiff jail terms for grave crimes is acceptable.
In a refugee camp some 470 km (300 miles) north of the capital, 73-year-old Genecio Oryem said he cannot forgive the rebels who left him to eke out a meager living making ropes.
"I have lost all my children . I am an old man, I can't go back to my village because I have no one to build me a home," the frail man said.
Sitting next to Oryem in the camp of thatched mud huts, 80-year-old Angelina Akech agreed. "I don't see the rebels so how can I forgive?"
Six former commanders follow suit, walking barefoot on the now-broken egg, placed atop of two branches in a T-shape. Dancers chant nearby.
"Our sons, we'd like to thank you for coming back," says Constantino Okot Ngomlokojo, chairman of the traditional courts for northern Uganda's Acholi ethnic group.
In Gulu town -- the center of LRA leader Joseph Kony's two-decade rebellion -- former rebels undergo the first of three cleansing rituals for a war that has become notorious for the use of mutilation, abduction and murder.
Rebels and Uganda's government agreed in February on how to deal with war crimes committed during the 22-year war in the north that has killed tens of thousands of people.
But peace remains as elusive as the LRA's self-proclaimed prophet leader, Kony, who has repeatedly failed to sign a final agreement, saying he wanted more explanation on a raft of deals signed at talks in neighboring south Sudan.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) wants Kony and two deputies for crimes like rape, murder and kidnapping. Rebels have vowed not to disarm until the charges are lifted.
Sitting beneath ancient mango trees at the ceremony, Captain Vincent Okema, formerly an LRA fighter for 15 years, said he had been waiting for this day for a long time but does not think peace will last.
"Kony is just deceiving people. He will not sign. I was one of his body guards and he told me that he will die in the bush," said Okema, who left the rebels last year.
"I can't judge people's feelings about me, but I want to go back home."
FORGIVENESS
Washing sweet potatoes in a village near the cleansing ceremony, Pamela Acieng said rebels should be forgiven for abducting her husband for four years and killing his brother.
"For the sake of peace, we can forgive, but they must face justice," the mother-of-four said.
Returning rebels do three cleansing rites before being accepted back into Acholi society. First a rebel like Captain Okema steps on an egg, which symbolizes purity, in a ritual in Gulu. He then returns to his village to do the same rite again.
Only later will Okema perform the "Mato oput" ceremony in which parties can confess crimes to their families, ask for forgiveness and pay damages.
"Anything they ask, I will do," Okema says when asked if he will make a confession.
Kampala and LRA rebels have agreed to set up a special division within the High Court to deal with more severe crimes. Lesser offences will be dealt with by traditional justice.
ICC supporters say only a judicial process with stiff jail terms for grave crimes is acceptable.
In a refugee camp some 470 km (300 miles) north of the capital, 73-year-old Genecio Oryem said he cannot forgive the rebels who left him to eke out a meager living making ropes.
"I have lost all my children . I am an old man, I can't go back to my village because I have no one to build me a home," the frail man said.
Sitting next to Oryem in the camp of thatched mud huts, 80-year-old Angelina Akech agreed. "I don't see the rebels so how can I forgive?"
Uganda urges aid agencies to starve LRA rebels for peace
See Congo Watch October 7, 2008: Uganda: Starve rebels for peace.
Monday, October 06, 2008
ICC renews call for Ugandan rebel leader Kony's arrest
Copy of AFP report via MONUC Monday, 06 October 2008 - ICC renews call for Ugandan rebel leader Kony's arrest:
THE HAGUE, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court renewed calls Monday for the arrest of Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony following attacks by the Ugandan rebel group on Congolese citizens.
"In the light of serious and converging information on attacks by the LRA against civilians in the DRC, ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo calls for renewed efforts to arrest LRA leader Kony and his top commanders," said a statement issued in The Hague.
"The criminals remain at large and continue to commit crimes and they are threatening the entire region. Arrest is long overdue."
The prosecutor claimed the LRA attacked villages in the Haut Uele district of the Democratic Republic of Congo on September 17.
"These attacks all follow a similar method with markets surrounded and looted, students abducted from school, properties burned and dozens of civilians killed, including several local chiefs," said the statement.
"Tens of thousands have now been displaced.
The ICC issued arrest warrants for Kony and two other top LRA commanders, Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen, in 2005.
They are accused of raping and mutilating civilians, enlisting child soldiers and massacring thousands.
In July, southern Sudanese lawmakers urged the ICC to defer the indictments to encourage the rebel leaders to sign a Sudan-mediated Ugandan peace agreement.
Kony has so far refused to sign the accord on the basis of the ICC arrest warrants.
"Kony -- just as he has many times in the past -- uses the peace talks to gain time and support, to rearm and attack again," said the prosecutor's statement.
"The price paid today by civilians is high."
Moreno-Ocampo's office urged regional and international organisations to support DR Congo and Uganda in planning and executing the arrests.
A semi-literate former altar boy, Kony took charge in 1988 of a regional rebellion among northern Uganda's ethnic Acholi minority.
Twenty years of fighting between the rebels and government forces have left tens of thousands dead and displaced two million people, mainly in northern Uganda.
monuc.org © 1999-2006 United Nations - MONUC
THE HAGUE, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court renewed calls Monday for the arrest of Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony following attacks by the Ugandan rebel group on Congolese citizens.
"In the light of serious and converging information on attacks by the LRA against civilians in the DRC, ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo calls for renewed efforts to arrest LRA leader Kony and his top commanders," said a statement issued in The Hague.
"The criminals remain at large and continue to commit crimes and they are threatening the entire region. Arrest is long overdue."
The prosecutor claimed the LRA attacked villages in the Haut Uele district of the Democratic Republic of Congo on September 17.
"These attacks all follow a similar method with markets surrounded and looted, students abducted from school, properties burned and dozens of civilians killed, including several local chiefs," said the statement.
"Tens of thousands have now been displaced.
The ICC issued arrest warrants for Kony and two other top LRA commanders, Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen, in 2005.
They are accused of raping and mutilating civilians, enlisting child soldiers and massacring thousands.
In July, southern Sudanese lawmakers urged the ICC to defer the indictments to encourage the rebel leaders to sign a Sudan-mediated Ugandan peace agreement.
Kony has so far refused to sign the accord on the basis of the ICC arrest warrants.
"Kony -- just as he has many times in the past -- uses the peace talks to gain time and support, to rearm and attack again," said the prosecutor's statement.
"The price paid today by civilians is high."
Moreno-Ocampo's office urged regional and international organisations to support DR Congo and Uganda in planning and executing the arrests.
A semi-literate former altar boy, Kony took charge in 1988 of a regional rebellion among northern Uganda's ethnic Acholi minority.
Twenty years of fighting between the rebels and government forces have left tens of thousands dead and displaced two million people, mainly in northern Uganda.
monuc.org © 1999-2006 United Nations - MONUC
Monday, September 22, 2008
UPDF will attack LRA rebels if they enter Uganda
In an interview yesterday, the UPDF spokesperson, Maj Paddy Ankunda said the army will not hesitate to attack LRA rebels should they dare enter Uganda. “We are prepared. Should they cross to Uganda we shall attack them directly,” Maj Ankunda told Daily Monitor by telephone, adding:
“The only thing that will guarantee the LRA safety is to sign the peace agreement”.
Source: Daily Monitor report - Kony attacks SPLA as UPDF stay on alert - by Yasiin Mugerwa & Agencies, Kampala, September 22, 2008
“The only thing that will guarantee the LRA safety is to sign the peace agreement”.
Source: Daily Monitor report - Kony attacks SPLA as UPDF stay on alert - by Yasiin Mugerwa & Agencies, Kampala, September 22, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Ugandan LRA rebels attacked military base in S. Sudan
Photo: The LRA are notorious for abducting children and mutilating victims
Source: Sep 20, 2008 BBC report "Uganda rebels in surprise attack". Copy:
Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebels have carried out a surprise attack on a military base in southern Sudan.
There are also separate reports of LRA raids on three villages just over the nearby border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Roman Catholic priests in the region say the rebels abducted more than 50 children and burned down houses.
The fighting broke out despite pledges by the rebels that they would sign a peace deal with the Ugandan government.
The BBC's Africa analyst David Bamford says instability in the region appears to be growing as moves to persuade LRA leaders to sign the agreement falter.
See a map of LRA bases in DR Congo and recent attacks
The LRA has led a rebellion against the government for more than 20 years which has left some two million people displaced.
The group has relocated to camps on the Sudan-DR Congo border for the last two years during peace negotiations.
Earlier this month, the Congolese army sent troops to the region to try to protect civilians from the rebels.
'Surprise attack'
A senior official in southern Sudan's Western Equatoria State government, Colonel Joseph Ngere, said the barracks attack involved about 100 LRA rebels.
He said it came as a complete surprise, adding that the rebels had also attacked the nearby village of Sakure.
The attacks in DR Congo are reported in the villages of Duru, Nambia and Kiliwa.
Several civilians are reported to have been killed.
Congolese troops have been reinforced in a nearby town.
In April, LRA leader Joseph Kony refused to sign a peace deal agreed to by his representatives after nearly two years of talks.
Mr Kony was said to have not signed the April agreement because he was seeking guarantees about arrest warrants from the
International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
Last weekend, an LRA spokesman told the BBC the rebels were willing to sign the agreement but would not disarm until the ICC indictments were lifted.
The LRA leader is accused of numerous war crimes, including abducting and mutilating civilians and forcing thousands of children into combat.
Recent reports say he has set up six new bases in northern DR Congo and is running diamond mines in the Central African Republic.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7625515.stm
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Map of attacks and LRA base - DR Congo's army has sent 200 troops to Dungu, DRC
Earlier this month, the Democratic Republic of Congo's army and the UN began a military operation to try to contain the activities of Ugandan LRA terrorist group leader Joseph Kony.
Source: BBC News 'Rebel leader targeted in DR Congo' report dated Monday, 8 September 2008. Excerpts:
Also note, as stated here many times before, the USA treats the LRA as a terrorist organisation and, in my view, rightly so.
One wonders about the financing and arming of the LRA over the past 20 years. How come, in this day age, the sources of funding, armaments and munitions for African rebel groups manage to remain such a secret over the past twenty years? I wish professional journalists would tell us because it would help make sense of what is going on in and around Africa and why.
[Cross posted to parent site Sudan Watch and sister sites Congo Watch, Niger Watch]
Source: BBC News 'Rebel leader targeted in DR Congo' report dated Monday, 8 September 2008. Excerpts:
The campaign follows failed attempts to negotiate an end to the rebellion by his Lord's Resistance Army.Note, the report says Mr Kony is thought to have been rebuilding his forces.
Congo's army has sent 200 troops to the northern town of Dungu, where hundreds have sought refuge from the LRA.
The LRA fought a 20-year war against the government in northern Uganda. Some two million people were displaced.
Also note, as stated here many times before, the USA treats the LRA as a terrorist organisation and, in my view, rightly so.
One wonders about the financing and arming of the LRA over the past 20 years. How come, in this day age, the sources of funding, armaments and munitions for African rebel groups manage to remain such a secret over the past twenty years? I wish professional journalists would tell us because it would help make sense of what is going on in and around Africa and why.
[Cross posted to parent site Sudan Watch and sister sites Congo Watch, Niger Watch]
Monday, August 25, 2008
UN peacekeepers deployed to east DRC after LRA attacks
Aug 20, 2008 (UN News Centre Africa) report - 'DR Congo: UN peacekeepers deployed to east after rebel attacks' - excerpt:
www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=27768&Cr=monuc&...
[Cross posted today at Congo Watch http://congowatch.blogspot.com]
United Nations peacekeepers and soldiers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have been jointly deployed in the eastern provinces of Ituri and Orientale to protect civilians after attacks by the rebel group known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).Full story: UN News Centre - Africa 20/8/08 06:00
A spokesman for the UN Mission in Congo (MONUC), Michel Bonnardeaux, told a press briefing today that the Ugandan rebel group had attacked and robbed villages around Duru over the past week. He said the Ituri Patriotic Front had also launched sporadic attacks in the Irumu area, and remained a serious threat.
MONUC went on to report further unrest in eastern DRC, including continued regrouping and recruitment by the Mayi-Mayi in North Kivu.
Aid agencies say that eastern DRC continues to be plagued by serious human rights abuses, seven months after the signing of peace accords at the Kivus conference in January.
Photo: MONUC backs DRC campaign to disarm national and foreign armed groups (caption & file photo/UN News Centre)
www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=27768&Cr=monuc&...
[Cross posted today at Congo Watch http://congowatch.blogspot.com]
Last week, south Sudan troops attacked Ugandan LRA terrorists on DR Congo border?
At an African Union summit in Egypt last month, the top US diplomat for Africa warned that Ugandan LRA leader, Joseph Kony, was re-arming.
Source: Aug 24, 2008 Reuters report, copied here below:
- - -
Map showing Sudan/DR Congo border
Map courtesy Google news/Aug 2008 archive http://sudanwatch.blogspot.com
(Cross posted at sister site Congo Watch - http://congowatch.blogspot.com)
Source: Aug 24, 2008 Reuters report, copied here below:
Uganda rebels accuse south Sudan of attackSource: http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnWAL471739.html
Sun Aug 24 2008 KAMPALA (Reuters South Africa)
A spokesman for Uganda's fugitive northern rebels accused south Sudanese troops of attacking guerrilla positions on Sunday on the Congo border, preventing a peace meeting.
Officials from the South Sudanese Liberation Army (SPLA) could not immediately be reached for comment, and there was no independent confirmation of the clash.
"Sometime last week there was a skirmish after SPLA attacked our positions," David Nyekorach-Matsanga, a spokesman for Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, said by telephone from the south Sudanese capital Juba.
"We thought that was a mistake. But today they repeated it when they attacked LRA at Nabanga."
He gave no other details, but said a planned meeting in the area between LRA representatives and their elusive leader Joseph Kony had been cancelled.
A two-decade civil war in northern Uganda forced 2 million people from their homes and also destabilised neighbouring parts of oil-producing south Sudan and mineral-rich eastern Congo.
Kony is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Two years of peace talks collapsed in April when he failed to appear on the border to sign a final peace deal.
At an African Union summit in Egypt last month, the top U.S. diplomat for Africa warned that the LRA leader was re-arming.
(Reporting by Frank Nyakairu; editing by Daniel Wallis and Tim Pearce)
- - -
Map showing Sudan/DR Congo border
Map courtesy Google news/Aug 2008 archive http://sudanwatch.blogspot.com
(Cross posted at sister site Congo Watch - http://congowatch.blogspot.com)
Friday, August 22, 2008
LRA chief Kony won't sign a peace accord with Uganda until an international warrant for his arrest is withdrawn
By Eric Ombok and Karl Maier
August 22, 2008 (Bloomberg) - Ugandan Rebel Kony Wants Arrest Warrant Withdrawn (Update1):
Joseph Kony, the leader of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, won't sign a peace accord with Uganda until an international warrant for his arrest is withdrawn, a spokesman for the group said.
Kony will demand the lifting of the warrant at a scheduled Aug. 24 meeting with the United Nations special envoy, former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, and Southern Sudan's vice president, Riek Machar, at Ri-Kwangba, a camp on Sudan's border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, the spokesman said.
"Kony is going to tell the world that he would append his signature, but the warrants are here,'' LRA spokesman David Nyekorach Matsanga told reporters today in Kenya's capital, Nairobi. Kony is prepared to be tried under Uganda's traditional and formal legal systems, he said.
Kony, a former Catholic altar boy who says the LRA is inspired by the Ten Commandments, is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes such as murder, mutilation, rape and the abduction of thousands of children as soldiers.
In April, Kony refused to sign a final peace agreement because he wanted assurances about his safety. Uganda's government said last month it won't meet the rebels again until they sign the accord.
The LRA justifies its rebellion by saying forces loyal to President Yoweri Museveni attacked the Acholi people, who formed the rank and file of the Ugandan army, after he overthrew Tito Okello, an Acholi, in 1986. The majority of the LRA are from the Acholi.
As the war intensified, the LRA targeted local villagers and abducted children to use as soldiers, porters and sex slaves, Amnesty International and other rights groups said.
The Ugandan government responded by forcing almost 2 million civilians, including about 90 percent of the Acholi people, into "protected villages,'' according to rights groups such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch.
To contact the reporters on this story: Eric Ombok in Nairobi via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net; Karl Maier in Rome at kmaier2@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: August 22, 2008 04:38 EDT
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=apC3chpDCdaM&refer=africa
August 22, 2008 (Bloomberg) - Ugandan Rebel Kony Wants Arrest Warrant Withdrawn (Update1):
Joseph Kony, the leader of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, won't sign a peace accord with Uganda until an international warrant for his arrest is withdrawn, a spokesman for the group said.
Kony will demand the lifting of the warrant at a scheduled Aug. 24 meeting with the United Nations special envoy, former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, and Southern Sudan's vice president, Riek Machar, at Ri-Kwangba, a camp on Sudan's border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, the spokesman said.
"Kony is going to tell the world that he would append his signature, but the warrants are here,'' LRA spokesman David Nyekorach Matsanga told reporters today in Kenya's capital, Nairobi. Kony is prepared to be tried under Uganda's traditional and formal legal systems, he said.
Kony, a former Catholic altar boy who says the LRA is inspired by the Ten Commandments, is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes such as murder, mutilation, rape and the abduction of thousands of children as soldiers.
In April, Kony refused to sign a final peace agreement because he wanted assurances about his safety. Uganda's government said last month it won't meet the rebels again until they sign the accord.
The LRA justifies its rebellion by saying forces loyal to President Yoweri Museveni attacked the Acholi people, who formed the rank and file of the Ugandan army, after he overthrew Tito Okello, an Acholi, in 1986. The majority of the LRA are from the Acholi.
As the war intensified, the LRA targeted local villagers and abducted children to use as soldiers, porters and sex slaves, Amnesty International and other rights groups said.
The Ugandan government responded by forcing almost 2 million civilians, including about 90 percent of the Acholi people, into "protected villages,'' according to rights groups such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch.
To contact the reporters on this story: Eric Ombok in Nairobi via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net; Karl Maier in Rome at kmaier2@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: August 22, 2008 04:38 EDT
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=apC3chpDCdaM&refer=africa
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Uganda: Museveni calls for one African army
President Yoweri Museveni has criticised his African peers for relying on foreign military forces to maintain peace and security on the continent.
Here is the full story by TABU F. BUTAGIRA & RONALD BATRE, September 24, 2007, from KAMPALA/ARUA via monitor.co.ug
Here is the full story by TABU F. BUTAGIRA & RONALD BATRE, September 24, 2007, from KAMPALA/ARUA via monitor.co.ug
Gen. Museveni said Africa needs to immediately build one strong army that would intervene swiftly to restore calm in any beleaguered state and end unnecessary western benefaction. "Should Africa continue to seek defence patronage from abroad?" Mr Museveni asked on Friday, adding: "In whose interest is this patronage?"
Presently, over 13, 000 UN troops under the United Nations Mission in Congo are struggling to restore calm in the restive eastern DRC where renegade rebel chief Gen. Laurent Nkunda is fighting the Kinshasa government of Joseph Kabila.
On August 1, the UN approved the deployment of 26, 000 military and police personnel to Sudan's volatile Darfur region where an estimated 200, 000 people have died and another 2 million displaced since a conflict erupted in the oil-rich western province in 2003.
The home-grown African Union troops deployed there earlier are over stretched and have under performed mainly due to logistical bottlenecks and lack of money.
"While we may get help from bodies like the United Nations, it is imperative that we take initiative in promoting peace and preventing conflict," Mr Museveni said in a speech read for him by State Finance Minister (general duties), Jachan Omach at International UN Peace Day national celebrations in Arua on Friday.
"We need to build a credible military force that can guarantee the future of the African race". The President said many of the wars ravaging African Countries have continued to escalate and claim more lives due to delayed response arising from over reliance on foreign armed forces.
He said conflict resolution must be given a new priority on Africa's development agenda if harmony is to prevail within and between the continent's 53 nations. "Africa must strive to be ideologically independent if we are to secure and maintain peace and stability across (national) borders. We must share the same vision for our continent," Mr Museveni who had initially disagreed on fast tracking formation of a single African government, said.
"Conflicts have devastated the African continent, causing loss of millions of lives, human rights have been abused and entire populations forced to abandon dwellings and take on refugee status," he said.
"It is not only appalling but also abhorrent that the perpetrators of such acts normally attack defenseless civilians, children and women in order to advance their causes". The International Peace Day was celebrated under the theme: Promoting Cross-border Peace and Stability; Our Commitment, Struggle In Our Development and Progress.
Uganda: UN to help flush out LRA terrorists
Sept 16, 2007 - New Vision report from Kampala by Alfred Wasike [hat tip Enough]
THE UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, MONUC, is ready to back the Congolese army to flush out the LRA and other armed groups from eastern Congo to ensure security in the Great Lakes region.
"We are very concerned about the presence of the LRA and other armed groups in the DRC. Now we have the mandate to use force. We are deploying together with the DRC army to make sure that the LRA or other armed groups don't make the DRC their safe haven," said William Lacy Swing, the head of MONUC.
Swing has been in Kampala for the meeting of the Tripartite Plus Joint Commission, which was attended by ministers of defence and foreign affairs, as well as security chiefs, from Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC.
The four Great Lakes countries are discussing ways to deal with the armed groups based in eastern Congo which are threatening the security of the region. Uganda's delegation included ministers Sam Kutesa and Dr. Crispus Kiyonga, external security chief Dr. Robert Masolo and his colleague from internal security, Dr. Amos Mukumbi.
Swing, also the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Congo, told journalists yesterday at Speke Resort Munyonyo that MONUC planned to increase its presence in the area where the LRA is.
"We have moved about 90% of our forces to the eastern DRC. They (LRA) must go back and finalise the peace talks in Juba. We want to ensure that the peace talks succeed."
He said the other armed groups in the DRC included ADF (Allied Democratic Forces), PRA (People's Redemption Army), FDLR (Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda), FNL (National Forces of Liberation) as well as the forces of Laurent Nkunda.
Swing regretted that, although 15,000 members of armed groups had been demobilised, fresh fighting in the east had led to the displacement of over 600,000 people.
"The Tripartite Plus countries must ensure that they come up with effective strategies to accelerate disarmament of the armed groups. This is the surest way for us to eliminate the negative forces," he pointed out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)