In October, soon after President Obama announced that he was deploying advisers to central Africa to help stop the LRA, Michael Gerson wrote an article for the Washington Post, defending the president’s decision. Gerson was President Bush’s lead speech writer for five years and is a respected conservative thinker and writer.

Late last week, Gerson wrote another article about the LRA for the Washington Post, this time following a trip to Dungu, DRC, with Ben Affleck and a team from Eastern Congo Initiative. He gives examples of the depth of Joseph Kony’s brutality and recommends ways that the U.S. could expedite an end to the “nightmare.”

He specifically mentioned our long-time friends and partners, Invisible Children, and their early-warning radio network.

This is a good article that serves to re-introduce the LRA conflict to the national dialogue this election year and hopefully it served to remind readers that the LRA exists and remains a threat.

Do read it.

An excerpt:

“But for this region to be repaired, the LRA must be broken. Military forces of Congo and the CAR are incapable. So the task has fallen to Ugandan soldiers, advised by the U.S. military. More than 80 U.S. special operations forces have been deployed to forward operating bases in Congo, the CAR and South Sudan. Their mission is to provide intelligence and assistance to the Ugandan military, which has skilled trackers — some of them formerly with the LRA — on Kony’s trail.

…

An American combat mission in this conflict is not contemplated. But the U.S. government should press Congo to readmit Ugandan troops pursuing the LRA. And the U.S. military could aid the UPDF with more advanced air and communications capabilities. A small, final push might remove the LRA’s most capable leaders from the field.

After a four-year nightmare, Francoise hopes to go back to school. Joseph Kony, the author of nightmares, remains at large in some jungle camp. He is not a supernatural being. He is human, and thus mortal. It is time to prove it.”

-Azy

PS – As an aspiring speech writer, I have to remark that that last paragraph is money. If it were delivered orally by a confident speaker? Unstoppable.

After President Obama delivered the State of the Union Address last Tuesday, the White House invited questions from the American people that would be answered by the President’s top advisers (via Twitter, of course. This is 2012).

We asked you to flood the White House with tweets about the President’s LRA strategy. And you did good. Hundreds, maybe even a couple thousand, of tweets directly the President what he plans to do to help end LRA violence in 2012. Thank you.

Your activism caught the attention of the President’s team and they responded directly to this tweet from @KasperAgger: “Thanks to the President for sending advisers to help stop #LRA attacks. What’s the plan in 2012 to ensure success?”

Here was the response from Ben Rhodes, a senior White House official, in 137 characters:

The White House also gave a shout out to “bottom-up activism” in regards to the #LRA issue among others.

This was a great opportunity to show the President that we are committed to seeing the mission completed and that we expect him to follow through on his promise. Last week’s Twitter success was a good start—but only a start—to what we’re hoping to accomplish in 2012.

Speaking of which, there is a Google+ conversation (again, 2012) scheduled with the President TODAY (Monday) at 5:30pm EST. Several of you have posted questions about the President’s plan in 2012 to help finally see an end to LRA violence. We’re crossing our fingers that he responds!

Thank you again to everyone who participated in White House Twitter Q&A last week and asked about the LRA. Let’s continue to take advantage of the opportunities our leaders give us to ask questions and express our desire for ending LRA to become a higher priority. Of course, if our leaders don’t offer us an opportunity, we’ll just have to create that ourselves. More about that later.

-Azy

Last October, President Obama announced his decision to deploy 100 U.S. military advisers to help governments in central Africa bring LRA leader Joseph Kony to justice and protect communities targeted by LRA violence. It was the most significant step ever taken by our leaders to help end this crisis and a testament to the enormous progress we’ve made together in the past few years.

But LRA attacks and abductions continue to terrorize communities across central Africa. That’s why we’re aiming to make 2012 our biggest year yet. And you can help us kick it off right by taking one minute to make sure the White House knows you’re committed to see this through.

Following the President’s State of the Union address from earlier this week, his top advisers are now responding to your questions via Twitter. We want the President’s team to be flooded with hundreds of tweets about the LRA — and that means we need your help.

Take a moment to send in a question (or five!) about the LRA and make sure to include #WHChat. Here’s an example (and feel free to plagiarize):

#WHChat Thanks to the President for sending advisers to help stop #LRA attacks. What’s the plan in 2012 to ensure success? @WeAreResolved

A top adviser to President Obama will be answering questions about foreign policy on the @WHLive Twitter account tomorrow – Friday – at 11am ET/ 8am PT if you want to see how he responds. We’ll be sure to also post any results on our blog.

We believe it’s possible for 2012 to be the year that Joseph Kony is brought to justice and LRA atrocities are finally ended, and we have lots in stow to help make that happen. We’ve got a great chance now start things off right, so that next year’s State of the Union address can reference the end of LRA violence as a signature achievement.

Let’s get tweeting, folks!

- Lisa

Last October, President Obama announced his intent to deploy 100 U.S. military advisers to help governments in central Africa bring LRA leader Joseph Kony to justice and protect communities being affected by LRA violence. This was the most significant step ever taken by our leaders to help end this crisis and a testament to the enormous progress we’ve made together in the past few years. But LRA attacks and abductions continue to be a reality for communities across central Africa, and hundreds of thousands of people remain displaced by the violence.

That’s why we aim to make 2012 our biggest year yet. In short, we believe it’s possible that this could be the year that Joseph Kony is brought to justice and LRA atrocities are finally ended. We’re ready to do everything we can to help make that happen.

International attention to the LRA crisis – sparked in large part by American leadership – is at an all-time high. The United Nations and African Union are planning significant increases in their own efforts. And though by no means a silver-bullet, the presence of U.S. advisers in the region creates an unprecedented window of opportunity for peace.

To help see it happen, Resolve is pursuing three ambitious goals this year. And since achieving them will depend on the efforts of committed advocates across the country, we want to give you a sneak preview of what we aim to do with your help.

#1 – Secure a commitment from the President and our Members of Congress to give the U.S. advisers in central Africa the time they need in the field to successfully accomplish their mission.
In testimony before Congress, officials in the Obama Administration have emphasized that the deployment is “time-limited,” and – unless our leaders hear from us about it – it is possible that they could be withdrawn as early as this summer. We need to make sure the President sustains the deployment of advisers and provides additional support such as mobility and intelligence capabilities to make sure their efforts can succeed.

#2 – Increase U.S. investment in peaceful efforts to protect people from further violence.
When President Obama issued his LRA strategy in November of 2010, we applauded him for making it a comprehensive one, incorporating plans to both pursue top LRA commanders directly and invest in peaceful measures that protect civilians who are vulnerable to LRA attacks. Yet so far, the former has far outweighed the latter. Bureaucratic inertia and cuts in the foreign aid budget have drastically limited U.S. investment in low-cost, high-impact programs like community early-warning systems, road rehabilitation, and FM radio towers to broadcast messages that convince LRA abductees and fighters to come home. In 2012, this has to change.

#3 – Get more funding from Congress.
Last year, a dogged yearlong campaign helped convince Members of Congress who oversee the budget process to include millions of dollars in new funds for LRA-related programs in this year’s budget. While this was a huge and encouraging success, there are still significant needs for communities targeted by the LRA – needs that the U.S. could address with a relatively small investment. It’s a tough climate in DC, but with perseverance, we can make it happen again. The pay-off for LRA-affected communities is more than worth it.

The first big step of our plan to make peace happen this year involves teaming up with our partners at Invisible Children this spring for Kony 2012, an all-out blitz on our leaders through events in DC and local lobbying campaigns. You may be a veteran advocate who knows the drill, but this campaign will be the biggest yet — so get ready.

This year will also include much more. We plan to once again mobilize supporters whose Members of Congress help write our country’s foreign aid budget, to make sure funding continues to be available to help communities across central Africa impacted by LRA attacks. We’ll be sending my teammate Paul back to central Africa, to report firsthand on what’s happening from the ground. And we’ll be working to make the LRA Crisis Tracker – which provides the world’s only public tracking of LRA atrocities, in near real-time – even stronger, to help our leaders understand the full scale of what’s happening in one of the most remote regions of the world.

As always, the commitment and generosity of advocates across the country is what makes all this happen. To all of you out there: thank you.

- Michael

Last September, we partnered with Invisible Children to create and launch the LRA Crisis Tracker. Since then, we have been so encouraged by the positive feedback the tool has been receiving. Just to name a couple of examples — in November, our LRA Crisis Tracker team was invited to present at the International Conference of Crisis Mappers in Geneva, then in December, the Crisis Tracker won Best in Show at the Creative Media Awards.

More recently, we were notified that the Crisis Tracker has been accepted for consideration by TED’s Ads Worth Spreading challenge, which is in it’s second year and seeks to encourage creativity and innovation in advertising.  While the winners are not chose solely on votes, it is a key component — which means you can help by watching this video, voting, and spreading the word. The more votes the Crisis Tracker gets, there greater the chances that it will win the challenge — so please take a minute to vote!

Regardless of the results, we’re hopeful that this competition brings the LRA Crisis Tracker — and the conflict as a whole — more needed attention.

We’re fans of the folks at The Justice and Reconciliation Project (JRP) — they’re great people doing great work. Recently, JRP released an interesting report that focuses on the feelings and perceptions of LRA-affected communities in northern Uganda toward Uganda’s Amnesty Act.

The Uganda Amnesty Act of 2000 grants amnesty to any rebel combatant from 1986 onward who lays down his or her weapons and renounces the rebellion. According to JRP’s report, more than 10,800 former members of the LRA have received amnesty through the Act as of August 2008, and have re-joined their communities with less harassment and stigma than they otherwise would have experienced without this national policy of forgiveness. The Amnesty Act has been shown to actively encourage combatants to defect from the LRA, with the promise that they will be accepted back home. This is very important, as so many LRA combatants were abducted as children and were unwilling combatants in the first place.

As reflected in the report, JRP researchers interviewed a spectrum of Acholi community members, from local leaders to former-abductees, and asked what they thought of amnesty. Their findings show overwhelming support for the Amnesty Act and many respondents argued that Uganda’s amnesty policy is partially to thank for the peace that the region has experienced since the LRA left Uganda’s borders in 2006. It helps clean the slate and faciliate forgiveness for the unwilling fighters, from both their community and their country.

Interestingly, some of the respondents said they wished that even the top commanders would be granted amnesty, arguing that almost everyone aside from LRA leader Joseph Kony was at one time a victim.

Currently, the Amnesty Act of 2000 is due to either expire or be extended in May 2012, making JRP’s report especially timely.

In this same vein, this spring Resolve will be lobbying our leaders in Washington with the recommendation that part of the $10 million in foreign aid Congress recently authorized for the LRA-affected communities should go towards the rescue, rehabilitation, and reintegration of LRA combatants.

In the case of the LRA, amnesty is an important component of peace and restoration that must go hand-in-hand with focused efforts to support ex-combatants as they seek healing and reintegrate with their communities.

This report is just 3 pages long and fascinating from beginning to end. Take a few minutes to read it yourself.

*Above photo: Acholi women participating in a traditional mato oput ceremony. Courtesy of Justice and Reconciliation Project (JRP).

It’s a new year and we couldn’t be more excited about what’s in store. This spring, we will be partnering with Invisible Children for the Kony 2012 campaign. We’ve got big plans. And we’ve got one clear message for our leaders: Make 2012 the year Joseph Kony is brought to justice.

It is entirely possibly that — after 26 years of war — Joseph Kony could be brought to justice and LRA violence ended permanently, this year. And what we do in the coming months will help determine whether or not that happens.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Details are still forthcoming, but let’s just say that the youth of the world are going to make some major noise this spring. Noise that can’t — and, we promise, won’t — be ignored. Resolve will be making sure that the noise you create reaches the ears of the right people in Washington. They’ll need to know that we support — and we expect — their leadership to make 2012 the year LRA violence is brought to an end.

Our Resolve team is looking forward to working with you and our friends at Invisible Children to make sure that Congress and President Obama work together more than ever before in 2012 to fulfill their promises and see this mission through to the end. Soon, we will be providing you with concrete steps for connecting with your members of Congress. But until then, we strongly encourage you to book a screening with Invisible Children. Screenings will be a major touch point for the spring’s campaign, and we guarantee that you will want to be part of it.

We’ll keep you updated on what you can do advocacy-wise. So stay in touch.

In the meantime, get pumped:

- Resolve team

In just a couple of days, our Resolve team will close up shop and head to our respective homes and families for the holidays. But as we eagerly anticipate the celebration and rest to come, we’re mindful that the comfort and privilege we get to enjoy is not the norm for most.

For many families in central Africa, this time of year is filled with sorrow, as it marks the anniversary of two of the LRA’s most brutal attacks – now known as the Christmas Massacres. And with the LRA still at large, the holiday season serves as a fearful and almost paralyzing reminder that similar attacks could happen again.

In light of this sobering reality, last week Resolve launched our second nation-wide vigil, One Voice: Resolved to Remember – an invitation to advocates all over the world to join us, from wherever they are, between December 14th and 25th as we pause to remember those lost to LRA violence and pray for the loved ones they left behind.

To usher in the two-week vigil, our team gathered with a handful of friends and fellow advocates in front of the White House last week. Each of us picked the name of one person to honor from a list of those killed or abducted in Christmas Massacres and we collectively offered a prayer of peace, comfort, and justice for those caught in the middle of this crisis.

It was a powerful time of reflection for our team and we were deeply encouraged by the opportunity to come together with fellow advocates and honor lives lost to the LRA crisis – lives that the world so easily overlooks.

As you celebrate the holidays this week and next, we encourage you to participate in One Voice: Resolved to Remember – individually or with others — in whatever way is most meaningful to you. Let it be an act of resistance against the injustice of being allowed to forget these epic tragedies and against our world’s tendency to treat some as if their lives matter more than others.

Peace to you and yours. And Happy Holidays from the Resolve team.

- Lisa

* Photos courtesy of Wade McMullen

Last week, in a major victory for Resolve’s efforts during 2011, Congress passed two budget bills that made tens of millions of dollars in new funding available to help communities being affected by LRA violence.

The 2012 defense authorization bill — passed Thursday — included a provision allocating up to $35 million to help protect communities from LRA attacks. Meanwhile, the foreign aid bill — passed Monday — called for “up to $10 million” in additional funds to support early-warning mechanisms and programs to help rescue and rehabilitate LRA abductees. To put that in context, the amount of U.S. foreign aid channeled to help deal with the LRA crisis will more than double if the Obama Administration now acts on these directives from Congress.

Hundreds of Resolve supporters lobbied their members of Congress this year for increased funding to help stop LRA atrocities, beginning with the Start Something to Finish It (S2F) campaign launched this past April. In response, 52 Senators and Representatives signed a letter — led by our champion Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and John Boozman (R-AR) and Representatives Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) and Jim McGovern (D-MA) — calling for increased funding to help address LRA violence. And throughout the year, our Resolve team worked with advocates in key Congressional districts across the U.S., helping them engage directly with their elected leaders to keep the momentum going.

We’re thrilled about these significant new developments and we’ll be working hard in the coming year to ensure they translate into life-saving action on the ground. Here’s a first draft of our top-five wish-list for how President Obama should direct these funds to be used:

#1: Dramatically expand the construction of mobile phone towers and HF radio networks in LRA-affected areas of central Africa to help provide early warning systems to communities most in danger of attack;

#2: Strengthen FM radio coverage to broadcast programs calling for LRA fighters and abductees to escape and return home;

#3: Rehabilitate important roads to allow for humanitarian and civilian protection access to remote communities (especially the road from Source Yubu, South Sudan to Obo, Central African Republic);

#4: Provide regional militaries with helicopters so they can react quickly to information about LRA movements and imminent threats against civilians; and

#5: Support the African Union’s initiative to help governments in the region coordinate their efforts against the LRA.

This week’s developments show what a difference our efforts together made in 2011. These increased funds will translate into programs that protect families from LRA violence and save lives.

Here’s to even greater victories in 2012.

- Michael

P.S. In addition to the four Congressional champions mentioned above, we also want to offer a special thanks to Senators Jim Inhofe (R-OK) , Carl Levin (D-MI), and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), as well as Representatives Adam Smith (D-WA09), Kay Granger (R-TX12), and Nita Lowey (D-NY12) for the leadership role they played in this victory. If you’re from one of their states or districts, take a moment to send them a thank-you via phone or email.

With the launch of the LRA Crisis Tracker this fall, Resolve and Invisible Children have been able to significantly increase the amount of information of LRA attacks available to the international community. As our teams worked on the Crisis Tracker over the last year, we focused heavily on making this data both relevant and actionable.

Achieving that aim has involved the development a series of monthly and quarterly analytical reports that trace trends in LRA movement and provide a summary of levels of violence over particular time periods. These LRA Crisis Tracker Security Briefs are designed to serve as helpful resources for NGO partners, United Nation’s staff, policymakers and local community leaders, seeking to effectively address LRA violence.

Today the LRA Crisis Tracker team published the November Security Brief, available in both English and French. Take a few minutes to check it out.

Previous months’ reports, along with a sign up form to receive reports by email, can be found here.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who is currently making a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, said — on camera — that he supports the deployment of troops to stop the Lord’s Resistance Army.

If a front runner for the GOP nomination is on board with the deployment, it bodes well for the future. Romney’s statement follows a wide range of bipartisan leaders who expressed support for Obama’s recent decision to send U.S. advisers to help regional governments address LRA atrocities.

He was talking to The Des Moines Register in the context of an hour-long interview. Around 58:00, he is answering a question about Jihadism and the U.S. military.  He says he would be very cautious about deploying  large numbers of American troops and putting them in harm’s way. Rather, he favors sending small numbers of advisers to aid national  militaries when we are working to achieve common goals. He mentioned Obama’s deployment of 100 troops as a prime example. At 1:00:07 he says:

“The President, for instance, something I agree with, he sent men and women to central Africa, to go in and help battle the Lord’s Resistance Army. Now that’s not exactly the same as Jihadism, but it’s still a virulent and malevolent force. I support that. I support the idea of a very small number of people who can have a very significant impact to prevent something which can be very much opposed to the interests of America as well as the interests of the civilized world.”

This statement is just one more piece of evidence that stopping the LRA is a bipartisan issue. This is huge. Governor Romney, thank you!

-Azy

Check out the video of Mitt Romney’s comments on the deployment of the advisers here. (Skip to about 58 min 15 sec)