{UAH} IF YOU THINK AMIN WAS EVIL, MEET JOSEPH KONY

If you think Idi Amin was evil, meet Joseph Kony – his paedophile political son

Posted by Anthony L. Hall

Over the past three decades, guerilla warfare has been as commonplace (and un-newsworthy) in Africa as suicide bombings have become in Iraq over the past three years. And, sadly enough, it is not an anomaly for children to be on the frontlines of these bloody struggles that have made Africa the most war-ravaged continent in the world. (A fact I lamented in this previous article on child soldiers who must kill or be killed in the ongoing insurgency in DR Congo.) Therefore, it is truly a testament to the venality of Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony that his name incites revulsion and fear that most Africans have not experienced since, ironically, the brutal reign of former Ugandan leader Idi Amin 30 years ago.

Kony is a former altar boy who, in 1987, assumed the mantle of messianic leadership in the Lord’s Resistance Army to continue their rebellion against the Ugandan government – that has raged now for 20 years. But unlike most rebels (like Jonas Savimbi of Angola or Laurent Kabila of Zaire) who at least claimed a political mission to liberate their people from government oppression, Kony is truly a rebel without a cause. (Well, to be fair, he wants to turn Uganda into a Taliban-style state based, not on Sharia law, but on strict adherence to the Ten Commandments – all ten 0f which he violates everyday….)

In fact, Kony’s so-called army is to Uganda what the Medellin drug cartel is to Columbia: an organised group of thugs who have successfully co-opted every facet of life in a small area of a big country. And, in Kony’s case, he has become the Carlos Escobar of the Ugandan town of Lira. But, where drug lords intimidate, bribe and kill government officials to help facilitate their illicit trade, Kony kidnaps, enslaves, tortures and murders children (as young as 10). And these “children become soldiers in his army and then go on to torture, rape and kill other children” in this cycle of unspeakable depravity that has plagued Northern Uganda for almost two decades. Indeed, the Lancet Medical Journal reports that, over this period, Kony’s gang has kidnapped an estimated “20,000 children to serve as fighters, porters and sex slaves.”

All too often, we blame the legacy of colonialism for the problems that beset so many countries in Africa. Yet it is undeniable that kleptocracy (Kenya), ethnic rivalries (DR Congo) and pandemic incompetence are far more to blame. Moreover, nothing in the annals of European colonialism can account for what Joseph Kony is doing to fellow Africans in Uganda, what Robert Mugabe is doing in Zimbabwe and what Charles Taylor did in Liberia.

I first read about Joseph Kony about 10 years ago. But it wasn’t until I read a cautionary exposé on him by Christopher Hitchens in the January 2006 issue of Vanity Fair (VF) that I got a real appreciation for the depth and scope of his menace. However, since I suspect that you may have to subscribe to VF to read that article, I recommend this one by Jon Blanc, a former “director of Field Operations for a multi-national humanitarian NGO in various parts of Africa.”

However, I’m not so naïve as to think that anything Hitchens, Blanc or I write about Kony will have any impact on his rampaging activities in Lira. But for those who struggle with feelings of inefficacy in the face of such inhumanity, here’s what you can do:

A very reputable NGO in Gulu provides safe houses for the children of Lira who walk miles to sleep there every night to avoid being kidnapped from their homes by Kony’s night bandits. Click here to read about these “night commuters” and how you can help fund their safety until international leaders deal with Kony the way they finally dealt with Charles Taylor. (Indeed, just yesterday, the International war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone issued a warrant for Taylor’s immediate arrest from his exile in Nigeria to be tried for the crimes against humanity he committed in Liberia. Similar arrest warrants have been issued for Kony and senior members of his gang.)

NOTE: Here’s a Ugandan boy’s drawing of a Lord’s Resistance Army attack on his village. Unfortunately, such images are the nightmarish thoughts of many Ugandan children, much as images of playing sports are the dreams of American children:

Joseph Kony, Lord’s Resistance Army, Gulu, Uganda

                 Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
                    Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika machafuko"