Ban Ki-Moon gets it wrong on the LRA

Not everyone rushes to read the periodic reports of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to the Security Council, but they do represent important statements of policy and everyone from rebels to world leaders carefully parse their meaning. All the more disappointing then that the Secretary General’s latest report on Sudan gets the facts badly wrong in talking about the Lord’s Resistance Army. The report claims, “Increased insecurity in Southern Sudan related to the faltering LRA peace process is a further concern.”

Faltering peace process? The LRA peace process is undeniably dead, and as John Norris noted on Enough Said recently, the LRA’s brutality in southern Sudan and eastern Congo since September 2008 shows that they are “truly a living horror” and more of a threat than ever to hundreds of thousands of civilians in several countries.

Enough’s Uganda-based field analyst Julia Spiegel also commented here that unless LRA leader Joseph Kony is apprehended, “the ruthless bloodletting across the region will undoubtedly continue.” We understand that the U.N. is inclined to err on the side of supporting peace processes, but right now there are no talks with the LRA, and the conflict has moved back into a decidedly military phase.

• Eastern Congo
• Lord's Resistance Army
• Sudan and South Sudan
• Genocide