Reward Offered for Information on Kony By REUTERS, in New York Times 3 April 2013
Mr. Kony, who has been accused of terrorizing northern Uganda for 20 years and was ejected from the country along with his rebel group in 2005, is wanted by the International Criminal Court. The warlord and a few hundred followers are now believed to roam the remote jungle straddling the borders of South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. His guerrillas are accused of abducting children to use as fighters and sex slaves, and of hacking off victims’ limbs as a method of intimidation and revenge. The State Department said that Mr. Kony, along with aides identified as Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen, had been cited under the department’s newly expanded War Crimes Rewards Program. Under the program, the State Department offers rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest, transfer or conviction of such fugitives.
Uganda vows to withdraw peacekeepers over UN's Congo claims
The Guardian, Reuters in Kampala 2 November 2012
Security minister says troops will pull out of regional hotspots, after UN accused Uganda of supporting Congolese rebels Uganda has said it will withdraw its forces from military operations in regional hotspots including Somalia in response to UN allegations that it is supporting Congolese rebels. The security minister, Wilson Mukasa, described the decision as "irreversible" and said another cabinet minister was travelling to New York to explain Uganda's position. In a report leaked last month, a UN panel of experts accused Uganda and Rwanda of supporting the so-called M23 rebel group commanded by Bosco Ntaganda, a warlord indicted by the international criminal court. (read more)
African Union troops from regional armies start hunt for warlord Kony, taking over from Uganda
The Washington Post, Associated Press 18 September, 2012
KAMPALA, Uganda — A military official says Ugandan troops tracking infamous rebel leader Joseph Kony have handed over command of the operation to African Union troops from Uganda, South Sudan and the Central African Republic. The ceremony took place Tuesday in the South Sudanese town of Nzara, said Ugandan Maj. Alex Ahabyona, an intelligence officer for the Kony operation. (read more)
Genocide Watch
Uganda- Country Profile
August 1, 2012
The Republic of Uganda is divided along ethnic and linguistic lines with Bantu groups occupying the southeast region and the Acholi-Nilotic groups in the North. The groups are mirrored in other countries to the south, where Hutu/Bantus and Tutsi/Nilotics have had many conflicts. In Uganda, this ethnic divide has resulted in two recent genocides.
In 1962 Uganda gained its independence from the British and joined the British Commonwealth. Following independence, a coalition government was formed, comprised of the Uganda People's Congress (UPC), led by Milton Obote, who became Prime Minister and Kabaka Yekka, a Bagandan party led by the Kabaka Edward Muteesa II as President. In 1966 the coalition government fell apart resulting in a new constitution and the appointment of Milton Obote as President without an official election.
In 1971 Obote was overthrown in a military coup led by his Army chief of staff, Idi Amin Dada. Amin was a bloodthirsty dictator who ordered the deaths of between 100,000 and 300,000 people during his eight-year rule. He targeted all his political enemies and the Acholi and Langi groups. His reign of terror came to an end in 1979 when Uganda invaded Tanzania, and Tanzania responded by overthrowing Amin.
After a one-year interim, December 1980 elections returned Milton Obote to power as President. Obote began another genocide against the Baganda people, and laid waste to the Luwero Triangle north of Kampala. Yuweri Museveni’s National Resistance Army began its campaign to take over Uganda, and during the civil war, an estimated 300,000 more Ugandans lost their lives. Obote was overthrown in July 1985 by Acholi troops, and fled into exile in Zambia.
In 1986, Yoweri Museveni, leader of the National Resistance Army (NRA), came to power. He has ruled Uganda for 26 years, managing to create allies in the West because he has ended most human rights violations, permitted a free press, and reformed the economy according to the standards of the IMF. However, Museveni’s government has shaky support from his people due a weak economy, rigged elections, corruption and accusations of misuse of the military.
Since 1990, Museveni has been fighting a civil war against the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony, an Acholi who believes he is the spokesperson of God, but orders children to murder their own parents. The LRA is guilty of brutal crimes against humanity, mass murder, displacement of millions of people, recruiting child soldiers, child sex slavery and other crimes. Kony was indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2005 for Crimes Against Humanity, but has eluded capture by moving to the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and South Sudan, where his troops sometimes massacre entire villages. He is now being hunted by Ugandan Special Forces trained by US Special Forces.
Kony has been supported by the government of another ICC indicted war criminal, Omar al-Bashir of Sudan. Kony’s small army has launched surprise attacks on villages, and kidnapped, mutilated, enslaved and terrorized children, forcing them to join his army. The LRA has spread its operations to surrounding countries, bringing their brutality with them. A few examples of the LRA’s atrocities are:
1995- The LRA launches an attack in Atiak resulting in mass atrocities on villagers killing and abducting hundreds of people.
1996 - LRA kidnaps 139 schoolgirls and makes them sex slaves.
1997- LRA raids the town of Lamwo, killing over 400 civilians and displacing about 100,000 others.
2002- The Ugada People's Defense Force (UPDF) launches a massive military attack against LRA bases in southern Sudan. The LRA responds by attacking refugee camps in northern Uganda and the Eastern Equitoria in southern Sudan, slaughtering hundreds of civilians.
2004- The UPDF in conjunction with the Carter Center and thePope John Paul II attempt mediation efforts with the LRA. The LRA responds by attacking the Barlonyo IDP camp, killing over 300 people and abducting many others.
2005- Kony is indicted by the International Criminal Court for Crimes Against Humanity.
2006- UNICEF releases data estimating that the LRA has abducted at least 25,000 children since the conflict began. The UN attempts a covert operation to capture Kony, resulting in the deaths of 23 LRA rebels. By 2012, UN estimates are that Joseph Kony and the LRA have kidnapped and recruited 60,000 to 100,000 child soldiers into their army and displaced approximately 2 million people in central Africa.
2008- Ugandan government forces and troops from DR Congo and South Sudan launched aerial attacks and raids on the LRA, destroying their camp in Garamba. In the same year the US launched Operation Lightning Thunder to capture or kill Kony, which resulted in LRA retaliation, killing and abducting over 1,000 people in Congo and South Sudan.
2010- LRA kills over 1,600 Congolese civilians and abducts more than 2,500. President Barack Obama signs the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Ugands Recovery Act in May 2010. This act includes provisions to send 100 US military advisors to train Ugandan commandos to hunt down Kony in South Sudan, Central African Republic, and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
2012- Uganda establishes a four-nation African Union military force (a brigade of 5,000, including contingents from the DR Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan) to hunt down Kony and the remnants of the LRA.
An American NGO, Invisible Children, launches a Youtube video, Kony 2012, which goes viral and is watched by millions of people. However, the video was disseminated months after the US had already sent 100 Special Forces to train Ugandan Special Forces to hunt down and capture or kill Kony.
Genocide Watch does not currently consider Uganda to be a Country at Risk of Genocide, but fully supports the efforts to capture and try Joseph Kony and LRA leaders.
Please supply further information to Uganda@genocidewatch.org
The leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Kony, far left, met with Jan Egeland of the United Nations (Pool photo by Stuart Price).
October 23, 2011
"Activists in Uganda have been inspired by the Arab Spring to organise strikes in the country. However, protests over the last six months, which have been fuelled by rising costs and political corruption, have often been put down brutally by police and the army."
Genocide Watch is the Coordinator of the International Alliance to End Genocide P.O. Box 809, Washington, D.C. 20044 USA. Phone: 1-202-643-1405 E-mail:communications@genocidewatch.org
