The LRA is accused of murdering, kidnapping and rape of thousands of Central African States (French)

Decided to U.S. President Barack Obama send 100 U.S. troops to central Africa to provide advice to the forces fighting the elements of the LRA, and accused of humanitarian abuses.

This came in a letter to Congress saying that those forces will not participate in the fighting directly only when necessary for self-defense, asserting that its work will be limited to providing advice to the forces that work to get rid of LRA leader Joseph Kony and other leaders in this group.

Obama said in his letter that his troops to be sent first to Uganda is also spreading in southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic to promote the interests of U.S. national security and foreign policy.

He added that the groups that belong to the Lord’s Resistance Army have killed and raped and kidnapped hundreds of thousands of men, women and children in these countries, where tens of thousands during two decades, indicating that continues to commit “atrocities” in that area have an impact on regional security.

He stressed that the support provided by U.S. forces will enhance efforts against the LRA, noting that despite the combat readiness of U.S. forces, they will provide only the information, advice and assistance to the forces of participating countries, and will not clash with the forces of the LRA only to the need for self-defense.
 

Source: Agencies

LRA rebel leader Joseph Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court

Although combat-equipped, the troops would be providing information and advice “to partner nation forces”, Mr Obama wrote in a letter to US Congress.

A small group is already in Uganda, and the troops could later be deployed in other central African nations.

The LRA is blamed for mass murder, rape and kidnapping in the region.

‘Kill or capture’

“I have authorised a small number of combat-equipped US forces to deploy to central Africa to provide assistance to regional forces that are working toward the removal of (LRA leader) Joseph Kony from the battlefield,” Mr Obama wrote on Friday.

But he stressed that “although the US forces are combat-equipped… they will not themselves engage LRA forces unless necessary for self-defence”.

Mr Obama did not provide any details about the deployment duration, but a US military spokesman later told the BBC that the “forces are prepared to stay as long as necessary to enable regional security forces to carry on independently”.

The force will use hi-tech equipment to assist in what analysts say is a “kill or capture” policy, the BBC’s Marcus George in Washington reports.

The deployment follows recent US legislation to help disarm the LRA and bring its leader to justice. The theory is, our correspondent adds, that without Joseph Kony, the movement will collapse from within.

Senator John McCain said Central Africa would be more stable if the threat of the LRA “under the sadistic leadership of Joseph Kony,” would be “diminished”.

But Mr McCain, a long-serving senator, former veteran and Mr Obama’s opponent in the 2008 presidential election, expressed “regret” that the president did not consult with Congress on the decision to sent troops to Uganda.

“I remember how past military deployments intended to further worthy humanitarian goals, whether it was peace-keeping operations in Lebanon or Somalia, resulted in tragedies that we never intended or expected,” Mr McCain said in a statement.

Child soldiers

At least 30,000 people died as the LRA spread terror in northern Uganda for more than 20 years, displacing some two million people.

It is notorious for kidnapping children, forcing the boys to become fighters and using girls as sex slaves.

The group is listed by the US as a terrorist organisation and now operates mainly in neighbouring countries such as Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Central Africa Republic.

Joseph Kony and his close aides have been wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) since 2005.

He refused to sign a peace deal with the Ugandan government in 2008 when it could not guarantee the withdrawal of the ICC arrest warrants.

The children are kept, mostly the young girls are treated as sex slaves and passed around the camps until they have no more use for them and then are ultimately killed or sold to the sex trade. How any body could treat another human being like this is beyond me. They have more prospects for the young males, they use these kids as soldiers for the simple reason, if they come under attack it would be a lot harder for the opposing army to shoot a child than it would be to shoot a grown up. These tactics are know as boy soldier tactics. The boy soldiers have nothing left to live for but they value their lives all the same so they fight. Most of them just get use to the idea because they know no better, as time grows on they feel they have no alternative but to continue on with the desperate struggle.

The mind of a child is very persuasive, they can adapt to things rapidly and if their parents are not around to guide them, they follow orders by their kidnappers. With no one to tell them the difference. In most cases when abduction occurs usually friends in the village get taken together, leaving the children to form their own families within the group. This is exactly what the kidnappers would plan for because of this fact they would have the loyalty straight away to look after each other unconditionally. The rebels teach the boy soldiers to become combatants train them up on survival and loyalty to their commanders, before giving them weapons. While this training is going on the boys learn that its a lot easier to do what they’re told to do and get rewarded, with shelter and food, and the basic essentials that they once took for granted. And if followed the rebels could do again. Because they are so young this doesn’t take them long to understand. What influences them the most is seeing first hand what happens them if they don’t.

The rule of the rebel organization’s, in all of these areas are simple, if you try and run you will be shot, if you don’t follow orders you will be shot, otherwise you can do as you please. The rebels throw everything at them such as alcohol, if they want to drive the truck they can drive the truck, they want to fire the guns they can fire the guns. After a couple of months pass by the rebels have won because what the boys think, is that it is not so bad here, what young boy wouldn’t want to fire a gun or drive a truck or drink etc.

When the memory of their ordeal surpasses, and the families and villages that have been destroyed are just fading deeper in their minds because they have so much to do and learn. This is where the rebels have established thrust with their new recruits and they know that the boy soldiers are ready for battle Gorilla style. Gorilla style combat is more than just facing your opponent and giving it your all, its dirty tactics such as sneaking kids behind enemy lines armed to create a distraction for other soldiers to launch a main attack. The rebels see these kids as expendable they don’t care if they live or die. In any other country and in fact these countries hosting these travesties to join up to the military you either have to sign up or in some countries it is compulsory of a coming of age. Not like the rebels recruits who could be as young as six years old and standing in battle with an AK47 in hand.

Why do these rebels do this, why do they take young kids and subject them to such slaughter, this is because of their illegal drug smuggling, diamond mining, illegal logging empires, arms dealing and further abductions. Basically anything that can generate cash illegally, these boy soldiers will be involved in. I have read articles from all over the world people sharing their opinions and not one could say that this was an okay thing to do. So what drives the rebels to do this, most of the rebels themselves have been a boy soldier in their past and have learned through ignorance, that behaving like this would make them more money than they could imagine and simply converted. Why in Africa would you want billions of dollars and how much is enough money. The most of the money goes into transporting drugs and the buying up of weapons to beat and try and cripple the governments that form in their native countries.

Some places in Africa the authorities wont try and stop the rebels because they are so powerful leaving the area they control to there own destruction. The last people to find out about where these rebels operate are the people in the villages which these children are being snatched from. The most powerful of them operate around the Congo Basin. Giving them the shelter of the jungle to hide in, transport arms and drugs or diamonds across the continent through the trees.

In Uganda 200 million people have been forced to leave their villages and towns because of the LRA the Lord’s Resistance Army, went rampaging through the villages raping and destroying the live of thousands, taking what they want and sending a clear message to the Ugandan Army that they are not a force to be reckoned with. When they would destroy a town or village people would run in fear they couldn’t kill everybody but the ones they could they did. And they burned the village to the ground so that the people that did escape couldn’t return there. Many fathers would come back in desperate search for their sons or daughters and what happens to them is not for the feint hearted. I saw a video doing research of what happens these men if they are spotted returning, I’ll just say this if you don’t know already, you don’t want to know.

I’ve heard of fathers tracking down their son’s following the rebels to their camp and trying to take back their child. There are videos of what happens to them too, which are far less pretty than the other ones I’ve seen. These videos would be sent to the Ugandan Army to show them what happens to the people that cross them. Militaries, religious leaders and other organizations in established surrounding areas have tried to lend a hand to combat the problem of the rebels, but over the past twenty years have failed simply because of them using children as shields and the trees to camouflage their fractions. A simple solution would be just to go in with a global combat force and wipe them all out once and for good. This hasn’t been done yet because, could you kill a small child who is there against their will and been brainwashed ? As much as I want to see an end to this I know I couldn’t do it, and to do it you would only be lowering yourself to their standards.

This is how nothing can be done about the rebels, they have had this plan in place for over 100 years and it is still holding up strong for them with no solution in sight. It is not just in Uganda where this is going on it is happening all over Africa the numbers are just much higher in the Congo region. In other parts of Africa children are being snatched and sold or traded to the LRA for weapons and drugs or girls for their sex trade industry. These people are branches of the LRA just in it for the profit and profit only. These branches stretch across the globe operating in the US, Europe and other parts of the world to other cartels such as the Columbians and the other rebels operating out of the Amazon.

The crime ring is interwoven throughout the globe, If you buy drugs such as cocaine, heroin, ecstasy or speed or such drug that has to be manufactured, it could even be off your best friend, you are funding terrorism and these fractions of the LRA and the LRA itself or the Columbians. It would be naive of us to think that they don’t do business with each other in one form or another, if you take our world for instance we do business legitimately between countries be it through banks or businesses to generate and maximise our profits. The crime ring operates much the same and as we have strong forces armed to the teeth to protect us, the LAF use children they have abducted to hide behind. People would call them cowards and you can put my name on that list, the LAF see this as just a word and laugh at the rest of the world as they count up their cash and continue to do business as normal.

If someone may have an answer to this solution could you let the authorities or some website know that support this issue because it has being going on for too long, as we sit in the comfort of our homes we would have to remember that children are being abducted this very second and turned into a shield for terrorism. I am deeply concerned about this horrible waste of life and if I even knew where to begin to solve it I would do everything I could to prevent this happening.