News from a Mud Hut

Senator pushes to end Uganda's rebel war

by Thad Mandsager : May 24, 2009

Is the US government preparing to end Uganda's rebel war once and for all? After interventions during the Bush Administration failed to yield either a peace agreement or the capture of the LRA's Joseph Kony, Sen. Russ Feingold (D - Wis) is now proposing the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009. In his proposal, Senator Feingold hits on all the essential elements of a plan aimed toward real success: a comprehensive, coordinated strategy to confine and finally capture LRA leadership; contingency plans to protect civilian populations from retaliatory attacks by the LRA; and coordinated strategies to promote peace, growth (including attention to education and infrastructure), and reconciliation in northern Uganda so that region, long neglected, can progress toward long-term stability. This could be the beginning of the end we've all been pushing for. As Senator Feingold says, this is a situation that can't be left to linger on the back burner. To save lives and restore nations -- and to bring hope to the children who have suffered the most from this prolonged nightmare -- we must push for action now.