US senator slams UPDF on Kony war.

Sunday Monitor
By Angelo Izama
11 January 2009

The chairman of the US Senate’s Subcommittee on Africa has criticised the ongoing three-nation military campaign against rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army saying it had failed to minimise civilian deaths.

A statement released by Senator Russ Feingold asked the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama to ensure that future efforts to neutralise the LRA “have the highest possible chance of success”.

Since the December 14, 2008 operation begun, LRA a reported civilian death toll attributed to alleged LRA massacres is approaching half a million people according to various aid agencies and the Ugandan military that is pursuing the rebels with cooperation from forces of the DR Congo and Sudanese People’s Liberation Army.

“Regional militaries have an important role to play in addressing the LRA threat, but I have long warned of the risks of rash and poorly planned military action and I am concerned the current offensive has been just that,” Senator Feingold said, the first high profile critic of the campaign so far.

According to the senator, the prosecutors of Operation Lightning Thunder have not done enough to save rebel abductees, have left civilians vulnerable to reprisal attacks by the rebels and as a consequence have fuelled regional instability. Although the Ugandan army is currently in pursuit of the rebels, the news has been dominated by the increasing death toll of civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.

“I am horrified by the reported massacres that rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army have carried out over recent weeks in Congo and Sudan, leaving hundreds of people dead, scores of women raped, children abducted and villages ransacked. I condemn these atrocities in the strongest terms” Senator Feingold said.

The senator said: “Regional militaries must make civilian protection a priority”.

The UPDF have already indicated that its strategy which was initially to pursue and eliminate the LRA had now incorporated civilian protection as well because of the activities of the rebel group including the above atrocities.

Senator Feingold now joins some politicians from northern Uganda who have expressed concern at the consequences of Operation Lightning Thunder, noting that LRA reprisal attacks could result and that abducted women and children in their ranks could inadvertently fall victim in attacks on the rebels.