Friends For Peace In Africa

PRESS STATEMENT

1. Acholi Parliamentary Group (APG) has learned with great shock and profound sadness the Sunday attack on the Lords Resistance Army positions in the Garamba Forest by the armies of Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Southern Sudan. APG has, since 1996, consistently opposed the use of military means to resolve the conflict in Northern Uganda. Accordingly, APG unreservedly condemns the ill-conceived joint military operation by the armies of Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Southern Sudan.

2. The reason given for the attack is that the leader of the LRA, General Joseph Kony, has refused to sign the Final Peace Agreement (FPA), negotiated over the last two-and-a-half-years in Juba between the Government of Uganda (GoU) and the LRA/M. APG is also aware that President Museveni has not yet also signed the same FPA. What moral authority does Uganda have to attack the LRA for failing to do what Uganda herself has not yet done? There is no provision in the FPA as to who should sign first.

3. APG is vehemently opposed to the joint military operation against the LRA for a number of reasons: firstly, more than 99% of the LRA combatants and their wives, not to mention many children born in the bush, were abducted. They were abducted because the State of Uganda failed to protect them from abduction. APG is of the view that it is a double crime for the State of Uganda to follow these abducted people and destroy them in the bush. Secondly, the top LRA officers wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) are only three (3). To destroy thousands of lives in order to get rid of three people is totally unacceptable. It is a crime bordering on genocide.

4. At a joint meeting held at Juba Bridge Hotel, Juba, on 1^st December 2008, and jointly chaired by UN Special Envoy to LRA-affected areas, H.E. Joachim Chissano and the Chief Mediator to the Juba Peace Talks, H.E. Dr. Riek Machar, attended by GoU Delegation, LRA Delegation and Elders from Uganda, it was agreed that the peace process was still on, despite the fact that Gen. Joseph Kony had yet again failed to sign the FPA on 29^th September, 2008. H.E. Joachim Chissano informed the meeting that he would be travelling to New York City on 16^th December 2008 to report the status of the Juba Peace Process to the UN Security Council. What was then so urgent that the joint military operation against LRA could not wait for the Special Envoy to report to the Security Council and get response?

5. For more than two years, since 14^th July 2006, the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS), the international Community and the United Nations wasted colossal amounts of resources on the Juba Peace Talks. Why was all this allowed to happen when, as it now appears, the three (3) Countries had their preferred option – the joint military operation?

6. LRA is now far away from Uganda in the jungle of Garamba Forest. As a result, relative peace has prevailed in northern Uganda in the last two years. APG wonders how much security risk LRA poses to Uganda today. Secondly, there are several 'negative' forces operating in DRC, some of them since 1994. Why has there been no joint military operation against those other ‘negative’ forces?

7. In 1998, Uganda sent her troops across the border into D.R.Congo without the approval of Parliament as required by the Constitution. The troops looted and plundered the resources of DRC so badly. This resulted in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) awarding damages of ten billion US dollars ($ 10b) to the DRC against Uganda. That debt still hangs over our nation. Once again, Uganda has sent her troops across the same border without Parliamentary approval. Let us hope that the story will this time be different in the end.

8. In conclusion, Acholi Parliamentary Group calls upon Uganda, DR Congo and Southern Sudan to halt the joint military operation forthwith and revert to the peace process as the only way forward.  The military option had failed to resolve the conflict for twenty years.

9. APG calls upon LRA to exercise maximum restraint and stop looting and abductions in the DRC and Southern Sudan.

Hon.Okello-Okello J.L (M.P)