joseph kony and the lra

#Kony2012It’s

Complicated

Basic info for students and society about the LRA, Joseph Kony, Invisible Children, and other aid organizations

Historical Background

• The Acholi people live in the Gulu and Kitgum districts of northern Uganda. British colonial policy designated them as a source of labor and recruited them to positions in the military.

• Alcholi power in the military continued after independence and served as a source of political power for the otherwise numerically inferior group, until Idi Amin's coup d' etat in January of 1971.

• Amin removed Alcholi from their positions in the military and thereby deprived them of political power.

Source: A Primer on the Lord's Resistance ArmyBy Dean Pagonis, Feb 27, 2012www.ocnus.net

Joseph Kony

• Joseph Kony was born in 1961 in the village of Odek among the Acholi people of northern Uganda.

• He inherited power through his aunt because she was the tribe's mystic who started the Holy Spirit Movement, which sought to unseat the Kampala government.

• This movement was started by his aunt, Alice Auma, and required that the Acholi people retake the capital city Kampala. Source: GlobalSecurity.org

Civil War and LRA• The initial motivation for civil war within Uganda was

the overthrow of the Ugandan National Liberation Front (UNLF) government comprised mainly of Acholi in 1986 and the subsequent loss of the Acholi's traditional power base derived from a large membership in the army as well as massacres by Museveni's forces.

• The LRA derived its political agenda, much of its forces and large parts of its spiritual origins from previous groups, most notably the Uganda People's Democratic Movement/Army (UPDM/A) and Alice Lakwena's Holy Spirit Movement/Mobile Forces (HSM/MF).


LRA• Kony refused to go along

with a peace agreement in 1988 and splintered off with other soldiers.

• With the combination of his military background and religious beliefs he created the Uganda Christian Democratic Army and began fighting against the government. In 1991 he changed the name of the group to the Lord's Resistance Army. Source: GlobalSecurity.org

LRA• The LRA rebels stated that they fought for the establishment of a

government based on the biblical Ten Commandments. They were notorious for kidnapping children and forcing them to become rebel fighters or concubines. More than one-half-million people in Uganda's Gulu and Kitgum districts had been displaced by the fighting and lived in temporary camps.

• As the years progressed, the LRA lessened their attacks in Uganda and began to attack other regions. They spread to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan, and the Central African Republic (CAR).

• The LRA continued to plague these regions with their only goal being survival. They performed raids on remote locations to gather food, money, or people which would help sustain their rebellion.

Source: GlobalSecurity.org

LRA and Sudan• In addition to the war crimes committed by the LRA to

maintain money and power, Kony has been receiving significant amounts of aid from Sudan.

• Sudan was involved in their own conflict and the LRA was used for the Sudanese government's struggle against the Ugandan backed Sudanese People's Liberation Army.

• The absence of voluntary support from the Acholi community forced the LRA to rely on criminal activity and external Sudanese military assistance in order to fund its operations.


Peace?• Peace was difficult to obtain in the period between 1999-2006 primarily because

of the International Criminal Court's (ICC) decision to issue an arrest warrant for top LRA leaders and the movement of some LRA rebels into the eastern portion of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

• The LRA and Ugandan government signed a truce in August of 2006 and LRA members are currently assembling in camps for disarmament, although many have chosen to migrate north to southern Sudan. Joseph Kony has yet to emerge from the bush, and the Ugandan government has expressed its willingness to attack the rebels if further peace talks in southern Sudan fail.

• International peace keeping is challenging due to the reluctance of the Ugandan government to allow foreign troops and the difficulty of persuading the Sudanese government to allow peacekeepers on its border.


SUMMARY• The conflict between the LRA and the NRA dominated Ugandan

government was primarily the result of the NRA's seizure of power and economic collapse in 1987.

• The LRA's objectives were proclaimed to be spiritual and political; however in reality they were largely criminal. Indiscriminate violence served as the LRA's primary method for maintaining power, through a strategy which emphasized the use of fear over hatred.

• The majority of the LRA's funding was derived from asset transfers, although between 1994 and 1999 the Sudanese government provided significant military assistance in the form of arms and funds.

• The prospects for peace remain bleak unless the current fragile truce holds.

How to Help• There are many organizations out there working

to improve the lives of people caught in the turmoil of Central African conflict.

• Many are operated locally and others by the international community.

• A few of these organizations are featured in the slides that follow:

Invisible Children• MISSION STATEMENT: Invisible Children uses film,

creativity and social action to end the use of child soldiers in Joseph Kony's rebel war and restore LRA-affected communities in central Africa to peace and prosperity.

• “We are storytellers, activists and everyday people who use the power of media to inspire young people to help end the longest running armed conflict in Africa. We make documentaries, tour them around the world, and lobby our nation’s leaders to make ending this conflict a priority.”

Invisible

Children:

Where does

the money

go?

Source: IC Annual Report, 2011

Source: IC Annual Report, 2011

Invisible

Children:

Where does

the money

go?

War Child• Provides medical care, sanctuary and counseling to

girls who have been the victim of sexual violence.• Creats safe havens where children can escape the

dangers of life on the streets after war has forced them to leave home.

• Rebuilds schools destroyed by war and getting kids out of army uniforms and into school ones.

• Helps children get their voices heard and their rights met, and helping local people to protect their children better.

• www.warchild.org.uk

http://www.warchild.org.uk/

Unicef• UNICEF partners with local Ugandan communities to provide

them with the tools they need to protect, heal and empower former child soldiers.

• The organization works to take guns away from children and moves children away from living in barracks.

• When it comes to reintegrating ex-soldiers into their communities, UNICEF gives local centers shelter materials, medical services, counseling and job-training support.

• www.unicef.org

Source: Kony 2012 And 7 Other Charities Fighting For Child Soldiers First Posted: 03/ 8/2012 8:06 pmwww.huffingtonpost.com

http://www.unicef.org/

Oxfam• Oxfam raises awareness of child soldiers in Uganda

and lobbies for an end to war.

• The organization provides clean water and sanitation to soldiers living in camps and provides counseling for returning child soldiers.

• www.oxfam.org


http://www.oxfam.org/

Save the Children• Save the Children works to ensure that former child-

soldiers, among other vulnerable populations, have access to basic services when they're reintegrated.

• The organization provides education, vocational skills training mentorship and more. Its ultimate goal is to help child soldiers establish their livelihoods.

• www.savethechildren.org


http://www.savethechildren.org/

The International Rescue Committee

• The humanitarian organization offers medical and psychological attention and promotes community child protection committees.

• The IRC also improves academic options and develops vocational-training programs.

• www.rescue.org/child-soldiers


http://www.rescue.org/child-soldiers

SOS Children’s Villages

• SOS Children's Villages offers lifesaving support for these ex-soldiers with its family-tracing trauma counseling and community reconciliation.

• www.child-soldier.org


http://www.child-soldier.org/

Child Soldiers International

• When Child Soldiers International was born, it pressed for a global ban on military recruitment of people below the age of 18 years.

• Today, the organization works to implement the the treaty that was passed in 2002, according to its website , which more than 140 governments have ratified.

• www.child-soldiers.org


http://www.child-soldiers.org/

joseph kony and the lra

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