1. Posted on Thursday 5 June 2008 - 09:34

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   Mforgham

   

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   Solomon Mforgham, AfricaNews reporter in Limbe, Cameroon

   Following a failed peace agreement between the Ugandan LRA Rebels led by Joseph Kony, The Democratic Republic of Congo has declared its intension to launch an attack on the LRA. Kony, the Leader of the Lord's Resistance Army has been hiding in eastern DR Congo through out the peace talks, fearing he would be arrested for war crimes.

   

   A final peace deal was reached in March after almost two years of talks, but Kony never showed up to sign it.
   
   The chiefs of defence forces in Uganda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as the UN Mission in Congo, Monuc, have been meeting in the Ugandan capital Kampala this week to find a military solution to the problem of the LRA.
   
   Reports say their decision to allow the Congolese army to pursue the rebels on their territory, signals the end to a long period of negotiation between the LRA and the Ugandan government.
   
   Ugandan army spokesman Major Paddy Ankunda was, however, still convinced that that was still room for peace talks if some the world can be assured that it can work out.
   
   "But in our view, there is room also for taking military action on this group, which has up to now persistently shown that they are not ready to sign the peace agreement," he is quoted to have said.
   
   Arrest warrants have been issued for Kony and his top commanders by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Kony is accused of numerous war crimes, including mutilating and abducting civilians and forcing thousands of children into combat.

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Reactions

1. Posted on Friday 06 June 2008 07:21

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   bhukabijumiro

   

   
   31 berichten
   Lid sinds April 2008

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   It is unfortuante that my brother Joseph Kony has chosen not to sign a peace deal with the Ugandan Government. To me his refusal is a decision to deny his Africanness and he has declared himself an enemy of the African peoples. He has been given many chances to cut a peace deal over the years. Several amnesties have been given him and his henchmen by the Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni but Kony and his cronies have always rejected or ignored these gestures.
   
   People like Kony must realize that modern Africa is tired of bloodshed and people that perpetuate it. As a boy growing up in my father's home at Katiko, Mityana/Mubende District of Uganda, my father taught us that racial, tribal and religious discriminatin was an evil practice. At home he welcomed peoples of different ethnic backgrounds. Many African families have members of different religions and they live and work together in harmony. Many of my friends do not come from my ethnic background and I have always treated them as brothers and sisters. The mothers of my many children do not come from my ethnic group or from home religion. I have never practiced tribalism, racism or religious intolerance.
   
   Last night I viewed a documentray entitled WAR DANCE, depicting the brutalities of the Lord's Resistence Army of Joseph Kony. I could not restrain my tears seeing those children of Uganda, Africa being treated the way Kony did. We have all heard reports of killing their parents, raping young girls, cutting off ears and other limbs. Surely, one wonders what kind of an evil ghost dwells inside his body; it certainly is difficult to tell! Kony has proved he does not belong to our brothers in Acholi. He is our enemy as African peoples, an enemy of the entire human race to which we all belong.
   
   My tears did not go for nothing. They were shed because of my brothers, sisters and children of Acholi who have been barbarically brutalized and murdered for over twenty years by Kony and his lieutenants. Africa is tired of the evils of tribalism, religious intolerance, ethnic-conflicts, differences in political ideologies and like evils that divide our people. This is why we heavily support the African Union and we cannot wait to see an African Union Government: which to us means one passport, one army, one currency, one congress or parliament, one cabinet and one President for all of Africa. Then we shall se how murderous dictators and crazy brothers like Kony can carry on their mad killing sprees and lootings. Then we shall see how leaders pocket tax payers moneys into foreign banks. Then we shall se how our leaders practice nepotism, tribalism or religious intolernce. How will they divide African on racial, religious, tribal or gender lines. Who will allow it anyway? How will any leader depend on a tribal or ethnic army again?
   
   This is the time for Africans to unite as one people irrespective of the thousands and thousands of different tribes or ethinic groups, dialects and languages as well as religions and skin colors. It is our political leaders who we must hold responsible for the delay in effecting an African Union Government.
   
   Lastly, if my brother Joseph Kony does not want peace and this is because he does not trust anyone because he knowns he does not trust his self, then let the International Criminal Court of Justice continue pursuing his arrest and subsequent trial. The countries of DR Congo, Uganda, Sudan -indeed all of Africa -have a duty to arrest him and hand him over to the International Court only because Kony has left them with no certain alternative. Whatever happens to him after that he should never blame anyone but his self.

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