Top LRA commander surrenders
Hurrah!
Quote:
Senior Lord's Resistance Army commander Charles Arop, who was implicated in leading a massacre on Christmas Day that killed at least 143 Congolese, has surrendered to the Ugandan military, the army spokesman told AFP on Thursday.
"He was only left with one fighter so what choice did he have?" Lieutenant-Colonel Felix Kulayigye said, adding that Arop surrendered on Tuesday to Ugandan forces stationed in the northeast of the Democractic Republic of Congo.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091105...gorebelsunrest
davidbfpo
Aah, LRA...@ Carl and @ Michael
Yeah Arop was captured. Like his unit, he is a fragment.
LRA is still around. Like the election in 2011, and the Sth Sudan Referendum next year.They're there too! I'm sure LRA will be a pest in either case.
The Red Pepper (local Ugandan tabloid) reported yesterday that Konyi has oedema. I reckon he could still move pretty quickly on chubby stumps though...
As I see it, LRA went 'regional' a few years back; perhaps the generic DDR a la Arica model might have worked on a sub-regional insurgency in Acholiland. Now the situation is far more complex.
Getting a balance of IO, UPDF military ops, and a believable sense of progress in Acholiland is really hard. That said, UPDF has arrested 20-odd different insurgencies since '86.
For starters, the usual donor-driven Mack truck with a 70cc Honda engine is predictably not making much progress from Kampala heading for Gulu...can't even get the f--kin thing out of the office it's so full of sh-t!
Visibility is all about "Brought to you by <insert your favourite NGO>". Objective-focused IO is not happening, leaving government looking incompetent. To those who understand recovery, reintegration, and stabilization; making government look incompetent - directly or indirectly - is plain wrong.
Loads of the usual infrastructure-for-all, HIV, GBV, quick-fix programmes that are basically paliative. Most of the NGOs implement-to-form virtually ignoring what is an incredibly dynamic socio-cultural, political, and trauma-riven context.
It will take a lot more imagination, effort, and resources than this to shift Uganda from a 'between-conflict context' to a 'post-conflict context'.
I have written a couple of reports as part of our reintegration work that might interest you folks:
http://uganda.iom.int/publications.htm
Not the LRA; behind the scenes
I caught this BBC radio report AM today and it is bad: http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today...00/8444884.stm
Item is at 0743hrs and is four minutes long:
Quote:
Ritual killings of children in Uganda may be more common than previously thought, a BBC investigation has found. Tim Whewell reports from northern Uganda.
I hope this is available beyond the UK.
LRA back with a revenge, the coalition is KO
I've been reading this report and a few things AMAZE me:
First, it took 12 weeks for MONUC to send an enquiry team. They say it was because of the remoteness of the killings grounds but it seems like a STUPId excuse: The FARDC and UPDF had troops there 2 days after the massacre (and they went on foot, MONUC has helicopters), refugees from this area have been flooding the city of Niangara (2 days of walk from the killing grounds)...so MONUC can't do with helicopters or on foot what FARDC, UPDF or civilians can do ?????
Second, MONUC knew end Dec 09, UPDF, FARDC a few days before,....and they kept on saying the LRA was "neutralized", with Rudia II being a "mop up" operation. These were overoptimistic statements despite knowing the truth ? a Lie thus ?????
Finally, the LRA now has some 200 new recruits via this operation and has proven to be able to do a lot of damage in a very short time. The months before, they were walking around in the same area without being hindered by any UPDF-FARDC actions (despite UPDF or FARDC forces never more than 50 Km from them).
My conclusion, everybody kept on saying the LRA was neutralized in DRC but knew it was false. Rudia II failed completely and MONUC, FARDC, UPDF (AFRICOM?) refused to admit it publicly.
Knowing the LRA, their next attack would be even more violent to make sure no "cover up" is possiblle.