Will Putting a Price Tag on Kony’s Head Work?

US Congress Passes Reward Legislation to Capture LRA Leader - Sudan Tribune

Will putting a price tag on Kony’s head only further demonize and dehumanize Kony? Kony has committed inhumane atrocities, but continuing to objectify him fails to contextualize the conflict. Not only that, but it only continues to portray the conflict in black and white. Bad guys: LRA. Good guys: UPDF. However, sometimes we have to realize that things are not always black and white, but somewhere in between. 

#AFRICOM2012, Stop the real threat to Uganda

UPDF Continues to Take From the Acholi People

UPDF Cited in Bitter Land Wrangle With the Residents of Pabbo - Acholi Times

If the UPDF is supposed to be for the people of Uganda, why does it keep taking from them? 

#AFRICOM2012, Stop the real threat to Uganda

AFRICOM’s Getting Busy

AFRICOM has been getting busy recently, which can only mean they are preparing for something big. It seems to be working on its new “defense strategic guidance”, moving into the water, and holding meetings and conferences (NOTE: There is no talk of peace initiatives in the conference agenda).

Most of the coverage is mostly applauding AFRICOM’s growing efforts. However, we should make sure to hold the pause until we have read between the lines. What does AFRICOM’s growth really mean? Why is it growing? What is it actually trying to achieve? 

#AFRICOM2012, Stop the real threat to Uganda

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“U.S. Africa Command is using the new defense strategic guidance to shape its engagement in the theater by prioritized efforts, focusing on the greatest threats to American interests.”

” ‘In my mind, African Partnership Station embodies everything that is good and unique about Africa Command,” Hooper said. “Why is it so successful? It’s a unique program that allows us to train, teach and mentor, not only the armed forces of those nations in the Gulf of Guinea, but also some of their law enforcement forces.’ ” (In other words, AFRICOM is now able to pervade into not only the military, but also the politics of African countries). 

“And what happens at sea matters, not just for Africa, but for the entire world that depends on access to the global commons, Hooper said. He noted the direct link between maritime security, development, prosperity, stability and peace.” (Hooper must have also forgotten the links to power, control, “the war or terror”, and military domination). 

SOURCES: Diplo News, American Forces Press Service, AllAfrica, PaxPartnership

Exposing AFRICOM’s Secrets

U.S. Expands Secret Intelligence Operations in Africa - Washington Post

It is time to make visible AFRICOM’s secrets and stop them by 2012.

#AFRICOM2012, Stop the real threat to Uganda

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“The nature and extent of the missions, as well as many of the bases being used, have not been previously reported but are partially documented in public Defense Department contracts. The operations have intensified in recent months, part of a growing shadow war against al-Qaeda affiliates and other militant groups. The surveillance is overseen by U.S. Special Operations forces but relies heavily on private military contractors and support from African troops.

The surveillance underscores how Special Operations forces, which have played an outsize role in the Obama administration’s national security strategy, are working clandestinely all over the globe, not just in war zones. The lightly equipped commando units train foreign security forces and perform aid missions, but they also include teams dedicated to tracking and killing terrorism suspects.”

AFRICOM’s Steps Towards World Domination

Dagger Brigade to ‘Align’ with AFRICOM in 2013- U.S. Army

#AFRICOM2012, Stop the real threat to Uganda

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“This is not the Army trying to go into some new area. This is fulfilling a geographic COCOM’s mission requirements” 

*Of course by mission they must mean world domination...

AFRICOM Outsourcing Violence & Surveillance

Contractors run U.S. spying missions in Africa- Washington Post

#AFRICOM2012, Stop the real threat to Uganda

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“The previously unreported practice of hiring private companies to spy on huge expanses of African territory — in this region and in North Africa, where a similar surveillance program is aimed at an al-Qaeda affiliate — has been a cornerstone of the U.S. military’s secret activities on the continent. Unlike uniformed troops, plainclothes contractors are less likely to draw attention.

But because the arms-length arrangement exists outside traditional channels, there is virtually no public scrutiny or oversight. And if something goes wrong, the U.S. government and its partners acknowledge that the contractors are largely on their own.”

Another Danger to Uganda: ICC?

AFRICOM and the ICC: Enforcing international justice in Africa? - Pambazuka

Real Dangers to Uganda: AFRICOM, oil, militarization, and the ICC. It seems that in the list of real dangers to Uganda, the ICC has to be included. These four interdependent factors seem to work together to serve as the real dangers to Uganda. 

#AFRICOM2012, Stop the real threat to Uganda

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“Similarly, given the massive civilian devastation wreaked by recent US military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is likely that most Africans would say ‘no thank you’ to the offers of justice from the barrel of American guns. This is especially the case given that many of these law enforcement operations may be carried out not by uniformed US soldiers, but by US-contracted private security firms who anticipate a boom in business thanks to AFRICOM.[18] Given the near total lack of accountability that private contractors have enjoyed in Iraq and Afghanistan, this should also give human rights and peace advocates considerable pause for thought.

Finally, regardless of how the proposed cooperation works out in practice, there is the underlying issue that, for people in many areas of the world, the idea that US military force is the chosen instrument of global justice makes a mockery of the violence and devastation they have suffered at the hands of US military intervention. The ICC’s pandering to the US military is an insult to all those in the US and around the world struggling to hold the US military and its mercenaries accountable. The quest for global accountability will only become more difficult if the US military is appointed by the ICC as the chosen agent of global justice instead of being a force that itself needs to be held accountable.”

In case you ran out of reasons to challenge AFRICOM

With Its Record of Rape, Don’t Send US Military to the Congo - The Huffington Post

#AFRICOM2012, Stop the real threat to Uganda

Real Dangers to Uganda: AFRICOM, Oil, & Militarization

#AFRICOM2012, Stop the Real Threat to Uganda.

For a critical deeper analysis and understanding of the relationship between AFRICOM & continental Africa, particularly in relation to Uganda, refer to the chapter “AFRICOM: Militarizing Peace” from Adam Branch’s powerful book,“Displacing Human Rights: War and Intervention in Northern Uganda” (Oxford, 2011).

Adam Branch is senior research fellow at the Makerere Institute of Social Research, Uganda, and assistant professor of political science at San Diego State University, USA. He is the author of “Displacing Human Rights: War and Intervention in Northern Uganda” (Oxford, 2011).His work has focused primarily on the politics of human rights intervention in Uganda.  

Excerpts from the chapter can be found online (Pages 216-239).

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KEY QUOTES:

 “Since the launch of the so-called War on Terror, U.S. foreign policy toward Africa, and security policy in particular, has been oriented around a number of different, often conflicting, but also overlapping agendas that ultimately led to the establishment of AFRICOM in 2008” (218). 

”Counterterrorism, however, has not been the only security agenda competing for preeminence, and some analysts argue that it is, in fact, only a cover for the real interest driving American policy in Africa: access to Africa’s resources, in particular oil and to a lesser extent natural gas and other forms of mineral wealth, of increased importance with China’s rapid entry into the continent. Much has been made of the increasing U.S. dependence on African oil, expected to reach 25 percent of U.S. imports by 2015, and of the subsequent revaluation of Africa’s strategic importance for the United States. The United States is pursuing Africa’s oil through a diverse set of means, including building the security capacity of African states so that they can provide the needed security and stability to ensure access to resources with or without direct U.S. involvement; positioning U.S. forces in or around Africa in preparation for military contingency operations to counter extreme threats to oil supplies when African states fail to fulfill their security tasks; and even, at times, undertaking development projects in communities negatively affected by resources extraction to prevent them from disrupting access. The pursuit of oil is the dimension of U.S. interests in Africa that has evoked the most critical attention, with some arguing that the United States intends to use its ‘unprecedented military strength’ to create a ‘full spectrum dominance’ in order to guarantee access to the resource” (219).

“Despite criticism, militarism has only intensified under President Obama: in 2009, the budget for AFRICOM was tripled, and a new military emphasis was seen in several ambassadorial appointments, including Uganda’s. In 2010, $763 million was allotted to AFRICOM, whereas the State Department’s Africa Bureau’s operational budget had a $226 million allocation” (223). 

“As importantly, this flexibility and lack of permanent bases allows the United States and African states to avoid transparency and public opposition to Africa’s militarization. The dependence onlily pads instead of formal bases allows U.S. officials and African governments to deny that the United States even has military bases in Africa” (225). 

“The State Department in 2008 announced more than $1 billion worth of contracts in Africa for the next five years would go up to four military contractors. The absurdity of American-paid mercenaries being sent to teach Africans about human rights and good governance has not gone unnoticed, nor has the danger that their presence represents democracy and peace” (226).