Conor Casey
Staff Writer
In the last few weeks the American based charity group, `invisible children`, launched a campaign with the sole aim of bringing an end to the insurgency of the Lord’s Resistance Army. The name and deeds of the LRA’s Chief Commander, Joseph Kony, have now gone viral. But who are the Lord’s Resistance Army? What do they want and how do they fit into the wider political context of Africa and the world?
Formed in 1987 in the Acholi region of Northern Uganda, the LRA was initially a continuation of a larger armed resistance group known as the `Holy Spirit Movement`, a group formed to rebel against the Ugandan governments treatment of the Acholi people. However over the past 25 years, the LRA’s political goals have become increasingly impenetrable and bizarre. Kony has since proclaimed himself a “spokesperson” of God and believes the Holy Spirit works through him and the LRA. He has claimed that the ultimate goal of the LRA is the establishment of a theocratic state in Uganda with a constitution based ostensibly upon the Ten Commandments.
Despite considering himself a Christian, it remains impossible to see which Christian tenet Kony’s campaign is based upon. Indeed the LRA insurgency has become infamous for its indiscriminate ferocity and cruelty. The LRA are responsible for a swath of destruction across Central Africa, with over two million people estimated to have been displaced and tens of thousands killed during the two decade campaign, including people from the Acholi tribe. The LRA have also become feared for their practice of abducting and conscripting children as child soldiers and sex slaves. These children are subjected to horrific psychological and physical abuse, often made to kill their own mothers and fathers to ensure they have no home to return to.
The horrific level of butchery Kony has orchestrated against innocent people in Central Africa beggars belief, and has led to international calls for his arrest. Kony and four of his top lieutenants are wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. However the papers for his arrest are still gathering dust somewhere in Uganda, since 2005, no attempt by forces either international or domestic have yet come close to capturing the elusive commander.
But there is hope for a foreseeable resolution to the conflict. Last October US President Barack Obama has pledged 100 American Special Forces personnel to advise and aid the Ugandan military in “removing Joseph Kony from the battlefield”. With the fighting strength of the LRA reported to be in decline, we may wait and earnestly hope that 2012 may prove to be Kony’s last year as a free man.
And yet the sad fact remains, that if Joseph Kony was to stand trial tomorrow morning and receive a life sentence for his crimes against humanity, it would only be one small step towards a brighter future for the continent and indeed the world as a whole. Kony is a monster of grotesque proportions, but there are countless other monsters present in the world that will most likely never have international attention brought to bear upon them. The failure to deal with the humanitarian crisis instigated by Kony was a failure of the international community. It is not the first and will certainly not be the last time that the UN fails to adhere to its founding principles of international security and human rights protection
The United Nations itself has recently released reports documenting two of its worst failures. According to these documents, under- resourced U.N. peacekeepers in Rwanda stood by as Hutu slaughtered some 800,000 Tutsi. In Bosnia, the U.N. declared safe areas for Muslims but did nothing to secure them, letting the Serbs slaughter thousands in Srebrenica. There have been reports made by Human Rights First and the Stockholm international peace research institute with evidence to suggest that over 90% of the weapons used in the Darfur genocide were supplied by China and Russia, two members of the UN’s permanent Security Council. These are the very same members who recently vetoed proposed UN sanctions against the murderous regime of Bashar al-asad in Syria. The United States of America still refuse to allow any action against ongoing Israeli apartheid in Palestine. With the countless human rights violations occurring around the world today, now more than ever before, there is a desperate need for an objective, responsible international body capable of enforcing human rights and mitigating the abuses carried out by dozens of nations on a daily basis
In theory, the United Nations, as an international body with over 190-member nations, has adequate resources needed to perform this utterly crucial function. Indeed, it could take significant measures to fight violations of human rights in countries such as China, Russia, North Korea, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Zimbabwe or Sudan. But it hasn’t. Using determined and strong diplomacy and security, the UN could easily be conducive to formulating peaceful resolutions of conflicts in the Middle East and in Africa. But it won’t. Joseph Kony may well soon be captured or killed and, for that, we may give thanks. But his monstrous cruelty is only one small fraction of the terror inflicted throughout the world on a daily basis. If the UN continues to stand by while human rights are sacrificed upon the altar of political and financial manoeuvrings, history will not forgive them for it.
