Protection

This week’s all-new episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit once again takes on an issue we at Enough are passionate about: ending the epidemic of violence against women in eastern Congo.

In the second half, the episode “Witness” highlights the searing story of a young Congolese woman who escaped the violence in eastern Congo and now lives in the United States. Although she is many thousands of miles away from her home, a turn of events forces her to confront her own experience with rape in Congo. Her story highlights the fact that the trade in conflict minerals from Congo is helping perpetuate the violence, and as consumers, we bear responsibility for helping to end the sordid trade so that Congo’s people can benefit from their country’s resource wealth.

In the gripping, highly fictionalized style that regular followers of SVU love, scriptwriters (with some input from Enough) incorporated this tragic and underreported theme into a story that will reach hundreds of thousands of viewers in the United States on Wednesday night. Please tune in at 10/9c. After watching this account of the character’s experience, learn about the work being done daily to empower the real women of Congo and reform the conflict minerals trade.

Please help spread the word about Wednesday night’s episode and the resources available that explain the real-life dimension of the tragedy unfolding right now in eastern Congo. On Twitter and Facebook, please post:

Law&Order #SVU this Wed takes on war over conflict minerals in #Congo. Learn about real-life drama: http://bit.ly/9zraNG

Technorati Tags: Advocacy Conflict Minerals Eastern Congo Prevention Protection Sexual Violence Violence Against Women

The news that Enough broke yesterday of a contingent of the Lord Resistance Army moving into Darfur generated considerable interest from a variety of regional actors.

Some of the reactions, while predictable, were interesting for simply being over the top. An LRA spokesman in Nairobi said the LRA “would like to dismiss this baseless report with all the contempt it deserves” – which makes one wonder why the spokesman can't muster a bit of contempt for his own organization’s long track record of committing war crimes. Colonel Michael Anywar and Justine Labeja, representatives of the LRA’s political wing in the Kenyan capital, claimed that the Sudanese government stopped supporting the LRA in 2002. Both LRA officials quoted from Nairobi participated in the most recent round of peace talks in 2006, but it is unclear how closely they are linked to the fighters in the field.

The Ugandan president weighed in on the news today in a press conference in Kampala. He said he received reports from the Ugandan army a month ago saying that the LRA’s messianic leader, Joseph Kony, had “disappeared” and that the group he travels with crossed over the border from the Central African Republic to Darfur. After pushing the LRA out of northern Uganda, the Ugandan army received authorization from the governments of Congo, southern Sudan, and CAR to track the LRA in their territory.

President Museveni also seized the opportunity to point out that the Sudanese government – a longtime adversary with whom Uganda shares a history of providing safe haven to each other’s rebel groups  – has been a patron of the LRA in the past. If Khartoum provides a cover for Kony in Darfur, “it makes no difference because they supported him much more in the past,” Museveni said. “But whatever they gave him, we captured." The fact that the Ugandan president has accused the LRA of moving into Darfur would seem to ensure that this story will continue to play out for some time.

The response from Sudan came from the government’s representative at the United Nations, the outgoing Ambassador Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem, who, it must be noted, doesn’t tend toward bland, diplomatic statements. The ambassador blasted Enough, saying that the report was meant to derail the “peace train” for Darfur, currently making a stopover in Doha. As a note to the outgoing ambassador, the peace train rhetoric and LRA denials might be a little more believable if the Government of Sudan hadn't long lied about its previous support to the LRA and wasn't currently engaged in attacks in Darfur that have claimed hundreds of lives in recent weeks.

Coincidentally, news of the LRA in Darfur occurred a day after the U.S. Senate passed legislation calling for the Obama administration to devise a strategy for militarily defeating the LRA. That job just got more complicated now that it appears Kony and Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, both wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, have once again teamed up.

To date, U.S. officials have insisted simply that they can neither confirm nor deny the LRA presence in Darfur. Here is hoping that Congressional leaders can push for an answer that is considerably more forthcoming than that.

Technorati Tags: Darfur and Southern Sudan Eastern Congo Northern Uganda Omar al-Bashir Prevention Protection Sudan Now War Crimes

Here at Enough, we often swap emails with interesting articles and feature stories that we come across in our favorite publications and on our favorite websites. We wanted to share some of these stories with you as part of our effort to keep you up to date on what you need to know in the world of anti-genocide and crimes against humanity work.

The International Rescue Committee created this short and catchy video to urge people to sign a petition calling on Congress to pass the International Violence Against Women Act. It’s very shareable, so pass it around in honor of International Women’s Day/Month.

Reporting from the Liberian capital of Monrovia, Doreen Carvajal of the New York Times highlighted the U.N. peacekeeping mission’s innovative approach to nation building in a post-conflict setting. At 14 percent, women peacekeepers in the Liberia mission represent the largest proportion of women in missions worldwide.  Professor Gerard DeGroot, who has done extensive research on the influence of women in the military, explained the rationale:

“When female soldiers are present, the situation is closer to real life, and as a result the men tend to behave. Any conflict where you have an all-male army, it’s like a holiday from reality. If you inject women into that situation, they do have a civilizing effect.”

This State Department apology, covered by Foreign Policy, to the Libyan president is pretty funny.  Mr. Crowley, we knew what you meant, but now that you mention it, your assessment of President Qaddafi’s performance at the U.N. General Assembly wasn’t so diplomatic.

Geoffrey York of the Globe and Mail blog Africa Diary offers an interesting discussion of the recent grenade attacks in Kigali, Rwanda through an interview with journalist Didas Gasana of the embattled weekly Umuseso. York describes one theory of the journalist:

Although he cannot prove it, [Gasana] believes there is a possibility that the grenade attacks were orchestrated by state intelligence agencies to justify a crackdown on electoral politics. It’s an uncomfortable question, but without the independent media in Rwanda there would be nobody to raise such questions.

Colum Lynch’s second edition of his new daily round-up over at Foreign Policy’s U.N. blog highlights a number of stories relevant to Enough, including coverage of the U.N.’s commemoration of International Women’s Day, Special Envoy Gration’s (distressing) suggestion that parties need to hustle through the Darfur peace process before full-time focus must be dedicated to Sudan’s elections, and a real zinger about my boss from the outgoing Sudanese ambassador to the U.N.

Technorati Tags: Africa Darfur and Southern Sudan Peace Protection United Nations Violence Against Women

A definite advantage to being based in Juba for a researcher like me is having access to Sudanese news publications on a daily basis. There are a number of northern Sudanese papers available online in Arabic, in addition to a few popular online Sudan news sources in English (Sudantribune.com and Gurtong.net are good places to start, and see the blog Roving Bandit for some more links to mainly southern-focused sites).

However, the most widely read southern Sudanese papers are not available online. Reading these papers provides an excellent glimpse into the issues that southerners think are important. From op-eds to general news articles, papers like The Citizen (which is printed in Khartoum and flown down to Juba daily, because there is not yet a functioning printing press in Juba) present a southern perspective that is well worth paying attention to. Here are some clips from some local English language daily papers from the past week:

‘We as women, we are happy that [the] Government gave 25% [through the women’s party list procedure passed in the South Sudan Legislative Assembly]. However, still there are opportunities of upgrading it to 50% as long as the attainment of total peace is concerned in Southern Sudan and Sudan in general,’ said Mrs. Jennifer Babel, Chairlady for Women Union in Central Equatoria.
-- “Women call for peace building through gender equity,” (Juba Post, March 11-15)

…raising the problem of the Nile water with countries that share the water should be approached in a quiet and rational manner that takes into account the interest of all parties without discrimination and under the principle that negotiations are the best avenue no matter how great the problems are.
-- “The Nile Water predicament,” (The Ciitzen, March 8)

[In Central Equatoria] 50% in Juba expected Kiir to win because, according to them, power, the army and everything is in the hands of SPLM [the ruling party in the South]. The also believed that Kiir would be President of GoSS with or without elections.
 --Selected results from public opinion poll conducted by Vision Center for Public Opinion Studies on prospects of candidates for the Presidency of the GoSS [360 people were polled in Upper Nile, Western Bahr-al-Ghazal, Jonglei and Central Equatoria states] (The Citizen, March 3)

Some people and political parties are continuously calling for the delay of the coming elections for more preparation and for the participation of the Darfur region. I also ask why not delay the elections if there is the possibility of the participation of Darfur! I also prefer the delay of the elections, but there needs doubling [of] the political efforts to solve the Darfur crisis during that period.
--“New Dawn” column by Ahmed Adam titled “Current political issues,” (Khartoum Monitor, March 6)

A magazine called The Parliamentarian provides yet another perspective. Its Editor-in-Chief is Dr. Julia Aker Duany, a respected southern Sudanese scholar and current under-secretary of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs in the Government of Southern Sudan. In her “Editor’s Notes” from the January edition of the magazine, Dr. Duany writes:

One item that I can unequivocally state is that in the Sudan there is never a dull moment…Unlike all of the political punditry online, local, and international media have stated, Sudan has not fallen back into a chaotic war, residing into the depths of a failed state. We are not perfect, by any means, but we are managing our delicate relationship in this experiment called the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

As the elections approach and the campaign season continues at full swing, I’ll try to post clips from local papers from time to time to highlight the array of opinions from southern Sudanese media on the polls.

Photo: Journalist Nhial Deng at the Juba office of the newspaper The Citizen (Enough/Laura Heaton)

Technorati Tags: Darfur and Southern Sudan Peace Prevention Protection Sudan Election Sudan Now

This post originally appeared today on Foreign Policy.

The Lord's Resistance Army has come to Darfur, Sudan, and that is not good news for anyone. The Lord's Resistance Army is a vicious militia led by self-proclaimed messiah Joseph Kony, and though he does not appear to be with the contingent that has moved into Darfur, Kony is widely and rightly regarded as one of the most heinous war criminals still on the loose in the entire world.

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has long operated as a hybrid between a cult and a rebel army. Kony and the LRA originally sprang up in northern Uganda and waged a brutal campaign trying to overthrow that country's government. Millions of Ugandans fled the fighting, and the LRA engaged in virtually every depravity known in warfare. The LRA's ranks have been swelled with kidnapped child soldiers, girls are regularly treated as sex slaves, and innocent civilians are maimed and killed in a fashion too brutal to describe.

In recent years, Kony and his forces have fallen on harder times, though their brutality has not diminished. Dislodged from northern Uganda, Kony and his troops first fled into northeastern Congo and
then the Central African Republic. However, the Ugandan army -- with quiet assistance from the United States -- has remained in dogged pursuit of Kony and his forces. The LRA is a relatively small force these days, probably numbering less than 1,000 hard-core fighters who remain loyal to Kony, but it is still causing mayhem and suffering well disproportionate to its size. Kony and his men have killed around 2,000 civilians in the last year and driven another 450,000 from their homes. Although the Ugandan offensive against Kony has suffered some significant missteps along the way, it has put increasing pressure on the LRA.

Just this week, the Enough Project learned from multiple, credible sources in the field that elements of the LRA had crossed into Darfur. These forces appear to be seeking safe haven under the protection of the Sudanese military, and Sudan's notorious president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, has been a longtime LRA patron, so this does not come as a surprise. Clearly, Kony and his deputies believe that Sudan is one of the few places left where the Ugandan army will not pursue them, and they are likely increasingly desperate.

The even larger story is what all of this says about Sudan and Bashir at a time when U.S. diplomacy has been geared to striking a new tone in the relationship. Although Bashir has been eager to portray himself as willing to repair relations with the world after last year's International Criminal Court indictment, and the United States in particular, giving safe haven to the LRA is yet another slap at Darfuris, at Washington, and at fundamental human decency. The evidence clearly suggests that advance LRA scouts coordinated with Sudanese armed forces well in advance of the LRA's arrival in Darfur, and it seems implausible that local Sudanese armed forces commanders would welcome the group in Darfur without seeking approval from Khartoum, including Bashir. There are also suggestions that the LRA has received direct logistical support from the Sudanese army since arriving in Darfur.

Click here to continue reading.

Photo: Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir

Technorati Tags: Darfur and Southern Sudan International Criminal Court Omar al-Bashir Prevention Protection Punishment Sudan Election Sudan Now Violence Against Women War Crimes

During our recent trip through southern Sudan, focused on capturing individual stories that help illustrate the challenges people there currently face, Enough’s South Sudan researcher Maggie Fick and I were intrigued by a relatively new actor in the fight against the Lord’s Resistance Army near Sudan’s border with Congo and the Central African Republic – a local defense force known as the Arrow Boys.

While the loose-knit, meagerly armed group may not seem like a good match to the ruthless fighters of the LRA, many people we met – from civilians displaced by LRA attacks, local and state government representatives, church officials, and aid workers – say the Arrow Boys play an indispensable role in protecting civilians in the region. In an Enough Field Dispatch published today, we examine the need for the Arrow Boys and the strategies they use, and we discuss the concerns that quickly arise when a new armed group emerges in a volatile corner of Sudan.

Here’s a glimpse:

The regional leader of the Arrow Boys, who asked for his name not to be used for security reasons, explained that after watching the LRA ravage their communities, southern Sudanese men and boys decided to respond.

“Very many people have died, and many others have had to flee their homes. […] We came with the mind of how to provide security for those that are here and end that threat [of the LRA],” he said.

“When I saw that kind of killing—they could crash the heads of your sons and daughters so they can’t even be recognized—it pained my heart,” said the leader of one group of Arrow Boys. “It depends on the heart. Any boy can be an Arrow Boy,” he said.

Click here to read the full dispatch.

Technorati Tags: Darfur and Southern Sudan Eastern Congo Northern Uganda Prevention Protection

The Senate bill aimed at devising a strategy for stopping the brutal, 24-year insurgency by the Lord’s Resistance Army passed last night with a record 65 co-sponsors. After weeks of uncertainty when Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn (R) put a hold on the bill, the victory for anti-LRA activists – a contingent of whom camped out in front of Coburn’s office for 11 days – is particularly poignant.

In a statement issued by lead co-sponsors and longtime champions on the LRA issue, Senators Feingold (D-WI), Brownback (R-KS), and Inhofe (R-OK) noted the delay in passing the bill but were enthusiastic about the outcome. Feingold said:

“The passage of this bill sends a message that the United States will no longer stand by and watch the Lord’s Resistance Army terrorize innocent civilians across central Africa, kidnap thousands of children and force them to become child soldiers. This legislation also sends a clear signal that the United States is committed to working with regional stakeholders to change the conditions that have allowed this war to persist for so long."

Brownback expressed his gratitude to Senate colleagues for appreciating the importance and urgency of the bill, and Inhofe called last night’s affirmative vote a “victory for the countless lives destroyed at the hands of [LRA leader] Joseph Kony.”

But even as Enough, along with advocacy partners Resolve Uganda and Invisible Children, celebrate this progress in Congress, new alarming reports have emerged that a dangerous contingent of the LRA has made its way to Darfur. Based on field research and analysis, Enough confirmed today that a group of LRA fighters have found safe haven in areas of Darfur controlled by the Sudanese government. This development – signaling renewed collusion between Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and LRA leader Joseph Kony, both wanted war criminals – demands investigation by U.S. policymakers and the international community.

Enough Co-founder John Prendergast reacted to the news in a press release issued this morning:

"The Khartoum regime's principal tool of war during its 21-year reign has been support for marauding militias such as the Janjaweed, the Murahaliin, and the Lord's Resistance Army," said Enough Co-founder John Prendergast. “Facing no consequences for this destructive method of governing, it is unsurprising that the regime is again providing safe haven for the LRA. Absent a cost for this, we will likely see the LRA unleashed again later this year to destabilize the referendum in southern Sudan."

Amid news of the passage of the Senate LRA bill and revelations about the insurgency spreading to Darfur, Enough’s LRA researcher Ledio Cakaj published his latest report documenting abuses by both the LRA and the Congolese army on civilians in northeastern Congo. It’s a damning look at how civilians bear the brunt of the violence from both sides, while the U.N. mission remains relatively futile when it comes to protecting civilians. The report is a sobering reminder of what’s likely in store for the already traumatized people of Darfur as the LRA continues its march north. It is also a compelling case for why last night’s passage of the Senate LRA bill couldn’t have come soon enough. Now we must focus attention on pushing the companion bill through the House.

Technorati Tags: Advocacy Darfur and Southern Sudan Eastern Congo Genocide Northern Uganda Prevention Protection Punishment Sexual Violence United Nations Violence Against Women War Crimes

After 262 hours protesting on the streets of Oklahoma City, activists focused on ending the senseless violence perpetrated by the Lord’s Resistance Army claimed a victory yesterday when Senator Coburn (R-OK) signaled he would remove his hold on a popular, bipartisan bill.

The Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009 (S. 1067) calls on the Obama administration to devise a strategy for addressing the 24-year insurgency led by Joseph Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The legislation also request that a modest amount of funding be allocated to rehabilitating child soldiers from the LRA ranks and rebuilding communities in northern Uganda. Senator Coburn, who has made it his policy to oppose legislation that raises the national deficit, objected to this final piece, which amounted to $40 million (the equivalent of 25 cents per U.S. taxpayer).

Senator Coburn spoke to activists and Resolve Uganda yesterday afternoon to formalize a compromise proposed by two of the bill’s leading co-sponsors, Senator Feingold (D-WI) and Senator Inhofe (R-OK).

In Capitol Hill-speak, the bill’s authorization of appropriations was replaced with Sense of Congress language, which basically conveys the message to the Senate Appropriations committee that the Senate strongly recommends allocating the requested funding. While this written request doesn’t bind the Appropriations Committee to provide the funds, backing from the bill’s 64 co-sponsors (more than any other piece of legislation on sub-Saharan Africa since 1973) makes the priority clear.

The bill will now be sent to the Senate floor for final passage, so barring any unforeseen objections from other senators, expect another victory for the anti-LRA movement in the next day or two.

The Hold Out campaign in Oklahoma City, led by Resolve Uganda and Invisible Children, lasted 11 days, generating lots of local news coverage and thousands of phone calls to the senator’s office. Check out the local news coverage of the victory:
 

Technorati Tags: Advocacy Darfur and Southern Sudan Eastern Congo Northern Uganda Prevention Protection Punishment War Crimes

The United Nations Mission in the Congo, known by its French acronym MONUC, is once again facing public criticism. An article in today’s Washington Post shows how MONUC’s support for the Congolese army’s operations against rebel groups in eastern Congo continues to support some of the army’s most abusive commanders.

The U.N. faced withering criticism last year for its support role in operation Kimia II, which led to more than 1,000 civilians killed and 900,000 displaced. Pressure from human rights groups and activists was instrumental in forcing the U.N. to include greater safeguards to prevent support for abusive units.

As of this past November, senior MONUC officials, including its head Alan Doss, have been adamant that they are doing their due diligence in hand-picking which Congolese army commanders to support and blacklisting those responsible for attacks on civilians. But as the stark testimonies in today’s article by the Post’s Stephanie McCrummen reveal, things are not exactly going according to plan.

McCrummen follows the story of a Congolese army lieutenant colonel named Innocent Zimurinda. In October, Zimurinda’s name appeared on a list of problematic army commanders (beginning on page 276) compiled by the U.N. group of experts, tying him to massacres, executions, gang rapes, and recruitment of child soldiers. Yet, according to Zimurinda and his officers, U.N. support continued through December and January. “Anytime we ask [MONUC] to supply us, they supply,” one of Zimurinda’s officers told McCrummen.

A MONUC spokesman acknowledged that while the U.N.’s support to Zimurinda officially ended in November, provisions “in the pipeline” may have continued to flow to his units while the U.N. sorted out legal issues related to the case. In a rare interview with the Washington Post, Zimurinda commented on his ties to MONUC: "We cannot say we are happy with the level of support,” he said. “But anyway, we want to say 'thank you' to the U.N."

The support to Zimurinda is occurring within the context of operation Amani Leo, the new name for joint Congolese/United Nations military operations against the rebel group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR. According to MONUC, Amani Leo (Swahili for “peace today”) puts much greater emphasis on civilian protection than the maligned Kimia II. Yet despite the rebranding, little change has been seen on the ground. Military operations supported by the U.N. continue to endanger civilian lives and FARDC commanders, like Zimurinda, with known abuses in the past continue to operate.

Last week, 50 Congolese human rights and civil society organizations and Human Rights Watch logged a complaint about Colonel Zimurinda with General Amuli Bahigwa, the top ranking Congolese army commander for operations in the eastern region. The four-page complaint detailed abuses committed by troops under Zimurinda’s command since 2007 and called for an immediate investigation into the allegations. Responding to a question in a press conference last week, likely spurred on by the organizations’ complaint, Under-Secretary for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy said:

“We have made clear to the Congolese Government officials…that MONUC does not support units with which Mr. Zimulinda is involved; in the same manner, Mr. Bosco Ntanganda [sic] is not in the chain of command of operations we support.”

Amid the many questions raised in McCrummen’s piece today – in particular, Zimurinda’s evasion of a question about backing from Rwanda raises red flags – what’s clear is that a thorough investigation into Zimurinda’s ties is overdue. The U.N. Group of Experts already laid the foundation; it shouldn’t require being called out by the Washington Post to motivate Congolese authorities to follow up.

Photo: Mugunga camp in North Kivu province (Enough/Laura Heaton)

Technorati Tags: Conflict Minerals Eastern Congo Prevention Protection Punishment Sexual Violence United Nations Violence Against Women War Crimes

Arrests and intimidation of civil society leaders in both North and South Sudan last week underscored the continued stifling of opposition and civil society groups during the country’s crucial campaigning stage, with a little over a month left before elections.

Southern security personnel raided two radio stations in Juba on Wednesday, threatening and arresting the general manager of Liberty FM and director of Bakhita, a Catholic radio station. According to a Reuters interview, the armed men who entered the premises of Liberty FM said they were South Sudanese police. One station manager who was taken to a police station was told: “You are producing bad programs that bring hatred of the people.” The station manager said Liberty FM had aired an interview with an independent candidate running for the governor seat in Central Equatoria state.

The raid on Bakhita Radio led to a strongly-worded response from the Catholic Archdiocese of Juba which condemned the act: “The Catholic Church and Bakhita Radio have no political affiliation and take no sides with any political party. We will not accept church personnel and institutions to be treated as criminals.”

The Association for Media Development in South Sudan says the harassment is indicative of a structural problem in the South’s campaign environment—the lack of media laws in place. The press release said:

As we speak, the draft South Sudan Media Laws are still sitting in the Southern Sudan Assembly awaiting enactment. Meanwhile, we conduct elections campaigns in an environment where the media is still playing a game of football without clear rules, a Russian Roulette game where journalists have no idea which opinion expressed contains the next bullet, worse still for not knowing from whom in particular the whistle is coming.

Similar practices are taking place in the North, where new rules recently published by the elections commission have created a highly restrictive environment for campaigning by opposition parties. One new rule requires parties to give 72 hours notice for rallies held even within party premises.

On Thursday, security forces broke up a voter education campaign in Khartoum held by civil society group Girifna. According to the Africa Center for Justice and Peace Studies, three members of the organization were arrested and charged for “public noisiness.” The day before, Sudanese state radio blocked Umma party presidential candidate Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi from airing his 20-minute radio broadcast because of points in his speech that were seen as “inciting prejudices and hatred against the state,” including a reference to incumbent president Omar al-Bashir’s ICC arrest warrant.

With so many instances of political oppression, it’s hard to be optimistic about the prospect for free and fair elections in Sudan. One clear first step is for government to enact equitable electoral legislation that will help create an environment in which opposition politics can survive. In the final weeks before polling begins, U.S. and E.U. monitors must also ensure that they are not simply assessing the elections themselves, but evaluating whether the larger human and political rights context is in place for elections to even have a chance.

Technorati Tags: Darfur and Southern Sudan Peace Prevention Protection Sudan Now