Joseph Kony 2012: It's fine to 'Stop Kony' and the LRA. But Learn to Respect Africans.
By Semhar Araia, Guest blogger / March 8, 2012
Invisible Children's viral campaign to 'Stop Kony' is a powerful use of social media in activism. But by focusing on what Americans can do, they are undermining the role of Africans.This week’s biggest Africa news isn’t from Africa. It’s from a massive online and social media campaign launched by the American advocacy group Invisible Children to capture indicted war criminal and Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony.
As with their previous campaigns Displace Me and How it Ends, Invisible Children launched Stop Kony 2012 on Tuesday to mobilize the next generation of young Americans to help end the conflict in northern Uganda – except this time, they called on their mostly white, privileged, and educated youth followers to get involved through web-activism on their Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube accounts.
It all begins with a remarkable 30-minute video highlighting the instantaneous and hyper-connected world we live in. Founder Jason Russell narrates, stating “there are more people on Facebook than there were in the world 200 years ago” and that “humanity’s greatest desire is to belong and connect.” He may be right. In just two days, it has been viewed 32 million times and quickly grabbed the attention of personalities such as Oprah Winfrey, Van Jones, Sean Combs and Rihanna.
RECOMMENDED: LRA leader Joseph Kony: Why Obama sent US troops to Uganda to get him
It is a powerful example of how social media, art and activism can merge to mobilize privileged people into action and how open-minded Americans want a safer, fairer, and more prosperous world.
I appreciate their role. They are reaching a core constituency -- many of whom have never thought about these issues before -- and getting them to care about Africa. But caring is no longer enough.
Sadly, there are concerns that history may be repeating itself, as seen in responses from emerging African diaspora leaders Solome Lemma and TMS Ruge.
Of course Joseph Kony should be captured. But this approach is flawed. The video shows only a Western audience, without any reference to African partners or leaders. They are disempowering and undermining the role of Africans. They failed to recognize the role of individuals like Betty Bigombe, a long-time Ugandan activist, or seek partnerships with African organizations for the launch, such as Ushahidi or Africans Act for Africa.
Invisible Children and other Africa-focused advocacy organizations should deliver more sophisticated, nuanced, and respectful narratives that recognize capturing Kony is a collective responsibility and that Africans must play the primary role in bringing peace to the region.
Calling for the use of the latest technology, tools, and organizing tactics to attract millions of people who have never heard of Kony before (as they say, 99 percent of the world) into action is exciting. But for Africa’s sake, it is no longer enough.
On its face, it’s eerily reminiscent of previous Africa advocacy movements, such as Save Darfur in its early days: grand public launches, with minimal partnership and little substance. Dangerous. Whether they meant it to or not, whatever the intentions, it ends up looking like yet another Western campaign to help Africans who can’t help themselves. Africa can’t be handled that way anymore.
Besides the most obvious concern of another “white savior” narrative for Africa (complete with a young blonde child learning of Africa’s “good guys” and “bad guys’), there’s an absence of depth and deference to the power of Africans who are standing up for themselves. There’s also a complete failure to recognize the role the Ugandan government has had and should have in protecting its citizens and ending the conflict.
Invisible Children must be careful not to sell a simple narrative, raise unreasonably high expectations of the conflict’s resolution, ignore the power and agency of Africans on the ground or rely too much on Western solutions and audiences. They must do better.
The anti-apartheid movement of the 80s, the debt relief movement of the 90s and the Save Darfur movement just a few years ago all showed us that legislation, peace agreements, foreign aid and International Criminal Court arrest warrants don’t always end suffering. For conflict zones like this, there must be global political will focused on longterm security, peace-building, development, and investment in local leadership and capacity building.
We also now know that young people’s minds are open and hungry. They should be inspired by knowing Africa is empowered, saving itself, and working with partners to remove Kony. That is the real story.
Invisible Children must be willing to take their followers on a journey through the Africa that Africans know. They must be willing to inspire – but also to manage – their followers’ expectations. They must be willing to use their media to amplify African voices, not simply their own.
This isn’t about them.
Lastly, this campaign must be better at representing and working with a more accurate reflection of young America. This includes diverse voices, communities of color and new Americans. African-American organizations, historically black colleges and universities, and African diaspora groups are missing from the video. Additionally, Invisible Children’s own US-based staffing and board of directors lack the requisite diversity and representation where critical decisions are made.
I want Kony captured and I hope everyone uses their power to push our governments to act. But when I say everyone, I mean everyone – including, and most importantly, Africans.
Semhar Araia is founder of the Diaspora African Women’s Network and an Eritrean-American advocate for Africa conflict resolution and stronger US engagement with Africa and its diaspora. A lawyer by training, she previously was Oxfam International's Horn of Africa Regional Policy Advisor, a congressional foreign policy staffer, and an Africa analyst for The Elders, an organization established by Nelson Mandela and eleven other world leaders. She also served as an attorney on the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission hearings. She was born in New York City to Eritrean immigrant parents and currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Follow her on Twitter @Semhar.
Labels: DRC, LORDS RESISTANCE ARMY, UGANDA
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COMMENT - The LRA is a front group for the Ugandan government, which itself is a proxy of the US/UK presence in Africa, like Kenya or nowadays Ethiopia. President Yoweri Museveni has been providing housing, jobs and protection for Joseph Kony's parents since 1994 (the year Uganda also happened to invade Rwanda, through Paul Kagame).
From the Wikileaks Cables: ¶4. (C) Senior Advisor Shortley asked Museveni for his views on how Kony would be handled if he agreed to a deal. Museveni described his provision of protection, livelihood, and homes for Kony,s mother (and now deceased father) since 1994. Museveni was flexible on Kony,s future, saying that the LRA leader could live anywhere in Uganda where he had not committed atrocities.
LRA: Small but ruthless to Uganda
Thursday, 09 February 2012 00:00
Prof Mungai wa Muthaithai
THE belief that the end is nigh for Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army - a small but ruthless transnational armed group operating in four African states - underestimates its resilience and overestimates the unity and capability of the forces ranged against it.
The LRA is seen as being in "survival mode". It has a lightly armed 1 000-strong militia dispersed across a territory half the size of France, and uses "terror" tactics to subdue local populations and is facing a coordinated response from the armies of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda and the USA.
In recent weeks African Union special envoy for affairs relating to the LRA Francisco Madeira, and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General Abou Moussa have toured Kinshasa, Bangui, Juba and Kampala to discuss regional military cooperation, following authorisation from the AU Peace and Security Council in November 2011, with the support of the UN, for them to deal decisively with the LRA.
Ashley Benner, a policy analyst at the Enough Project - a US NGO lobbying for an end to mass atrocity crimes - told IRIN: "The proposed AU intervention force will consist of approximately 3 500-5 000 troops from the four affected countries. The mandate and goals of the mission are to end the LRA, protect civilians, and lead to security and stability in the affected countries."
The USA has deployed about 100 military advisers - they carry weapons for self-defence only - to assist the region's military forces, but Benner said this would not be sufficient.
"The advisers need to be bolstered by more capable troops, greater intelligence and logistical capabilities, including helicopters, improved collaboration between regional forces, and increased efforts to encourage LRA members to leave the group," she added.
The Shadows of Peace Sandra Adong Oder, a senior researcher at the conflict management and peace building unit at Pretoria-based think-tank the Institute for Security Studies, told IRIN the same military actors involved in previous and failed attempts to eradicate the LRA were involved in the AU initiative, and asked: "It (the initiative) may be doing more, (but) is it any different?"
The LRA was also not a top priority for the four affected countries: Kony's forces, were no longer operating in Uganda; they were more than 1 000 km from Kinshasa and so not seen as a key security issue for the DRC; they are not threatening any economic interests or political constituencies in CAR; and South Sudan was grappling with more urgent security considerations, said Oder.
In a research note entitled The AU's Regional Initiative Against the LRA: Prospects and Implications published on 30 January, Oder said: "The regional intervention force . . . is based on some assumptions that the LRA is an easy problem to solve, and that the insurgent group's threat capability has been reduced. This may prove to be a grave mistake . . .
"The new force should therefore not merely improve on existing military operations, but needs to refrain from merely duplicating operational structures and techniques that do not work, while at the same time leaving the military command in the hands of national governments, which could fuel suspicion and intra-regional tensions within the alliance, which in turn could severely limit cooperation and coordination - and hence the AU's overall ownership of the mission . . .
"This time round, the consequences of another failure will be prohibitive, in the sense that once committed, the AU mission would then have to use all necessary force to avoid failure, and would be under immense pressure to escalate military involvement to ensure success," the note said.
It should be remembered that the LRA only has to survive to succeed The International Working Group on the LRA, in a World Bank June 2011 report entitled: Diagnostic Study of the Lord's Resistance Army, written by Philip Lancaster and Guillaume Lacaille, said: "It should be remembered that the LRA only has to survive to succeed . . .
"As long as it (the LRA) is present, it is capable of generating insecurity in the region. To survive, it needs only to avoid, as much as possible, direct contact with superior armed forces and continue to resupply itself from vulnerable civilians. As long as it retains the freedom to choose the time and place of its attacks, it retains the tactical and strategic initiative," the World Bank report said.
In the past month, LRA Crisis Tracker, a real-time mapping platform for crimes committed by Kony's forces, has attributed six deaths and 14 abductions to the armed group.
Uganda, the regional military power, is expected to take the lead role in the military operations by virtue of its acknowledged professionalism compared to the region's other forces, and its close working relationship with US forces over the past few years, although its dominance in an intervention force could increase regional tensions, especially between Kampala and Kinshasa.
Last year DRC President Joseph Kabila asked his counterpart Yoweri Museveni to halt operations in his country against the LRA by the Uganda People's Defence Force and it is unclear how this impasse will be resolved.
Oder said although the Ugandan army was "overstretched" with its commitments to the AU Mission in Somalia it had a personal score to settle with the LRA, after previous encounters had exposed the "weaknesses, corruption and competence" of the UPDF.
"It's about saving face and pride," she said.
A 2 February 2012 Enough Project report entitled Ensuring Success: Four Steps Beyond US Troops to End the War with the LRA by Sasha Lezhnev, said Uganda's best troops were in Somalia and it did not have any bases in the DRC.
"Some 90 percent of LRA attacks over the past six months have taken place in DRC . . . The shortage of troops is also hurting civilian protection efforts, which are in urgent need of a boost."
The bush fighting skills of LRA fighters have been masked and overshadowed by their reputation as a ragtag bunch of bandits, marauding and raping, reliant on abducted children brainwashed into soldiering under Kony, and with an absolute disregard for human rights. The LRA is responsible for thousands of deaths and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people across the four-country region.
"We have ample evidence from reports of the past 20 years that the LRA are a force to be reckoned with. Ruthless as they are, their tactics are well adapted to the terrain and the nature of the forces they face," Philip Lancaster - former head of the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration division of the UN Mission in the DRC , the predecessor of the current UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DRC, and coordinator of the UN Group of Experts on the Congo - said in an August 2011 article entitled the Lord's Resistance Army and US.
"The LRA make deliberate use of terror to tie up military forces and survive by hit-and-run attacks that are well-planned and flawlessly executed," he wrote.
Their extraordinary ability to survive, even when constantly on the move, gives LRA fighters an edge over all pursuing armies. LRA fighters value reconnaissance, are skilled in ambush techniques and the evasion of air surveillance, are trained in both irregular and regular forms of warfare and have adapted to different climatic regions from rainforests to arid wastelands.
"Their extraordinary ability to survive, even when constantly on the move, gives LRA fighters an edge over all pursuing armies," the World Bank report said.
The notion that the LRA's estimated 250 fighters and their dispersal into small cells indicates weakness, is misleading, the World Bank report said.
"While the LRA has been weakened over the past two years, it is premature to regard them as lacking capacity, since the number of the core fighters is not much lower now than what it has been throughout the years."
The response to any concerted military effort against them is likely to be accompanied by the LRA's "very crude way of operating" in using civilians as targets, Oder said.
The Ugandan 2008 offensive against the LRA, Operation Lightning Thunder, resulted in a sharp rise in the number of LRA attacks on civilians, rather than a drop-off: There were two successive Christmas massacres in 2008 and 2009.
"These events, particularly the massacre of December 2009 in the Makombo area of Haut Uélé, DRC, provoked questions about the wisdom of offensive operations against the LRA without adequate accompanying measures to protect civilians in the area of operations," The World Bank report said.
The UN Disarmament, Demobilisation, Repatriation, Reintegration and Resettlement exercise has been viewed as a major weapon in deconstructing the LRA through its propaganda campaign to encourage defections.
- DayAfrica.Com
Labels: LORDS RESISTANCE ARMY, NEOCOLONIALISM, YOWERI MUSEVENI
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Hell No, We Won’t Go To War Against Africa!
Wed, 01/11/2012 - 02:21 — Mark P. Fancher
by Mark P. Fancher
Elders and other influencers discouraged Black youth from becoming fodder for the Iraq war, but what of the looming U.S. imperial wars in Africa? The U.S. Africa Command propagates the lie that it only “advises” friendly forces on the continent, but “at the same time establishes bases in the Central African Republic and South Sudan” as part of a purported mission to hunt a guerilla force in the region. U.S. ground wars in Africa may be upon us before there is a chance “to throw up an anti-recruitment barrier around the community.” The education process must begin now, and become permanent.
Hell No, We Won’t Go To War Against Africa!
by Mark P. Fancher
“AFRICOM was integrally involved in the imperialist take-over of Libya, and now U.S. troops are trudging through Uganda.”
In 2005, U.S. Army brass panicked after reviewing the results of a specially commissioned study that showed a 41 percent drop in recruitment of people of African descent over a five year period. “It’s alarming,” said a general in charge of Army recruitment. He went on to attribute the de facto boycott to the war in Iraq and the views of teachers, preachers, coaches and other “influencers” in the black community who were urging young people not to sign on to what was ultimately acknowledged by many to be a pointless, senseless invasion and occupation of a sovereign country.
At the time, Harlem Congressman Charles Rangel was quoted as saying: “I have not found a black person in support of this war in my district.” Little wonder. Parents and grandparents still had painful memories of veterans of the U.S. debacle in Vietnam who returned broken physically, mentally and spiritually. The war-resisting spirit of these elders was revived by the then most recent imperialist escapade, and they made clear to their children and grandchildren that they had better “just say ‘no’” to military recruiters when they came calling.
It is precisely because of the now well-established willingness of Africans in America to draw the line against participation in imperialist wars of folly that the military has been acutely aware of the high risk of its attempts in recent years to establish a military presence in Africa. If young brothers and sisters refused to fight in Iraq, then any effort to persuade them to take up arms against Africa would present an extraordinary challenge that could fatally backfire if it were in any way mishandled.
“Even comforting smiles cannot hide the obvious fact that there have been U.S. boots on the ground in Africa.”
The military’s trepidation is evident from the fact that since its inception, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has devoted substantial time and resources to developing and publishing messages that assure and reassure the African World that, notwithstanding the undeniable fact that AFRICOM is a military entity, it is in Africa only to render humanitarian assistance, and to provide advice to Africa’s armies about how they – and not U.S. troops – might most effectively engage in combat. Unfortunately for the military’s public relations strategists, even comforting smiles cannot hide the obvious fact that there have been U.S. boots on the ground in Africa. AFRICOM was integrally involved in the imperialist take-over of Libya, and now U.S. troops are trudging through Uganda because President Obama took AFRICOM’s advice and sent them there purportedly to help in the hunt for the leadership of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a group accused of terrorism.
[The LRA and Joseph Kony are under the protection of the Ugandan Government, as stated by President Yoweri Museveni in one of the wikileaks cables. President Museveni of Uganda in the Wikileaks Cables (2007) conveyed how he had been providing protection, jobs and housing for Joseph Kony's parents since 1994. The Ugandan government, like the governments of Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda are firmly in the Anglo-American sphere of influence - hence the Ethipian and Kenyan invasions of Somalia. From the Wikileaks Cables:
¶4. (C) Senior Advisor Shortley asked Museveni for his views on how Kony would be handled if he agreed to a deal. Museveni described his provision of protection, livelihood, and homes for Kony,s mother (and now deceased father) since 1994. Museveni was flexible on Kony,s future, saying that the LRA leader could live anywhere in Uganda where he had not committed atrocities.
- MrK]
It has not escaped notice that this sudden U.S. interest in the LRA (which has been active for more than two decades) came on the heels of China’s negotiations with the Ugandan government for a major role in the development of an infrastructure to produce a vast amount of oil that was discovered in Uganda only a few years ago. Naturally there was immediate speculation that the supposed hunt for terrorists was actually a pretext for countering Chinese influence and securing access to a new oil supply. In response to skeptics’ questions about the true U.S. objectives in Uganda, Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson dismissed all “conspiracy theories,” and insisted that the U.S. mission is: “focused on the LRA and the LRA only.”
[The unfortunately named Johnnie Carson already made a fool of himself in Zimbabwe. - MrK]
Apparently Carson expects us to simply take the word of an administration that on the one hand declares unequivocally on its AFRICOM website that it will not establish military bases in Africa, but at the same time establishes bases in the Central African Republic and South Sudan as part of the purported LRA mission.
[The LRA is supported by and a front for the West, through the Ugandan Government. President Yoweri Museveni stated in the Wikileaks Cables in 2007 that he has been supporting Joseph Kony's parents with jobs, protection and housing since 1994. I quote:
¶4. (C) Senior Advisor Shortley asked Museveni for his views on how Kony would be handled if he agreed to a deal. Museveni described his provision of protection, livelihood, and homes for Kony,s mother (and now deceased father) since 1994. Museveni was flexible on Kony,s future, saying that the LRA leader could live anywhere in Uganda where he had not committed atrocities.
The LRA is as fake as Al-Qaeda. - MrK]
“Young Africans in America are very much a part of the Pentagon’s recruitment calculations.”
While we might hope that our young men and women will once again readily see through the lies about Uganda in the same way that they saw the truth about Iraq, clarity on a mass level this time around is not assured. The wall-to-wall media coverage of “shock and awe” explosions that decimated Iraq made it easy for Africans in the U.S. to decide that they wanted no part of that war. However, the recent introduction of U.S. troops into Africa has been very quiet. The risk is that before there is widespread awareness of military involvement in the Ugandan region, the U.S. presence will have expanded to a point where recruitment efforts will intensify, and the black “influencers” who kept young people out of the Iraq war will not have had an opportunity to throw up an anti-recruitment barrier around the community before large numbers of young Africans are sweet-talked into enlisting.
As the U.S. Empire continues to crumble, we will see more desperate attempts to preserve its domination of the planet’s natural resources through the use of force, and we can be certain that young Africans in America are very much a part of the Pentagon’s recruitment calculations. While our activist impulses may scream for the immediate establishment of a “movement” to counter potential recruiting raids of our community, sober reflection might suggest instead that this is the time to move beyond an ad hoc approach. “Endless war” may mean that we must now institutionalize endless community education about the motives, objectives and methods of military programs that are in service to imperialism. We will know we have succeeded when, without prompting, every African youth will boldly declare: “Hell no, I won’t go.”
Labels: AFRICOM, JOHNNIE CARSON, LORDS RESISTANCE ARMY, UGANDA
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Hell No, We Won’t Go To War Against Africa!
Wed, 01/11/2012 - 02:21 — Mark P. Fancher
by Mark P. Fancher
Elders and other influencers discouraged Black youth from becoming fodder for the Iraq war, but what of the looming U.S. imperial wars in Africa? The U.S. Africa Command propagates the lie that it only “advises” friendly forces on the continent, but “at the same time establishes bases in the Central African Republic and South Sudan” as part of a purported mission to hunt a guerilla force in the region. U.S. ground wars in Africa may be upon us before there is a chance “to throw up an anti-recruitment barrier around the community.” The education process must begin now, and become permanent.
Hell No, We Won’t Go To War Against Africa!
by Mark P. Fancher
“AFRICOM was integrally involved in the imperialist take-over of Libya, and now U.S. troops are trudging through Uganda.”
In 2005, U.S. Army brass panicked after reviewing the results of a specially commissioned study that showed a 41 percent drop in recruitment of people of African descent over a five year period. “It’s alarming,” said a general in charge of Army recruitment. He went on to attribute the de facto boycott to the war in Iraq and the views of teachers, preachers, coaches and other “influencers” in the black community who were urging young people not to sign on to what was ultimately acknowledged by many to be a pointless, senseless invasion and occupation of a sovereign country.
At the time, Harlem Congressman Charles Rangel was quoted as saying: “I have not found a black person in support of this war in my district.” Little wonder. Parents and grandparents still had painful memories of veterans of the U.S. debacle in Vietnam who returned broken physically, mentally and spiritually. The war-resisting spirit of these elders was revived by the then most recent imperialist escapade, and they made clear to their children and grandchildren that they had better “just say ‘no’” to military recruiters when they came calling.
It is precisely because of the now well-established willingness of Africans in America to draw the line against participation in imperialist wars of folly that the military has been acutely aware of the high risk of its attempts in recent years to establish a military presence in Africa. If young brothers and sisters refused to fight in Iraq, then any effort to persuade them to take up arms against Africa would present an extraordinary challenge that could fatally backfire if it were in any way mishandled.
“Even comforting smiles cannot hide the obvious fact that there have been U.S. boots on the ground in Africa.”
The military’s trepidation is evident from the fact that since its inception, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has devoted substantial time and resources to developing and publishing messages that assure and reassure the African World that, notwithstanding the undeniable fact that AFRICOM is a military entity, it is in Africa only to render humanitarian assistance, and to provide advice to Africa’s armies about how they – and not U.S. troops – might most effectively engage in combat. Unfortunately for the military’s public relations strategists, even comforting smiles cannot hide the obvious fact that there have been U.S. boots on the ground in Africa. AFRICOM was integrally involved in the imperialist take-over of Libya, and now U.S. troops are trudging through Uganda because President Obama took AFRICOM’s advice and sent them there purportedly to help in the hunt for the leadership of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a group accused of terrorism.
[The LRA and Joseph Kony are under the protection of the Ugandan Government, as stated by President Yoweri Museveni in one of the wikileaks cables. President Museveni of Uganda in the Wikileaks Cables (2007) conveyed how he had been providing protection, jobs and housing for Joseph Kony's parents since 1994. The Ugandan government, like the governments of Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda are firmly in the Anglo-American sphere of influence - hence the Ethipian and Kenyan invasions of Somalia. From the Wikileaks Cables:
¶4. (C) Senior Advisor Shortley asked Museveni for his views on how Kony would be handled if he agreed to a deal. Museveni described his provision of protection, livelihood, and homes for Kony,s mother (and now deceased father) since 1994. Museveni was flexible on Kony,s future, saying that the LRA leader could live anywhere in Uganda where he had not committed atrocities.
- MrK]
It has not escaped notice that this sudden U.S. interest in the LRA (which has been active for more than two decades) came on the heels of China’s negotiations with the Ugandan government for a major role in the development of an infrastructure to produce a vast amount of oil that was discovered in Uganda only a few years ago. Naturally there was immediate speculation that the supposed hunt for terrorists was actually a pretext for countering Chinese influence and securing access to a new oil supply. In response to skeptics’ questions about the true U.S. objectives in Uganda, Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson dismissed all “conspiracy theories,” and insisted that the U.S. mission is: “focused on the LRA and the LRA only.”
[The unfortunately named Johnnie Carson already made a fool of himself in Zimbabwe. - MrK]
Apparently Carson expects us to simply take the word of an administration that on the one hand declares unequivocally on its AFRICOM website that it will not establish military bases in Africa, but at the same time establishes bases in the Central African Republic and South Sudan as part of the purported LRA mission.
[The LRA is supported by and a front for the West, through the Ugandan Government. President Yoweri Museveni stated in the Wikileaks Cables in 2007 that he has been supporting Joseph Kony's parents with jobs, protection and housing since 1994. I quote:
¶4. (C) Senior Advisor Shortley asked Museveni for his views on how Kony would be handled if he agreed to a deal. Museveni described his provision of protection, livelihood, and homes for Kony,s mother (and now deceased father) since 1994. Museveni was flexible on Kony,s future, saying that the LRA leader could live anywhere in Uganda where he had not committed atrocities.
The LRA is as fake as Al-Qaeda. - MrK]
“Young Africans in America are very much a part of the Pentagon’s recruitment calculations.”
While we might hope that our young men and women will once again readily see through the lies about Uganda in the same way that they saw the truth about Iraq, clarity on a mass level this time around is not assured. The wall-to-wall media coverage of “shock and awe” explosions that decimated Iraq made it easy for Africans in the U.S. to decide that they wanted no part of that war. However, the recent introduction of U.S. troops into Africa has been very quiet. The risk is that before there is widespread awareness of military involvement in the Ugandan region, the U.S. presence will have expanded to a point where recruitment efforts will intensify, and the black “influencers” who kept young people out of the Iraq war will not have had an opportunity to throw up an anti-recruitment barrier around the community before large numbers of young Africans are sweet-talked into enlisting.
As the U.S. Empire continues to crumble, we will see more desperate attempts to preserve its domination of the planet’s natural resources through the use of force, and we can be certain that young Africans in America are very much a part of the Pentagon’s recruitment calculations. While our activist impulses may scream for the immediate establishment of a “movement” to counter potential recruiting raids of our community, sober reflection might suggest instead that this is the time to move beyond an ad hoc approach. “Endless war” may mean that we must now institutionalize endless community education about the motives, objectives and methods of military programs that are in service to imperialism. We will know we have succeeded when, without prompting, every African youth will boldly declare: “Hell no, I won’t go.”
Labels: AFRICOM, JOHNNIE CARSON, LORDS RESISTANCE ARMY, UGANDA
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COMMENT - Jendayi Frazer was also behind the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, according to the Wikileaks cables, see
here and
here.
US ‘invades’ Africa
Sunday, 16 October 2011 01:09 International News
WASHINGTON.
US President Barack Obama has announced he is deploying 100 “combat-equipped” troops to Uganda to help efforts against rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), who have been accused of grievous human rights abuses over the course of a decades-long insurgency.
The US troops, subject to the approval of national authorities, could also deploy from Uganda into South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Obama said in a message to Congress.
LRA rebels are accused of murdering, raping and kidnapping thousands of people in those four nations. Tens of thousands of people have died in their 20-year war in northern Uganda.
“These forces will act as advisors to partner forces that have the goal of removing from the battlefield Joseph Kony and other senior leadership of the LRA,” Obama said, but warned they would not lead the fighting themselves.
“Although the US forces are combat-equipped, they will only be providing information, advice, and assistance to partner nation forces.
“They will not themselves engage LRA forces unless necessary for self defence. All appropriate precautions have been taken to ensure the safety of US military personnel during their deployment.”
The president said a small group of troops deployed on Wednesday and that additional forces would deploy over the next month.
Kony is accused of war crimes and is wanted by the International Criminal Court.
The civil war effectively ended in 2006 when a peace process was launched, but Kony and his top commanders are accused of continuing to commit atrocities in remote areas of neighbouring countries. General Carter Ham, the head of US Africa Command, said last week that his best estimate was that Kony was probably in the Central African Republic.
Jendayi Frazer, former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in the administration of George W. Bush, told Al Jazeera that the LRA destabilises the region and poses a threat to US allies and American national security.
Kony’s men attack international peacekeepers and local communities and pose a threat to the newly created nation of South Sudan, Frazer said.
“It’s again undermining a nation that the United States is strongly invested in its stability and its democratic progress,” she said. — Al Jazeera.
Labels: AFRICOM, AL-JAZEERA, BARACK OBAMA, JENDAYI FRASER, LORDS RESISTANCE ARMY, NEOCOLONIALISM
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S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 04 KAMPALA 001449
SUBJECT: UGANDA: A/S FRAZER DISCUSSES LRA, CONGO, AND SOMALIA WITH PRESIDENT MUSEVENI
EO 12958 DECL: 06/18/17
Classified By: Ambassador Steven Browning for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).
¶1. (C) Summary: Africa Bureau Assistant Secretary Jendayi Frazer met with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on September 5 to discuss current developments in the negotiations with the Lord,s Resistance Army (LRA), developments in eastern Congo, and stabilizing Somalia. President Museveni, similarly to U.N. Special Envoy for LRA-Affected Areas Chissano, said that there needed to be “irreversible progress” in the peace process by the end of January 2008.
Museveni said he would press Congolese President Joseph Kabila to take action against the “negative forces” in eastern Congo. On Somalia, Museveni pushed for
tough action against Eritrea and
pressure on Transitional Federal Government President Yusuf to be more inclusive and announce a timeline for the transition to democracy. Museveni also explained his vision of African unity in contrast to Libya,s approach as revealed at the AU Summit in Accra. End Summary.
- -
LRA
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¶2. (C) Africa Bureau Assistant Secretary Jendayi Frazer traveled to Uganda on September 5 and met with President Yoweri Museveni and northern Ugandan officials. She was accompanied by Ambassador Browning, Senior Advisor for Conflict Resolution Tim Shortley, and the P/E Chief (notetaker). A/S Frazer opened the meeting by introducing Tim Shortley as her new Senior Advisor on Conflict Resolution who will focus on LRA and eastern Congo. She then asked President Museveni for his views on the status of the negotiations with the LRA. Museveni expressed pessimism about the peace process, describing it as a &circus8 and that the LRA was being &pampered.8 President Museveni told Frazer that he had discussed the process with U.N. Special Envoy for LRA-Affected Areas Joachim Chissano during Chissano’s recent visit to Kampala. He agreed with Chissano to give the peace talks until the end of January unless there were signs of &irreversible progress.8 Museveni said he would raise the LRA in his meeting with Congolese President Joseph Kabila in Arusha on September 8. Museveni said he would urge Kabila to take action now against the LRA. He would advise Kabila to push the LRA out of Congo and into the assembly area in southern Sudan to stop the LRA from &gallivanting around Garamba.8 This type of action could demonstrate Kabila,s commitment to enforcing the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, other regional pacts, and international resolutions.
¶3. (C) Museveni complained that the LRA was using the peace talks to reorganize and described Joseph Kony as a &trickster.8 In Museveni,s view, the LRA,s complaints that the International Criminal Court (ICC) warrants should be dropped prior to his coming out of the bush were not valid if a national legal process was underway to deal with the issue of accountability. The ICC was only a problem for Kony if he did not want peace. Museveni was adamant that Kony should not be rewarded with a suspension or dropping of the ICC indictments before he agreed to peace. Guarantees could be built into the implementation of a peace agreement to address his fears.
¶4. (C) Senior Advisor Shortley asked Museveni for his views on how Kony would be handled if he agreed to a deal. Museveni described his provision of protection, livelihood, and homes for Kony,s mother (and now deceased father) since 1994. Museveni was flexible on Kony,s future, saying that the LRA leader could live anywhere in Uganda where he had not committed atrocities. Museveni agreed with Shortley that the resumption of the peace process could slip into October, which reaffirmed the President,s cynicism about the negotiations. Despite his misgivings about the &circus at Juba,8 Museveni was willing to allow the process to continue until the end of January.
¶5. (C) Museveni dismissed the demands for political power by the diaspora that backed the LRA. He argued that northern Ugandans were represented at all levels of government. In fact, Museveni pointed out that northerners elected opposition party members to represent them. The Ugandan Government would not accept &rewarding8 the disaffected diaspora and &terrorists8 through the peace process. Museveni argued that if regime critics such as former U.N. Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict Olara Otunnu wanted to return to Uganda to run for office, they could do so. If northern Uganda was &thirsty8 to have Otunnu represent it, then a member of Parliament should vacate his seat for Otunnu to compete. He elaborated with the example of former President Tito Okello,s son, Henry
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Okello Oryem, who won election to parliament in Kitgum. After he lost his parliamentary seat, Museveni appointed Oryem as Minister of State for International Relations. (Note: Oryem is the deputy leader of the GOU negotiating team. End Note.)
¶6. (C) The President also stated his belief that Kony was a proxy of the Khartoum Government. Museveni proudly pointed out that Uganda had defeated Khartoum through its support for the Sudan Peoples, Liberation Army (SPLA) even though, he joked, the United States took credit for finalizing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
¶7. (C) Shortley expressed the U.S. Government,s hope that with increasing stability in northern Uganda, the Peace, Recovery, and Development Plan (PRDP) could be formally launched in order to attract more attention from potential donors. Museveni said he wanted to correct the common misconception that peace in the north was the result of the negotiations. According to Museveni, the current stability was not the result of the peace talks but from Kony being pushed into Congo. He said that the GOU had defeated the LRA in northern Uganda and Southern Sudan. For Kony, the peace process was a &relief8 from military pressure, according to the President. He also stated that there were many prominent Ugandans who were LRA collaborators who feared exposure and now viewed the peace talks as a way to save Kony and themselves.
¶8. (C) A/S Frazer agreed with Museveni,s assessment of the LRA,s intentions and the need to secure Kabila,s cooperation. She said it was encouraging that Museveni was meeting with Kabila. She told Museveni that the U.S. wanted to work together on potential contingenices, and in particular, help Uganda transform the situation on the ground. Meeting the needs of the PRDP would be an extremely important way of supporting this transformation. Museveni said the cabinet had prepared a paper on the PRDP, which included a 14-point plan, with projects for industrializing northern Uganda.
¶9. (C) Museveni stated that &behind all of this is Sudan, Sudan, Sudan, Sudan.8 He said that even if the Khartoum Government could not supply the LRA at previous levels, he believed it was in constant touch with the LRA and smuggling supplies. Museveni said that the Uganda military was now more capable to address the LRA problem. A/S Frazer asked if Museveni had communicated his timeframe for the peace talks with the LRA. Museveni said no, but Chissano may have, although he was not sure. Museveni downplayed the role of local politicians in the process. He described his own Government,s parallel track as part of the foolery and lamented that fools have a lot of audiences. He pointed out that even international conservation groups have contacted the LRA to check on the white rhinos and other wildlife in the park. Museveni said that he himself participated in the “foolery” and has taken Vincent Otti,s telephone calls and sent the LRA cows for Christmas. The President claimed that the GOU had infiltrated the LRA and knew what its members were talking about.
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EASTERN CONGO
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¶10. (C) A/S Frazer asked Museveni if he could confirm media reports that Kabila had used gunships in eastern Congo. Museveni did not know but would check. She also described U.S. efforts to calm both Kabila and Rwandan President Kagame, promote improved diplomatic relations, and foster inter-communal dialogue. A/S Frazer also highlighted U.S. efforts to facilitate dialogue through the Tripartite Plus process. Museveni said that Foreign Minister Kutesa had delivered several messages to Kabila. Kustesa was surprised that Kabila had taken the problem of the negative forces in eastern Congo casually. Museveni said that Uganda was begging Kabila to do something about Kony, the Allied Democratic Forces, and the FDLR. Uganda made the argument that it is a state obligation for Congo to take action, not a situation in which Kabila would be doing Museveni a favor. Museveni lamented that there was little to show on the security front since MONUC,s inception. He attributed this to lack of attention by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and MONUC,s current leadership. Kabila feels he has the protection of the &big boys8, according to Museveni. However, Museveni said that the UNSC was a better venue for addressing the problem than the U.N. General Assembly. He gave the example of Ghana, which had previously held strong positions on the LRA, Congo, and Sudan, and now had weakened its stance after becoming chair of the African Union.
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¶11. (C) Museveni sees two ways in which Congo could solve the LRA problem. First, allow joint operations with Uganda. Second, Congo could find a third party, such as France or Angola to help. Museveni was flexible on how it was done and wanted Congo to understand that it had a number of options. For Uganda, it would be preferable if the U.N. cleared the border areas of negative forces, which would then move deeper into Congo. Re-establishing border control would lessen the threat of the negative forces to Uganda and Rwanda. In Museveni’s view, once the negative forces moved deeper into Congo, then Kabila could take as long as he wanted to deal with them.
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SOMALIA
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¶12. (C) On Somalia, Museveni raised concerns about Transitional Federal Government President Yusuf,s non-inclusivity and the slowness in the building of a national army. He emphasized the importance of establishing a timetable for elections. Museveni felt that the Ugandan military had a good relationship with Somali civilians. Improvement of the infrastructure and economy were also essential to stabilizing the country. Uganda had named an ambassador to Somalia with 36 years of experience and who was an economist. Museveni asked him to prepare a paper on formalizing Somalia,s informal economy.
¶13. (C) Another problem in Somalia was Eritrea, according to Museveni. He described his visit with President Isaias Aforkwi in March and said that although the two promised to talk, they had not communicated since. Museveni said President Isaias was preoccupied with trying to unseat Meles. That was all Isaias talked about, yet Museveni observed that Meles did not appear to be in any less control of Ethiopia despite Isaias, actions. Museveni told A/S Frazer that Isaias needed to be talked to by the members of the U.N. Security Council who carry a big stick. Museveni claimed that Eritrea continued to infiltrate weapons into Somalia and said that Isaias needed to be intimidated. Museveni argued that the UNSC should consider a blockade or sanctions if Eritrea does not listen. If Isaias was controlled and Somali groups cut off from him, the situation could stabilize. A/S Frazer told Museveni that the U.S. was considering options, ranging from designation as harboring terrorists to drying up financial support, against Eritrea. The U.S. was trying to persuade the Somali parliamentarians in Eritrea to leave before they associated with terrorist elements who sought refuge there. This would be important to establishing credentials as a legitimate opposition. She asked if Uganda would be willing to accept those parliamentarians that chose to leave Eritrea. Museveni agreed and explained that the wife of former warlord Aideed was still living in Uganda. Museveni,s only condition was that TFG President Yusuf must have no objection. A/S Frazer said that any such arrangement would be worked on in consultation with key players in the political process.
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AFRICAN UNION AND OTHER ISSUES
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¶14. (C) Museveni turned to his opposition to the formation of an “African Government.” He said that Libya pushed hard for support for it at the summit, but that Uganda led the charge against it. Museveni believes economic integration would be possible, but political integration would be difficult as each country has different foreign and internal policies and national identities. Uganda also has a basic disagreement with Libya over Sudan. Museveni accused Libya of pushing an Arab agenda on the continent.
¶15. (S) In a tte--tte with A/S Frazer, Museveni went further to express concern about Libya,s intentions and methods of influencing &weak8 West African states. Museveni said Qadhafi is trying to buy them off or intimidate them by destabilizing their countries unless they agree with union. He also expressed disappointment that President Mbeki has not effectively offered an alternative vision to Qadhafi,s approach to union government. Museveni said he and Mbeki are working together to counter Libya,s vision of unity.
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COMMENT
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¶16. (C) Museveni demonstrated flexibility on how LRA leader Joseph Kony might be handled. Though pessimistic about whether the peace talks would succeed, Museveni was willing to let the peace process move forward, but not without end. He welcomed the addition of Senior Advisor Shortley to support U.S. efforts. Press coverage of A/S Frazer’s visit was extensive.
¶16. (U) A/S Frazer cleared this message.
BROWNING
Labels: JENDAYI FRASER, LORDS RESISTANCE ARMY, NEOCOLONIALISM, UGANDA, YOWERI MUSEVENI
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Merchants of Death: Exposing Corporate-financed Holocaust in Africa
White Collar War Crimes, Black African Fall Guys
by Keith Harmon Snow
www.dissidentvoice.org/,
December 8th, 2008
THE LORD'S RESISTANCE ARMY
If you asked Western media consumers to name a bloodthirsty guerrilla movement in Africa it is likely they would point to 'warlord' Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), this thanks to the one-sided fictional media campaigns waged by National Public Radio, Time magazine, Washington Post, or by Christopher Hitchens who calls them 'a Christian Khmer Rouge' and Vanity Fair.3334
In the simplistic Western media narratives, the LRA is always described as a 'fanatical Christian cult' that abducts children and forces them to commit atrocities. In the dichotomy of 'good' versus 'evil' the LRA is 'wicked' and the forces they are fighting against, President Museveni and the UPDF, are benevolent. Indeed, evangelical Christian missionaries from the United States have been deeply involved with the SPLA war against the 'satanic' forces of the LRA and the Islamic Government of Sudan.35
Spilling over from the wars in Uganda and Sudan and operating a clandestine network of terror and extortion in the north of Congo today, the LRA has waged a low-intensity war against the Museveni regime since circa 1987. The LRA is a Ugandan guerrilla force backed by the government of Sudan (Khartoum) and its allies and clandestinely supported by unnamed factions in Congo, Europe and Washington.
'For 19 years, Joseph Kony has been enslaving, torturing, raping, and murdering Ugandan children,' wrote Christopher Hitchens, 'many of whom have become soldiers for his 'Lord's Resistance Army,' going on to torture, rape, and kill other children.' Parroting the establishment line, Hitchens has no complaints about the UPDF brutalizing children in the refugee camps of Acholiland, and he never mentions the SPLA's conscription of thousands of child soldiers.36
According to a high-level United Nations source working in the DRC, the LRA maintains very high-level political ties in New York and Washington D.C. through Jongomoi Okidi-Olal, a Ugandan-American representative living in the U.S. The Uganda government has purportedly asked the Bush Administration and the United Nations to arrest Okidi-Olal and hand him over to the ICC.37 Other sources claim that Okidi is a fraud.
Interestingly, we find that Mwana Africa?whose vast Kilo-Moto mining concessions sprawl across northern Orientale?is also operating in Angola and South Africa, and at five major mining concessions in the so-called 'failed state' of Zimbabwe.20 The government of Angola has always backed President Joseph Kabila, is very hostile to the Kagame gang, and currently controls Congolese territory (Kehemba) near the Angolan border. Given the spoils to be had, it is likely that factions from Angola or Zimbabwe also back the Lord?s Resistance Army in a bid to displace Mwana Africa and other competitors from mining and petroleum sites in northeastern Congo.38
Congolese sources claim that MONUC moved into the Watsa region in northern Orientale only after the LRA?coming in through Garamba National Park near the Sudan border began threatening the operations of AngloGold Ashanti, Mwana Africa and Moto Gold Mining.39 Additionally, Garamba National Park is rich in diamonds and gold.
While the LRA is also supported by Ugandan factions opposed to the Museveni dictatorship, it is widely believed the LRA is a tool of the Museveni government used to manipulate public opinion, create chaos across the region, gain international sympathy from foreign donors and thereby procure massive financial backing to facilitate some of the world?s most lucrative and unappreciated AID-for-ARMS scandals. It is the perfect ruse to facilitate permanent foreign military intervention.
The LRA also reportedly moved into the northern DRC to displace SPLA troops that had a long history of plundering the area, shooting wildlife and harassing villages.40 Thus while the evil LRA is always in the crosshairs of the international media, the same media protects the saintly SPLA, no matter the justice or criminality of either.41
The mass media and foreign policy discourses are saturated with the writings, op-eds and policy briefs of 'experts' that serve as apologetic propagandists for foreign interventions and hidden agendas. Such 'experts' exercise stark biases in naming or delineating the 'killers' versus 'victims' and for this reason they often gain exclusive access to mass media venues. The system of information control becomes self-perpetuating in favor of power and deception.
Experts working for the Pentagon, State Department, or national security apparatus deploy arguments cloaked in righteous assumptions of higher morality about human rights or humanitarian concern. For example, Sudan ?experts? like Dr. Eric Reeves and Alex De Waal provide a constant barrage of one-sided propaganda to manufacture consent at home and project American power in Sudan.41 This propaganda is unassailable by Western 'news' consumers, because consumers are not otherwise privy to, interested in, or compelled to discover the deeper truths.
Labels: LORDS RESISTANCE ARMY, NEOCOLONIALISM, UGANDA
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