By LISA SHANNON
Lisa Shannon
Girls recover in the hospital after Ugandan troops rescued them from
LRA abduction a few days prior. Both suffered bullet wounds to the
legs.
The recent Kony 2012 viral video has attracted widespread controversy,
as well as scrutiny of the organization Invisible Children. While it
has stirred questions about the role of westerners advocating to end
mass atrocities in Africa, as well as useful dialogue on non-profit
fiscal management, the debate has obscured the key point. Joseph
Kony's immediate capture and delivery to the International Criminal
Court (ICC) would be an unambiguous victory for humanity. It is the
solution for which affected Africans have desperately, unanimously
pleaded.
The last few years have been a steady stream of bad news for my
friend, Congolese ex-pat Francisca Thelin, who was born and raised in
Congo's remote northeastern town of Dungu. In the late 1980s, she
moved to Portland, Oregon with her Peace Corp volunteer husband.
Since 2008, at night she has camped out at her dining room table,
trying to reach home. The few calls that make it through are often
static-marred and quickly broken, or full of hasty reports of cousins,
nieces, nephews and more cousins killed, abducted, burned alive. Or
she can't make contact at all for months at a time. Under Kony's
command, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has abducted six of
Francisca's young cousins, and murdered seventeen family members.
In 2010, Francisca and I spent a month in Dungu, interviewing
witnesses to attacks on her family. We asked everyone we spoke with
what they would like to say to the world. Their frustration was
palpable.
It was widely understood around Dungu that the United Nations would
rarely get out of the vehicles outside their secure compounds, much
less intervene to protect civilians. The FARDC (the Congolese Army)
only patrolled the main roads. And several eye-witnesses corroborated
that in January 2010 they blocked the only route for thousands of
civilians to escape a deadly LRA attack-in-progress. Francisca's
cousin Modeste was one of those forced to stay, while his fatally
wounded daughter bled to death, cradling her still-nursing baby.
"It's not right. The soldiers should be in the front so they can
protects us. But the soldiers were in the back, and we were in front,
with the LRA coming." Modeste added, "I can't even talk to my own
government. Because they don't care about the way people are dying
from the LRA. They don't do anything about it."
Related
Read other Lisa Shannon posts
Room for Debate: Fighting War Crimes, Without Leaving the Couch?
Ugandan forces were the only ones reported to enter the bush and
rescue abductees from the LRA.
Franscisca's Uncle Alexander lost several sons and grandchildren in
one day. He and his elderly wife were forced to run naked through the
forest with the LRA shooting at them. Though he lost everything in a
few days, he was clear. "We don't need plastic buckets and cloth
handouts. We had a good life before. Get rid of the LRA."
Raphael was a witness to the death of Francisca's cousin Roger, and
himself left for dead with axe wounds to the head. He agreed with
Alexander. "The world knows we have a problem here," he lamented. "Why
can't they get together and finish it? When will the answer come?"
Armed with no more than homemade slingshots and bows-and-arrows, we
met a 'local defense force' lead by the school principal, that day
covered in ash from burning underbrush to allow easier sightings of
new attacks. They were clear: "We don't need cornmeal. What is that
stuff anyway? We need peace!"
Francisca's family priest, a stout Italian who has lived in the area
for decades, now wears deep rope scars on his arms from LRA
restraints. On the day they held him hostage, the LRA ransacked the
parish and burned more than 200 neighboring huts to the ground. When
the topic of LRA's notorious leader came up, Father Farruccio grew
steely. "Kony. Cut him down."
Lisa Shannon
Girl recovers from bullet wound in the hospital after after being
rescued from an LRA abduction a few days prior.
In fact, whenever I floated alternate solutions or half measures past
LRA victims, they summarily dismissed the suggestions with one flat
sentiment. Every single LRA-affected person we spoke with emphatically
insisted on only one solution, delivered at fever-pitch: Get rid of
the LRA.
Questions about slick brand, campaign strategy, and non-profit fiscal
issues aside, we owe Francisca's friends and family — and all who have
suffered at the hands of the LRA — solid solutions. We owe them
concrete steps toward capturing Kony. Dismantling his small but
devastating force will require sophisticated surveillance.
Cost-effective early-warning programs are needed to warn vulnerable
locals of attacks. Demobilization, disarmament and reintegration
efforts are available, some of them relatively simple, to help LRA
abductees escape peacefully.
Tonight, I sat down with Francisca at her dining room table, where she
has spent so many anxious late nights, crying over lost family. I
asked her what she thinks of the Kony 2012 campaign.
"This guy is a monster. It's about will. If the US wants to do
something, they will do it." She paused for a moment. "I hope this
time it's serious."
Lisa Shannon is author of the book A Thousand Sisters, and founder of
Run for Congo Women and the new organization, A Thousand Sisters. She
has visited areas devastated by the Lord's Resistance Army, the focus
of a new viral video "Kony2012″.
More:
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/konys-victims-and-the-kony-2012-video/?ref=opinion
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
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