by Aaron Stevens
Prep was recently graced by a visit from the Invisible Children Program (ICP). This organization has been trying to end Joseph Kony’s use of child soldiers in his Lord’s Resistance Army and restore peace to the war-torn areas of Northern Uganda. ICP’s efforts have begun to succeed. H.R. 2478, titled “The Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009”, was unanimously passed into law by congress on May 24.
The bill reads as “To support stabilization and lasting peace in northern Uganda and areas affected by the Lord’s Resistance Army through development of a regional strategy to support multilateral efforts to successfully protect civilians and eliminate the threat posed by the Lord’s Resistance Army and to authorize funds for humanitarian relief and reconstruction, reconciliation, and transitional justice, and for other purposes”.
The biggest issue in the bill is the elimination of the Lord’s Resistance Army. This won’t be easy to do. The LRA has been in existence since 1988, making it one of the longest standing revolutionary groups in the world. Based in southern Sudan, they have been abducting, raping, and killing civilians from Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Central African Republic. Most of these civilians were children and teenagers who were forced to learn guerilla tactics. The LRA also allied itself with other revolutionary groups in the Sub-Saharan area, most notably the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda. As of late, the LRA has begun leaving northern Uganda and moving east into the Congo.
How is the U.S. going to “support stabilization and lasting peace”? What will the “multilateral efforts” be? These are all questions which the bill fails to clarify. If we want to truly help Uganda and remove the LRA, we will have to use our own military. Giving the Ugandan government a few million bucks won’t solve the problem. What could, however, would be using a “covert operation”, similar to what the CIA did in Afghanistan to help fight the Soviet Union. This sort of operation would end with Kony and his top generals assassinated or imprisoned. However, the nationality of the assassination squad would be one of the key factors. It would probably be a group of CIA-trained Ugandan soldiers equipped with high-tech weaponry. If the U.S. wished to be more direct, then a team of Special Forces agents or Army Rangers would probably be sent into Uganda with higher-tech weaponry to remove Kony from the picture or potentially detain him.
