Weekly Roundup June 11-18: Countdown continues on implementation of LRA/Uganda law

This Sunday marks the first day of summer for 2010--but there's more heating up in DC than just the temperature. With the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act now passed, the 180-day countdown to a strategy has been activated. By the time the clock runs out, the Obama Administration is required to have developed a comprehensive strategy to help permanently end LRA violence and protect civilians in affected areas. Statements from US officials condemning LRA violence are becoming stronger and more frequent--signs that the Administration is feeling the heat of its new mandate on the LRA created by the bill and the robust public support behind it.

At the same time, we are reminded of the urgency of the issue as reports of rebel attacks in South Sudan and the southeastern Central African Republic (CAR) continue to emerge and as UN peacekeeping forces in LRA-affected areas of the DR Congo make plans to scale back their presence by the end of the summer.  This only reinforces the need for strong and sustained engagement from the American public and Congress to ensure that the Administration follows through with its mandate and develops a viable strategy to end LRA violence.

The Good: US Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, made a statement at a UN Security Council meeting underlining the US commitment to ending the use of child soldiers, and decrying the abuses of the LRA towards children in central Africa.
 
The Bad: LRA attacks continue in CAR, where villagers have set up self-defense groups to try to protect themselves from rebel attacks.  Thousands of people are internally displaced in the country due to LRA violence, and the insecurity limits their access to food and humanitarian aid.

The Ugly: Despite increased LRA attacks over the past several months in DR Congo, the UN began a partial withdrawal of peacekeeping troops in the country this week.

Regional Security

• It has come to light that ten Ugandan soldiers, previously thought to have been killed by the LRA, may have actually been killed by a Sudanese militia in an attack late last month.  The Ugandan army was responding to reports that the LRA was in the area when they were ambushed by Sudanese fighters in CAR, northwest of Djema.

• Late last month, the LRA made a series of attacks on remote villages in Tambura, South Sudan.  According to local leaders, two girls and one boy, all between the ages of 8 and 15 years old, were abducted during rebel attacks on schools.

• The partial withdrawal of UN peacekeeping troops from DR Congo began this Wednesday.  Up to 2,000 troops will be withdrawn by the end of the month, including a contingent of Senegalese peacekeepers on the front lines of LRA attacks in the Congolese town of Dingila, leading to fears about the security of civilians after the troops' withdrawal.

Situation in Northern Uganda

• Voter registration for the 2011 national elections in Uganda closed Friday.  The head of the Ugandan Electoral Commission says he is confident there will be "better results than we had in 2006," although opposition groups still worry that the Commission will be unable to ensure that the elections are truly free and fair.

• More than 50,000 people in the northern Uganda town of Lango have sought compensation for damages sustained during the LRA insurgency.  A government minister has said that victims of maiming will be paid compensation before the end of this financial year.  Although the government has already paid compensation to some war victims, many feel that this falls far short of the amount needed.

International Community

• US Ambassador Rice said at a UN Security Council meeting on children in armed conflict, "The United States fully and firmly embraces our responsibility to protect children and we will not rest until the last abuse is halted and the last child soldier is released... We particularly abhor the actions of the Lord's Resistance Army, which makes a practice of forced recruitment through abduction."

• US Ambassador Stephen Rapp made a statement on Tuesday after a review conference on the International Criminal Court's work, held in Kampala.  "After 12 years, I think we have reset the default on the U.S. relationship with the Court from hostility to positive engagement," he said.

• In a testimony before the US House of Representatives, a senior USAID official expressed concern for the humanitarian consequences of mass displacement in the Great Lakes region of central Africa, and reaffirmed USAID's commitment to providing support for populations impacted by LRA violence.