Acholi leaders worry new bill could lead to direct U.S. military attacks

Ugandans Abroad, Rebecca Harshbarger
Published May 30, 2010

President Obama signs the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act. Resolve Uganda.

Last Monday, President Barack Obama signed the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, the culmination of years of campaigning by advocacy groups like Resolve Uganda and Invisible Children. The legislation makes it mandatory for the president to develop a strategy within 180 days to disarm the Lord’s Resistance Army, which continues to destroy the lives of thousands of civilians in the DR Congo, Central African Republic (CAR), and Sudan. It also provides $10 million a year to support reconciliation efforts in northern Uganda, which has been rebuilding since the LRA was ousted in 2005.

Paul Ronan noted in Resolve Uganda’s blog, for instance, that the LRA’s brutal attacks in the CAR have barely been covered in the international press, and largely gone under the radar. But one civil society group believes that the LRA has abducted 400 people from the CAR, and killed 200 since 2008

Although 49 Sudanese, Ugandan, Congolese, and American welcomed the signing, some groups and leaders were nervous that the bill would lead to more direct U.S. attacks against the rebel group, which could destabilize the region further. Last week, Acholi community leaders circulated a two-page letter calling on Obama to design a non-violent strategy, citing the failures of military strategies like December 2008’s Operation Lightning Thunder, which failed to capture Joseph Kony, and led to brutal retaliation attacks against Congolese civilians. New Vision’s Chris Ocowun reported about this letter on May 28th, which was drafted by the Acholi Religious Leaders’ Peace Initiative.

The group cites the relative stability in northern Uganda in the past five years as a product of the peace negotiations, and calls upon President Obama to restart the process. Ugandan advocates are concerned that the bill might lead the way for more direct U.S. military attacks against the LRA.’

Obama currently has 174 days to come up with a strategy. Acholi leaders urge the U.S. government to draft the policy by meeting with different stakeholders in the fragile region

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