‘First they expressed sympathy and support for the military action in course,’ Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Envoy for the LRA-Affected Areas Joaquim Chissano told reporters after briefing the 15-member body on the situation. ‘They also urged that the peace process be continued and they would support the peace process, which means the signature of the final agreement,’ he said, stressing that LRA leader Joseph Kony had now failed ‘for the seventh time’ to sign the accord reached earlier this year with Uganda.
… The International Criminal Court has indicted Mr. Kony and four other LRA leaders on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. “UN council urged to back push against Uganda rebels”, by Louis Charbonneau (Reuters), 17 December 2008, “…The elusive Kony and two of his deputies have been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. But Kony, a self-proclaimed mystic, wants the ICC arrest warrants to be dropped before the rebels leave their camps. Uganda’s government has pledged to ask the U.N. Security Council to suspend the ICC warrants after Kony lays down his arms. But the self-proclaimed prophet remains suspicious.
Chissano said the council has not discussed freezing the indictments as Kony has yet to honor his commitments….
The New York-based Human Rights Watch wrote a letter to Security Council members urging them to take a strong public stand against the LRA and support efforts to apprehen
d Kony and his deputies wanted by the ICC.
The letter said there were ‘credible reports’ that the LRA began committing fresh atrocities earlier this year, adding that there were consistent reports that the LRA was behind “abductions, killings, and pillaging’ in Congo this fall…”
“… Joachim Chissano said the aim of the operation was to force LRA leader Joseph Kony to sign a peace deal, which he has so far failed to do. He urged the UN Security Council to support the action by Uganda,Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo…. Mr Chissano said that the mediators had tried to explain to Mr Kony that the ICC warrants cannot be easily lifted….”
“The U.N. envoy trying to end one of Africa’s longest and most brutal wars said Wednesday he sees ‘merit’ in the military offensive launched this week by three nations against Ugandan rebels. ‘We are there to facilitate for peace, so we are going to always
advocate for peace. But we cannot condemn these military actions because we can see the merit of it, ‘the U.N. envoy for LRA-affected areas told reporters after giving a private briefing to the Security Council….”
“…The Ugandan government says that the main camp belonging to the LRA’s commander, Joseph Kony, was ‘thoroughly thumped’. Helicopter gunships followed, strafing at low altitude. After that, a ground offensive began, with the aim of catching or killing Mr Kony.
The Ugandans, some of them veterans of peacekeeping in Somalia, fought alongside troops from the armies of Congo and south Sudan.
