Monday, November 29, 2010

The LRA excuse to secure Southern Sudanese oil

Posted by Ann Garrison at 4:33 PM
On Wednesday, November 24th, the Obama White House went to Congress with its plan to disarm the LRA militia that has been fighting the Ugandan government for the past 23 years, and issued a statement saying, “The development of the strategy, relied on the significant involvement of the Department of State, the Department of Defence, the US Agency for International Development and the Intelligence Community."  (As reported in Uganda's government newspaper, the New Vision, below.)

The U.S. is thus ignoring the 10.01.2010 UN report documenting Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's army's war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal civilian massacres in neighboring Congo, but,  using the usual LRA excuse to justify sending Museveni's army into Southern Sudan and the Central African Republic.  Ugandan American Black Star News Editor Milton Allimadi says they're really going in, as U.S. proxies, to secure southern Sudanese oil reserves, as they've already gone into northeastern Congo, with the LRA excuse, to secure the estimated $30 billion worth of oil reserves on the Uganda/Congo border, in Lake Albert.

The most "progressive" Democratic Senators in D.C. co-sponsored Senator Feingold's deceitful bill, the LRA Disarmament Act, to make way for this, including Senator Barbara Boxer, D-CA, Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, Senator Amy Klobuchar, D-MN, and Senator Al Franken, D-MN.  Even Vermont's Independent Bernie Sanders signed on as a co-sponsor.   (See list of co-sponsors after The New Vision report.)


USA to disarm Joseph Kony rebels
Thursday, 25th November, 2010




By Barbara Among
and agencies


The Government has welcomed the plan by the US to disarm the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, James Mugume, the foreign affairs permanent secretary has said.


US president Barack Obama on Wednesday presented Congress with a plan to disarm the LRA. The rebels currently operate in a remote area between the DR Congo and Central African Republic.


The strategy responds to a law Obama proposed and Congress passed six months ago to defuse the spiraling bloodshed in central Africa, protect civilians and bring LRA leaders to justice.


The army spokesman, Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye, yesterday said the plan would heal the victims and also enhance the capacity of the UPDF in dealing with the LRA.


The US supported Uganda in the December 2008 operation, Lighting Thunder, in which several LRA rebels were killed and their bases in Garamba forest in eastern DR Congo destroyed, but failed to capture the top leaders.


The plan’s four objectives also include promoting “the defection, disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration of remaining LRA fighters; and... the increase and continuation of relief to affected communities”.


“The development of the strategy,” the White House said in a statement, “relied on the significant involvement of the Department of State, the Department of Defence, the US Agency for International Development and the Intelligence Community. 

(See also Samar Al-Bulushi writing in Black Star earlier this year, Peace in Uganda via Bullets and Bombs.)


Senator Russ Feingold's bill, which this strategy will enact:


S.1067 - Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009   
A bill to support stabilization and lasting peace in northern Uganda and areas affected by the Lord's Resistance Army through development of a regional strategy to support multilateral efforts to successfully protect civilians and eliminate the threat posed by the Lord's Resistance Army and to authorize funds for humanitarian relief and reconstruction, reconciliation, and transitional justice, and for other purposes. view all titles (6)

Co-sponsors:


Sponsor

Senator
Russell Feingold
D-WI

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