Archive for August 16, 2007
INVISIBLE CHILDREN - THE VERY LATEST!
August 16, 2007 by PT Rothschild.
LET’S MAKE A DEAL. WHY A U.S. PRESENCE IS NEEDED!
(ed. note: Due to the length and complexity of the following report on the current condition of Northern Uganda by source, John Prendergast, the conclusion will be presented first - PT)
Conclusion
When asked about the slow pace of the talks, one person close to mediation efforts told ENOUGH, “As long as the LRA continue to talk and the people of northern Uganda enjoy improved security, then it really doesn’t matter if negotiations go on for years.” This is the wrong approach. It makes talks an end in themselves and neglects the dangers of allowing the LRA to remain in the bush indefinitely. The LRA continue to cast a long, dark shadow over northern Ugandan and southern Sudan, blocking urgently needed resettlement and redevelopment. A recent assessment by the Kampala-based Refugee Law Project found that only 1 percent of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in primary conflict-impacted districts (Gulu, Amuru, Kitgum, and Pader) have actually returned home. Instead, the vast majority have shifted to satellite decongestion sites whose conditions are often only a marginal improvement over the original squalid IDP camps. The LRA will continue to hold northern Uganda hostage until a final agreement is signed. Moreover, the LRA still pose a real threat to regional security. For the better part of the year-long peace process, the LRA have continued to loot villages and attack civilians in southern
Sudan. Khartoum clearly has a strong interest in keeping the LRA in reserve as a proxy force to destabilize southern Sudan and undermine implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between Khartoum’s National Congress Party and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. The LRA can easily expand into the Central African Republic if talks collapse, easing access to supplies from Khartoum and potentially opening up a new theater of operations for the LRA in Darfur. The LRA have gotten more out of the process than they have given. The LRA are militarily stronger, and have made progress in improving their image. After one year of meandering, uncertain progress, it is time to get down to details, provide the leverage and structure to create a disciplined process in Juba, and cut a deal that will finally allow northern Ugandans to awake from their 20-year nightmare and remove the specter of the LRA as a regional security threat. With the right level of international engagement, supported by strong U.S. leadership, the current peace process could succeed soon. The elements of a deal are clear. Only leverage and political will are lacking.
Peace talks between the Ugandan Government and Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA, turned one year old on July 14, a milestone marked with little fanfare in Uganda and empty seats at the negotiating table in Juba, southern Sudan. Negotiations had taken yet another one month recess. Since talks resumed on April 26, the parties have signed basic agreements on two agenda items: “comprehensive solutions to the conflict” and “reconciliation and accountability.” LRA rebels in the southern Sudan state of Eastern Equatoria, who have been divided and pinned down by military pressure, crossed the Nile and assembled at the LRA’s base near the Congo-Sudan border. While these achievements should not be discounted, they are also shallow, ambiguous, and problematic. Neither comprehensive solutions nor reconciliation and accountability have actually been concluded. The former perpetuates the fiction that peace talks in Juba with the LRA are an appropriate forum to deal with the complex issues that northern Uganda faces, while the latter lays out an array of options to choose from but delays difficult decisions. In both cases, the weak and isolated LRA may be primarily interested in using broad agreements on principles as a cover to buy time, build strength, and gain undue legitimacy by rebranding themselves as representatives of marginalized northern Ugandans.[1] To ensure that the plodding peace process doesn’t stretch out for another year, five steps are immediately necessary:
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