Co-authored with Maggie Fick, a policy assistant with the Enough Project.
If there was a serial mass murderer on the loose who had killed seven people in the United States, there would be a media firestorm, a panicked public, and subsequently, a galvanized response at the highest levels of government. In central Africa, there is a mass serial killer who has been responsible for thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of kidnappings of children over the past two decades. For over 22 years, Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has been on the loose in central Africa, leaving a trail of death, amputations, abductions, and terror. The world has paid scant attention to this deadly conflict and the mass murderer responsible for it all.
Concerned Americans, aside from having a moral urge to see an end to the LRA's cycle of death and destruction, should also have an economic interest in seeing this man removed from the battlefield. Ending the LRA's atrocities would dramatically reduce the enormous costs to U.S. taxpayers who year after year underwrite the humanitarian aid that flows to the survivors and the cost of peacekeepers patrolling parts of the Congo affected by the LRA's violence.
For more than two decades, the United States has attempted piecemeal solutions to addressing the scourge of the LRA. The U.S. government has given hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian assistance to squalid camps that were home to roughly two million people at the height of the LRA's brutal campaign in Uganda. The U.S. has also supported internationally-backed peace negotiations that have been spoiled by Kony, who has refused to come out of the bush and sign an agreement. And most recently, the Bush administration provided logistical and intelligence support to a joint military offensive by the Ugandan, southern Sudanese, and Congolese militaries against the LRA's new hideout in a remote Congolese national park, where the group moved two years ago after being routed out of northern Uganda. But the offensive failed and Joseph Kony remains at large. Since then, his rebels have killed over 1,000 people in northeastern Congo.
The good news is that there is a way to stop the world's longest running insurgency. But this will only be possible if the Obama administration chooses to commit to a strategy of apprehending or otherwise removing Kony from the battlefield. There are two examples that demonstrate why this strategy is well-reasoned: the long-running wars in Angola and Sierra Leone, both of which ended once insidious rebel leaders were taken out of commission.
In Angola, Jonas Savimbi, leader of the guerilla movement UNITA for over three decades, was killed in battle after perpetuating a bloody civil war in pursuit of his economic interests. Savimbi's practices--child soldiering, torture, amputations--closely resembled Kony's tactics, and his lack of remorse for the suffering and pain he caused his fellow Angolans mirrored Kony's disregard for human life and dignity.
Like Kony, Savimbi personally orchestrated the collapse of several internationally-supported peace agreements and ceasefires. Only when Savimbi died did the possibility of ending civil war in Angola emerge. Mere months after Savimbi's death, UNITA signed a ceasefire agreement with the Angolan government that allowed a fragile stability to begin to take root. Savimbi waged war for 25 years; his death was the catalyst that allowed this violence and suffering to end.
In Sierre Leone, Foday Sankoh was another charismatic leader whose so-called political aims were belied by his brutal methods. Sankoh instructed his men and boys to kill their family members and continue killing in the name of "revolution" by hacking off the limbs of victims. When Sankoh was arrested, the people of Sierra Leone were able to rebuild their ravaged country and develop peaceful democracy.
In the devastating conflicts in Angola and Sierra Leone, in addition to United Nations peacekeeping missions, peace negotiations, and concerted pressure, the main factor that ended these countries' horrors was decapitating the rebel groups by removing their leaders. Although it appears that the death of Tamil Tiger leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran in Sri Lanka ended that devastating conflict, the Sri Lankan government's disregard for civilians was so profound that many are now calling for a war crimes investigation. Civilian protection must be front and center in any operation to end the LRA threat.
Such protection will help ensure that collateral damage is kept to a minimum and the LRA cannot exact revenge on civilians. Doing nothing, however, would be even more dangerous for civilians continuing to face the unabated predations of the LRA.
A responsible strategy for the Obama administration must be aimed at ending the scourge of the LRA, not simply managing the consequences of its destruction in central Africa. This strategy will only succeed only if it is focused on one crucial goal: apprehending or otherwise removing Joseph Kony from the battlefield forever.
Follow John Prendergast on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JP4Enough
Lord's Resistance Army - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Do those who advocate for MORE WAR realize that it is illegal under US and International laws to deal with a country that permits the use of torture? Why does the US continue to support , nay..partner with a corrupt dictator like Museveni?
There are alternatives to the military solution, and they would not cost so many innocent lives. It involves listening to the people in the north and addressing their needs, listening to the members of the opposition in Uganda and working with them. Eliminate poverty, provide proper healthcare and truly free education. Believe me, there is enough money in the pockets of the political and military elites that if tapped could reduce dependency on donors.
At least the US Government could stop misleading young people through such orgs as Enough and Resolve who thrive on simplistic propaganda, and acknowledge that they are dealing with a corrupt, megalomaniac, for whom human lives mean nothing! That would be President Museveni. Kony is only a part of the problem.
Uganda has decided not to refer Kony or any other LRA commanders to the ICC. So what is America's role in this? Oil, oil and more oil.
Other factors are examined in this story: http://www.blackstarnews.com/news/135/ARTICLE/5797/2009-06-23.html
Mr. Prendergast, Feingold, Brownback, and all the other senators you've conned into supporting your scheme will be mightily upset to be associated with such a foreign policy relations failure as you are orchestrating.. the youth of today may at the moment be clueless about your role as a National Security Advisor to Clinton, where you presided over the bombing of a pharmaceutical plant in the Sudan, but they aren't as naive as you may think and are beginning to ask more questions.
Obviously this has ALWAYS been the desire of those affected by Kony's actions over the past two decades. The question is, what exactly would you like OUR government to do about it?
Last year the US government sponsored a military assault designed to chop off the head of the LRA leadership. Poor intelligence and coordination allowed Kony and his men to escape and cause the death of innocent Congolese in retribution. You seem to be advocating a repeat performance.
What message do you suppose such a strike will send? That violence is the most effective means to root out an evil menace to society? Now I understand your argument. I do not suggest that you make such recommendations lightly, but who will hold the moral authority to decide when such measures are justified? And how often will this precedent be used to off those who stand in the way of someone else's hold on power?
The civil war analysis analogy is an interesting one as well. I agree that both were good at throwing negotiations but both also had incredibly powerful and immovable negotiation partners. But that issue aside, have you visited the UNITA stronghold areas of Angola like Kuite, Huambo, and others where Savimbi's people were disenfranchised after Savimbi's death? What of the future of the Ancholi after the demise of Kony? Will new justifications arise for violence? The structural violence that the people living in UNITA dominated areas is criminal and silent with no one to speak for them. Kony is not a spokeman for the Ancholi, but what of a plan to speak for Northern Ugandans, when the LRA's influence is diminished or removed?
Karana, you ask this as if Kony's efforts for power are as legitimate as the government's. Are you equating Kony's crimes with the government's use of force to bring Kony to justice? That's like saying the US government should not use force to bring a serial killer/rapist to justice. It's like equating the state police killing an armed criminal in a shootout with the criminal's act of murdering an innocent person. Is that not what you are arguing?