Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2009 01:13:00 -0400
From: milton allimadi
Subject: Enough! Phony Human Rights Organization Promotes More Bloodshed in Central Africa
http://www.blackstarnews.com/news/135/ARTICLE/5749/2009-06-06.html
[Black Star News Editorial: Africa Conflict]
On Genocide: Enough Of Enough!
The organization Enough! claims its mission is to “end genocide and crimes against humanity” and yet in one of the most perverted foreign policy initiatives ever it’s calling for the U.S. to invade Central Africa in pursuit of Joseph Kony, leader of the vicious Lord’s Resistance Army.
At the same time, Enough! would have the U.S. military align itself with the army of Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, who is possibly an unindicted war criminal who is actually being investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague for alleged war crimes committed in the DR Congo; the revelation was in a 2006 front-page report in The Wall Street Journal.
The alleged crimes committed by Uganda’s army and Uganda-financed militias in Congo, when Uganda occupied eastern Congo between 1997-2003 included massacres, mass rapes, looting of Congolese natural and mineral resources, destruction of Congolese homes, and ethnic cleansing.
Please see Human Rights Watch’s report, “Ituri: Covered In Blood, Ethnically Targeted Violence In Northeastern DR Congo”
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/ituri0703/DRC0703.pdf
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) subsequently ruled in favor of the Congo government on the civil complaint in 2005 and awarded $10 billion in compensation, not a dime of which has been paid.
Please see http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/116/10455.pdf
According to The Wall Street Journal’s 2006 news report, the ICC took up the criminal investigation after the Congo government referred the complaint to the Hague.
Presumably, the ICC might be guided by the evidence that the ICJ found compelling. Why then would Enough! and other organizations, unless they have hidden agenda and want President Barack Obama’s Administration to be aligned with a potential unindicted war criminal?
Museveni himself fears the investigation and takes it seriously, and so should Enough! The Wall Street Journal reported: “President Museveni of Uganda asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to block the Congo investigation, according to one person familiar with the matter. Mr. Annan replied that he had no power to interfere with the court, this person said.”
Moreover, two of the leaders of the murderous Congo militias financed by Museveni, Jean Pierre-Bemba, and Germain Katanga, have been indicted and arrested and are already at the Hague.
So is Enough! really serious about peace in Central Africa? Is it on a mission to discourage the ICC’s probe by trying to steer a policy that would bind the U.S. into an alliance with Museveni? Certainly the ICC takes signals from the U.S. Administration.
Enough! has issued many statements decrying genocidal acts in Sudan’s Darfur region and for long demanded action against Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
Enough!’s silence with respect to atrocities directed or commissioned by Museveni and his sometimes allies, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and the terrorist he sponsored in DR Congo, Laurent Nkunda, is deafening.
That Kagame and Nkunda are responsible for genocide in Ituri and eastern Congo has been well established by Human Rights Watch and is known to Enough! Even the New York Times, which for long had treated Kagame and Nkunda with kid gloves, conceded in an article headlined “Rwanda Stirs Deadly Brew of Troubles in Congo” on December 4, 2008, that the Rwanda president was financing Nkunda’s massacres and even supplying the men and arms.
Where are the press releases from Enough! calling for the ICC action against Kagame and Nkunda?
Enough! issues press releases deploring massacres and mass rapes in DR Congo without clearly stating who the responsible agents of these crimes are—as if they occur in a vacuum.
Enough! correctly attacks ongoing atrocities in the Darfur region and those committed by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) but demonstrates selective outrage elsewhere. Is this done by design? Is this clever duplicity? After all the information about the other crimes are out there.
How can an organization that purports to fight genocide and war crimes pick and choose? Is this not an unfair and even immoral demand to impose upon the victims of such crimes? One is either outraged by all mass crimes; or one is simply engaged in duplicitous “outrage”.
Enough!’s double standards are most glaring with respect to Uganda.
Uganda invaded Congo when it was still known as Zaire, in 1996. The invasion was popular; it rid the country of dictator and kleptocrat Mobuttu Sese Seko.
In 1997 Uganda again invaded Congo. This time, the mission was occupation and illegal enrichment through pillaging of the country’s resources, as detailed in Human Rights Watch’s “Ituri” report.
So why is Enough! not demanding that the ICC also indict Museveni for the war crimes in DR Congo? Instead, Enough! wants more warfare in Central Africa.
Last December, while George W. Bush was still in office, Uganda’s army launched a U.S.-coordinated and financed attack against the LRA called “Operation Thunder”. It was Bush’s gift to Museveni for sending troops to prop up the weak Somali government installed by Ethiopia at the behest of Washington.
The attack backfired –Kony was not captured and only increased his mystic by eluding U.S.-backed Ugandan forces. Kony’s forces then reportedly resorted to a vicious campaign of killings against Congolese civilians.
Ironically, there had been no combat, killings and destruction for more than two years, as Uganda’s government had negotiated peace with the LRA, from 2006 to the end of 2008.
Impatient with Kony’s reluctance to sign a final peace treaty, Uganda’s Museveni resorted to what both he and Bush seemed to favor in resolving conflicts: militarism.
The Obama Administration should not be lured by organizations such as Enough! into this trap; the victims are civilians—women and children primarily.
If President Obama is willing to dialogue with Korea’s Kim Jong-Il; Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmedinajed; Cuba’s Raul and Fidel Castro; and even with reasonable elements of the Taliban in Afghanistan, why promote more bloodshed in Central Africa without exploring other options.
Obama is no Bush; that’s why he beat a Republican candidate.
Enough! own vision for Central Africa is very clear; in a most chilling manner. It has posted a paper, “Finishing The Fight Against The LRA” on its website www.enoughproject.org
Here’s what Enough! boldly declares:
“Operation Lightning Thunder did not end the threat of the Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA, and it sparked harsh reprisals by the LRA against civilians in Congo. Yet, it would be an even greater tragedy for civilians if key states in the region and the international community lost their collective will to end the threat of the LRA once and for all. What is needed now is a second Ugandan-led operation against the LRA. This new operation must place civilian protection front and center.
In addition, it will require stronger and more effective support from the United States and the international community, and the full commitment from the Congolese government and army to complete the job in a reasonable timeframe and operate in all LRA-affected areas of northeastern Congo. If the United States takes the lead in supporting a new Ugandan military operation, as Enough believes it should, it must provide solid planning, intelligence, coordination, and logistical support—and take greater responsibility for the executing and outcomes of the operation.”
What manner of cold-blooded madness is this? What kind of organization that purports to fight genocide would call for more bloodshed in order to “stop” bloodshed?
Of course it’s easier to advocate warfare when it’s done on someone else’s backyard with the victims being someone else’s African daughters and sons.
Enough! is also excited about the recent Bill introduced by Senators Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Sam Brownback of Kansas, hoping it will lead to more U.S.-sponsored war in Central Africa. The Bill, borrowing language from Enough! is called the “Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009.”
The Bill contains good elements when it calls for multi-million dollar financing of recovery in Uganda’s devastated Acholi region. Even then, U.S. representatives would have to be involved in the monitoring. Corruption in Museveni’s government is so rampant that even money sent to combat HIV/Aids was embezzled according to Uganda news reports.
The Bill’s problematic part –actually favored and promoted by Enough!– is section (3), or “statement of policy” and in part reads that, it’s U.S. policy, in furthering the goal to end the conflict in northern and eastern Uganda and other affected areas by “eliminating the threat posed by the Lord’s Resistance Army to civilians and regional stability through political, economic, military, and intelligence support for a comprehensive multilateral effort to protect civilians in affected areas, to apprehend or otherwise remove Joseph Kony and his top commanders from the battlefield, and to disarm and demobilize Lord’s Resistance Army fighters…”
The U.S. must not align itself with Uganda’s military establishment in escalating conflict in Uganda and Central Africa. That’s precisely what Museveni wants; that’s a strategy he’s pursued for 23 years, with only deadly and destructive consequences.
It’s also allowed him the excuse to extinguish political opposition to his regime.
Moreover, while it was fine for Bush to become mired in “Operation Thunder,” President Obama, a Constitutional Law professor, may want to maintain a firewall with a potentially unindicted war criminal, with respect to the Congo atrocities; even while working on other matters with the Ugandan government.
The Feingold-Brownback Bill also contains a section about accountability; not surprisingly Enough! as well as the Ugandan government have not been highlighting this.
The Bill supports “a body to investigate the history of the conflict, inquire into human rights violations committed during the conflict by all sides, promote truth-telling in communities, and encourage the preservation of the memory of events and victims of the conflict through memorials, archives, commemorations, and other forms of preservation….”
Thorough investigation into the history of the conflict between Museveni’s army and the LRA, would result in Museveni possibly sharing a jail cell with Kony in the Hague.
Ironically, if the Feingold-Brownback Bill could lead to removal of both Museveni and Kony from Uganda’s political stage, peace would be restored in Central Africa almost overnight.
EDITOR’S CALL FOR ACTION PLAN:
Everyone who cares for Africa and wants to end the suffering of countless civilians on the continent can take some of the following actions:
(1)Contact Enough! by e-mail message at info@enoughproject.org and by telephone (202) 682-1611 or fax (202) 682-6140 and tell them to prove that they are not a nefarious partisan organization recklessly advocating for more bloodshed in Central Africa, by calling for the arrest not only of the LRA’s Joseph Kony, but also for the indictment and arrest of Museveni, Kagame and Nkunda, for the war crimes in the DR Congo. Send Enough! a copy of this editorial.
(2) Demand that Enough! quit its preposterous campaign of promoting American military involvement in escalating war in Central Africa under the disingenuous excuse of going after Kony. If Museveni could not defeat Kony in 23 years –though he was able
to invade Rwanda and overthrow Juvenal Habyarimana’s government in 1994 and invade what was then Zaire and overthrow Mobuttu’s government in 1996— what makes Enough so sure that U.S. involvement would lead to Kony’s defeat?
(3)Contact members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) by going to the Website www.thecongressionalblackcaucus.com. Once on the website click on “Meet Rep” and you’ll get the list of all the Black members of Congress. Contact them all and urge them to oppose Enough!’s warmongering in Central Africa.
(4) Contact Senators Feingold and Brownback and tell them to remove from the Bill any call for U.S. military cooperation with President Museveni, who is possibly an unindicted war criminal as indicated in The Wall Street Journal front page article of June 8, 2006. Brownback’s contact: Phone: (202) 224-6521 and Fax: (202) 228-1265
Feingold’s contact: (202) 224-5323 and Fax (202) 224-2725 or via e-mail message at:
press@feingold.senate.gov.
(5) Directly contact President Barack Obama at the White House
(202) 456-1414 or www.whitehouse.gov and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the State Department (202) 647-4000 and www.state.gov and tell them not to support any more warfare in Central Africa but to promote a negotiated end to the Uganda conflict.
(6) E-mail this column widely: to all your friends, relatives, contacts, general e-mail lists, news organizations, and to all elected officials so as to counter the propaganda of Enough! and help save the lives of innocent people in Central Africa.
Other reference articles
Uganda’s Genocidal President Eyes Kenya
http://blackstarnews.com/?c=135&a=5682
On Museveni, Allimadi’s Blinded By Bias
http://blackstarnews.com/news/135/ARTICLE/5702/2009-05-21.html
Ituri: Covered In Blood, Ethnically Targeted Violence In Northeastern DR Congo
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/ituri0703/DRC0703.pdf
Milton Allimadi, Publisher/CEO
The Black Star News Publishing Co.
P.O. Box 64, New York, N.Y., 10025
(212) 481-7745
Please visit also visit www.blackstarnews.com
From: komarockswatch@ . . .
Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2009 02:41:51 -0700
Subject: Daily Nation on Migingo
Daily Nation on Migingo 19th April 2009
In the edition of the Nation yesterday, their editorial talked about the issue of ‘Mijinjo’ Island. They said and I quote; ‘Museveni correctly think it is a shame to wrangle over a small territorial dispute when we should be fighting for the creation of an East African Federation.’
Check who is talking. Who is it that has invaded another country? If Museveni correctly believe that it is a shame to wrangle over small territorial disputes, why then has he invaded Migingo Islands?
Did the person who authored this editorial at the Nation put his mind to proper use before coming up with such an absurdity? Can the Nation quote Museveni on this issue and add the term ‘correctly’?
Anyway, I do not want to doubt the intentions that inspired the Nation to come up with such an editorial.
It brought me to ask myself a few questions. What are the roles of the police and the Army? When they graduate from their respective training colleges, the police swear to uphold and enforce the rule of law in the country. To this extent, when they are on patrol and they come across crime, they do not wait for any orders from anybody else. They act on the spot and the law takes its course.
Similarly, when the members of the Armed Forces graduate from their training colleges, they swear to protect the territorial integrity of Kenya from any external aggression. This is their cardinal responsibility. This is why we feed them that lavishly at the barracks. What I would have expected from our armed forces was a report that they had beaten the hell out of these Ugandans and then they wait for orders from their Commander-in-Chief.
I did not expect that members of our armed forces will plead luck of orders when Kenya is invaded, while, that is the reason for which they exist.
It makes the whole issue of Migingo look very silly.
Can Kenyans remember how Museveni took the Okellos in circle during their fight in 1986? Museveni was signing a peace deal with the Okellos and at the same time, tightening his grip on Uganda inch by inch. That is what he is doing with Kenya now.
Our ministers travel to Uganda to negotiate about our Island and immediately they return, Museveni adds to more solders to the Island bringing the number to 4. Our ministers and his go to Migingo and an official from the Fisheries Department in Uganda shuts down our Minister in the presence of 2 Provincial Commissioners and Police Commanders, and all hell breaks loose.
Our team run to their boat and comes back to safety and immediately Museveni sends in some 2 more police making the number to 6. He then goes to Zambia and meets with our CinC and they agree on spending Kshs 140 million to confirm what we all know; where Migingo is. Immediately they come back, Museveni sends in a Brigadier to take command of the Island and levy new taxes. Thereafter, he sends his spin doctor Mr. Opolot to come and bully our own spin doctor Mr. Alfred Mutura. Opolot made our Mutua tremble with fear at KICC in a charade of a press conference.
The following day, he sends his Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Mr. Isaac Isanga Musumba to come and tell us in Nairobi that if we doubt where Migingo is, we can go to hell, sorry, Hague.
Surely, can the Nation in their Editorial quote Museveni as correctly thinking that it is a shame to wrangle over a small territorial dispute?
Things must be very elephant at the Nation. Or do they know the secret that Mutua and Kibaki are privy to?
Odhiambo T Oketch,
Komarock Nairobi.
Kenyans must demand action over Migingo 2nd April 2009
The world must know that for the last eight months, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda has been levying taxes on Kenyans leaving at Migingo Island, an Island in Kenya, 15 Kilometres from Muhuru mainland of Kenya and 260 Kilometres from the nearest mainland in Uganda. This is an act of aggression.
During all that time, the world famed ruthlessness of the Kenya Police against Kenyans and the brutality exhibited by the Kenya Army in Mt Elgon and Wagir against Kenyans has been conspicuously absent. The Kenya Police even took off from Migingo at the first sight of 2 armed Police Officers from Uganda.
Yesterday, Migosi Raila Odinga was emphatic that Migingo belongs to Kenya and that the Ugandan flag that has been hoisted there for the last eight months must be lowered immediately. He went on to say that only 6% of Lake Victoria belongs to Kenya. As a partner in this government, I would have wanted to hear from him that all those Ugandans at Migingo have been arrested for being in Kenya illegally, and are been detained at Kodiaga Prisons awaiting to appear in Court.
If 94% of the Lake belongs to Uganda and Tanzania, then, johana mane ma ooro Museveni mondo okaw Migingo Islands? [What is this madness that has made Museveni invade Kenya?]
Why are we negotiating with Museveni? If the Army, the Police and the politicians can not reclaim Migingo, the people will, the people of Kenya must. We will stop all transit vehicles to Uganda, either through rail or road transport. We must stop all transit vehicles either by rail or road into Uganda with immediate effect.
It is very simple;
1] The Kenya Police must immediately arrest all those people masquerading as Ugandan Police at Migingo. They are in Kenya illegally. Do not negotiate this. It is so sad when an invader shuts down our Minister in the presence of 2 Provincial Commissioners, the Police Commanders and the press. Why is the Police Commissioner being sent to Uganda to negotiate with the invaders? Why has he never been sent to negotiate with Kenyans in areas of conflict? They cannot fool us!
2] The Armed Forces of Kenya must cease being ornaments best used for passing out parades. They must defend the territorial space of Kenya. They must not negotiate with Museveni over any bit of an inch of Kenya. They must repulse those invaders with the full force that they can. Why move into Elgon and Wagalla with such might and force, and put your tails between your legs when your services are most needed? When Kenya has been invaded?
3] The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Kenya must know that Kenya has been invaded. He must act to protect Kenya and Kenyans. We do not eat new Districts. We eat the fish that Museveni is now controlling at Migingo. For Gods sake, can those people who meet Kibaki daily tell him that Migingo has been invaded and has been under the firm grip of Museveni for the last 8 months? And that he is the Commander-in-Chief of the Kenya Armed Forces, as Mutula and Kalonzo likes reminding us.
Unless he and they know something that we do not know.
The Commander-in-Chief’s response to the Migingo crisis, now in its eighth month, leads most of us to confirm that there is a deal between him and Museveni. This deal is a fulfillment of favours earlier extended, or a deal expected in future. And that future is 2012.
If we look at how Kibaki has bestrowed Kenya in the past 6 years, I am convinced that the president does not mean well for Kenya. If a part of Kenya can be invaded by a country like Uganda and he keeps silent, then his leadership is wanting. It is also not by surprise that the President has refused to visit that same part of Kenya for the entire period he has been President of Kenya.
Museveni had invaded Rwanda and Kagame beat him so quickly and so ruthlessly that he cannot try again. He invaded DRC and again, Kagame came to the rescue of DRC and beat him there. He tried Tanzania and he knew the repercussions. He knows that Tanzanians will beat him and follow him to Kampala and topple him, the way they did with Idi Amin Dada.
He tried South Sudan, and the rag tag army of the southern Sudan dared him. They were ready for him any time, day or night. He cannot dare Ethiopia. He knows that Menes Zenawi does not take those kinds of jokes lightly.
He then turned to Kenya and invaded Migingo and for eight months, his flag has been high as he collects taxes from Kenyans.
The fact that our trigger happy police force could fold their tail and take off speaks volumes. What is the rationale of unleashing too much force on students who are just rioting while you turn a blind eye to an invader?
Where is the force needed? Against our own or against the invaders? I cannot believe that our normally ruthless police force could have left Migingo in fear of Museveni. There must have been an order to withdraw.
I also do not believe that our ceremonial ornaments in the barracks are that cowardly. They invaded Mt Elgon and beat our own Saboat people ruthlessly. There must have been an order for non interference. If our Army can beat people senseless in Mount Elgon and in Wagir, what can stop them from beating these Ugandans from Migingo?
Or, is it that our police and army are at their best against civilians, people who have no guns? People who cannot defend themselves?
Surely, if the Police could cordon off Uhuru Park for a whole one month in January 2007, can they surely be so afraid of Museveni and his team at Migingo? If the Police could kill so many Kenyans just to ensure that Kibaki became our President, can they not kill these 2 Ugandans at Migingo? Can they surely be so afraid in Migingo?
No. It is not the Police, it is not the Army. It is the Commander-in-Chief.
If the President does not want to take action, Kenyans must now defend their territorial integrity. We did it before by uprooting the Railway line to Uganda. We did it before by stopping all transit vehicles through Busia and Malaba.
If Uganda has invaded Kenya, and the Kenya Police and Army are under instructions not to intervene, Kenyans must take the law into their hands and protect our boundaries.
It is a shame that a rag tag army in Somali can act so swiftly whenever there is territorial violations while an Independent Kenya, cries baby.
It is sad to note that the President is doing nothing to promote peace, national healing and reconciliation in Kenya. He is refusing, for purposes of expediency, to be the symbol of national unity.
It looks to me like Migongo is an advance post for 2012, and we must view it as such. Kenya must not loose any inch of land, more so to Yoweri Museveni.
If the Army and the Police are under instructions not to defend us, let us defend ourselves. Sijivuni kuwa Mkenya!
Odhiambo T Oketch,
Koamrocks Nairobi.
