When was the lra started

Two of them have since died: Lukwiya in and Otti in late , killed on orders from Kony. In their counterinsurgency campaigns against the LRA, Ugandan army soldiers committed serious abuses see below , although probably on a lesser scale than those by the LRA.

While the ICC prosecutor has indicated that investigations in northern Uganda are ongoing, his office has not brought charges against any members of the Ugandan army. But the ICC prosecutor has not provided a sufficient public explanation about the status of these investigations. Human Rights Watch has documented serious abuses by the Ugandan armed forces over the course of its year armed conflict with the LRA, including torture , rape, arbitrary detention, unlawful killings, and forced displacement of its citizens into camps with no protection and minimal humanitarian assistance.

The Ugandan army was also responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law when its forces occupied eastern Congo and assisted armed groups there between and Ugandan soldiers also shot and killed peaceful protesters and bystanders during anti-government demonstrations in September and April , including in Gulu in northern Uganda.

In the Ugandan government enacted an amnesty for Ugandan citizens, including LRA fighters, involved in an armed rebellion against the state if they renounced their involvement. Since more than 12, people affiliated with the LRA have been granted amnesty, including a number of former high-ranking LRA commanders.

Amnesties for war crimes and crimes against humanity violate international law, which rejects immunity from prosecution for the gravest crimes. In Uganda established an International Crimes Division to try war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other crimes.

Although national trials could make an important contribution to securing justice for crimes committed during the conflict in northern Uganda, serious legal obstacles have emerged that call into question whether the division can fulfill its potential as a meaningful forum to ensure accountability. To date, only one case related to the conflict in northern Uganda has been brought before the International Crimes Division, that of Thomas Kwoyelo , a former LRA member captured in Congo in March who is charged with war crimes.

He remains in prison while an appeal against the Constitutional Court ruling is pending. The Ugandan army has said that soldiers who committed abuses in the course of the LRA conflict have been prosecuted and convicted, though it has been unwilling to provide details of such cases to Human Rights Watch or others.

Human Rights Watch is aware of several instances in which soldiers were executed after being found guilty of crimes against civilians during the LRA conflict, following a verdict in a summary field court martial proceeding. Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances.

The use of child soldiers extends far beyond central Africa. The FARC rebels in Colombia, for example, have recruited children as young as seven and forced them into combat. It executes fighters who try to desert. The situation in a few countries is becoming notably worse. In Afghanistan, the Taliban has stepped up its use of children for suicide attacks. In Somalia, the Islamist armed group al-Shabaab has increasingly targeted children for forced recruitment, often abducting children as young as 10 from their homes or schools.

In recent years countries have ratified an international treaty pledging not to conscript or use children below age 18 in armed conflict, but 59 countries have yet to join. In the past five years the UN has negotiated action plans with 17 governments and armed groups in 10 countries to end their use of child soldiers.

Since the mids the number of countries where child soldiers have been used has dropped from approximately 30 to The UN Security Council has imposed sanctions against several individuals for recruiting and using child soldiers and established a special working group on children and armed conflict to pressure perpetrators to end their use of child soldiers.

In the United States adopted a law to prohibit some forms of military assistance to governments that recruit or use child soldiers or support militias that do so. The verdict will hopefully send a strong message to child soldier recruiters everywhere that using children in conflict could result in their prosecution and imprisonment. Another notorious recruiter of children is Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia, who is awaiting a verdict from the Special Court for Sierra Leone on charges of recruiting child soldiers and other crimes.

The Special Court has already convicted eight others for recruiting and using child soldiers. However, individual commanders who recruit and use child soldiers are rarely punished by their home countries.

Kony, a minute video about Kony and the LRA, has received unprecedented interest and attention. To date over million people have clicked on it. The video has also sparked a lot of debate. He and other LRA leaders should be arrested and brought to justice.

But the massive interest generated by the video could, and should, be harnessed to transform good intentions into concrete and effective action.

Human Rights Watch will use its in-depth research on LRA atrocities and advocacy outreach to press policymakers in central Africa and around the world to apprehend those wanted by the ICC, protect civilians from further attacks, and assist in the rehabilitation of affected communities. Get updates on human rights issues from around the globe. Join our movement today. Help us continue to fight human rights abuses. Please give now to support our work.

Human Rights Watch. Donate Now. Take Action. Join Us. Give Now. What is the LRA fighting for? How big is the LRA? Does the LRA target children? With indiscriminate killings, the militant Islamist sect is seeking to fight Western values and promote an Islamic state.

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We will sample your texts in our show. Visit the new DW website Take a look at the beta version of dw. Go to the new dw. More info OK. Wrong language? Change it here DW. COM has chosen English as your language setting. COM in 30 languages. Deutsche Welle. Audiotrainer Deutschtrainer Die Bienenretter. More than a million displaced by Boko Haram insurgency The number of internally displaced persons IDPs in northern Nigeria has hit the 1.

Boko Haram: barrage against Western values Boko Haram has been spreading terror across northeastern Nigeria since It is believed that Kony may have entered peace talks as a means of resting and regrouping. The entire time that the LRA was involved in peace talks, they were provided with food, clothing, and medicine as a gesture of good faith. The operation failed. Joseph Kony somehow learned of the attack in the hours before the air-raid and was able to escape.

The LRA fighters were reportedly instructed to target churches, where people would be gathered with their families for Christmas Eve services. A year later the LRA reprised the Christmas massacres in the Makombo region of northeastern Congo as a reminder of their powers of destruction. These attacks took place over four days, from December , This time they killed people and abducted Because of the remote location of the Makombo massacres in December , the outside world knew nothing about the attacks until three months later.

Human Rights Watch broke the news internationally on March 28,