New Vision (Kampala) 19 Feb US praises operation against LRA By Barbara Among The US ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, William John Garvelink, has praised Operation Lightning Thunder. Garvelink on Tuesday told reporters that the ongoing joint military offensive against Joseph Kony’s LRA in the DR Congo, showed real success. Congolese, Ugandan and Southern Sudanese forces launched Operation Lightning Thunder on December 14, but they have so far failed to capture the elusive LRA leader. The US military has been criticised by humanitarian agencies for supporting a mission that, they say, was poorly planned and executed, leading to the death of hundreds of civilians. However, ambassador Mary Carlin Yates, the AFRICOM deputy chief said on Monday, the mid-December attack had diminished the rebel’s ability to abduct children to serve as fighters. “Their base, which they used to launch attacks and abduct children, was bombed,” Yates said. “The pressure is on.” Meanwhile, international human rights campaigners have called on the UN to deploy more troops in northern DR Congo to halt attacks on civilians. “The failure of the offensive against the rebels has allowed them to inflict retribution on civilians,” a report by Human Rights Watch said. More than 865 people have been brutally killed and 160 children abducted in a matter of weeks, the report said. “We are seeing very little protection of civilians. We have less than 300 UN peace-keepers in a humongous area, this is something like 15,000 sq km,” Anneke van Woudenberg, a senior HRW researcher, said in a statement. “Almost no UN peace-keepers are there. And of course the Ugandans and the Congolese who are involved in an operation against the LRA are not doing enough to protect the civilians,” she added. She said an additional 3,000 troops authorised for the DR Congo by the Security Council had yet to be assembled and dispatched. A UN refugee agency said in a report yesterday that more than 15,000 Congolese had fled to Southern Sudan since the LRA began launching attacks in the north-east DR Congo. “It is critical to move all the refuges away from border areas for security reasons and to facilitate distribution of aid,” the UNHCR spokesman, Ron Redmond, said. The LRA rebels have launched a fresh spate of attacks following the joint operation. Military sources said the rebels were hiding within the huge 40,000 square kilometre area of the Garamba jungles. They are believed to be divided into small groups. The difficult terrain, isolated location and chronic lack of infrastructure have hampered the hunt to capture or kill them --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
