Lord's Resistance Army killed hundreds in Congo Massacre

[thewiseguy]

Source: Reuters

KINSHASA, March 27 (Reuters) - Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels killed at least 290, and maybe more than 300 people in Congo in a previously unreported massacre in December 2009, U.N. officials told Reuters on Saturday.

The killing spree took place in villages in Democratic Republic of Congo's remote northeast and followed warnings of rebel threats after similar massacres the year before.

"The men were tied by the chest by the same rope and killed with wood sticks on the back of the head and neck -- it was really brutal and fast," said the United Nations' Liliane Egounlety, who led the investigation into the killings in the Haut-Uele district.

"They also used machetes. Many witnesses found it too hard to talk about."

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE62Q0D9.htm

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Lord's Resistance Army???

[Joanne98]

1. I wonder if their connected to "The Family"

[SpiralHawk]

2. So how many souls did God's armies save in this, um, 'glorious' victory?

eom

[14thColony]

8. They're a heavily-armed cult army

Loosely based on a blend of wildly misinterpreted Christianity and local native beliefs, but led by a certified nut-job. Think Jim Jones meets the Manson Family, in a National Guard Armory, and you'll get the picture.

[Posteritatis]

10. That's a terrifyingly vivid analogy.. yow. (nt)

[Adsos Letter]

3. Huh...I thought they had put those guys out of action. Link below...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_Resistance_Army


I guess they're still at it.

.

[mojowork_n]

4. When you're still elementary school age, and

your C-V / resume only lists one type of work experience -- carrying a Kalashnykov around, on a belt slung over your shoulder -- it must be pretty hard to make a midcareer job change. (But it's not like you're old enough to "retire," either.)

Seriously, I think mercenary/insurrectionist armies in Africa are hard to eradicate. Corruption is endemic, and extremely polarizing, so you're going to get groups mobilized to oppose it, and to defend it. And sometimes maybe they switch sides.

Very confusing for an outsider to understand, and maybe no less so when you're living there.

From what I've read, Liberia's made a lot of progress since a woman took over, and Ghana's beem pretty stable the last decade or two.

If more people paid attention and gave a damn, and news reporting from the continent were better, maybe things would improve. (But that applies equally to news reporting and the political situation here, or on any other continent, for that matter.)

[bemildred]

5. Well said.

Forbidding the import of weapons and ammunition might be of some help eventually. Plenty of cheap/free food would be good too.

[Adsos Letter]

13. In a recent student discussion of Gourevitch's work on the rwandan genocide

...we discussed the absence of African affairs from most American's awareness. The problem is compounded by the fact that many view the continent as one large "country," without differentiating between states, ethno-cultural communities, and the discrete issues and groups operating therein (I am guilty of this myself, at times, and I know better).

[mojowork_n]

16. I read that book.

While I very much appreciated his use of language; and was moved by his expressive, engaged, probing and insightful interviews and accounts, the book also bothered me. (Not so much while I was reading it -- he really is a very, very good writer -- but in the months and years that followed, as I continued to read and pick up bits and pieces about the conflict.)

It seemed as if he under-reported some of the military connections between the Kagame (Tutsi) army and the U.S., and his own access to some of the people and places he saw. I mean, how the heck did Gourevitch get in to Mobutu Sese Seku's abandoned palace in Zaire/Congo, with the gold fixtures in the bathrooms, and all the incriminating evidence of wanton corruption and kleptocracy run amok? I don't think ordinary mortals just walk in to places like that, by pure coincidence. The U.S. had supported the anti-communist 'King of Zaire' for many years, before all the fighting started.

The other big question I had was who had been responsible for paying the costs of all those Hate Radio broadcasts, the ones that reportedly stirred up all the mass psychosis and violence. The chaos was not ex nihilo, it wasn't as if tens of thousands of people on the street and in the villages suddenly lost their minds, and became psychopathic killers overnight. The introductory overview of history, provided at the beginning of the book, and partly woven in to some of the personal accounts, seemed to be a little too sketchy. It may have also been too one-sided. Since all the Hutu's he interviewed seemed to have already gone way past the bend, beyond any hope of redemption, long before he spoke with them.

...I mean, in the end, the question is, "who was paying who, for what -- everywhere?" From the U.S. supporting the 'King of Zaire,' who supported the Hutu's, down to the village level. I just couldn't accept "ethnic hatred" as the sole motivating force for all the killing, without trying to follow some of the money trail, and figure how avarice and greed figured in to the mix -- and who may have profited from the aftermath.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Far from out of action; in Central African Republic too

Lord's Resistance Army rebels kill 10 in Central African Republic

More than 50 people kidnapped in latest attack on civilians by Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army

Tuesday 23 March 2010
...
LRA fighters have now abducted at least 120 civilians in the Central African Republic over the last six weeks, according to information collated from wire service reports. They were reported to have killed at least 19 people in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo this month.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/23/lords-resistance-army-rebels-attack

And an accusation (denied) that they're sheltering in Sudan:

Reports That LRA's Kony is Hiding in Darfur Alarm South Sudan

19 March 2010

Following reports that the leader of the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebels may be hiding in a Khartoum-controlled region of Darfur in Sudan, a researcher for the Washington-based Enough Project says it is still not clear where he is. There is concern that LRA forces are preparing to launch attacks in South Sudan during next month's national elections.

Last Saturday, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said intelligence reports indicated that the Lord's Resistance Army rebel leader, Joseph Kony, recently fled Central African Republic and had joined a group of LRA forces hiding in south Darfur.

A few days earlier, the anti-genocide group Enough Project reported that in late 2009, an LRA reconnaissance team went to Darfur to make contact with the Sudanese army in Kafia Kingi, near the border with Central African Republic. The group said that it has since learned that a contingent of LRA fighters is in Darfur under the protection of the Khartoum government.

The Sudanese government called the Enough Project report "outrageous" and denied Joseph Kony nor any other member of the Lord's Resistance Army were finding safe haven in Darfur.

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/east/Reports-That-LRAs-Kony-is-Hiding-in-Darfur-Alarm-South-Sudan-88652507.html

[Adsos Letter]

14. Thanks for the info, Muriel-Volestrangler; I had them confused with

Alice Lakwena's Holy Spirit Movement, and I was pretty sure she had been killed within the last couple of years.

[mojowork_n]

17. 2 factions from the same, original group.

Alice Lakwena was also from N. Uganda, and was one of the original founders of the group that became the Lord's Resistance Army. At least that's what the wiki page says.

[Posteritatis]

12. They took a few serious hits in the last year or so, but they're still very much around. (nt)

[McCamy Taylor]

7. How can it take 3 months for this news to reach the U.S.?

Does the press care about the Congo at all?

[hedgehog]

9. You'd have to be far far braver than I am to go to the Congo

it's a mess. In any case, if we want to find out what's really going on in the Congo, we need journalists in New York, Beijing, Moscow, Brussels, Paris and London. The money to finance the anarchy is coming from somewhere outside of Africa.

[Posteritatis]

11. It can take awhile for events in DRCongo to reach its own borders. (nt)

[Odin2005]

23. Central Africa is like a black hole, few go there and for good reason.

It's f***ing dangerous. I feel so bad for the people there. The area is so rich in resources yet so fucked up. :(

[sarcasmo]

15. self delete

[hack89]

18. The Great War of Africa has killed 5 million people since 1998

It is the deadliest conflict since WWII.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Congo_War

[Jkid]

19. What's preventing the international community from capturing the leader of the LRA?

[Posteritatis]

20. A combination of the international community's laws and the guy's not-getting-caught skills

The guy's been tangling with just about everyone in the region, from militias to governments to UN forces that actually do have artillery-and-airstrikes levels of jurisdiction at times, for a few decades now. If it was as simple as someone giving an order to capture him it would have been done awhile back. As it is Kony's got any number of international arrest warrants that were issued embarrassingly recently, but he's also pretty good at not being found when he doesn't want to be.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Odin2005]

24. "There are still some tribes who are coming down out of the trees." WOW, racist much?

:puke:

[Odin2005]

22. Africa descent into the dark ages continues.

Hopes were so high in the 60s. :(