A coalition of nearly 40 human rights groups called on the
U.S. to step up efforts to fight against a brutal Ugandan-led rebel
group that has intensified its attacks in central Africa, especially in
Congo's volatile northeast.
In a statement late Monday, the
groups, which include New York-based Human Rights Watch, said a special
envoy should be appointed for the African Great Lakes region.
That
envoy, they said, should have a mandate that extends to areas where the
Lord's Resistance Army is most active, "to support stronger United
Nations peacekeeping and to intensify efforts to arrest" LRA leaders
being sought by the International Criminal Court.
"The governments
of Congo, the Central African Republic, and Southern Sudan _ countries
where the group is currently active _ have not shown sufficient
capability or resolve to protect civilians adequately from LRA abuses,"
the human rights and humanitarian groups said in a statement.
Last
May, President Barack Obama's administration signed into law an act
that commits the U.S. to help civilians threatened by the LRA.
"Many
of us believed that President Obama's commitment to addressing the LRA
threat would finally help stop our suffering," said Abbe Benoit Kinalegu
of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission in Dungu. "Yet one year
later, we continue to live in fear as the LRA's attacks have shown no
signs of decreasing."
The LRA, which originated in Uganda, is
known for vicious attacks against civilians, for abducting and forcing
children to become members of the group and for brutally torturing
others. Its leader, Joseph Kony, is wanted by the International Criminal
Court. Two other leaders, Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen, are also
wanted under ICC arrest warrants issued in July 2005 for war crimes and
crimes against humanity committed in northern Uganda.
Since 2008,
the LRA has killed nearly 2,400 civilians and abducted about 3,400
others, according to Human Rights Watch and U.N. documentation. LRA
attacks continue in northern Congo, eastern Central African Republic and
in Southern Sudan, the rights group said.
Nearly 120 attacks were
carried out in the first four months of 2011, killing 81 civilians,
Human Rights Watch said in its report, also released Monday. Of those
attacks, 97 were carried out in Congo.
Human Rights Watch said
more than 38,000 Congolese civilians were displaced in 2011 because of
LRA attacks, adding to the hundreds of thousands that have been
displaced over several years.
The coalition of human rights groups
said that the U.S. government should also use its "diplomatic influence
with other (U.N.) Security Council members and U.N. member states, to
ensure a more effective peacekeeping presence in the LRA-affected
regions."
The groups also said U.N. peacekeepers are too few in
number and "have little capacity or will" to protect civilians beyond
their own bases.
"More peacekeepers are urgently needed in these
areas to effectively protect civilians at risk of LRA attacks," said
Anneke Van Woudenberg, a senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch.
The
groups said fewer than 1,000 U.N. peacekeeping troops are deployed to
northern Congo's Haut Uele district where Dungu is located, and there
are no peacekeepers in the neighboring Bas Uele district, "even though
some of the worst recent LRA atrocities have occurred there and Kony,
the LRA leader, is believed to have been there recently."
The groups also pinned some responsibility for atrocities on Congo's army.
"Congolese
army soldiers have also been responsible for serious abuses against the
civilians they are charged with protecting, including killing, rape,
torture and arbitrary arrest," the groups said.
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