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War on LRA Rebels Loses Momentum Report:  Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Efforts to defeat feared group run into trouble as regional governments fail to address threat.

ACR Issue 300, 17 Aug 11 – By Barrett Holmes Pitner – International Justice – ICC

Amid concerns that efforts to flush out Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army, LRA,

are flagging, the international community is facing stark challenges to defeat the

rebels as they continue to wreak havoc in the region. Since the United States

announced a long-awaited strategy to defeat the LRA and capture its leaders by

bolstering the military effort in the region, Uganda has instead withdrawn 700

troops that were pursuing the rebels and curtailed  funding for the operation.

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Child Troopers director Ebony Butler has taken her human rights documentary project to the United States of America, where she has found a whole new host of supporters and interested parties.

Ebony is currently working from Hollywood Los Angeles with her local crew where she is working on Child Troopers second phase of production. She is also being mentored by some leading industry players. The impressive list of international film and TV professionals she has mustered include Shine Global CEO Mark Fennessy and Australian born, LA based director Rod Hardy. Ebony’s has 5 official mentors who have each signed on as industry specific advisors to the young director for her debut feature documentary film Child Troopers, slated for release in 2012.

As of next week Ebony will leave Los Angeles for New York and Washington DC where she has scheduled in meetings and on camera interviews with some of the world’s leading humanitarian organizations, NGO‘S, political figures and other child soldier and human rights lobby groups. The line up includes: the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, OXFAM and Resolve (formerly known as Resolve Uganda). There are a number of other key players, analysts and experts in the arena of international and African politics, American foreign policy and geopolitics set to meet with Ebony over the next month to discuss her film and offer unique insights into the conflict in Uganda and beyond.

We will be back with more information about the progress Ebony and her crew are making soon.

Excited times ahead so stay tuned and if you like what we are doing please sign up to our blog and share this with friends or on your favorite social networking site!

Please also join us on twitter @atlanticstar233 and on facebook at facebook.com/childtroopers

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James Inhofe - LRA Bill of 2010
James Inhofe Amends NDAA Act

 

Does Senator Inhofe’s amendment of the US National Defense Authorization Act, directed towards ending the LRA conflict, have any real power? Is it implying the government use direct military action to reach its goals? What efforts are in place from December;’s comprehensive strategy released by President Obama? The LRA are still operating freely, and this year attacks have increased across east and central Africa. I just hope the US are actually being active in their attempt to resolve the issue and bring Kony and those responsible to justice, otherwise there would be no cause to be pro-active.

Justice won’t be served when and if Kony is caught. That would be just one small step toward justice. And will Joseph Kony‘s elimination from the equation even stop the atrocities from the LRA’s brutal insurgency? In the meantime however, it could be an idea to focus on healing the current victim’s of this war, as there is no uncertainty there – they clearly exist and are still suffering, awaiting help from the outside world. The LRA bill has been successful at harnessing popularity, however, what ever happened to the Northern Ugandan Recovery Act? It’s not as catchy I guess.

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Olara Otunnu Claims Uganda is Hell on Earth for ChildrenOlara Otunna, the former United Nations Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, is dedicated to taking a stance against human rights violations and protecting children affected by war and conflict.

There are not many people that speak out about the role of Museveni and the claims of genocide in Northern Uganda, however Olara Otunnu speaks openly and compares the the situation in Northern Uganda, sometimes regarded as the ‘Forgotton War’, to that of the systematic genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. Other United Nations officials have stated that the forced relocation of close to two million Acholi, into ‘protected’ Internal Displacement (IDP) camps,should be compared to modern day concentration camps.

According to Otunnu “An entire society – the Acholi – is being systematically destroyed –physically, culturally, socially and economically – in full view of the international community. This has been going on non-stop for almost 20 years but Western governments have turned a blind eye to a pliant regime and dictatorship under President Museveni that practices genocide.”

http://www.usyd.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=767.

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