Rebel Group Allegedly Still Recruiting Children - UN Report
June 30, 2008
25 June 2008
Posted to the web 25 June 2008
Although the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) does not seem to be recruiting children in Uganda, women and children are still present in its ranks, and the rebel group is allegedly enlisting young people from neighbouring countries, according to a United Nations report released today.
The LRA, which has fought a civil war with the Ugandan Government since the mid-1980s, became notorious during the conflict for abducting as many as 25,000 children and using them as fighters and porters. The children were often subject to extreme violence shortly after abduction, with many girls allocated to officers in a form of institutional rape.
"Owing to the apparent absence of LRA from Ugandan territory, there have been no recent cases of recruitment and use of Ugandan children, or other grave violations against children attributable to LRA," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon writes in a new report to the Security Council.
"However, children and women are still present in the LRA ranks, and there has been no movement on their release," he adds.
In addition, he notes there are reports alleging that the group has been recruiting children from southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR).
In one case, three boys from the Sudan and the CAR who escaped from the LRA reported that they had been forced to work for the group as porters. They also reported that girls were present in the ranks, and that they were regularly subjected to gender-based violence, including rape.
On 23 April, authorities in Dungu in eastern DRC reported that 13 people, including four students, were abducted from a primary school following LRA attacks.
"These allegations are being reported while the peace talks between LRA and the Government of Uganda are stalled, notably because of the refusal by the LRA leader, Joseph Kony, to sign the final peace agreement," Mr. Ban writes.
Last July the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict called on the LRA to unconditionally release children used in their ranks, and underlined the absence of any concrete signs in this regard.
The Group also noted the International Criminal Court indictments against five senior members of the LRA - the leader Joseph Kony, and the commanders Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo, Dominic Ongwen and Raska Lukwiya - on a number of charges, including the enlistment of children through abduction.
The rebel group has maintained that it had released all children and women abducted or forcibly conscripted some time ago and that those who remained in the bush were women and children related to LRA members.
Mr. Ban says that this information cannot be independently verified because of the absence of any direct contacts between the UN and the LRA leadership.
The Secretary-General urges the LRA to provide a complete list of names and ages of the women and children remaining in its ranks for verification and to carry out their immediate release.
In addition, he says the UN Task Forces on Monitoring and Reporting in Uganda, the CAR, the DRC and the Sudan, in cooperation with the UN missions in the DRC and Sudan, should develop a strategy to increase monitoring and reporting on cross-border recruitment and use of children by the LRA.
Need for UN Leadership on New Peace Strategy as LRA Attacks Continue
June 30, 2008
PRESS RELEASE
20 June 2008
Posted to the web 20 June 2008
Washington, DC
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is now creating havoc and abducting children in four countries in central Africa. Today, United Nations Special Envoy for LRA-affected areas Joaquim Chissano is briefing the U.N. Security Council on the need to continue a two year peace process which has not succeeded in ending the LRA’s attacks against civilians. Although the negotiations have yielded small benefits in terms of enabling some northerners to return home, and in facilitating north-south dialogue, a new strategy is needed to end the ongoing threat to international peace and security posed by the LRA.
"The international peace strategy for dealing with the LRA must shift from one that relies solely on negotiations to one that develops leverage for a solution through crafting a military strategy that would isolate the LRA leadership and cut off its external sources of support," says John Prendergast of the ENOUGH Project. "We need to turn up the heat on Kony in order to affect his incentives for continuing his warlord ways."
Without real leverage and without a direct channel of negotiations to Kony himself, the LRA leader has exploited the last year of talks to stave off international pressure, collect food and money from the mediators and donors, and buy time to abduct and maraud in eastern Congo, the Central African Republic, and South Sudan.
Continuing with the current approach - peaceful efforts to reach out to Kony without imposing new constraints or costs - will lead to the same result: no final peace deal signed and civilians in a four country radius at risk of LRA attacks.
"The international community must demonstrate to Kony once and for all that his days of impunity are over," says Julia Spiegel of the ENOUGH Project. "International leverage must be forged through the development of a credible regional military strategy to apprehend Kony and the other two LRA commanders indicted by the International Criminal Court."
Military planning, which would help to contain Kony and protect civilians in the region, should be accompanied by efforts to reduce external support for the LRA from the Sudanese government and from small, radicalized elements of the Ugandan diaspora who want to undermine Ugandan President Museveni’s rule. In addition, the Ugandan government, backed by international donors, should support stability where it exists by implementing its development plans for northern Uganda.
Backed by the dual leverage of a military planning process and continuing investigations by the ICC, efforts to construct a direct channel to Kony could then be renewed.
UN Peacebuilding Commission Adds Country to Its Agenda
June 30, 2008
12 June 2008
Posted to the web 13 June 2008
The Central African Republic (CAR) today became the fourth country to be placed on the agenda of the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission, which was set up to help countries emerging from conflict avoid the slide back into war or chaos.
The 31-member body, meeting at UN Headquarters in New York, agreed to the CAR move after a request earlier this year from the Government of the impoverished country, which has also been beset by armed attacks, widespread banditry and massive internal displacement in recent months.
CAR joins Burundi, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone on the agenda of the Peacebuilding Commission, which was established by the UN at the end of 2005. It is tasked with marshalling resources from around the world and providing strategic advice to post-conflict States.
President François Bozizé told today’s meeting that the CAR is emerging from a long cycle of recurring socio-economic and political crises and that his Government is working to rebuild State institutions, particularly the judiciary.
Region Weary Over Ugandan Rebels, Says UN Envoy
June 30, 2008
20 June 2008
Posted to the web 21 June 2008
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is continuing to commit atrocities in Central Africa, and the countries of the region are growing impatient with the rebel group’s actions and its failure to sign a peace deal ending its long-running conflict with Uganda, a senior United Nations envoy told the Security Council today.
Joaquim Chissano, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the LRA-Affected Areas, briefed the Council on the latest developments in efforts to end the conflict that has ravaged northern Uganda since the mid-1980s.
A series of accords struck by the rebels and the Government earlier this year raised hopes that they could reach a permanent, wide-ranging agreement ending the conflict, but in April LRA leader Joseph Kony failed to sign a deal mediated by the Government of Southern Sudan that his representatives had earlier initialled.
Mr. Chissano said today that Mr. Kony had twice failed to attend signing ceremonies, and countries such as Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR) were growing weary.
The Congolese Government is considering measures to force LRA fighters to leave its territory, particularly amid reports that the rebels are still committing some atrocities against civilians in the DRC, the CAR and Sudan.
But all countries in the region remain willing to continue the peace process, he stressed, noting that they still want the UN to do all it can to bring Mr. Kony to the peace table so that the agreement can be signed and then implemented.
Mr. Chissano said there were no plans to re-negotiate the contents of the various accords reached this year, but some elements may have to be clarified for the sake of the LRA leadership.