Peter Eichstaedt's book on the LRA, First Kill Your Family: Child Soldiers of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army

A few days ago, an anonymous reader going by the name of Steve sent me the following comment at a recent Sudan Watch post (LRA's Kony is in the fringes of Garamba, North of Maridi but in the Sudan territory)

January 07, 2009
Steve said...
Ingrid: Any thoughts on the LRA's predilection for massacre of civilians? I understand the murder of noncombatants has become a hallmark of low-intensity warfare, particularly in Africa, but I was hoping to get some feedback on the LRA's strategic logic in pursuing such vile tactics. Simply, WHY?

Yesterday I replied, saying this:

January 08, 2009
Steve: Mind altering substances? Not knowing or trusting who is who, uniformed or not? How to identify who is a civilian or not? Psychos pretending to be LRA so that the LRA are blamed? Are the LRA disciplined enough to use strategic logic? Voodoo? brainwashing? I really have no idea. The savagery is beyond my comprehension.
What do you think?
In the report posted here, Joseph Bangakya said. "Most were killed with machetes. (The LRA) are trying to save their ammunition."

Soon I shall be publishing here an exclusive 2,000 word report by Rob Crilly (a British freelance journalist writing about Africa for The Times) that helps shed more light on the LRA. Meanwhile, if any readers here have any thoughts on the LRA, please do share in a blog post or in the commenting facility here at Congo Watch - or email me. Thanks.

Note: Peter Eichstaedt recently posted a comment here at Congo Watch with information of a book he had written on the LRA entitled: First Kill Your Family: Child Soldiers of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army.

After publishing this post, I shall respond to Peter's comment with a link to this post in the hope that he might enlighten us as to why the LRA have a predilection for the massacring of civilians.

Sorry for the delay in responding to comments. Google's Blogger email notification of comments is not working so it takes a day or two or longer if I don't visit my Dashboard.



See Peter Eichstaedt's blog at http://www.petereichstaedt.blogspot.com

Peter's book is available at:

Amazon.com
firstkillyourfamily.com.
barnesandnoble.com
24hour-books.com.

Here are some reviews and photos extracted from those websites:

Synopsis

“Richard Opio has neither the look of a cold-blooded killer nor the heart of one. Yet as his mother and father lay on the ground with their hands tied, Richard used the blunt end of an ax to crush their skulls.  He was ordered to do this by a unit commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group that has terrorized northern Uganda for twenty years. The memory racks Richard’s slender body as he wipes away tears.”
 
For more than twenty years, beginning in the mid-1980s, the Lord’s Resistance Army has ravaged northern Uganda. Tens of thousands have been slaughtered, and thousands more mutilated and traumatized. At least 1.5 million people have been driven from a pastoral existence into the squalor of refugee camps.
 
The leader of the rebel army is the rarely seen Joseph Kony, a former witchdoctor and self-professed spirit medium who continues to evade justice and wield power from somewhere near the Congo~Sudan border. Kony claims he not only can predict the future but also can control the minds of his fighters. And control them he does: the Lord’s Resistance Army consists of children who are abducted from their homes under cover of night. As initiation, the boys are forced to commit atrocities—murdering their parents, friends, and relatives—and the kidnapped girls are forced into lives of sexual slavery and labor.
 
In First Kill Your Family, veteran journalist Peter Eichstaedt goes into the war-torn villages and refugee camps, talking to former child soldiers, child “brides,” and other victims. He examines the cultlike convictions of the army; how a pervasive belief in witchcraft, the spirit world, and the supernatural gave rise to this and other deadly movements; and what the global community can do to bring peace and justice to the region. This insightful analysis delves into the war’s foundations and argues that, much like Rwanda’s genocide, international intervention is needed to stop Africa’s virulent cycle of violence.



Publishers Weekly

Eichstaedt (If You Poison Us) offers a heartfelt if sometimes lopsided look at the consequences of prolonged civil war. Northern Uganda has been under siege by the rebel group the Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA, for 20 years, leading to death tolls rivaling those in Darfur, Sudan, which has garnered considerably more media attention. The LRA is known for employing brutal techniques, including mutilating community members who inform on them, kidnapping children to serve as male child soldiers or female "brides," sex slaves for rebel soldiers.

Interviewing victims of these crimes, as well as perpetrators, government officials and non-governmental actors, Eichstaedt weaves a story of a decimated culture caught between merciless violence and the chaos of refugee camps. The result is a close analysis of this underreported crisis, which has only recently shown signs of abating. However, some of Eichstaedt's conclusions seem uninformed at best, including his one-sided look at religious views in Uganda, which prompt his remark, "There is no moral center of gravity here, no spiritual compass that one can hold against the horizon to escape the clamor and chaos."

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Biography

Peter Eichstaedt is the Africa editor for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting in The Hague. He is a veteran journalist who has reported from locations worldwide, including Slovenia, Moldova, Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, and Uganda, and a former senior editor for Uganda Radio Network. He is the author of If You Poison Us: Uranium and Native Americans.

Kirkus Reviews

Veteran journalist Eichstaedt (If You Poison Us: Uranium and Native Americans, 1994) blows the lid off atrocities in East Africa involving alarmingly young war recruits. After working with the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) in the Hague to successfully establish an independent news agency in Afghanistan, the author in 2005 went to Uganda to do the same. The nation had been racked by civil war for 20 years, and nearly 95 percent of its citizens lived in refugee camps. But the desperate situation received little international media coverage.

Eichstaedt's attention soon focused on Uganda's northern region, ravaged by the Lord's Resistance Army. This guerrilla group, formed in rebellion against the government, was comprised mainly of children. The author personally interviewed eyewitnesses to the LRA's slaughter of Ugandan citizens, its own high-ranking officers and the child soldiers themselves.
Their tales of savagery repulsed him. "That humans were capable of doing such things for years on end was hard to fathom," he writes.

Dense, in-depth reporting showcases LRA leader Joseph Kony, a self-proclaimed witch doctor and prophet whose adoption of the name Lord's Resistance, and of the Ten Commandments as a "moral guide," was bitterly ironic in light of his tactics. The LRA kidnapped thousands of young male soldiers and child "brides," forcing them into military service and sexual servitude.

The young soldiers' first assignment was often to kill their family members. Interviews with former LRA members give an intimate spin to this concentrated narrative; those who managed to escape frequently returned home to find themselves ostracized by their families for the violence they had done. A shaky truce has been established between warring factions, Eichstaedt writes, but the LRA and the elusive Kony remain formidable obstacles to lasting peace. A chillingly lucid report on a terminally tragic catastrophe. Agent: Michele Rubin/Writers House



What People Are Saying

Desmond Tutu
You must read this powerful book. Peter Eichstaedt has given voice to the victims of the largely unheard-of tragedy of Uganda. This story calls out to our very humanity.

Mac Maharaj
A book filled with haunting images that leave one groping for answers. (Mac Maharaj, South African author and activist)

Douglas Farah
This fine firsthand account should be read by anyone seeking to grapple with the challenges of war and peace in coming decades. (Douglas Farah, author, Merchant of Death and Blood from Stones)

John Dau
This book is a call to action to help our brothers and sisters in Africa that we can no longer ignore. (John Dau, president, John Dau Sudan Foundation, and coauthor, God Grew Tired of Us: A Memoir)



Some Customer Reviews

December 28, 2008
For two decades, a bizarre guerrilla movement called the "Lord's Resistance Army" - part Christian-animist cult, part ethnic uprising, part simple banditry - has plagued northern Uganda and the adjoining areas of Sudan and the Congo. Its chieftain, Joseph Kony, is a former witch doctor who claims to be "fighting for the Ten Commandments". Its principal method of recruitment is the abduction of pre-teenagers, who are compelled to serve as porters, concubines and soldiers. Its trademark atrocity is cutting off the lips and noses of captives who are not pressed into service. Though its numbers have never been large, it has disrupted life throughout its area of operations. Casualties are estimated at 100,000 dead and nearly two million displaced into refugee camps.

Journalist Peter Eichstaedt's account of this long conflict is disjointed, pedestrian and overloaded with platitudes, but not ineffective. Interviews with memorable figures, ranging from former boy soldiers to Catholic missionaries to rebel and government leaders, are interspersed with the author's travelogue through a desperate land. The montage manages to convey the horror and hardship suffered by the war's victims, both those killed, maimed or abducted by the LRA and those forced into overcrowded, unhealthy and ill-defended camps by the dubiously competent Ugandan government. (Many refugees believe that the southern-dominated regime welcomes the excuse to debilitate traditionally hostile northern tribes, a view whose merits the author has trouble evaluating.)

As the book proceeds, the prospect nears of a happy ending. Community militias organize an effective resistance to the LRA. It loses the tacit backing of the Sudanese junta and is forced back to an enclave in the Congo. Peace talks begin. They never quite reach fruition, however. Again and again, the sides reach ostensible agreement, Kony announces that he will appear to sign the final accords, and then he reneges at the last minute. (Another round of this fandango took place after the book went to press, leading to a joint Ugandan-Sudanese-Congolese offensive that may (emphasize "may") be on the verge of dismantling the LRA at long last.)

A couple of morals are quite plain, though the author not only doesn't see, but actively denies, them: First, in dealing with enemies on the fringes of rationality, an ounce of military effort is worth many pounds of peace-making initiatives overseen by cosmopolitan do-gooders. Second, the International Criminal Court, which has brought formal charges against Kony and several of his top lieutenants (its very first indictments, in fact), can accomplish nothing. In this case, it may be hindering the attainment of peace, since the LRA's commanders are, not too surprisingly, unwilling to give themselves up for trial and have demanded the quashing of the indictments as a condition for signing peace terms. Useless at best and counterproductive at worst, the ICC nonetheless has Mr. Eichstaedt's whole-hearted support, perhaps because, as he reveals in a throwaway paragraph, he hopes to see American leaders someday facing "justice" before it.

Americans pay far too little attention to Africa. Therefore, books like this one can be commended to the importance of their subject and the excellence of their intentions, if not for the quality of their execution.
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December 24, 2008
This is a chilling book about the strife in Africa. I couldnt put this book down. Parts of it made me ill, seeing the souls of the worst people that have ever existed in history. A hundred thousand little Stalins and a bad idea. It sent chills up my spine knowing some of these murderers have immigrated.
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December 18, 2008
This courageous book is dedicated to the people of northern Uganda who lost their lives or suffered at the hands of the Lord's Resistance Army. Peter Eichstaedt has given voice to the child soldiers and other victims of the largely unheard-of tragedy of Uganda. We rarely hear about this on the evening news!

I highly recommend this firsthand account of events that are taking place in our lifetime for anyone seeking to understand the state of the world. We are all connected. "First Kill Your Family" should be read by the young people of our country as soon as they are old enough to comprehend the content, so that they can begin to understand the challenges humanity is faced with.

The book opens with a quote by Martin Luther King Jr.:

"Man's inhumanity to man is not only perpetrated by the vitriolic actions of those who are bad, it is also perpetrated by the vitiating inaction of those who are good."

--Suza Francina, yoga teacher, author, activist and volunteer with Global Resource Alliance (GRA),an organization based in Ojai, California, that is dedicated to improving the quality of life for the people of Africa. www.globalresourcealliance.org.
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December 18, 2008
 "First Kill Your Family" is the story of one reporter's journey to Uganda and examination of the "Lord's Resistance Army" or the LRA. The author goes to different parts of Uganda to find out the effects of the long war that the LRA has waged in northern Uganda. It is fascinating reporting - but each chapter is a story in and of itself. The next chapter is usually only tangentially related to the previous one. The only common theme is the effects of the LRA on Uganda.

While a similar subject, "A Long Way Gone" is much more readable because it is the story of one captured boy soldier and his experiences as a boy soldier in Sierra Leone. It is still worth a read if you are interested in this particular war, but it reads much better if you think of it as a collection of news reports from the battlefield in Uganda.
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Product Details
ISBN: 1556527993
ISBN-13: 9781556527999
Format: Hardcover, 336pp
Publisher: Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
Pub. Date: February 2009

POSTSCRIPT FROM CONGO WATCH
Afterthought - 5 minutes after publishing this post: What is this about I wonder? (I have highlighted it in red): "Many refugees believe that the southern-dominated regime welcomes the excuse to debilitate traditionally hostile northern tribes"
Note to self to find out more.

(Partial copy cross posted today at Sudan Watch and Uganda Watch)

In South Sudan since Christmas: LRA killed around 40, mostly in Mundri and Maridi

January 08, 2009 report via MONUC - Ugandan rebels kill 40 in south Sudan: top official:

JUBA, Sudan, Jan 8, 2009 (AFP) - Ugandan rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have killed at least 40 people in south Sudan since Christmas, an official said on Wednesday.

The rebels attacked villagers, looted houses and burnt huts in the Western Equatoria region of Sudan, as fighters fled attacks on their jungle bases across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"They have killed around 40, mostly in the Mundri and Maridi districts," said Colonel Joseph Ngere Paciko, deputy state governor for Western Equatoria.

"One or two they may have shot, but mostly they have hacked people with machetes, or just clubbed them to death."

Troops from Congo, Uganda and south Sudan launched a joint operation in mid-December against the rebels in the northeast DR Congo -- an isolated region near the Ugandan and Sudanese borders.

"Where I am now, they have killed three more with machetes," Paciko said, speaking by satellite telephone from the field.

"Some huts have been burnt, but mostly they are looting -- taking food and medicines."

Tens of thousands of people have also been killed and nearly two million displaced in Uganda in two decades of fighting between the LRA and Ugandan government forces.

Blamed for widespread human rights violations over the years, the LRA is accused of killing hundreds of civilians in northeastern DR Congo -- at least 400, according to Catholic aid group Caritas -- during the Christmas period.

"They are desperate because they are running away from their bases that have been attacked," Paciko added. "But they are also angry with the people of south Sudan, because they think it is these people who have betrayed them."

He was not able to give precise figures on the numbers of fighters in the area, but said several groups are active.

"They are moving in small groups of 15 to 20 fighters -- classic guerilla tactics that are causing havoc to the region," he added.

The joint offensive was launched after LRA leader Joseph Kony repeatedly refused to sign a peace agreement with Kampala aimed at ending one of Africa's longest conflicts.

UNHCR visits Congolese towns attacked by LRA

Tuesday, January 06, 2009 UNHCR report by Margarida Fawke in Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo:

UNHCR staff have taken part in a joint assessment mission to an area of north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo) hit by deadly attacks in recent weeks by a rebel Ugandan group.

A UN team, gathering members of UNHCR and sister agencies, met local officials, representatives of local non-governmental organizations (NGO), and displaced civilians during last weekend's visit to the towns of Tadu and Faradje in Orientale province.

The rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) attacked Faradje, some 100 kilometres west of the border between the DRC, Sudan and Uganda, on December 25-26, leaving at least 70 people dead and forcing some 37,000 to flee.

According to initial estimates, LRA fighters have killed up to 500 Congolese civilians in various attacks in the region since the launch on December 14 of a joint Congolese, Sudanese and Ugandan military operation against the rebels. The UN estimates more than 50,000 people have been displaced since mid-December, which is in addition to the 50,000 displaced during an earlier escalation of violence between September and November last year.

The latest rebel attack came on Monday in the Orientale village of Napopo. According to a sketchy report received by UNHCR, up to eight people were killed and houses set ablaze. An unknown number of people were reportedly kidnapped. Two days earlier, rebels attacked the village of Nagero, 24 kms north-west of Faradje, killing at least eight people and displacing some 3,500.

Meanwhile, the joint UN team found that most of those displaced by the LRA's Christmas attack on Faradje and its surroundings were still hiding in the bush. Some of the displaced moved towards Tadu, 37 kms south of Faradje where more than 1,000 displaced people have been registered, mostly women and children.

According to the displaced from Faradje and local NGOs, 225 people, including 160 children, have been kidnapped by the LRA and more than 80 women raped. The mission reported that people in the area were shocked and traumatized by the brutality of the attacks.

UNHCR team members said Faradje had been pillaged and destroyed by fire. More than 800 houses, three schools, government buildings and medical facilities were burned down. Most of Faradje's households lost their annual rice harvest in the fires.



Photo: Internally displaced children in Tadu on Saturday. © UNHCR/M.Fawke

Registration of the newly displaced population is under way in Tadu, Faradje and neighbouring villages. The population is in dire need of food, shelter, medicine, clothes and other aid items. However, the area remains highly volatile and insecurity is a key obstacle for access by UNHCR and other aid agencies. The refugee agency is working with the local authorities and others to find ways of managing assistance in these inaccessible areas.

Ugandan army recovered military equipment from LRA bases in Garamba, DRC

Army recovers more items from LRA
January 05, 2009 New Vision Uganda report by Barbara Among:

The Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) have captured more military equipment and food from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels.

During yesterday’s cordon-and-search operation, the troops recovered the items from rebel bases in the west of Garamba Forest.

The items include 1,000kgs of sugar, four sub-machine guns with 60 rounds of ammunition, a radio communication charging system with three batteries, two Codan manpack radios, two frequency military radios, a satellite phone and one Mageran Global Positioning System.

“The rebels become more vulnerable as they lose the will and means to make war,” said army spokesperson Maj. Paddy Ankunda.

“The operation against the rebels will continue unless (LRA leader) Joseph Kony signs the Juba peace agreement and assembles at Ri-Kwangba,” he added.

On Sunday, the army recovered a grenade launcher near Camp Swahili. This is the rebel group’s main camp.

Other items captured at the start of the operation were passports, communication equipment and 30 machine guns.

Ankunda said the joint forces were working together to protect civilians. Meanwhile, the army extended condolences to families that lost their loved ones to the rebel attacks during the festive season.

Forces from Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan launched a joint operation against the LRA in north-eastern part of DRC on December 14.

As the rebels fled, they massacred over 400 civilians in Dungu. UN, Congolese and Ugandan officials said the rebels split into small groups.

Yesterday, there were reports that some of the rebels were seen in the Ango region heading towards the Central African Republic (CAR). In February and March last year, the rebels crossed over Congo’s border with CAR, where they attacked villages and abducted over 150 people.

It is said the abducted people were used as porters, sex-slaves and child soldiers. Despite claims of early success and the unanimous backing of the UN Security Council, the offensive has failed to find Kony.

The military operation follows Kony’s refusal to sign a peace deal since July 2006. He demands that the International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued against him and his top commanders be dropped.

CNDP ousts its leader Laurent Nkunda

Photo: Laurent Nkunda has been accused of committing war crimes (BBC)

DR Congo rebels 'oust Gen Nkunda' - Jan. 05, 2009 BBC report excerpt:

Officers in the main rebel group in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo say they have ousted their leader, Gen Laurent Nkunda - a claim he denies.

CNDP officers told the BBC they had removed Gen Nkunda because of what they described as "bad governance".

But a spokesman for Gen Nkunda then told the BBC that this was not true.

The decision to remove Gen Nkunda as leader of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) reportedly came after a meeting of the rebel group's military high command on Sunday.

In a statement sent to the BBC and signed by Brig-Gen Bosco Ntaganda, the rebels' chief of staff, the high command said Gen Nkunda's "bad leadership" and "bad governance" had distracted the CNDP from undertaking its normal activities and was dangerous for the Congolese people.

The high command had also resolved to set up an ad-hoc "transitional council" to run the group until further notice, the statement said.

A spokesman for the high command, Kamanzi Desire, said the council would ensure that the peace process continued.

"The new leadership has pledged before CNDP members, the Congolese people and the international community to create favourable conditions for peace to return to eastern DR Congo with the help of the international community and Monuc (UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo)," he told BBC Afrique.

But a spokesman for Gen Nkunda then told the BBC by phone that the rebel leader had not been ousted - and during that phone call what appeared to be the voice of Gen Nkunda could be heard in the background.

The general had called a meeting of senior rebel leaders to take place on Tuesday, the spokesman said.

In recent weeks, Gen Nkunda has reportedly been in Rutshuru, a town in North Kivu, along with a battalion of his troops.

The reports indicate that a power struggle may be taking place within the CNDP.

If the CNDP splits, it could just mean another rebel group is added to a deadly cocktail of armed militias, correspondents say.

LRA's Kony is in the fringes of Garamba, North of Maridi but in the Sudan territory

According to some of the latest news reports reprinted here below:

Currently, LRA commanders Okot Odhiambo and Bok Abudema are heading to CAR; Okeny Opwa is in Maridi, South Sudan. Kony is shuttling between these places. Killing LRA’s notorious commanders could leave Kony bare. It is already reported that Odhiambo and Abudema are in a critical condition, both suffering from gout and probably injured during the December 14 air raids.

Kony is in the fringes of Garamba, North of Maridi but in the Sudan territory.

On Friday morning, LRA fighters attacked an SPLA truck at Tori and a commercial truck in Yei, Sudan. In the overnight raid, dozens of the fighters attacked the headquarters of the Garamba National Park in Magero town, a few kilometres from the Sudan border. Local authorities said the rebels had retreated to the north of the Garamba jungles on the Sudan border. Twenty people were killed local officials said today (Monday January 05, 2009).

U.N., Congolese and Ugandan officials have said the rebels, estimated to number between 800 and 1,000, have splintered into smaller groups. Only some are believed to be headed for CAR. LRA forces have been seen in the Ango region on the border with CAR. There was no sign the rebels had crossed into CAR.

During three days of raids beginning on December 25, fleeing LRA fighters attacked several Congolese towns, slaughtering civilians and looted and burned hundreds of homes.

The deputy governor of Orientale province, where the attacks happened, told Reuters on Saturday that the bodies of 271 victims had so far been buried, but the death toll was rising.

"The number is going up every day," Joseph Bangakya said. "Most were killed with machetes. (The LRA) are trying to save their ammunition."

Catholic humanitarian charity Caritas said it believed more than 400 people had died in the attacks.

Uganda has sent more troops to the area to prevent more LRA raids. Congo's 17,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission, MONUC, has said it is assisting the deployment of additional Congolese forces but is not participating directly in the joint offensive.

The UN has expressed support for the assault on the LRA. “We cannot condemn this military action because we can see the merit of it,” the UN envoy to northern Uganda, Joaquim Chissano, said last month.

“The aim of the attacks now is to force Kony out because he should not be given opportunity to entertain other options than are open to him through the peace process. The negotiations are over... what is remaining is the signing of the final peace agreement.”

Under the current agreement, if Kony signed, the government of Uganda would go to the Security Council or the International Criminal Court and request for the suspension of the arrest warrants. Then Kony could move freely into Uganda where justice would be applied according to what is foreseen in the agreement. In May, a special war crimes court was established in Uganda to deal with cases of human rights violations committed during the two-decade insurgency.

Note, Operation Lightning Thunder did not begin on time as instructed. President Museveni ordered attack for 7:30 am, but was it carried out at 11:30 am. And ground troops were also not deployed in time to start the cordon-and search operation. This, they said gave the rebels ample time to carry the dead and move out of the danger zone.

Ugandan rebels blame the Christmas massacres on the joint force currently in eastern Congo.

Map showing Maridi, Southern Sudan



Credit: www.joshuaproject.net
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Ri-Kwangba

Sorry, unable to find a good map.

Ri-Kwangba is a site in West Equatoria, Sudan, near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It, along with Owiny Ki-Bul, is one of two assembly points for the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) under the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement agreed to by the LRA and government of Uganda on 26 August 2006.

In September 2006, the only structures at the location, which was essentially a 200-by-300 meter clearing in the jungle, were five huts.

June 2007 peace talks held in Ri-Kwangba resulted in an improvement of facilities, in order to handle the gathering of delegates. (Source: Wikipedia)
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LRA Raid Congolese Army Base
Report from Angola Press, Kampala, Uganda January 05, 2009:

The Lord's Resistance Army rebels on Friday raided a Congolese army base in the Garamba jungles to get food, local officials said yesterday. In the overnight raid, the rebels attacked a park ranger station in Magero town, a few kilometres from the Sudan border.
 
He said he had no details of casualties but no civilians had been hurt.
 
Efforts to get comments from the UPDF yesterday were fruitless.
 
On Friday morning, the rebels attacked an SPLA truck at Tori and a commercial truck in Yei, Sudan.
 
Local authorities said the rebels had retreated to the north of the Garamba jungles on the Sudan border.
 
There were reports that some LRA fighters were heading towards the Central African Republic (CAR).
 
Congo's information minister Lambert Mende said yesterday that the CAR government was deploying troops at its borders with DR Congo.
 
LRA forces have been seen in the Ango region on the border with CAR, Bangakya said.
 
Meanwhile, a group of civilians from the chiefdom of Mopoyi in Ango, have organised patrols to prevent attacks by the LRA.

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Heavy loses for the rebels
Report from Sapa-AFP (Kinshasha) January 05, 2009:

Remnants of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army are fleeing towards Central African Republic, having been routed by a three-nation military operation, a Democratic Republic of Congo official said.

The Ugandan rebel force, which is being tracked down by DRC, Ugandan and south Sudanese troops, has suffered heavy losses in fighting that has uprooted tens of thousands of people, Joseph Bangakya, deputy governor of Orientale province, said.

"The LRA has been routed," said Bangakya, whose province spanning the Ugandan and Sudanese borders has been the target of the military operation.

But Bangui authorities said there was no sign the rebels had crossed into CAR, even as they announced they were reinforcing security on their border with Democratic Republic of Congo.

Blamed for widespread atrocities over the years, the LRA stands accused of killing hundreds of civilians in several parts of the Orientale region during the Christmas holidays - some 400 according to the Catholic NGO Caritas.

"What we know is that the LRA have suffered serious casualties and lost their food stock plus equipment," Captain Chris Magezi of Uganda said.

The latest clashes add to a host of troubles plaguing this conflict-wracked central African country, with local authorities estimating they have displaced some 68 000 people in just over two weeks.

"The humanitarian situation remains very critical," Bangakya said, adding regional officials were eagerly awaiting medical and other supplies promised by Kinshasa.

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Is this the end of kony?
Report from Sunday Vision Uganda January 03, 2009 by Barbara Among:

Photo: Operation Lightning Thunder soldiers before they were airlifted to DR Congo

UGANDAN troops entered the Democratic Republic of Congo 20 days ago to flush out the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, after its leader, Joseph Kony, refused to sign a peace accord.

The joint military attack on the LRA is expected to bring the 22-year-old rebellion in northern Uganda to an end with the prospect of arresting Kony himself or eliminating him.

But the reality is that the operation, backed by the regional forces, the UN and the US, seems to have made northern leaders more wary than ever before, given that the most affected region had experienced peace for the last two years. They fear that the offensive may have fatally undermined any chance of achieving permanent peace.

The Government, however, argues that the operation was successful because it sent Kony scampering and his fighters in disarray. It continues to assure and announce that they will achieve their objective ‘sooner’.

The warring parties entered into a peace negotiation in July 2006, mediated by Southern Sudan vice-president Riek Machar in Juba. A final peace agreement was drawn, but Kony refused to sign, demanding that the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant issued against him and his commanders for crimes against humanity be dropped.

The offensive, also aimed at forcing Kony back to sign the agreements, has taken a new turn with the troops now planning to increase their dominance in the vast Garamba jungle in northeastern Congo.

Sources said more battalions are being ferried into the region, in a bid to boost the ground forces, code-named Operation Lightning Thunder.

Dislodged from their hideout in Garamba National Park in Congo, the rebels are said to be scattered in the jungle and the army is closing in on them. Kony is reportedly heading towards the Central African Republic (CAR).

A Savimbi-like end

The Juba talks attracted a lot of international support and funding from the US, European Union, African Union and United Nations. This is believed to translate into support for the offensive against the LRA, putting more pressure on the rebel group.

Last week the UN Security Council extended their stay in Congo and revised the mandate of the UN mission in Congo (MONUC) to deal with negative forces such as the LRA. MONUC is gathering intelligence information against the LRA and also providing helicopter gunships. The UPDF is also using its strategic base in Dungu as a centre of operation. Growing international interest in the region, especially the American interest in oil-rich South Sudan and DR Congo, Congo Brazzaville and the French in CAR, could trigger a Savimbi-like operation whose end was brought about by a growing international interest both in Angola’s oil and politics.

The LRA and Angola’s UNITA (National Union for total independence of Angola) have several tactics in common and analysts argue that Uganda could borrow a leaf from the war against the rebel group. Its leader, Jonas Savimbi, after surviving more than a dozen assassination attempts, was killed on February 22, 2002, in a battle with Angolan government troops, who had support from South African mercenaries and Israeli Special Forces.

The army offensive dubbed Kissonde was sustained for six months, with the Angolan government isolating Savimbi by targeting and killing his commanders. LRA, just like UNITA, applies diversionary tactics to draw attention away from its leader. The death of Savimbi’s commanders was a serious setback, as it deprived him of diversionary troops who had until then concentrated on attracting attention away from their leader.

Currently, LRA commanders Okot Odhiambo and Bok Abudema are heading to CAR; Okeny Opwa is in Maridi, South Sudan. Kony is shuttling between these places. Killing LRA’s notorious commanders could leave Kony bare. It is already reported that Odhiambo and Abudema are in a critical condition, both suffering from gout and probably injured during the December 14 air raids.

Isolation

Savimbi was further weakened when he lost important means of communication by radio. At the moment, the LRA rebel leader and his commanders have abandoned their satellite phones and walkie-talkies for fear of being tracked.

Sources, however, said Kony has acquired a Zain line. Kony’s second-in-command, Odhiambo, military intelligence says, has been able to switch his satellite phone on only for a minute every day.

Gulu Resident District Commissioner Walter Ochora believes that with the LRA’s communication being cut off, the Government soldiers would succeed in capturing or killing the rebel leader. He argued that the operation has been a success given that the fighters are scattered and could be vulnerable to the UPDF as they are now in small groups. “This operation has disrupted his plan to reorganise,” said Ochora

His escape to South Sudan or the CAR could, however, lay him bare. In South Sudan or CAR, the ground troops would also be able to move faster compared to the difficult Garamba terrain.

Kony at a crossroads

During the last attempt to sign the final peace agreement on November 29, Kony seemed more paranoid than times past, reportedly allowing his guards to conduct an embarrassing body search of the Ugandan delegation — a group of elders. When they returned, according to the state minister for defence Ruth Nakabirwa who camped nearby, some could hardly talk about what had happened. The rebel leader also claimed he had been told that his supporters in the diaspora were breaking away from him and starting another insurgency.

Keen LRA watchers argue that the combination of imminent starvation following the air strikes, the razing of large food gardens and the cutting off of supply lines from Caritas and the threat by the UPDF, could have forced the LRA to show eagerness to surrender or sign the peace deal before it is too late.

Regional problem

“The LRA is now a regional problem,” said Capt. Chris Magezi, in November 2008, while still the peace talks spokesperson.

One game-changing move is that Kony was reckless enough to provoke a border incident between South Sudan, DR Congo and Uganda. He attacked and killed civilians in DR Congo and South Sudan. On December 5, according to President Yoweri Museveni, he had sent a team to attack northern Uganda via South Sudan.

The Congolese government has turned their attention to Kony after he killed hundreds of civilians in DR Congo over the Christmas period. South Sudan’s involvement is, however, expected to grow because the US, South Sudan’s patron, has long urged three-way action — by the Ugandans, Congolese, and the South Sudanese against the LRA.

UN backs action

The UN has expressed support for the assault on the LRA. “We cannot condemn this military action because we can see the merit of it,” the UN envoy to northern Uganda, Joaquim Chissano, said last month.

“The aim of the attacks now is to force Kony out because he should not be given opportunity to entertain other options than are open to him through the peace process. The negotiations are over... what is remaining is the signing of the final peace agreement.”

Under the current agreement, if Kony signed, the government of Uganda would go to the Security Council or the International Criminal Court and request for the suspension of the arrest warrants. Then Kony could move freely into Uganda where justice would be applied according to what is foreseen in the agreement. In May, a special war crimes court was established in Uganda to deal with cases of human rights violations committed during the two-decade insurgency.

Will not capture him

“They cannot capture him (Kony) they will not succeed,” said the LRA spokesperson Matsanga, who claims he speaks to Kony often. “Those claiming they hit Kony are lying,” he added.

Matsanga’s confidence is based on his claims that the group is getting intelligence briefing from a section of soldiers in both SPLA and Battalion 105 of the UPDF. The 105 Battalion, composed of LRA combatants, was only formed in 2004.

The troops made a few blunders at the start of the operation and this could cost the operation a great deal. But these, the President said were ‘challenges’ that could be corrected. The operation did not begin on time as instructed. President Museveni ordered attack for 7:30am, but was it carried out at 11:30am. And ground troops were also not deployed in time to start the cordon-and search operation. This, they said gave the rebels ample time to carry the dead and move out of the danger zone.

Gulu District chairman Norbert Mao, describes the operation as ‘unnecessary’ and points that the operation failed right from the start. Mao suggests that the troops be withdrawn and negotiations reopened.

Aswa MP Reagan Okumu, suggests that the troops go back to the drawing board and plan a two military approach based on how to assassinate the LRA leadership, as it is the top commanders who are holding everybody.

Alternatively, the troops should allow the rebels to regroup, and plan a precise rescue mission. “If they continue now, Kony is likely to disappear underneath and the chief culprit will be difficult to get, but if they allow them to regroup, then they can get them.”

Those opposed to the operation call it a miscalculated, hurried offensive, with a very broad objective. They suggest that the Government should have designed a rescue mission that would target the leadership, not the entire force.

Since the launch of the attack, allied forces are yet to make contact with the elusive rebel leader and the other five notorious commanders. Kony, Odhiambo, Dominic Ongwen and Ceasar Achillam have managed to conceal themselves.

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 Uganda's LRA rebels heading for CAR:Congo minister
Report from Reuters (Kinshasha) by Joe Bavier January 03, 2009:

Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebels, who killed hundreds of Congolese villagers in a Christmas week massacre, are preparing to enter neighbouring Central African Republic, Congo's government spokesman said.

Hundreds of LRA fighters are fleeing a nearly 3-week-old multinational assault led by Uganda against their bases in Garamba National Park, in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo.



"According to intelligence we have received, they are preparing to enter Central African Republic. A pursuit is underway," Congo's Information Minister Lambert Mende said.

"(The Central African Republic government) is sending troops to the border," he told Reuters on Saturday.

Central African Republic authorities could not be reached.

The LRA was driven out of northern Uganda, where its two-decade bush war killed thousands of people and displaced 2 million more, but the group has continued to carry out raids in Congo, Sudan and Central African Republic.

In February and March last year, LRA fighters crossed over Congo's porous border with Central African Republic.

Over 10 days, they attacked villages in the impoverished former French colony's sparsely populated east, abducting about 150 people for use as porters, sex slaves and child soldiers.

Uganda, Congo and South Sudan launched a joint assault on December 14 after LRA leader Joseph Kony again failed to sign a deal to end his rebellion against Uganda's government.

Ugandan military officials have said bombing raids destroyed the majority of the LRA's jungle strongholds.

U.N., Congolese and Ugandan officials have said the rebels, estimated to number between 800 and 1,000, have splintered into smaller groups. Only some are believed to be headed for CAR.

In an overnight raid on Friday, dozens of rebels attacked a park ranger station in the town of Nagero, several hundred kilometres from the border with Central African Republic.

RISING DEATH TOLL

Despite claims of early success and the unanimous backing of U.N. Security Council members, the offensive has failed to find Kony, a reclusive self-styled mystic, or crush his rebellion.

An LRA spokesman said Kony, who is wanted for war crimes along with two deputies by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, survived the camp bombings.

Human rights campaigners are increasingly worried by heavy civilian casualties from assaults by fleeing LRA fighters.

During three days of raids beginning on December 25, fleeing LRA fighters attacked several Congolese towns, slaughtering civilians and looted and burned hundreds of homes.

The deputy governor of Orientale province, where the attacks happened, told Reuters on Saturday that the bodies of 271 victims had so far been buried, but the death toll was rising.

"The number is going up every day," Joseph Bangakya said. "Most were killed with machetes. (The LRA) are trying to save their ammunition."

Catholic humanitarian charity Caritas said it believed more than 400 people had died in the attacks.

Uganda has sent more troops to the area to prevent more LRA raids. Congo's 17,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission, MONUC, has said it is assisting the deployment of additional Congolese forces but is not participating directly in the joint offensive.

- - -

LRA Denies Killing Civilians
Report from Ohmynews by Zachary Ochieng (Zach)  January 04, 2009:

Ugandan rebels blame attacks on the joint force currently in eastern Congo.

The beleaguered Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has denied any involvement in the killing of hundreds of civilians in northeastern Congo. Mr Justine Labeja, deputy leader of the LRA peace delegation said that the atrocities being blamed on the LRA were perpetrated by the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) currently in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

"The whole world knows that the UPDF has gone to Congo to kill innocent civilians and blame it on the LRA. When they drop bombs from helicopter gunships, do they expect them to land on trees?" Labeja wondered.

He justified his assertion, referring to the UPDF occupation of Congo between 1996 and 2001 during which thousands of Congolese civilians were killed. Then, as now, the UPDF went to eastern Congo ostensibly to flush out the LRA. But the UPDF failed to capture the LRA insurgents and instead unleashed terror on the civilian population, besides plundering DRC's resources. The Kinshasa regime took Uganda to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which in 1995 ordered Uganda to pay $10 billion in reparations.

"The UPDF and SPLA are already in north-eastern Congo where it is alleged that LRA fighters are killing civilians. If it is true the LRA soldiers are killing innocent civilians, how come not a single LRA fighter has been captured or killed by the combined force?" Labeja asked.

According to him, the UPDF and the SPLA are in the DRC not to fight the LRA but to exploit the minerals. He further claimed that the UPDF has joined Laurent Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) as part of Museveni's grand scheme to topple President Joseph Kabila.

"The UPDF did not go to DRC to pursue the LRA. We have information that a contingent of the UPDF has joined Nkunda's forces with a bid to overthrow President Kabila as this is one of Museveni's grand plans", Labeja said.

Labeja was responding to reports by Caritas, an international NGO and the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) that implicated the LRA in the murder of approximately 400 civilians on Christmas day and the subsequent period. According to the two organizations, the LRA soldiers attacked villagers in Faradge (some 80 km from the Sudanese border) and abducted children as they fled a joint military onslaught by the UPDF, SPLA and the Congolese army launched on Dec. 14.

But Labeja and his boss David Matsanga maintain that Kony has no intention of avenging the attacks on his camps and will only defend himself when the forces finally catch up with him.

"Uganda, Southern Sudan, DRC and the international community should wake up to the reality that a military option has never and will never bring peace to northern Uganda and the country at large," Labeja added.

On the issue of abduction, Labeja defends the LRA, saying that no rebel movement conducts an open and voluntary military recruitment, citing President Museveni who as a rebel leader also recruited children known as "Kadogo" (small ones) into his ranks.

- - -

LRA raid on Congo park kills 20
Report from Reuters by Joe Bavier January 05, 2009 - excerpt:

Twenty people were killed in a raid by Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebels on a park ranger station in northern Democratic Republic of Congo, local officials said on Monday.

Dozens of LRA fighters attacked the headquarters of the Garamba National Park in the town of Negero, in Congo's Orientale province, late on Friday.



"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.

Ten rebels were also killed in the four-hour gunbattle with armed park rangers and Congolese soldiers based at Negero's airstrip as part of a three-week-old multinational assault on LRA strongholds in northeastern Congo, Bangakya said.

In two separate attacks on Sunday, LRA gunmen raided a protestant mission in the Congolese village of Napopo and attacked Laso, a village in Sudan, local officials said. It was not immediately clear whether anyone died in the incidents.

- - -

International Criminal Court



Photo: Joaquim Chissano, UN Special Envoy for LRA-affected areas, briefed the UN Security Council on 17 December 2008. The Coalition urged the Security Council to honor the Court’s arrest warrants for LRA members. Credit: CICC

See 18 Dec 2008 Coalition for the International Criminal Court: Uganda: Chissano statements to UN media; press coverage; IBA and SAD

“If Kony says he is ready to sign, that arrangement can be made but only if he is going to assemble at Ri-kwangba”

From The New Vision, Uganda Wed 31 Dec. 2008 by Henry Mukasa and Barbara Among:

Rebel chief Kony pleads for ceasefire

UNDER pressure, the LRA leader, Joseph Kony, has appealed to President Yoweri Museveni to declare a ceasefire in the on-going military offensive against his fighters.

The Lord’s Resistance Army envoy, Dr. David Nyekorach Matsanga, said yesterday that he had talked to Kony, who asked him to appeal for a ceasefire.

“Kony called me and told me he wants to talk peace. I am calling upon President Museveni to call for a ceasefire. We should re-open the negotiations,” Matsanga implored.

He said when a ceasefire is declared, a neutral venue and chief mediator would be found. He said Kony had rejected chief mediator Dr Riek Machar and wanted the UN envoy to the LRA affected areas, Joaquim Chissano, to take over. He said with SPLA participating in the hunt for the rebels, the impartiality of Machar, the South Sudan vice-president, was doubted.

The LRA is facing a joint offensive by the UPDF, SPLA of South Sudan and the Congolese army.

It was launched on December 14 after Kony failed to sign the final peace agreement that was negotiated with the Government between July 2006 and April 2008 in Juba, South Sudan.

The joint force is pursuing the rebels in the densely-forested Garamba National Park in Congo.

The UPDF has, however, rejected the call for a ceasefire. The operation spokesperson, Capt. Chris Magezi, said yesterday that the peace talks were concluded but Kony refused to sign the deal.

“If Kony says he is ready to sign, that arrangement can be made but only if he is going to assemble at Ri-kwangba,” Magezi said.

Addressing the nation on December 22, President Museveni also said the only safe way for Kony was to assemble at Ri-Kwangba and sign the peace agreement.

“The operation will see the end of Kony, either peacefully by him walking to Ri-Kwangba or by being violently killed or captured,” Museveni said.

“As an old fighter, I would not want to be in Kony’s position. The combined arms operations about to begin will decimate him,” he warned.

Since the offensive, Kony has killed hundreds of people. Aid agencies say the death toll is over 400.

The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, on Tuesday condemned the atrocities committed by the LRA in the DRC and Sudan. He demanded that the rebels respect the international humanitarian law.

Ban’s special representative, Leila Zerrougui, on Tuesday met with Congo’s national security council to discuss the government’s needs.

“She informed them of UN’s willingness to support them,” MONUC said in a statement.

The LRA rebellion has raged for 20 years, killing thousands and displacing millions in Uganda, Sudan and Congo.

The rebels are notorious for atrocities which include massacres, abductions, mutilation, looting, rape, conscription of boys and forcing girls into sex slavery.

International arrest warrants were issued for LRA top commanders Kony, Dominic Ongwen and Okot Odhiambo.

Meanwhile, the UPDF has named the soldier who was accidentally killed in Congo as Pte. Sam Ochen. He was accidentally shot by a UN soldier.

The body was flown home on Sunday. But the army was yet to inform the family of the dead soldier.

The death brings to two the number of Ugandan soldiers killed since the operation against the LRA started on December 14. Lt. Bosco Opio, 33, died in a plane crash during a routine flight at Isiro airbase in Congo last Wednesday.

The UN said yesterday that an inquiry would be carried out into the accident.

“This was an accident and our relationship with MONUC will not be affected,” said Capt. Chris Magezi, the spokesperson of the joint offensive codenamed Operation Lightning Thunder.

Note, Sudan Tribune article from Khartoum - Machar’s wife escapes assassination attempt in South Sudan - excerpt:

The wife of a senior South Sudan official escaped unharmed after an unidentified gunman pulled a gun at her but did not fire, a newspaper reported December 30, 2008. The London based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat daily said that state minister of energy Angelina Mang was in the Unity state when the incident took place. The newspaper said that the assassin was taken into custody before he could fire any shots at the Sudanese official.



Photo: GOSS Energy Minister Angelina Mang

MONUC Blue Helmet accidentally shoots Uganda soldier

MONUC Press Release Wed Dec. 31, 2008:

MONUC Blue Helmet accidentally shoots Uganda soldier

MONUC regrets to confirm that a soldier of the Ugandan People’s Defense Force (UPDF) was killed today at a forward operating base at Dungu when a MONUC soldier who was on duty accidently fired his machine gun, hitting the Ugandan soldier, who was passing in front of the MONUC soldier’s vehicle.

The Ugandan soldier, a member of the coalition forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Uganda which are currently conducting operations against the LRA in the territory of Haut Uele, died of his wounds. The remains of the Ugandan soldier were immediately repatriated.

MONUC is deeply saddened by this incident and expresses its condolences to the family of the deceased soldier, as well as to the Government and people of Uganda. MONUC has immediately launched an official investigation of the incident in accordance with United Nations regulations.

MONUC pledges substantial support to the DRC Armed Forces (FARDC)

Note, the below copied press release by MONUC states that MONUC neither took part in the planning nor in the implementation of the operations carried out by the coalition against the LRA and that MONUC will do everything in its power to continue to protect civilians, notably by bringing substantial support to the DRC Armed Forces (FARDC).

So far, I have yet to find an official report that confirms the LRA were responsible for the massacre that reportedly took place in a Catholic church on Boxing Day, December 26, 2008 [Ref Congo Watch Dec. 29: Terrorists used machetes, clubs and swords to massacre women and children in church near Doruma, DR Congo].

Scores of news reports quote CARITAS as a source of information along with various alleged eyewitness accounts on the ground.

How strange in this day and age of mobile camera phones that, just like in Sudan, there is no photographic evidence leaking out to the press. Something's fishy. We don't know half the story yet. More later.

From Inner City Press December 31, 2008:

UN Helps Congo Attack LRA, Can't Protect Civilians Then Disclaims Any Role, as in Kivus

A UN-supported offensive against the Lord's Resistance Army has been followed by the hacking to death of more than 180 people in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo. On New Years Eve, Inner City Press asked the UN's humanitarian coordinator John Holmes about the UN's role in the offensive against the LRA, with the Congolese army, and what is being done to protect civilians going forward. Holmes said that little can be done, since the UN peacekeepers' presence is limited due to redeployment to the Kivus, except to try to let the LRA know it will be held accountable. Video here, from Minute 36:40.

In fact, the UN has previously bragged about its logistical support to the Congolese Army for its attacks on the LRA. Now the UN Mission in the Congo, MONUC, is trying to distance itself from the results. A MONUC press release [see copy here below] on December 30 emphasized that MONUC " neither took part in the planning nor in the implementation of the operations carried out by the coalition against the LRA" but added that "MONUC will do everything in its power to continue to protect civilians, notably by bringing substantial support to the DRC Armed Forces (FARDC)."

Which is it? Does MONUC support the FARDC or  "neither take part in the planning nor in the implementation of [its] operations"?

In fact, Ban Ki-moon's Spokesperson has previously told Inner City Press that "MONUC supported the FARDC "with logistics, such as transport, water and food" and "has also helped consolidate and widen the airfield at Dungu, which serves as operational bridgehead for the FARDC and Ugandan troops"of the UPDF.

Now MONUC's press release states that "yesterday, 29 December, 105 troops were transported to Doruma and 60 more today. Moreover, MONUC committed to provide them with logistic support in terms of food stuffs, water, medicines, sanitation and fuel." So let's be clear, some say: if the FARDC troops commit war crimes, the UN has facilitated these.



Photo: MONUC in the DRC, looking past civilians

MONUC went on to recount that "Ms. Leila Zerrougui, Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in the DRC, met today 30 December 2008 with the DRC's National Security Board, headed by the Minister of Interior Mr. Celestin Mbuyu Kabango [and] told them about MONUC's determination to support the Government's efforts to resolve the situation."  What does "resolve the situation" mean? Assist in the elimination of the LRA's Joseph Kony -- the UN's own hand in extrajudicial killing?

Inner City Press asked John Holmes about the LRA's claims, for what they're worth, that the Ugandan Army's "Battalion 105" made up of ex-LRA fighters are responsible for atrocities to blame them on the LRA. How does the UN know it is the LRA?  "It's hard to be sure," Holmes said, while calling the idea that the Ugandan Army might be involved "implausible." Those who thought that the International Criminal Court's Luis Moreno Ocampo should have also indicted some in the UPDF, or who are aware of the UPDF's UN-funded torching of huts in Karamoja in the name of forcible disarmament don't find it entirely implausible.

We know the Congo is big, but the UN seems to have a different relationship with the FARDC in the northeast, where it carries them around and cheers them on, than in the Kivus, where the full Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in the DRC Alan Doss this week "voiced his concern over the closeness of the FARDC and CNDP positions in Kibati. He also reiterated his appeal to the two parties 'to refrain from taking any initiatives likely to provoke new hostilities' and took the opportunity to recall to both parties 'the need for guaranteeing free movement of persons and their goods.'" In the Kivus, to the UN the FARDC is just one of two parties. In the northeast, the FARDC is the horse the UN has bet on, and carries to the race. Until things go wrong...

- - -

Press Release by MONUC 30 Dec. 2008

Haut Uélé: MONUC is taking action to protect civilians following the LRA attacks

Following the attacks of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels on civilian populations in many territories of Haut Uele district in northeastern DRC since 25 December last, the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) has declared that it is now taking steps to both protect and assist civilians in the area.

“Pursuant to its mandate, MONUC will do everything in its power to continue to protect civilians, notably by bringing substantial support to the DRC Armed Forces (FARDC),” said MONUC in a press release published on Tuesday.

In this regard, Ms. Leila Zerrougui, Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in the DRC, met today 30 December 2008 with the DRC’s National Security Board, headed by the Minister of Interior Mr. Celestin Mbuyu Kabango, in a bid to have a sense of the Government’s needs in this area. She told them about MONUC’s determination to support the Government’s efforts to resolve the situation.

At the military level, upon a request from the FARDC’s Army Chief of Staff, MONUC has already airlifted Congolese military troops to the operational zones: 96 FARDC troops have been deployed from Dungu to Faradje since 26 December last.

Yesterday, 29 December, 105 troops were transported to Doruma and 60 more today. Moreover, MONUC committed to provide them with logistic support in terms of food stuffs, water, medicines, sanitation and fuel. MONUC is also ready to assist the FARDC in protecting the civilian population against any possible direct LRA threat.

In terms of humanitarian assistance, MONUC’s Civil Affairs Section, while backing the reevaluation of the humanitarian access to affected persons and for a better protection of the populations, will continue to facilitate the organization of evaluation missions and assistance and will bring logistic support to UN agencies and NGOs, notably in Dungu where MONUC recently deployed two World Food Programme trucks that continue to be available for the distribution of assistance.

MONUC recalls that it neither took part in the planning nor in the implementation of the operations carried out by the coalition against the LRA.

The Mission also points out the 22 December 2008 Security Council declaration, which invited the coalition participants to ensure that any action is taken in respect of international humanitarian law; international human rights law and the international law of refugees; and to take appropriate measures to protect civilians.

UN Secretary-General Mr. Ban Ki-moon today condemned in the strongest possible terms the appalling atrocities reportedly committed by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in recent days in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and southern Sudan. He demanded that the LRA respect all rules of international humanitarian law.

He also urged the forces of Uganda, DRC and southern Sudan on the ground to coordinate with the humanitarian community and the United Nations Missions in the region to ensure the effective delivery of assistance to those affected by the LRA attacks.

Has Uganda invaded DR Congo?

Note, I had a backlog of DR Congo news reports collected before, during and after Christmas and posted them here at Congo Watch all on the same day but filed them under their original dates of publication. Normally I don't back date posts but in this case I needed to for easy future reference.

Everyone must be feeling mortified at the tragic news of 400 horrific deaths. I'm stunned and can't quite take it in.

To me, it looks as though DR Congo has been invaded by Uganda.

Where were the UN, Laurent Nkunda and all the other rebel groups when Operation Lightning Thunder took place I wonder.

The news reports aren't clear at all. It's difficult to know what to believe.

I am writing this in haste before doing a trawl of news from past 48 hours.

Meanwhile, I have just come across this editorial published today at Black Star News Editorial. I am posting it here because it raises some questions that I am thinking: has Uganda invaded DR Congo? Curiously, it mentions the words "Uganda’s U.S.-backed army".

It seems to me that DRC is being infested and invaded from all sides. How is the DRC government protecting itself and its citizens. DRC urgently needs help. MONUC needs back up.

At the moment I can't make head nor tail of what's going on or where the UN figures in amongst Operation Lightning Thunder. More later.
- - -

From Black Star News Editorial December 31, 2008

CONGO CARNAGE: WHEN BANDITS FIGHT BANDITS

Now the Uganda government and the Lord’s Resistance Army have exported their bloody conflict to the Democratic Republic of the Congo with reports of massacres after Christmas Day of hundreds of Congolese, including by hackings to death.

Death estimates range from 100 to 145, including some reported victims being pursued inside churches.

The United Nations reports that the LRA rebels are responsible for the killings; an LRA spokesman has denied the charges and claim Uganda’s U.S.-backed army committed the massacres.

Uganda government critics point out that earlier this year after the LRA was blamed for killings in Southern Sudan, government officials in the Sudan later said Uganda soldiers stationed in Sudan had been responsible.

In any event the United Nations must immediately investigate these Congolese massacres reported to have been committed by the LRA, whose leadership has already been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on earlier war crimes charges in Uganda.

The United Nations ineptly acquiesced to Uganda’s December 14 Congo invasion. The logic was that the intervention would neutralize the LRA which had reneged several times on signing a peace deal with the Uganda government. How can an army of bandits neutralize another army of bandits?

Human rights groups have for years documented the LRA’s killings of civilians in Uganda. Equally, Uganda’s national army’s vicious killing of civilians was well documented; in addition to inside Uganda, ironically, also in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Uganda’s Congo crimes occurred when Uganda’s army occupied eastern Congo between 2003-2005. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) found Uganda liable for massacres of Congo civilians, mass rapes, burnings of homes, and plunder of resources.

The Court assessed Uganda’s government $10 billion. It’s a wonder that Congo’s government has not yet sought a lien against Uganda assets, including embassies in foreign lands. Separately, since at least 2004, according to The Wall Street Journal, the International Criminal Court has also been investigating Uganda’s army and its commanders for the same crimes committed in Congo on which the ICJ found Uganda liable in the civil case.

The ICC’s briefs are in on the LRA’s crimes, and its top leaders including Joseph Kony have already been indicted on war crimes charges. The world awaits the ICC’s briefs on Uganda’s army, and its commander in chief, president Lt. General Yoweri Museveni.

For years the people of Uganda, especially in the Acholi region in the north have suffered the consequences of 22 years of warfare between the brutal LRA and the equally vicious national army, Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF).

Both armies have acronyms that are completely at odds with what they represent in reality. The LRA is hardly "Lordly" or "Godly" in its aspirations or conduct, having brutalized the citizens of Uganda, in Acholi region, mutilated civilians, and having abducted young daughters and sons in the region. Uganda’s army also has not been known to defend civilians, especially not against LRA attacks; on the contrary, human rights groups have documented widespread abuses against civilians.

There can be no impunity for the LRA or for the UPDF.

For as long as the Uganda conflict remains unresolved the entire East Africa region will remain engulfed in warfare. Congo is already reeling from another conflict, in its border region as Rwanda-backed terrorist Laurent Nkunda seeks to annex mineral rich territory through massacres and depopulations.

UN rebuffs Nkunda allegations over DR Congo troop surge

From AFP Kinshasa via ca.news Wed Dec 31, 2008:

UN rebuffs Nkunda allegations over DR Congo troop surge

The UN has denied allegations made by rebel leader Laurent Nkunda that the Congolese army is boosting troop numbers at a key battle line in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Nkunda, who leads the Tutsi rebel group the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), wrote to the UN envoy to DR Congo Alan Doss on December 24 to protest at what he called the "redeployment" of Congolese troops.

He said they were reinforcing the front line in Kibati, 10 kilometres (7 miles) north of Goma, the provincial capital of the Nord-Kivu region.

Doss rebuffed Nkunda's claims, saying the UN mission to Congo (MONUC) had carried out investigations on the ground and saw no evidence of any advance by the Congolese army in the areas in question.

Kibati has been one of the main flashpoints between the Congolese army and the rebels since fresh fighting broke out at the end of August. Just a few hundred metres separate the two camps.

Talks opened between the government and the rebels earlier in December in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Since then, fighting between the two sides has subsided and they are set to meet for another round of talks on January 7.

LRA kill 2 in Tore, South Sudan ambush - LRA may have been tipped-off before Operation ‘Lightning Thunder’ attack

Note, the following report from the Monitor tells us that the UPDF established their second tactical headquarters at Camp Swahili, the former LRA headquarters, inside the Garamba forests, DR Congo.

Also, see here below conflicting reports that I have highlighted in red regarding casualties found or not when Ugandan commandos parachuted into Garamba a few days after the first wave of Operation Lightning Thunder.

From Monitor Online, Kampala, Uganda by Grace Matsiko Dec. 21, 2008:

LRA KILL 2 IN SOUTH SUDAN AMBUSH

In an apparent revenge attack following military raids on their territories, suspected Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels have killed two civilians in South Sudan, a regional official has said.

The Deputy Governor of the Western Equatoria state, Joseph Ngere told Sudan Tribune, a Sudanese online daily publication on Friday, suspected LRA rebels killed two youths in an ambush at Tore, an area on the South Sudan-Democratic Republic of Congo border on Thursday.

“The deputy governor Ngere said there are growing fears in Western Equatoria state that the fighting may spill over to the state,” the Sudan Tribune quoted the governor as saying.

Uganda, DR Congo and the semi-autonomous South Sudan last Sunday launched joint military strikes in an operation codenamed ‘Lightning Thunder’ against the LRA rebels who have been holed up in north-eastern Congo’s Garamba forests since 2005.

But the statement by Governor Ngere on the attack could be a signal that, though the LRA may have been displaced from its bases as a result of last Sunday’s air strikes, the reclusive rebel leader Joseph Kony’s will to forment mischief is not yet over.

Last Sunday’s strike had the stated objective of applying pressure on Kony to sign the Final Peace Agreement negotiated with the Uganda government since 2006. The operation’s commander, Brig. Patrick Kankiriho has said they wanted to “break Kony’s back”.

However, emerging information suggests that the rebels may have been tipped-off before the attack, meaning the onslaught hit empty encampments and ultimately appears to have failed in its primary objective.

Thursday’s ambush at Tore is the one consequence of military action that political leaders in northern Uganda had warned about, saying the LRA could mount retaliatory strikes, forcing their people who have enjoyed relative peace back into the crowded internally displaced persons camps.

Meanwhile, the LRA peace delegation chairman, Mr. David Nyekorach Matsanga said by telephone yesterday, he could not confirm or deny the attack. He promised to verify the information from military commanders on the ground.

“As far we are concerned we are ready for peace not fighting,” Mr Matsanga said. “If there is ceasefire, it will enable our troops to re-assemble in Rii-kwangba, the designated assembly point,” he added.

Mr Matsanga told Sunday Monitor yesterday, they have not closed the door to peace efforts but will no longer allow South Sudan’s semi-autonomous government to chair any talks. Until last Sunday, South Sudan Vice President, Dr Riek Machar, was chief mediator to the Juba peace process.

“I have spoken to LRA and they are asking for cessation of hostilities. They are however saying future negotiations cannot take place in Sudan because the Sudan People’s Liberation Army participated in the raids,” Mr Matsanga said.

When contacted the spokesman for the UPDF troops deployed in the DRC, Capt. Chris Magezi said they have not heard of the attack.

“We are not aware of that,” Capt. Magezi said via satellite telephone link from Dungu yesterday.

Sunday Monitor has separately learnt that the army has stepped up its vigilance in West Nile. Before Operation Lightning Thunder, the army had repeatedly said they have secured Uganda’s borders against possible infiltration by the LRA, a terror group that for years has used panga’s, among other weapons, to kill and maim their victims.

Up to two million Ugandans were at one time internally displaced in northern Uganda as result of the insurgency.
 
The Governor of Central Equatoria state, which covers the provincial capital of Juba, Major General Clement Wani Konga, on Monday warned of imminent attacks by the LRA rebels in the region.

The UPDF said military strikes on Kony’s bases were necessary to force the elusive rebel leader to sign a peace deal. Kony has thrice failed to show up at the signing venue since at various since the beginning of this year.

Meanwhile, Sunday Monitor has established that the UPDF have established their second tactical headquarters at Camp Swahili, the former LRA headquarters, inside the Garamba forests that were occupied by the troops this week.

Between September 17 and October 4, sources in Monuc, the UN mission in DR Congo, say the LRA attacked 10 villages and abducted of between 100 and 200 people, as well as killing up to a 100 others. The attacks displaced over 70,000 people.

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From Xinhuanet, Kampala Dec. 17 2008:

NO CASUALTIES FOUND IN MILITARY OFFENSIVE AGAINST UGANDA'S LRA REBELS

No casualties have been found in an airstrike on Uganda's rebel camps located in remote northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a military spokesman for the operation said on Wednesday.

"We have not found any casualties. It is possible they were tipped off before the attack or they carried the injured and the dead away before our ground troops closed in," Capt. Chris Magezi, the spokesman for the joint operation told Xinhua by satellite telephone from Dungu, the main military base for Ugandan and DRC troops.

Military forces from Uganda, southern Sudan and DRC on Sunday launched an aerial bombing on camps of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)

Magezi said six people were rescued, four of them Congolese, one from Central African Republic (CAR) and another from Uganda, who told the army that the rebels fled when the aerial bombardment started.

The ground troops who arrived at Kony's main camp on Tuesday only found abandoned ammunitions, sub-machine guns, burning huts and vast gardens of food crops.

"We are very happy this was a decisive blow, without food LRA can not survive," Magezi defended the operation opposed by many legislators representing the war-ravaged north.

He said the operation will continue to hunt down the rebels whose leader has failed to sign the Final Peace Agreement the group negotiated with government for over two years.

Meanwhile, the army has started a massive campaign of air-dropping thousands of leaflets in northeastern DRC with messages urging the rebels to surrender and take amnesty.

"We came here because of you. Give peace a chance and come home," read one message.

"The whole world cares about you. Use this chance to get out of the war," read another.

Magezi said the United Nations peace keeping mission in Congo (MONUC) has pledged helicopters to evacuate the combatants who surrender.

LRA, which has wreaked havoc in northern Uganda and southern Sudan for years, has more recently targeted towns and villages in the DRC and CAR. Editor: Sun

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From Reuters Kampala Dec, 18, 2008:

UGANDA FINDS LRA REBEL BODIES, NOT KONY: GOVERNMENT

Ugandan soldiers found corpses in Joseph Kony's east Congo hideout after it was attacked by the military, but have not found the rebel leader, Kampala said on Thursday.

The five-day offensive began with an attack by helicopter gunships and an aerial bombardment of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) camps, and special forces have since moved into the remote jungle areas to "mop up" the insurgents.

Kony's soldiers have waged a two-decade war against Uganda's government that has spilled over into south Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo in one of Africa's longest wars.

"(The Ugandan army UPDF) have found dead bodies ... they are trying to identify the bodies," said Oryem Okello, state minister for international affairs.

"If Kony was among those bodies, we would have known by now," he told Reuters by telephone.

Okello, who was briefed by the army, said he could not say how many bodies were there, adding that it would be difficult to identify some of the dead.

A peace process started in 2006, fell into disarray after the self-proclaimed prophet repeatedly failed to turn up to sign a final deal argued out in negotiations in southern Sudan.

Juba, Kinshasa and Kampala agreed to launch Sunday's attack against the LRA rebels who have been holed up in northeastern Congo since 2005. In June, the three countries said they would jointly combat the insurgents.

Diplomats say the attack was necessary following Kony's repeated refusal to sign the pact and reports that he was using the peace process to re-arm and recruit.

The guerrillas have demanded that arrest warrants for Kony and two deputies be scrapped before they will ink the agreement.

But Uganda says it will ask the U.N. Security Council to defer the indictments only when Kony signs.

Uganda's government says the military operation is aimed at forcing Kony to sign the final deal -- an explanation that opposition members laughed at on Tuesday in parliament.

Only sketchy information has filtered out since the offensive began five days ago. Some opposition parliamentarians said the army had attacked empty LRA camps, local media said.

Nearly 2 million people were displaced and tens of thousands killed during the civil war. Kony's fighters were notorious for hacking off limbs and using children to fight.

"The success of operation should not be measured by Kony's head, but by the capacity of the LRA to continue abducting (and) killing," Okello said.

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INSIDE JOSEPH KONY'S CAMP SWAHILI

From New Vision Uganda Dec. 17, 2008 by Henry Mukasa:

THE UPDF commandos on Tuesday evening matched into the deserted LRA camps in the Garamba jungles in north-east DR Congo that were bombarded by the airforce on Sunday.

The Special Forces that were air-dropped five kilometres from the main camp called Camp Shahili, picked their way in the dense, swampy forest infested with wild animals.

Strewn in the camp were tents, bedding, farm tools, generators, shoes, mattresses, blankets, mosquito nets, cooking utensils and posho and beans.

The commandos collected the items and burnt them.

No dead or injured were found, but the joint forces said indications were that the rebels suffered severe casualties.

For instance, the forces picked nine sub-machine guns, four anti-personnel mines and bombs in the camps that had 400 people.

The latest offensive, Operation Lightning Thunder, was jointly launched by Uganda, South Sudan and the DR Congo after the rebels thrice this year refused to sign the peace agreement in Juba.

Spokesperson Capt. Chris Magezi said yesterday the camps had large gardens of groundnuts, maize, rice, sunflower, sorghum, sweet potatoes, cassava and sim-sim. The soldiers started destroying the crops. Magezi said it would take a while to raze the gardens.

Child slaves abducted from the region had tended the gardens. The rebels also had fully-stocked granaries of posho and beans.

Magezi said the operation was “impressive” and likened it to the army’s victories at Birinyang and Jabuleni in South Sudan in 2005 during Operation Iron Fist. The rebels then were forced to flee to Garamba from where, he said, they had also been smoked out.

“The final cord of the LRA backbone has been broken,” Magezi said. “Without food, Kony will become a wanderer and it will be difficult for him to survive.”

Magezi said the joint forces were still hunting Kony, his fighters and the non-combatants who fled into the jungles. He said the attack came shortly after Kony addressed a parade and left for a hunting spree.

“There’s evidence of casualties,” Magezi noted. “We suspect they carried away the injured.”

The army yesterday named four Congolese girls it rescued as Jean Lavi Kitala, 16, Justive Atoloba, 14, Victoria Nakayobi, 11, and pregnant 17-year-old Horlanchar Minongote, who had been married off to rebel commander Abokero.

Commander Brig. Patrick Kankiriho received the youngsters at the tactical headquarters in Dungu, Congo, and gave them personal effects. “Imagine your daughter pregnant at this age!” Kankiriho remarked.

Asked about the fate of Kony, Kankiriho said the operation was not a cup of tea. “You attack, deploy, fight and count casualties.”

But, he added, Kony’s end was near. “Kony will never stand and fight again. He has lost many people who fled in disarray and are scattered in the jungles. He is always the first to flee,” Kankiriho explained.

Kankiriho, the commander of the Mbale-based 3rd Division, is deputised by Col. Moses Rwakitarate, the Chief of Staff of the Airforce and Lt. Col. Muhoozi Kainerugaba of the Special Forces Division.

Kankiriho commanded the disarmament programme against Karimojong warriors.

Yesterday, the forces continued searching for the rebels and dropping more leaflets to encourage scattered fighters and abductees to hand themselves in.

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ARMY DROPS FLYERS FOR REBELS TO GATHER

From Sapa-AFP Dec. 17, 2008:

Ugandan forces taking part in a joint operation against Lord's Resistance Army rebels are dropping leaflets to urge them to gather at areas where they will escape attack, an official said on Wednesday.

"This campaign is part of our strategy and rules of engagement. The LRA should know that if they go to the designated areas they will not be attacked," said Ruth Nankabirwa, the state minister for defence.

Ugandan, Congolese and south Sudan troops launched an offensive at the weekend against the rebels, whose leader Joseph Kony has refused to sign a final peace agreement with Kampala.

Uganda's state-run newspaper New Vision displayed a leaflet with a picture of a former Kony aide who received amnesty after defecting from the group.

"You have the blessing when you come home," read a text under the picture.

Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa said on Tuesday the military drive was to force the rebels back to the peace process, whose final agreement Kampala has signed.

Kony cites outstanding International Criminal Court arrest warrants against him and his lieutenants as a reason for failing to sign the deal.

The LRA has been accused of abductions, rape and killings of tens of thousand of civilians in the two-decade insurgency that has also displaced nearly two million others.

LRA had been tipped about an impending attack on their camps - Ugandan commandos found desolate camps and Kony's guitar

Article from the Monitor, Uganda by Rodney Muhumuza Dec. 21, 2008 - excerpt:

Let’s count Garamba’s dead baboons

For about two years, as Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army found a new home in the jungles of Garamba in eastern Congo, what used to be a story of regular skirmishes between hungry UPDF soldiers and dreadlocked rebels was radically changed.

Northern Uganda found peace, soldiers deployed there started having fun, villagers cultivated their gardens, and President Museveni declared the region secure.

All of that happened while Kony was miles away from the place he once called home, feasting on the wildlife of Garamba and sometimes inviting Acholi elders to sober conversations. Kony was not dead, but he was not around to cause death.

The mystic rebel leader’s decision to relocate to the Congo, where he relived his reign of terror, was not a gift of love to the northern Ugandans he traumatised for two decades, of course, but neither was it because the UPDF had single-handedly exiled him there.

By the time a truce was signed in August 2006, early in the Juba Peace Process, it had been long since the LRA and the UPDF had clashed. By April 2008, when Kony refused to sign the final peace deal, rendering negotiations useless, there was already a sense of hope in most of northern Uganda that the days of hacking limbs and raping women were firmly buried in the past.

Now, nearly a week after a joint assault on the LRA, the army is said to be deploying heavily in northern Uganda, especially in the border town of Arua, apparently to make sure that LRA rebels do not infiltrate Uganda. It is war all over again.

The public relations surrounding the offensive--led by the UPDF and including the armies of Congo and South Sudan--has been a disaster of Garamba proportions. Although it has been said that the attack was to rescue women and children enslaved by Kony’s ragtag army, aerial bombardment is not a tactic that achieves that. It does not make a distinction between the face of Kony and a baboon’s, and it also does not care if there are pregnant women collecting firewood or little children chasing squirrels.

Officially, Ugandan commandos were parachuted into Garamba about two days after the aerial assault on the national park, reportedly to count the number of casualties and rescue any survivors.

The commandos found desolate camps, reportedly bloody compounds, at least six survivors, and—what else?—a guitar that allegedly belonged to Kony! The curious thing, though, is that no one in the UPDF has claimed that the place was strewn with human bodies.

In the absence of reliable information on the character and scope of the attack, two scenarios can be conjured: Either the allied forces bombed empty camps, or the aerial strikes claimed the lives of many women and children.

If the offensive was as successful as the army wants us to believe, the second scenario is one that, unfortunately, is more probable. But the success of the operation is being doubted seriously. On Tuesday, two days after the aerial assault on Garamba, some lawmakers from Acholi told reporters they were reliably informed that the LRA had been tipped about an impending attack on their camps.

Kony and his fighters, the MPs claimed, had abandoned their camps long before fighter jets rained bombs on the jungles they were holed in after the International Criminal Court issued warrants of arrest for the rebel leader and his top lieutenants. Reagan Okumu, the Aswa MP, was even willing to stake his reputation on the argument, whispering into reporters’ ears that “maybe they bombed monkeys”. That sounds really funny, but it probably captures everything we do not know about the offensive.

Should the assault be seen as a deadly attack on the LRA, or was it a playful assault on Garamba? Was the UPDF, already stunned by leaks to the press that the attack was imminent, desperate to bomb Kony, however misguidedly, before the government in Kinshasa changed its mind about allowing the attack?

Can the UPDF justify the attack against a supposedly demented rebel chief who, despite his reputation for brutality, was yet to completely rule out making peace with President Museveni?

Weeks before the assault on Garamba, a Monitor journalist had been investigating a juicy rumour that the UPDF was planning to attack Kony’s bases in Garamba. The reporter, doubtful that such an attack would be contemplated at a time when the ceasefire was holding, decided the story was a hoax when Uganda’s top military intelligence officer asked him a dull question.

“Where did you get that from?” Brig. James Mugira, the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence chief, reportedly asked the reporter. In a recent conversation, the journalist told me he regretted not having penned the story, and that Brig. Mugira’s question may have psyched him out of doing what he is paid to do.

I am hard-pressed to believe that Kony, who has eluded capture for two decades, would be so uninformed about his looming fate in a world where reporters know weeks in advance that his camps are being targeted for aerial bombardment. Like the UNITA example in Angola, Kony is the LRA and the LRA is Kony.

The former altar boy is the ultimate prize, dead or alive. If the allied forces believed at the time of the attack that Kony was unaware of their deadly plans, then they were joking. Because I am inclined to think that the commanders of the operation codenamed “Lightning Thunder” had no reason to believe that Kony was sitting inside his hut waiting to be the high-profile victim of enemy bombs.

I do not find Mr Okumu’s monkey comments hilarious. The apes of Garamba did not deserve to die in place of Kony—a murderer’s death. Their sounds, those screams of agony, surely cursed the Garamba air that Sunday morning. Even for an ugly baboon devoid of a sense of responsibility, it is a Kony way to die.

LRA blamed Christmas massacre on UPDF's Battalion 105

From Daily Nation, Nairobi December 30 2008 by Sam Kiplagat:

Uganda rebels deny killing 200 people

Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group yesterday distanced itself from the killing of more than 200 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The attacks, which started on Christmas Day, have left close to 200 people dead and more than 20,000 have fled DRC, according to UN humanitarian agency, Ocha.

But speaking to the Nation on phone on Tuesday, LRA Peace delegation leader David Nyekorach Matsanga blamed the attacks on group’s breakaway combatants who he said have since joined the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).

According to Dr Matsanga, the attacks were carried out by Battalion 105 on orders of the government of Uganda.

According to the UN, the killings were reported to have been carried out between December 25 and December 27 in Faradje, Doruma and Gurba villages by LRA fighters fleeing a two-week-old multinational military offensive led by Uganda.

The agency also added that at least 20 children and an unknown number of adults were abducted during the attacks.

Dr Matsanga said the Ugandan government wanted to malign LRA’s name.

He said rebel leader Joseph Kony and the LRA command were against such attacks and would not fight back.

“I have talked to some European diplomats who are against the attacks. We will maintain peace as we await for peace talks,” said Dr Matsanga.