Bill comes down heavily on LRA... but can backfire (East African)
The chief mediator in the peace talks between the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army says the Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act 2009 emphasises more on a military option than on the peaceful resolution that Sudan has been pursuing.
In a letter to the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, John Kerry, Dr Riek Machar says peaceful resolution is still the preferred option for the region, even though LRA leader Joseph Kony has been hesitant to sign the peace deal to end the war.
“My chief concern about this otherwise well-conceived Bill is that in its current form, despite the language on an interagency approach, its dominant thrust is towards military action,” said Dr Machar in his letter.
Dr Machar, who is also the vice-president of the semi-autonomous south, noted that concerns which led southern Sudan to offer mediation mechanisms still remain.
They include the potential of the LRA to destabilise Southern Sudan and to undermine the gains and prospects of successful implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
He argued that two years of the Juba talks yielded several agreements between the parties, which focused on a range of issues; including modalities for demobilisation of the LRA, addressing the question of impunity and reconciliation, and the recovery of northern Uganda.
As such, southern Sudan believes that those agreements reflect the wishes and aspirations of the communities affected and that they are a viable formal basis for ending the LRA conflict.
The south, which is facing its own difficulties in disarming other militias, is now urging the US to view peaceful resolution to the conflict in northern Uganda as part of the process of implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of Sudan.
“Make peaceful resolution to the conflict and voluntary disarmament of the LRA the cornerstone of the Bill and US policy, and support efforts by Southern Sudan to consolidate the gains made through the Juba Peace Talks.
“If a perception takes root that the United States now excludes or devalues peaceful means of addressing this conflict, this will, in turn, discourage others from seeking other solutions to this conflict,” said Dr Machar
Dr Machar said if the Bill is passed in its current format, its influence would extend far beyond the United States. Ultimately, the affected communities and victims (including within the LRA) would be the main losers of such an outcome.
Drill: A local self defence force at Bangadi, northeastern Congo, this year. In the face of attacks and massacres
by the Lord’s Resistance Army, villagers have formed vigilante groups. Photo/FILE
“I believe it is essential to clarify in the text, but most importantly, in the actions of the United States, that all options of stopping the LRA violence will be accorded equal attention,” he said.
However, Dr Machar agrees with the Bill that as long as the LRA are armed anywhere in the region, there can never be peace in Southern Sudan, northern Uganda and DRC.
“We recognise that the LRA is essentially a captive army of children and other victim- combatants, who are inevitably the first line of casualties.”
He gives the example of recent LRA attacks in DRC and Southern Sudan, following Operation Lightening and Thunder, to flush out rebels from DRC, as one of the reasons a peaceful resolution is more desirable.
Thus, Southern Sudan believes that a genuinely dual strategy giving equal priority to the search for peaceful alternatives provides the best chance of ending this conflict with the least damage, he said.
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