by Hellen Abak

The military offensive launched by Uganda, supposedly with the support of Congolese and Sudanese forces against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Garamba Park, Democratic Republic of Congo in recent days (December 14, 2008) has potential of further complicating and adding to the devastating genocide in the Congo.

It may also spill into northern Uganda, where a protracted, orchestrated genocide by President Yoweri Museveni’s government has stalked Acholiland—without  the world’s intervention—for over two decades and counting.

Of greatest concern are the potential casualties of Uganda’s bombs: captive women, children, youth and Congolese civilians caught in the crossfire of UPDF’s “Operation Lightning Thunder.”

Yet another war is unneeded in a region plagued by death. A second casualty is the relative peace that has prevailed in northern Uganda since the start of peace talks in 2006. The dissolving peace, negated by the attacks on the LRA, signals a dreaded return to insecurity.

Many fear that the military action will result in full-scale resumption of the war.

Two months ago, Uganda was awarded a seat on the UN Security Council. Ironically, Uganda’s successful run for the seat was partly due to international acclaim for its participation in the Juba peace negotiations. The events of the last few days have shattered any myths that the Ugandan government is pro-peace.

While the Garamba strikes have been considered a success by the Ugandan government, it is unclear what the consequences will be, especially since it has been reported that the strikes decimated empty camps. The International Crisis Group’s analysis of the attacks suggest that the attack “is unlikely to have done much more than kill women and children and make the peace process even more difficult.”

Also suggesting that donors must: “… keep Kampala to its word and not, as Washington has tended to do, take the increasingly undemocratic Museveni at face value because of his anti-terrorism stance.” Forcing the LRA to fend for itself, without even basic food supplies invites the use of the abhorrent survival tactics it has become notorious for.

Will the UPDF and its allies be able to spread its forces widely enough to prevent excessive collateral casualties among Congolese citizens as they pursue the LRA? Mozambican President Joachim Chissano, (who has recommended continuing military action) and the Ugandan government have claimed that the strikes against the LRA are meant to drive its leader Joseph Kony to the negotiating table, but the overwhelming use of force (four helicopter gunships, Mig23 fighter jets) tells a different tale. Had the LRA camps been occupied, there would have been massive loss of life, conceivably leaving no-one left alive to return to the peace talks—hardly a carrot-and-stick measure.

Uganda’s recent conduct may not be quite as shocking if one looks to a December 2005 ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which found Uganda liable for war crimes, levying a $10 billion dollar fine. The East African reports: “In its ruling on December 19, the ICJ said Uganda violated the principle of non-use of force in international relations and the principle of non-intervention when it occupied parts of Congo and supported Congolese rebel groups. The court also found that  Uganda’s armed forces, “committed acts of killing, torture and other forms of inhumane treatment on the Congolese civilian population, destroyed villages and civilian buildings, failed to distinguish between civilian and military targets and to protect the civilian population in fighting with other combatants as well as training child soldiers.”

It is important to note that Uganda’s occupation of eastern Congo along with Rwanda in 1998—which has now resulted in at least 6 million deaths—was initially sold to the world as a campaign to neutralize the LRA, who had established sanctuary there. Instead, Uganda’s occupation of eastern Congo became an opportunity for unrestrained looting of the Congo’s mineral resources. State-sponsored terrorism, as in the case of Uganda, must not be condoned.

The pattern of genocide and destruction that has followed Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has gone unchecked, largely due to the support of the West. In particular, the United States and Britain have allowed Museveni to literally get away with murder. Multi-national interests have converged in the Congo to exploit its natural and mineral resources. Essentially fighting for access to Congo’s vast wealth, each militia, backed by its sponsor-nation claims its territory.

The re-entry of Uganda into the Congo may be a causative rather than prescriptive factor. Enough blood has been spilled in the Congo.

Uganda media reports claim acting United Nations liaison in the peace talks Joaquim Chissano, the UN peace keeping force in the DRC (MUNOC) and Riek Machar, the South Sudan’s vice president and erstwhile mediator in the talks, have all formed an alliance with Museveni in Uganda’s military operation against the LRA. If these reports are true—the Uganda government is superb in media spin—then it would mean that the UN and individuals, all supposed to be neutral players, have lost all credibility, just as has the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has declined to investigate the Ugandan government’s war crimes and atrocities committed in the LRA-UPDF war.

The leadership of the UN, United States and Britain especially, must withdraw support for the offensive and call upon President Yoweri Museveni to:

1. Resume resolution of the conflict through peaceful means and return to the negotiating table.

2. Honor the provisions of the Juba Peace agreement, which have been signed thus far.

3. Recall Ugandan troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

4. Appeal to the LRA that in spite of the strikes, the LRA’s response should not be to resume attacks on the civilian population.

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