Resolve Uganda Senior Policy Analyst discusses new legislation with Voice of America
Resolve Uganda Senior Policy Analyst Paul Ronan did an interview with Voice of America yesterday in which he outlines some more specifics of the recently introduced "LRA Disarmament and N. Uganda Recovery Act" and explains why getting this legislation passed is so important.
“The bill requires the Obama administration within six months to come up with a strategy to address LRA violence, and protect civilians from future attacks and also assist communities that have been displaced by LRA attacks with $10 million in emergency humanitarian assistance. And it states that it is the policy of the United States government that in order to permanently stop LRA attacks, that Joseph Kony and top LRA commanders should be arrested or removed from the battlefield,” Paul said in the article.
More than just focused on the LRA, the bill also addresses critical long-term issues in northern Uganda that are undermining efforts to move out of the shadow of war. Here's what Paul had to say about that:
“After it became clear that Kony was not going to sign the peace agreement last year, the Uganda government made it very, very clear that it was dedicated to implementing the transitional justice mechanisms, as well as some of the economic recovery programs, even though Kony had not signed. Unfortunately, in the past year, we’ve really seen the lack of political will to implement those mechanisms and recovery programs, which has really been quite unfortunate, because the people of Uganda now have some sort of peace, but many of them have been unable to return to their homes."