"Christian" terrorists
I hear on Talk Radio, or read in some blogs and papers that all terrorist organizations around the world are Moslem. I am not sure where people get this because the good old IRA is about as “Christian” as it gets. But some folks, Irish expats and their supporters mostly, refuse to admit that fact. But the IRA is well known. Today I thought I would introduce you to another set of “Christian” terrorists. These guys make most other groups look like nice guys to have in the neighborhood. Today we will talk about THE LORD”S RESISTANCE ARMY.Or this LINK
This wonderful little collection of fanatics and loons has been fighting for the last 20 years in the northern part of Uganda and the Southern part of the Sudan. One of their claims is to want to establish a nation in Uganda based on the Ten Commandments. They take a VERY Old Testament view on how to go about doing this. They also want to “liberate” and “restore the honor” of the Acholi people. (this is ironic as they are the main victims of the LRA too)
The leader of the LRA is a man named Joseph Kony. (the guy with the dreds and the beret)
He is the nephew(or maybe the cousin) of Alice Lakwena, a spiritualist who lead a rebellion that was crushed in the 80’s. (She is quite a piece of work herself and is due a post of her own someday)
Kony’s main recruiting tactic is to abduct children and brutalize them until they feel like they can’t go home. He will often force a child to participate in the killing of his (or her) own parents and siblings. He then makes the LRA seem to be the only place the child will be safe. Of course the child will die if he or she leaves because Kony’s men will hunt the escapee down to be sure of it.
He seems to be very charismatic. Many of the current leaders in his group are children that he abducted 10-15 years ago. It is said that over the years the LRA has abducted more that 30,000 children. Most of whom die rapidly. The boys are used as suicide soldiers, often armed with little more than sticks or machete’s while the girls become wives to LRA leaders or sex slaves servicing the troops. The LRA is usually described as having about 1000 fighters. This gives you an idea of the casualties the abductees take in the fight.
It must be said though that for such a small group they are amazingly effective. They have driven more than a million people out of northern Uganda as refugees. They have destroyed the economy of the area. And they have evaded of defeated every attempt by the Ugandan army to destroy them. At first they were supported by the Government of Sudan. (or so Uganda says, the Sudan of course denies this) But recently the Sudan has been cooperating with Uganda in it’s attempts to defeat the LRA. To no avail of course. Kony and his slave army are still running free. As mentioned above the main victims of the LRA are the Acholi people that Kony claims to be fighting for. It is their villages he pillages, their children he kidnaps, them that he kills. And to make their situation worse, when the government comes to fight the LRA the Acholi get caught in the middle and slaughtered too. (it doesn’t help that the Acholi fought against the current leaders in the revolutionary wars that established the current government)
The LRA is one of the major destabilizing forces in the area and shows no signs of slowing down. Attempts to negotiate peace have failed due to Kony’s paranoia and the government’s lack of any real desire to for any peace but that of the grave with him. What do the first world nations due to help? Mostly wring their hands and moan about how bad things are. Various aid groups and religious leaders have set up peace talks to no avail. They also indirectly help Kony by threatening to cut off all aid if the government of Uganda puts too much money into military spending. So, as is typical, half assed interference does nothing except make the situation worse. Of course no one outside the area has any interest in actually, say sending troops to finish this nut case off. Interventions in Africa leave a bad taste in the mouth of Europe and the US now. (Except for France, but they only intervene in their old colonies, unilaterally, and without UN or international sanction I might add.)
Think how lucky you are not to be there.
This wonderful little collection of fanatics and loons has been fighting for the last 20 years in the northern part of Uganda and the Southern part of the Sudan. One of their claims is to want to establish a nation in Uganda based on the Ten Commandments. They take a VERY Old Testament view on how to go about doing this. They also want to “liberate” and “restore the honor” of the Acholi people. (this is ironic as they are the main victims of the LRA too)
The leader of the LRA is a man named Joseph Kony. (the guy with the dreds and the beret)
He is the nephew(or maybe the cousin) of Alice Lakwena, a spiritualist who lead a rebellion that was crushed in the 80’s. (She is quite a piece of work herself and is due a post of her own someday)
Kony’s main recruiting tactic is to abduct children and brutalize them until they feel like they can’t go home. He will often force a child to participate in the killing of his (or her) own parents and siblings. He then makes the LRA seem to be the only place the child will be safe. Of course the child will die if he or she leaves because Kony’s men will hunt the escapee down to be sure of it.
He seems to be very charismatic. Many of the current leaders in his group are children that he abducted 10-15 years ago. It is said that over the years the LRA has abducted more that 30,000 children. Most of whom die rapidly. The boys are used as suicide soldiers, often armed with little more than sticks or machete’s while the girls become wives to LRA leaders or sex slaves servicing the troops. The LRA is usually described as having about 1000 fighters. This gives you an idea of the casualties the abductees take in the fight.
It must be said though that for such a small group they are amazingly effective. They have driven more than a million people out of northern Uganda as refugees. They have destroyed the economy of the area. And they have evaded of defeated every attempt by the Ugandan army to destroy them. At first they were supported by the Government of Sudan. (or so Uganda says, the Sudan of course denies this) But recently the Sudan has been cooperating with Uganda in it’s attempts to defeat the LRA. To no avail of course. Kony and his slave army are still running free. As mentioned above the main victims of the LRA are the Acholi people that Kony claims to be fighting for. It is their villages he pillages, their children he kidnaps, them that he kills. And to make their situation worse, when the government comes to fight the LRA the Acholi get caught in the middle and slaughtered too. (it doesn’t help that the Acholi fought against the current leaders in the revolutionary wars that established the current government)
The LRA is one of the major destabilizing forces in the area and shows no signs of slowing down. Attempts to negotiate peace have failed due to Kony’s paranoia and the government’s lack of any real desire to for any peace but that of the grave with him. What do the first world nations due to help? Mostly wring their hands and moan about how bad things are. Various aid groups and religious leaders have set up peace talks to no avail. They also indirectly help Kony by threatening to cut off all aid if the government of Uganda puts too much money into military spending. So, as is typical, half assed interference does nothing except make the situation worse. Of course no one outside the area has any interest in actually, say sending troops to finish this nut case off. Interventions in Africa leave a bad taste in the mouth of Europe and the US now. (Except for France, but they only intervene in their old colonies, unilaterally, and without UN or international sanction I might add.)
Think how lucky you are not to be there.
posted by exMI | 20:05
4 Comments:
I am always fascinated to learn new things (though it is a little embarrassing to find out how much I don't know). Very interesting post.
It's not only that I learn of so much, but it also saddens me to know of so much I can do nothing about.
Thanks. I learned another completely new thing from your blog. I had no idea.
It's sad. Uganda had Idi Amin and now this crap. I heard it's such a gorgeous country too. Isn't Lake Victoria there?
Thank you for showing me something I did not know. I should have suspected that they existed, but I have never heard of this group.
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