So the House yesterday passed a bill aimed at ending the fight by the Lord’s Resistance Army, the Ugandan rebel group that spent a decade terrorizing northern Uganda and has recently spread the practice to DRC and Central African Republic.
Let’s skip the part where we wonder what a Congressional bill (HR 2478, for all you wonks) is going to accomplish that previous ‘multilateral and regional’ efforts, including the world’s biggest peacekeeping force (MONUC, DRC), haven’t.
I’m more interested in reading between the lines. Bill co-sponsors Jim McGovern says in a press release press release on the Enough website, that the bill requires the US “to design and implement a comprehensive strategy” to “address the violence of the LRA.” So the idea is we’re required to do something, but nobody’s saying what yet.
Well, not exactly. McGovern quotes the other co-sponsor’s comments upon passage:
“The LRA’s objectives are threefold: kill, capture and resupply for its next pillage. There is no other reason for its being. The removal of Kony and his top leadership would decapitate this group. This legislation ensures U.S. leadership in making that happen. The day can’t come soon enough.”
Is it too much to think that the violence of the word “decapitate” and the promise that “US leadership” will remove Kony and his cronies (sorry, couldn’t resist) suggests that this bill gives Congressional cover for the US to skip straight to assassination? We already know that US military units have tried to rough up the LRA before but didn’t quite succeed. (Remember last February, when the US military planned and paid for a botched attack on the LRA, after which 900 civilians were killed by said army?)
Maybe the idea is that we do better when we have Congressional permission.
Admittedly, there’s nothing covert-CIA style about passing a bill. But who wants to place bets on whether the effect is the same?
Assuming, of course, we can find the guy.
My bet: bottle of wine and a sushi dinner.
This:
“Let’s skip the part where we wonder what a Congressional bill (HR 2478, for all you wonks) is going to accomplish that previous ‘multilateral and regional’ efforts, including the world’s biggest peacekeeping force (MONUC, DRC), haven’t.”
Is one of the most resounding elements of your piece.
Maybe if – instead of focusing on congressional bills and demanding the assstance of lackluster (and already stretched) peacekeeping forces, why doesn’t the international community deal with root causes for the LRA’s continued chicanery and lawlesness across N. Uganda? You know, things like non-existing governance systems, poorly paid government soldiers not willing to risk their lives to go after Kony, ‘indirect’ state supported bacchanal and incursions (especially ones that cross over into the DRC, Sudan and CAR) and compliance by several GL region administrations to turn a blind eye to abuses for their own security and – sometimes – economic gain.
Until that time, I guess Kony’s rag-tag fighters will continue to recruit child soldiers, slip into the bush and elude the grasp of the IC that puts together million dollar operations, which fall flat in the end.
*Note – though I don’t endorse this, I can’t help but wonder: if several mercenaries were called to the table and told there was a $50,000,000 price tag on Kony’s head…how long do you think it would take until he was captured?
Um, I didn’t hear anything after “sushi.”
…seriously, yes, you’re right. I might have thought the bill was demanding some sort of plan to deal with that if Royce didn’t sound like some dodgy character out of “The Rock.” On the other hand, as I dig into all these UN peacebuilding documents, it’s not like handling the other stuff is any easier than anything we’ve been doing… what’s the way out?
As for the price tag… i raise you a bottle of wine…
I agree that there likely needs to be a firmer plan enforced on the government if the Obama administration is to actually act on the LRA disarmament bill, but in your piece you have failed to mention the reason that this piece of legislation was passed at all. If the government really wanted to do anything about the LRA they probably could have done it by now. The fact that the bill had to be sponsored by the Invisible Children organization and that THOUSANDS of high-school and college students and concerned citizens all over the world have been sleeping outside, writing letters, protesting and in general raising a ruckus in order to get some attention paid to the conflict in Uganda, in order to FORCE the government to answer to our requests for action, tells me that maybe, just maybe, we will also force them to follow through. There are enough people in the world and in the USA who care enough to give their time, energy, and money (see Invisible Children’s Tri campaign where thousands of people, including me, give $3 a week for the recovery of Child soldiers indefinitely until they all get to go home…) to supporting action in Uganda, and your sarcasm over the effectiveness of HR 2478 overlooks completely the devotion which put it in legislation in the first place. I think what we really should be seeing in HR 2478 is the devoted efforts of citizens to, for once, make the government actually work for them and for the issues they find important. Congratulations to all of us who worked to get this bill passed, and who will work to ensure that it makes a difference in the lives of the people affected by Joseph Kony and his rebel army in Uganda, the DRC, and the CAR.
Becca, I’m sorry it took so long to get your comment approved and up. You dropped in on the very day I left for the CAR, and I haven’t had great access to Internet. Apologies.
Like the activists who drove Darfur onto the US agenda, you and your colleagues should be commended for making the political machine in DC work. That’s not a small thing. But I also don’t think it’s enough (see above, Darfur advocacy), especially in a case like this bill, which does not make clear what the government is going to do or even what it’s accountable for. Without that, it seems a bit empty to me, despite the devotion behind it.
And for the record, I’m actually not being sarcastic: the only thing that sounds remotely like language that suggests action was Royce’s comment, and that sounded to me like something that suggests a small military operation to take out Kony. Which the civilians I’m talking to here in CAR at the moment probably wouldn’t mind.
Your comment deserves more attention, but unfortunately I can’t say more at the moment. Thanks for coming by.