US joins Uganda for "final battle" against vicious LRA

By Henry Wasswa Jan 6, 2012, 2:06 GMT

Kampala - Ugandan and US military officials are confident the end is nigh for the brutal Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a group that has been avoiding head-on battles for over a quarter of a century while leaving carnage in its wake.

The two countries have teamed up to tackle the LRA, a rebel movement that originated in Uganda during the country's civil war in the 1980s.

After suffering defeats in Uganda in recent years, remaining LRA forces have moved into the poor and often dysfunctional Central African Republic (CAR), still carrying out attacks that often employ a scorched earth policy, burning villages to the ground after killing and pillaging.

'We are getting into the final battle against the LRA and increasing our airborne capability with the help of our American friends. (Leader Joseph) Kony will be killed soon,' Uganda's army spokesman Colonel Felix Kulayigye told dpa.

Some analysts, however, are sceptical of the joint military operation and warn that the LRA, even in its weakened state, may be organized enough to survive the death of Kony.

Since the mid 1980s, the rebels have been killing, mutilating, raping and abducting thousands of people - sometimes in churches - in northern Uganda, the area now called South Sudan and north-east Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Up to 2 million people were displaced by the group as it went on rampages across eastern and central Africa, forcibly recruiting tens of thousands of children to fight for Kony and his bizarre ideology that mixes fanatical, messianic Christianity with obscure African mysticism.

The recruited boys were made to fight while the young girls were used as sex slaves by the militants.

For a while, Kony stated he wanted to impose the biblical Ten Commandments on Uganda. The LRA leader, who referred to himself as god's spokesman, would retreat to caves, supposedly to consult the Holy Spirit and receive guidance.

His child soldiers were told to make a cross on their chest using oil, and that this would protect them from hails of enemy bullets.

Along with four other LRA officials, Kony has been wanted since 2005 by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. The US declared the LRA a terrorist group.

US troops are now training Ugandan forces in modern airborne war technology and have set up 'forward bases' in Nzara and Obbo in the CAR, where the LRA leader is hiding, Kulayigye said.

'In the past, we have been hampered with movement and skills in the delivery of supplies because the area is too large and the rebels have split up into groups of 10 to 20, making it difficult to engage them,' the Ugandan military spokesman said.

'Now we will be able to reach whatever area, dropping supplies using not only helicopters but any other aircraft,' Kulayigye said, but added that Washington is not providing planes to the Ugandan forces.

The US government in October announced that it was sending 100 soldiers to help Uganda's military fight the LRA. President Barack Obama said these forces would focus on training the Ugandans and were only sanctioned to open fire in self-defence.

'Uganda has been very tenacious and we all need to be able to support them because it is a pretty very big undertaking. I see that they will win in a short time,' said Margaret Woodward, the commander of the US Air Forces in Africa, during a recent visit.

Despite assurances from the US military about victory, Ugandan observers, wary of predictions that the vicious group's demise is imminent, question the certainty.

'The LRA may not be defeated easily due to other dynamics like an organized leadership which they have and which can outlive Kony once he is killed. They can regroup and continue the war,' said Mwambtsya Ndebesa, a historian.

Another academic, political science professor Sabiiti Makara told dpa that the US has its own interests at heart, as it seeks to ensure that Sudan cannot use the LRA to destabilize the newly independent South Sudan, a country Washington wants to keep as a regional ally.

'The move is strategic since the LRA has been classified as a terrorist organization which may link up with the government in Khartoum to fight South Sudan. The Americans will struggle to accomplish that,' he said.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986,has battled the LRA since before he took the high office and has repeatedly accused Khartoum of aiding it.

Ugandan officials believe there are about 250 core LRA fighters holding out in CAR.

Read more about US

Read more about Uganda