When the poop hits the fan...

With this new post I have little good news to report about the situation in Northern Uganda. It appears that the Ugandan government is moving forward with the preparations for the war crimes trials in the event that Joseph Kony and his top men are captured. The government has created a new war crimes court under the Special Division of Uganda's High Court that will try Kony and attempt to convince the International Criminal Court (ICC) to drop its warrants for Kony and his two top advisers.

Meanwhile, the ICC is getting serious. They have begun re-investigating some of the Ugandan attacks that occurred during the 20-year civil war in an effort to possibly add charges to their list of war crimes committed by the LRA. They have also been looking into the string of abductions that have been occurring in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Southern Sudan, and the Central African Republic (CAR). On May 20, the LRA apparently invaded the village of Kapili in the Eastern Congo. They looted the village, fought with residents, and occupied the village for several days. Both the governments of the CAR and the DRC are becoming tired of the continued violence that the LRA is bringing to their countries (more information here and here).

Interestingly enough, since the collapse of the peace talks only weeks ago, much new information is appearing about the intentions and opinions of those involved in the talks. In a new book (A Billion Lives: An Eye Witness Report from the Front Lines of Humanity--published May 12), Museveni is quoted as saying that the peace talks are a waste of time. Amid frustrations about the stalled progress of the talks, Museveni said, "No, those talks were not to our benefit. Let me be categorical--there will only be a military solution to this problem." The Sudanese government has also piped in on the current situation telling the LRA to sign the peace accords or skip town. Should the LRA fail to sign the peace agreement, the government of the Sudan may take military action. Compounding the situation, Tim Shortley--The United States Facilitator in the Juba Peace Talks-- shared some dismal news with a group of reporters in Washington D.C. Shortley commented, "the peace process is indeed over." Most frighteningly though, Joseph Kony, who failed to show for the meeting he called earlier this month, wrote a letter to the Ugandan Government shortly after standing the Elders, spiritual leaders, and community leaders up. In his letter, Kony explained his failure to show as a result of fears of being captured and sent to Europe to be hanged, being tried in an untested court (the special Ugandan war crimes court), and surprise capture by ICC and U.S. forces at the time of the meeting. Instead, Kony offered up these words of assurance: "It is better to die fighting than to surrender and be killed."

So far, no new word from Invisible Children. The situation in Uganda seems to be safe at the moment (LRA action is taking place in DRC, CAR, and Sudan, but so far, only small stirrings in Uganda). The trip is still on and all preparations are rolling. I have had most of my shots, have my anti-malarial meds, am beginning to collect the necessary supplies, and only have one more payment to make (feel free to help me make the payment by clicking on the donate button below--It is the biggie. P.S. --you rock!). The first group leaves for Uganda at the end of the week, and the second group (the group I will be traveling with) leaves in just over three weeks. In the coming days I will post my itinerary (with some cool new add-ons), and let you know more about the situation in Uganda as it develops.

On the bright side, I had my last rabies shot yesterday, which makes me more current on my rabies than my cats, although they still have the one-up on me with the whole neutering thing.

Best,
Matt

Photo Credits:
(All photos borrowed from flickr.com personal pages under CC license)

Photo 1: (Ugandan Soldier)--ruifipieggio
Photo 2: (P7030480)--matthewberry
Photo 3: (LDUs at Acholibur IDP camp)--John and Mel Kots
Photo 4: (P7020086)--matthewberry
Photo 5: (P7030470)--matthewberry
Photo 6: (P8230371)--matthewberry
Photo 7: (P7020271)--matthewberry