GuluWalk 2009 Helps Push Bill for African Peace

Support Given to LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act

Oct 30, 2009

Globally-conscious citizens rallied in the U.S. and around the world to support the cessation of LRA activity in Uganda, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

On Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009, thousands of people in cities around the world participated in the fifth annual GuluWalk. The event was particularly successful in Washington D.C., where over 100 walkers took to the streets near the Capitol Building and White House, making calls to Senators' offices in support of the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act. Both the Walk and the Act aim to bring an end to civilian terror caused by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) as well as aid the displaced families of Uganda, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo who have long suffered under such terror.

Goal for GuluWalk 2009

While in past years the goals of GuluWalk have been simply to raise awareness about the worsening travails of Ugandan civilians and funds for their rehabilitation, the GuluWalk of 2009 adopted an additional goal: to build a Gulu Youth Cultural Center in northern Uganda. The hope is that this structure and program will bring the community together through the sharing of art, music, dance, theatre and a desire for peace.

Because of the LRA's long history of child abduction and soldiery, it is the youth of Uganda that has suffered most and that most needs the promise of a future in which their culture is one defined by beauty, not fear. GuluWalk raised over $100,000 for the construction and operation of the Cultural Center.

Introduced by Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) in May 2009, the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act calls on the United States to permanently disrupt the activities of the Lord's Resistance Army and to invest in a sustained peace throughout the east-African region. Central to this bill is the mandate that the LRA's top leaders - namely, Joseph Kony - be apprehended and that their ranks of child soldiers be demobilized, all while affected civilians remain protected from retaliatory attacks.

According to Senator Feingold, the U.S. is especially obligated to show such humanitarian initiative because of its recent involvement in anti-LRA actions with Operation Lightning Thunder. Occurring late in 2008, the Operation, which involved the armies of Uganda, Sudan, and Congo, sought but failed to capture LRA leader Joseph Kony and stabilize the region. It also lacked sufficient funds to protect nearby civilians who were subsequently killed in retaliatory attacks made by the LRA.

In addition to seeing an end to the LRA, the Disarmament bill takes into account the necessity of recovery and rehabilitation, as well. Hundreds of thousands of families throughout the Uganda, Sudan, and Congo regions were forced to flee their homes and now survive day to day in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. Disease and hunger run rampant in these camps due to over-population poor sanitary conditions. Sustained peace, the bill's ultimate goal, cannot truly be attained until these people are assured a safe return to their homes.

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