While U.S.  corporations – cellphone, video game, and computer manufacturers in particular – continue to profit from Congo’s riches, more than 5 million Congolese people have died due to resource-related conflicts in the last decade alone – with neighboring countries Uganda and Rwanda playing a major role in the conflict.

Congolese student activist and spokesperson for Friends of the Congo Kambale Musavuli offers real solutions to Congo’s crisis and explains why the “conflict minerals” approach  misses the mark and why Western nations like the United States must change course in order to effectively resolve Congo’s long-running conflicts.

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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.

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The military has long been used in Northern Uganda as the “strong arm” of the state. In this case, a Brigadier Charles Otema has been placed as the head of military operations in Gulu, Uganda. He commands the Uganda People’s Defense Forces’ 4th Division based there.

Brig. Otema is also at the center of a land dispute. Otema is accused of wrongfully obtaining land — commonly called “landgrabbing” by locals, in Latooro County.

It has been reported that 100 families are now landless because of Otema’s dealings. Acholi MP Simon Oyet has spoken out in support of the people who have been unceremoniously deprived of their ancestral land. (more…)

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was long hailed internationally as  a star among “a new breed of African leaders” lauded for “democratic” rule and good governance.

Maintaining this image has been one of the tasks of the US-based Whitaker Group and UK-based PR agency Hilton and Knowlton.

But under President Museveni’s guidance, horrific war crimes have been committed in the Great Lakes region, and continuing human rights violations in Uganda are slowly claiming the lives of millions.

Sadly, the international community seems to pick and choose which leaders it will call dictators, and which countries it will support, no matter the suffering of a particular nation’s people.

Museveni is preparing for his 2011 presidential campaign, and says he’ll retire before the age of 75.

*Related Post: Who is Yoweri Museveni?

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In the wake of what could be the collapse of recent peace talks between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government, discussion has focused on the peace talks, the way forward and the millions of displaced Ugandans who were left unprotected by their government.

The story of forcible displacement has been eclipsed by the atrocities of the LRA, but it is the people in the government-created death camps which must remain the focus. Conditions of imposed poverty and ill health created a death toll far higher than the LRA’s, making the government of Uganda’s negligence the number one cause of loss of life.

Debating the issue on Press TV, featured gues Milton Allimadi sought to dispel the prevailing myths surrounding the LRA-UPDF war.

MILTON ALLIMADI:

“…the Ugandan military has had no interest in defeating the Lord’s Resistance Army. The Lord’s Resistance Army is the other side of the same coin as the Ugandan militaristic government…”