One of the biggest pigs feeding off of that Anarchy Gravy Train I was talking about, is the LRA. If there was any a reason to step in with military action to effectively shut down an insane and highly murderous group, these guys take the cake.
I posted two stories here, and this first one is about the massacre in the Congo these guys just committed. The other story is about legislation being passed in the US to support efforts to stop the LRA and support Uganda. The second story also presents some very interesting angles about how certain aid groups and charities are really pushing for military action against the LRA–which is kind of a shocker to hear from such groups. The article also talks about AFRICOM , and it’s roll in Africa, by getting us more involved with dealing with these ‘insane clown posses’ that continue to roam and terrorize Africa.
My only input on all of this, is that the LRA is taking advantage of jungle cover, weak governments, and weak borders to keep surviving and killing. And if Uganda is able to push them out of their country, that is great, but these folks will just go across the border to the Congo and kill people there. So now the Congo has to deal with these guys. If everyone in the region came together and decided that destroying this group was the right thing to do, then and only then will there be a chance at ending this horror once and for all.
And when I say destroy, I mean kill every last one of them. You can’t negotiate with Joseph Kony, just like you can’t negotiate with a psychotic killer going on a rampage in a mall. You kill him, and if any of his troops want to continue the fight afterwards, then you kill them too. It is absolutely vital that you destroy the leader of this group, and any trace amounts that could lead to it’s resurgence after said actions. The leader, sub-leaders, or whatever. The LRA should become just a horrible memory after you get through with them.
As to the child soldiers or child sex slaves? Hopefully you can rescue them, and get the help they need to become normalized again. But once again, if you want to eradicate a group like this, forces will be fighting child soldiers along with the adult soldiers of the LRA, and that would be an unfortunate reality of the situation. (please note that a child did this to the woman in the picture below)
So are western nations prepared to do this, or are they willing to support other African nations in doing this task? Is the political will there, in order to do the dirty work of removing the LRA from the face of this planet? That is my question, and until a conclusion is reached, we will continue to watch the LRA and groups like it murder/rape/mutilate/enslave and otherwise create living hells on earth for the innocent people of Africa. –Matt
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Lokeria Aciro, 40, rests at Saint Joseph’s Hospital near Kitgum after an LRA attack in which a boy of about 11 cut off her lips and ears. She had been collecting firewood outside a camp.
Lord’s Resistance Army killed 321 people in Democratic Republic of Congo
March 29, 2010
Jonathan Clayton
At least 321 people were killed and hundreds were abducted in one of the worst massacres by Africa’s most feared rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), in the Democratic Republic of Congo in December.
A three-year-old girl was burnt to death during the attack on men, women and children, an investigation by a human rights group has revealed.
Villagers who escaped death were sent back with their lips and ears cut off as a warning to others of what would happen if they talked — a tactic used frequently by the LRA, which has terrorised much of northern Uganda and the border areas with Sudan and Congo for more than two decades.
The attack — which was unreported until now — confirms that the LRA has restarted terrorising the region despite losing its bases in Sudan a few years ago, when Khartoum, its main backer, signed a peace deal with south Sudanese rebels. According to Human Rights Watch the LRA also abducted at least 250 people during the attack, including 80 children.
Anneke Van Woudenberg, of the New York-based rights group, called the massacre in the Makombo area of northeast Democratic Republic of Congo “one of the worst ever committed by the LRA in its bloody 23-year history”.
The LRA is led by Joseph Kony, a warlord dubbed the Wizard of the Nile who mixes traditional African beliefs with fundamentalist Christianity. He has made a point of abducting children terrified of his supposed magical powers to perpetuate the movement. Kony turns the boys into killing machines, often unleashing them on their relatives, and takes girls as child brides for himself and his commanders. Peace talks with the group began about two years ago but failed after Kony executed any of his commanders who showed interest in reaching a settlement.
The majority of those killed in the December attack were men. They were tied up, some bound to trees, before being hacked to death with machetes or having their skulls crushed with axes. The dead included 13 women and 23 children, according to the report, which was written after a mission visited the region in February.
Dieudonne Abakuba, a clergyman at Isiro-Niangara, in the north east of the country, confirmed that 30 members of the LRA attacked about a dozen villages of the nearby Haut Uele district.
(more…)
