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(1987-Present) |
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(1987-Present) LRA leader
Joseph Kony (in white
shirt) Kony's
beliefs (or tactics) emerged from a
twisted understanding of Christian and
local spiritualist pagan beliefs. His
Lord's Resistance Army is as much a
cult as it is a military force. The LRA
insurgency gained control of most of
northern Uganda, with significan aid
from the government of Sudan, which was
in conflict with the Ugandan
government. In line
with the cult-like beliefs of the
Lord's Resistance Army, Kony's forces
exhibited incredible brutality on the
civilian populations they encountered.
Women would be raped, children
kidnapped and forced to join the LRA as
"child soldiers," anyone who broke the
the arcane rules of the LRA would have
their hands or other limbs cut
off. In
2005, Kony was indicted by the
International Criminal Court for
leading the LRA in a campaign of
"murder, abduction, sexual enslavement,
mutilation, as well as mass burnings of
houses and looting of camp
settlements"during his insurgency, and
for personally ordering his troops to
target and kill civilian
populations. Over the years, repeated Ugandan
military offensives reclaimed most of
the territory controlled by the Lord's
Resistance Army. As his control over northern Uganda
waned, Kony led his dwindling army
through the borderlands of Uganda,
southern Sudan, the Congo, and the
Central African Repbublic. Everywhere
he travelled, his men killed, raped,
pillaged, and looted civilian
populations. In October, 2011, American
President
Barack Obama announced that 100
"combat-ready" American Special Forces
troops were joining with the Ugandan
military to hunt down Kony and bring
him to justice. Kony has not been a
factor in northern Uganda for several
years. By the beginning of December, 2011,
the American Special Forces troops were
on the ground in the southeastern
Central African Republic town of Obo.
The U.S. government continued to state
that they were not going to engage in
combat, but were training and aiding
the local military forces hunting down
the LRA. Joseph
Kony, leader of the LRA, and target of
the #Kony2012
campaign In March, 2012, a YouTube video
highlighting the crimes of Joseph Kony
went viral, with users posting the
#Kony2012 hashtag on twitter and other
social media to draw attention to
Kony's crimes as the head of the LRA.
The Kony 2012video is a film and
campaign by Invisible
Children whose goal it is to
make Joseph Kony famous, or rather,
infamous, in order to raise
internatioal support for his arrest and
to set a precedent for international
justice. Critics
of Invisible Children and the Kony
2012 campaign point to several factual
errors or ommissions in the video. The
video states that Kony currently has an
army of some 30,000 child warriors, and
that is not true. After the Ugandan
Army drove the LRA out of northern
Uganda in 2006, Kony's army has
dwindled. Experts now believe that
Joseph Kony has only a few hundred
fighters still with him. Also, Kony and
the LRA have not haunted northern
Uganda since being driven out by the
Ugandan Army in a 2006 military
offensive. Invisible Children argues in
favor of international military
intervention in bringing Kony to
justice. and is raising funds that go
for direct support of the Ugandan
military. While Kony's forces have
engaged in heinous war crimes for
decades, it should be pointed out that
the Ugandan military is also accused of
criminal behavior, including rape and
murder. Lord's
Resistance Army (LRA) Insurgency
Sources and Links: Lord's
Resistance Army --Wikipedia
article Holy
Spirit Movement--Wikipedia
article Profile:
Joseph Kony--Profile of Joseph Kony
from al-Jazeera Letter
from the President to the Speaker of
the House of Representatives and the
President Pro Tempore of the Senate
Regarding the Lord's Resistance
Army--from White House.gov US:
No Combat Role for Troops in
Uganda--Voice of America, Dec. 8,
2011 U.S.
commandos fan out in remote Africa to
help find brutal rebels--Miami
Herald, Dec. 7, 2011 "The
History Guy" is a Registered Trademark. Contact
the webmaster |
Impact
of the Lord's Resistance Army on
Children
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Marketing You Can Trust DATES OF
CONFLICT: BEGAN:
1987--Joseph Kony led a rebel faction that
evolved out of Alice Auma's Holy Spirit Movement
rebellion against the Ugandan government, and
called it the Lord's Resistance Army. ENDED:
Ongoing |
