At the Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the FY11 budget, Senator Feingold asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the LRAs continued violence across southern Sudan, northeastern DRC, and CAR.
In response, Secretary Clinton said the U.S. has provided support to improve the effectiveness of military responses to the LRA. She said thus far $6.4 million has been provided and additional funds are forthcoming. She also said that the U.S. has been pressing regional militaries and UN peacekeeping missions to place a very high priority on civilian protection, and to enhance information and intelligence-sharing and coordination. She also talked about targeted humanitarian assistance that the U.S. has provided over the last year to help communities directly affected by the LRA.
She closed her response by saying: I have been following the Lords Resistance Army for more than 15 years. I just dont understand why we cannot end this scourge. And were going to do everything we can to provide support we believe will enable us to do that.
You can watch the exchange online at this site (link: http://foreign.senate.gov/hearings/hearing/20100224_2/). Just click recorded hearing and scroll the video to 68:58.
Go to www.enoughproject.org to learn more about the LRA and what you can do to help end the violence.