Beasts in the Bush

By: American Decency Staff

By Chris Johnson Somewhere in the bush of the Democratic Republic of Congo hides a man who for 20 years has led a movement guilty of mass murders, rapes, mutilations, and abductions throughout Uganda and its surrounding nations. In just the past 18 months, this movement is responsible for the killing of more than 2,400 people and 3,400 abductions. The modus operandi of these killers is to move into a town and kidnap the children – the girls are taken as sex slaves and the boys become soldiers who will simply continue the cycle of horrendous violence. The new "recruits" are often made to kill their own families as a form of initiation. The man is Joseph Kony and the movement is the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Christianity Today reported on the group in 2006. "Under threat of death, LRA child soldiers attack villages, shooting and cutting off people's lips, ears, hands, feet, or breasts, at times force-feeding the severed body parts to victims' families. Some cut open the bellies of pregnant women and tear their babies out. Men and women are gang-raped. As a warning to those who might report them to Ugandan authorities, they bore holes in the lips of victims and padlock them shut. Victims are burned alive or beaten to death with machetes and clubs. The murderous task is considered properly executed only when the victim is mutilated beyond recognition." While some outlets label Joseph Kony a "fundamentalist Christian," a cursory knowledge of the fundamentals of Christianity dispatches that assertion at first glance. Before becoming a twisted monster, he was both a Catholic altar boy and a witch doctor.  Both have seemingly shaped the ideology by which he leads his army. Kony reportedly tells his followers that he channels the Holy Spirit as well as 18 other spirits. He also directs his soldiers to paint crosses on themselves and their weapons before battle so that the spirits will protect them. The LRA's stated goal was to found a Ugandan government based on the Ten Commandments, the problem being that they broke every single one in the process. As they are no longer located in Uganda, it is thought that at this point, the only goal of the LRA is to survive. The raids, abductions, and killings are simply to sustain, train, and grow their ranks. From the Christian Science Monitor: "According to accounts from researchers working on the LRA, the rationale behind their incredibly abusive behavior is partly internal: As they don't have a clear ideological program (at least not one that can attract recruits) and most of their soldiers are abductees and now no longer even from the same ethnic or linguistic background, they need violence as a way to socialize and indoctrinate their soldiers. Killing, in other words, often does not happen in response to contested military authority, but is used as a way make obedient soldiers." The stories of the survivors are too horrifying to even imagine. This, from the independant.uk: "Father Galdino Sakondo, a Catholic priest who has been working with victims of the terror on both sides of the border says the silent tactic is deliberate. "They don't shoot, they are just chopping. You don't know they are there until they reach your house." That was the fate of 15-year-old Neima Kumbari in the village of Napopo. "They came in the morning but I didn't see them at first." When she did realise the soldiers had arrived it was already too late. Her parents were beaten with rifle butts, then, along with her uncle and a brother, burned alive in their own hut. The soldiers had "no mercy", she says. Neima escaped by running into the bush while her village was torched, stepping over the fallen bodies of her dead neighbours as she ran. After two days she reached Sakure having lost everything, her whole family. In a flat, calm voice, Neima says she is still haunted by the bodies she stepped on." Another from Human Rights Watch: "On April 13, the LRA abducted and mutilated a 31-year-old woman from Quartier Zande, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Niangara. After clasping her lips together with pliers, the LRA combatants forced a 16-year-old Congolese boy, abducted during a previous attack, to slice off her lips and her right ear with a knife." Atrocities like this committed by the LRA and Joseph Kony are the reason that President Obama is sending 100 troops to Uganda. According to the president's letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner, "These forces will act as advisors to partner forces that have the goal of removing from the battlefield Joseph Kony and other senior leadership of the LRA. Our forces will provide information, advice, and assistance to select partner nation forces." The president's actions are in line with a bill that passed both the House and Senate, The Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009, having bipartisan support. The bill stated, in part, that "It is the policy of the United States to work with regional governments toward a comprehensive and lasting resolution to the conflict in northern Uganda and other affected areas by providing political, economic, military, and intelligence support for viable multilateral efforts to protect civilians from the Lord’s Resistance Army, to apprehend or remove Joseph Kony and his top commanders from the battlefield in the continued absence of a negotiated solution, and to disarm and demobilize the remaining Lord’s Resistance Army fighters. Republican Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, a well known conservative, expressed support for the president's decision. “I have witnessed firsthand the devastation caused by the LRA, and this will help end Kony’s heinous acts that have created a human rights crisis in Africa. I have been fervently involved in trying to prevent further abductions and murders of Ugandan children, and today’s action offers hope that the end of the LRA is in sight.â€Â While I have disagreed with almost every decision President Obama has made during his time in power, sending these troops to help subdue the LRA is one that I can get behind. I pray that our troops are both safe and successful. ========================================================== Your support is important to our ability to make a difference. Donate online at: https://secure4.afo.net/ada/donate.php American Decency Association is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. American Decency Association Bill Johnson, President P.O. Box 202 Fremont, MI 49412 ph: 231-924-4050 www.americandecency.org http://www.twitter.com/billwjohnson

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