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MEDIAWATCH: U.S. role in Uganda rebel operation under fire
Written by: Joanne Tomkinson
Josephine, 3, paralyzed from the neck down after Ugandan LRA rebels killed her parents and twisted her neck, sits with her grandmother during a visit by U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes at a hospital in Dorouma, Congo.
REUTERS/T.J. Kirkpatrick/Pool
REUTERS/T.J. Kirkpatrick/Pool
A multinational offensive aimed at wiping out Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels seems to have backfired, scattering fighters who've unleashed a wave of brutal massacres on Congolese villages. The Washington Post writes the operation has been so unsuccessful it amounts to little more than "throwing a rock at a hive of bees". LRA fighters have killed nearly 900 people in reprisal attacks in northeast Congo since Ugandan troops, together with Sudanese and Congolese soldiers, launched a military operation against fugitive rebel leader Joseph Kony in December. For the Christian Science Monitor, bad planning and poor coordination undermined the mission from the start. The botched plan gave the Ugandan rebels time to flee and issue orders to start killing everyone in sight. "After the attacks they declared a total war against the population," Justin-Yves Rabbi, who was abducted by the LRA from Central African Republic, told the Monitor. "Whatever the success or otherwise of the joint military operation, the protection of civilians in the region appears to have been only a distant afterthought," the Boston-based magazine writes. For two decades, northern Uganda was the centre of an LRA insurgency, in which tens of thousands were killed, kidnapped or mutilated and 2 million people uprooted from their homes. Talks between Kony and Kampala broke down in April after the LRA chief failed to sign a final peace deal. Kony's rebels have since been operating from camps in the Garamba National Park, in northeast Congo. The New York Times reveals that the offensive against the LRA was backed by the U.S. government. "It is the first time the United States has helped plan such a specific military offensive with Uganda," the paper writes, saying the Pentagon's new Africa Command (Africom) contributed intelligence, advice and $1 million in fuel. No American forces have been involved in ground fighting, but human rights advocates and villagers complain Ugandan and Congolese troops have done almost nothing to protect civilians, despite the LRA's history of bloody attacks on local populations, according to the New York Times. Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has also accused U.N. peacekeepers in Congo of failing to protect civilians by not reacting to the Ugandan rebels' rampage. Foreign Policy magazine, meanwhile, warns that even with U.S. help, the LRA won't be easy to stamp out, putting the Pentagon's reputation at risk. "Given the number of civilian massacres that have occurred since the start of the operation - massacres that happened because no one adequately secured the villages in the area - this could potentially be embarrassing for U.S. Africa Command (Africom) and the Pentagon," the magazine warns. AFRICOM DEBACLE? There are doubtful voices in the blogosphere too. "One of the first publicly-acknowledged Africom operations has turned into a general debacle, resulting in the death of nearly a thousand civilians and sending untold numbers of children into sex slavery and military servitude," Dave Donelson says in his Heart of Diamonds blog. "The Congolese and Ugandan command had made no plans to cut off fleeing elements of the LRA, so the rebels scattered throughout the countryside in a rampage of fresh violence," he adds. For others, all the talk of the LRA's culpability for the massacres lets the Ugandan government and its American backers off the hook. "We hear a litany of reports now about how 'bloodthirsty' the LRA is. No one points out that everywhere that Uganda's army, the UPDF/NRA goes, there is a bloodbath; the same bloodcurdling atrocities, and massive displacement of innocent people all of which is always blamed on the other side," says Carolyn Edson in New York's Black Star News. "The war in the northern part of Uganda was carefully planned by the Museveni government and the U.S. government has played a key role in the background as it has just done in sponsoring this new war in DRC," she writes. While underlining his horror at the catastrophic humanitarian fallout of the attempt to rout the LRA, U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes has said the joint force still needs to see the operation through. "I don't know how long that will take...but I think there is no point in putting a premature end to it," Holmes told Reuters. "We, meanwhile, will try to pick up the pieces as best we can." For some, the price has already been too high. "Like Nkunda, Joseph Kony and his LRA must be stopped ... But not at such an expensive cost ... not at the cost of so many lives, suffering so much and in such a horrendous way," argues blogger Omar Basawad.
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6 responses to “MEDIAWATCH: U.S. role in Uganda rebel operation under fire ”
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13 Feb 2009 19:08:00 GMT
Dear Editor.
I think blames should also be put on both Museveni and especially the USA who were planning for the war against LRA yet peace talk was on going. You will agree with me that LRA were just peacefully growing their food and having social life as evidenced by the guitar. In other words USA and Museveni should have let a sleeping dog lie.13 Feb 2009 19:08:53 GMT
Dear Editor,
It's good that the World press is beginning to write about the war in Northern Uganda. It's long overdue. Allow me mention that unless the reporting of this war is done by such impartiality required of proffessional journalism to unearth the impending suffering of the peoples of the great lake region of Africa, the war mongers in this region will once again be left off the hook. Please listen to the cries of these people. It's a known fact who is the war monger in the region and yet bigger powers are tied lipped. The rebels of this region are symply a symptom of the war most are even victims of adverse policies.14 Feb 2009 09:53:45 GMT
The US was a well respected nation as a world police until they stormed Iraq falsely. Lessons from Vietnam and the on-going classes in Iraq seems not to let American war generals realise that their people's money and trust should be put to better use.
As a Ugandan, from the war ravaged north, Museveni and America can talk but I know what I perceive of them. Since OIL = security for America, our oil and mineral rich region is our insecurity. To Museveni, the discovery of oil (actually kept secrete since 1896) , could this be the reason why presidential term limits were scrapped. Is the Ugandan democracy or lack of it, corruption, and sustainable insecurity in desired regions, America's dream bed mate? The two year cease fire during the Uganda Government - LRA peace talks has been the best peace we have ever enjoyed in Northern Uganda. America would have been more idolized world wide if it had delved into the genesis of the LRA conflict and used the $1M worth of fuel in pursuant of realizing the Final Peace Agreement. We the people of Northern Uganda have suffered enough. America can make the Ugandan government more responsible to her people not against them. The abductees tell a story- Lack of government protection of her people. Imagine, for every military engagement, all the dead are reported as rebels, while those alive are a few rebels and the majority rescued abductees. Is there a ploy to kill the locals only when they are in the hands of the rebels? If not why do you allow the abductions to take place, then rush to kill? We might never forgive both government and LRA for their atrocities but for the sake of an end to this ego, oil and mineral war, we the people are ready to let go.15 Feb 2009 09:10:03 GMT
When will we realize that using violence to end violence does not work. There is innocent blood being spilled and brutal atrocities being committed by all parties���.and are not many of the members of the LAR just children and others that have been captured and forced to fight���are they really the enemy or just more victims. For those that fight out of choice, what is their motivation other than fear, do they feel they have no other options? What if we were to concentrated our effort in developing ways to entice people to walk away...perhaps if we offered a better quality of life with financial sustainability. Lofty idea? Impossible���would cost too much...it would take too long to create and implement...in the mean while more and more people will brutalized and killed���all possibility true, I certainly don���t have the answers but I do know that it is time we need a radically different approach.
19 Feb 2009 12:00:22 GMT
Wow, the United States is guilty of something and Bush is not in power. Must be a typo.
03 Mar 2009 17:13:39 GMT
I think its unfortunate that people so easily condemn Kony and the LRA without completely understanding the dynamics in this war. Kony was a rebel who survived a power vacuum when the initially disciplined resistance movements to Yoweri Museveni fragmented. The LRA was not perpetrating widespread atrocity as many think until State actors and malicious intent from the Southern Government was initiated. Museveni forcefully conscripted Acholi (Kony's community) against him and thus ethnic treason was ground for reaction. This by no way condones Kony's actions, but analysis of this conflict must be tempered with the reality that Museveni has killed, maimed and degraded more Ugandan's than the LRA could ever hope to. Unfortunately the West is very guilty of bias analysis. The war on terror includes groups like Kony, yet were the LRA eradicated - then there would really be nothing stopping Museveni and his UPDF from steamrolling the Nort! hern community into submission. This is what you get when you support someone who has been democratically elected President for life - through corruption and oppression.