Senator Inhofe (R-OK) speaks to fellow Senators in strong support of the LRA/Uganda bill

Senator Inhofe (R-Ok) has continued to be a strong and committed voice within Congress on the issue of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Over the past few years, he has tirelessly called for greater U.S. engagement to end Joseph Kony's campaign of violence and to support LRA-affected communities in central Africa.

Yesterday, Senator Inhofe spoke on the Senate floor, in resolute support of the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act. Despite the backing of 51 cosponsors in the Senate and a unanimous "yes" vote from the Foreign Relations Committee, the bill remains un-passed, and at risk of death, under the hold of Senator Tom Coburn---nicknamed "Dr. No" and ironically, also from Oklahoma.

In his speech, Senator Inhofe criticized his fellow Oklahoma Senator for preventing the passage of legislation that could potentially save thousands of lives and bring an end to horrific LRA atrocities. Mr. Inhofe urged the Senate to bring the bill up for a full floor vote, which would thereby overrule Senator Coburn's hold on the bill.

To watch Senator Inhofe's full speech to the Senate floor, click on the image below.

TAKE ACTION by joining the Dr. No, Please Say Yes Campaign and help convince Senator Coburn that we the people want this legislation passed. Click HERE to join the facebook group and stay tuned to the Resolve Uganda website for more details.

Full text of Inhofe's statement is below:

Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, a lot of times attention is drawn to terrible things going on around the world. We hear a lot about Sudan, and we hear about Zimbabwe, with a president who has taken that country from the breadbasket of the world to one of the most impoverished nations around.
   But there is one area nobody talks about. I have been trying for quite some time to get attention drawn to this area. We have a bill that is introduced by Senator Feingold, myself, and others, which is called the LRA Disarmament in Northern Uganda Recovery Act. This essentially does one thing. It directs the administration to develop a research strategy to apprehend a guy named Joseph Kony and the top LRA commanders throughout the country and protect the civilians.
   The reason this is important--and I have been dealing with this issue for 10 years, or perhaps more. I have had occasion to spend time with President Museveni of Uganda, President Kagame of Rwanda, and President Kabila of Congo, and others in that area. Twenty-five years ago, Joseph Kony--he is kind of a spiritual leader in that eastern African area. He is a deranged person. He decided to start a thing that some people have heard of, called the ``child's military'' or the ``children's army,'' where he goes out and abducts little kids. For more than 20 years, he has led this Lord's Resistance Army. He has done it primarily in the area of northern Uganda.
   I have been there several times to Gulu, which is the headquarters area. Many of the kids who have survived him are up there now in hospitals. His way of doing things is to go into villages and abduct children, young children--I am talking about 11, 12, 13-year-old children--and teach them to be soldiers, with AK-47s, the whole thing.
   Then they have to go back to their villages and murder their parents and all their siblings. If they do not do that, they cut their ears off and cut their noses off and cut their lips off, as we can see in this picture. Here are these young, little guys. That little boy is about 10 years old with an AK-47.
   The tribes in that part of Africa, Hutus and Tutsis, have been fighting forever. We are all familiar with the genocide that took place in Rwanda and the millions of people who lost their lives and the torturing that went on. The things that have happened are just mind-boggling. Yet all the time that was happening, nobody realized what was going on in that area.
   Millions of people have fled their homes over time and have been in displacement camps in the areas I just described. A vast nation in the heart of Africa, the DRC--the Democratic Republic of Congo--has strived to recover from lengthy civil wars. It goes back to many years ago, back when Congo got its independence from King Leopold II. Anyone with an interest in Africa at all should read a book. It is called ``King Leopold's Ghost.'' When you read this book, you will find out what really happened, what the true story is not just of the Congo but all of Africa.
   This area was in the Congo. The wars started back in 1960 and then the most recent started in 1990. Joseph Kony would go into these areas of displaced people and capture the young people. We made an effort, as we tracked him from one area to another just about 6 months ago, to Goma--that is a fairly large city in Eastern Congo. That is where he was last seen. He left before we got there. As he went north up toward the Sudan, he mutilated 900 people, most of them young people, on that route.
   One might ask the question, Why is it these countries are not able to eradicate this person, to do something about him? The problem is that we have a very fine President in Uganda, President Museveni. Museveni used to be a warrior. I think there is a reluctance of the warriors who become Presidents of African nations to want to say: We cannot handle the security ourselves; we are going to have to depend on other countries, the United States or other countries, to do it for us. He has been somewhat resistant.
   President Kagame from Rwanda is--I think everyone agrees--one of the greatest leaders in Africa. He is the one, in the genocide of 1994 that wiped out most of his population, who was able to go back. As you go down from the airport to the capital area of Rwanda, you would think you are in an American city. In fact, it is much cleaner than many American cities. He has been able to bring it back up. He also came from the bush as a warrior. Again, he is a great person. As I said the same thing about President Museveni, there is a reluctance to admit they cannot handle these problems themselves.
   President Kabila is President of Congo. Congo used to be called Zaire. It is a gigantic area. We remember the stories of explorers who went over there and were able to get all the way across the Congo, taking months and months to do so, many of them losing their lives. Back when the Congo was having serious problems, President Kabila, Sr., was there. He was actually killed, and his son Joe Kabila took the reins of the country. Joe Kabila also has a military background.
   So we have three Presidents. They respect each other. They are not at war with each other. They all have one thing in common; that is, they want to eradicate this monster called Joseph Kony. They have not been able to successfully get that done.
   What we are doing with this legislation is recognizing, because we never hear anyone talking about it, that there is this serious problem that is taking place. We all want to do things to help people who are downtrodden, but this is one that has been overlooked.
   Finally, this bill would give everybody throughout the world an understanding that this is now a U.S. priority and that we are going to finally do something to get rid of this Joseph Kony.
   It is easy to say that is another part of the world until you get over there and see. These are kids from 10 to 12 years old being forced to murder people in their own village. They brutally torture these children and maim them for life. That is what this guy has been doing for 25 years.
   We have an opportunity to do something. We never had an opportunity before. We tried to introduce it. This bill is one that is out of the Foreign Relations Committee now. It is sponsored primarily by Senator Feingold. I did not support it at first because it does require about $30 million to $35 million. He had it offset by taking money out of the Air Force. I did not like that. I think this President is going to go down as the most anti-defense, anti-military President in history. We punished the military enough, and I am not going to take any more money out of that budget. They agreed to pull that out in committee. The money should come from USAID, from existing State Department funds. We do not know that yet, but we do know this is going to come to the floor. We want it to come to the floor. There is a hold on it now. In fact, the hold is by my junior Senator. I hope we are able to get this bill.
   When we look at how many years something like this has been going on, this unspeakable type of behavior--we don't know of anyplace else in the world. It is a very small price to pay, a small effort to let us take the lead with other nations. I can assure my colleagues that other nations will follow. I have given talks in Canada and some of the other places about the problems we have with Joseph Kony.
   People say we just need to have somebody come in and say: If you can get together the Presidents of these countries of Rwanda, Uganda, Congo, Sudan, and the Central African Republic, these five countries, then we will come in if you lead the way. That is what we want to do.
   There are so many things going on right now. We have people who, when we had the PEPFAR bill--that was a bill to send money to countries, primarily African countries. That bill was on the floor of the Senate. It had been funded previously at $15 billion. Just 6 months ago, that bill was down here. They raised it from $15 billion to $50 billion. They raised it $35 billion. That is going to go to Africa with very few controls on it. We do not know where the money is going to go. This is less than one-thousandth of that amount to defend these kids.
   There is a group I ran into up in Gulu in northern Uganda. It was about 3 years ago. I wish I could remember their names. Young college kids recognized this was going on. They went up there with camera crews and took pictures. They have been here and rallied the support of literally thousands of college kids who have become familiar with these atrocities that are taking place. I applaud them for doing it. They wonder why we cannot do something.
   If you can increase your PEPFAR funding for Africa by $35 billion and you don't want to spend one-thousandth of that amount, $35 million, to save those kids--30,000 kids over the years have been mutilated like this--then there is something wrong with this country.
   We are going to make every effort--Senator Feingold is one of the more liberal Democrats, and I am one of the most conservative Republicans. This crosses all these concepts.
   I know my time has expired, but I only want to say I want to do everything I can to get this legislation through. I am going to ask our conservative friends to listen and do something that is right on this legislation. I believe, with the 51 cosponsors we have right now, we ought to be able to get the bill passed if we can get it to the floor.
   I yield the floor.