U.S. Congress Passes Anti-LRA Bill

The U.S. Congress has passed a bill calling upon the administration of President Barack Obama to lead international efforts to end the threat to civilians posed by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The bill was passed late yesterday.

A joint statement from US-based organisations, The Enough Project, Resolve Uganda and Invisible Children, says the legislation demonstrates Americans' broad and deep determination to see new action from President Obama to help arrest Joseph Kony and other top LRA commanders. The statement says the bill provides support to disarm and disband Kony’s militia, and to restore stability to those areas of Africa that have been terrorised by the LRA.

The US House of Representatives passed the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009 by voice vote. According to the statement, this vote constitutes the most significant action Congress has taken to date to end the LRA’s long reign of terror and restore lasting peace for the central African communities devastated by war.

Mr John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project, says President Obama now has an opportunity to help catalyse an end to a unique and sinister form of terrorism. He says that real chance exists to close the book on this two-decade threat to international peace and security, whether in a courtroom in The Hague or the abduction fields of Central Africa.

The bill specifically states that it is US policy to support 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. It also requires a strategy from President Obama that includes viable options to eliminate the threat posed by the Lord's Resistance Army.

The Ugandan government has not officially reacted to the passing of this bill.