Calling on the Government of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) to recommit to a political solution to the conflict in northern Uganda by engaging in good-faith negotiations, and urging immediate and substantial support for the ongoing peace process from the United States and the international community.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Con. Res. 80, which calls on the government of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army, the LRA, to recommit to a political solution to the conflict in northern Uganda by engaging in good faith negotiations, and it urges support for the ongoing peace process from the United States and the international community.

As my good friend from California, Ambassador Watson, has pointed out, since 1986, northern Uganda has been embroiled in a vicious conflict which pits the forces of Uganda President Museveni against the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, LRA, of Joseph Kony. Kony claims to hold mystical powers and asserts that he has been guided by God to protect the Acholi people of northern Uganda who have been marginalized by Museveni's government. However, it is the Acholi themselves who have suffered disproportionately at the hands of the LRA.

The LRA, which has been designated as a terrorist group subject to the State Department Terrorist Exclusion List, moves in small, well- coordinated groups from bases in southern Sudan and more recently in eastern Congo. They hold no clear political agenda and make no attempt to hold territory, but they mutilate, torture, murder, rape and loot with impunity.

The LRA has abducted more than 20,000 people, mostly children, Mr. Speaker, to work as laborers, soldiers and sex slaves. Children are forced to the front lines, and those who do manage to escape from the LRA find it difficult, if not impossible, to return to their villages after having been forced to commit atrocities in front of their families.

One of the most visible signs of the collective trauma suffered by the people of northern Uganda was pointed out by Ambassador Watson, and this is the ``night commuter'' phenomenon. At the peak of the conflict, over 20,000 children would walk up to 15 kilometers from their village to the relative safety of the towns each and every night. They would spend the night under grossly overcrowded tents, sleeping on concrete floors, before getting up at dawn to make the return journey to

their villages. It was not for food, nor for the promise of social services that drew these children to these towns, but it was fear of abduction by the LRA.

While security conditions in northern Uganda have improved and the number of ``night commuters'' has decreased over the past years, roughly 90 percent, 90 percent, Mr. Speaker, of the local population remains homeless.

These 1.4 million people have been forced from their homes and herded by the Government of Uganda into camps for internally displaced persons. Despite attempts to ``decongest,'' the conditions in these camps are abysmal.

A health survey conducted by the Ugandan Ministry of Health in 2005 asserts that up to 1,000 people have died in the camps each week due to treatable illnesses such as diarrhea and malaria. The HIV/AIDS rate in the camps is more than double the national average. Sexual violence and domestic violence against women has increased dramatically, and the IDPs complain that camp life has all but destroyed the social fabric of the region.

For its own part, the Ugandan Government has failed in its efforts to defeat the LRA militarily, and to provide adequate protection for the citizens of northern Uganda. Instead, the government has embraced a highly questionable three-pronged approach towards resolving the conflict, and this includes: number one, pursuing a military campaign against the LRA; two, supporting indictments by the International Criminal Court, the ICC, against the LRA's top leaders; while, three, participating in peace talks while offering amnesty to LRA rebels.

It should come as no surprise that these mutually incompatible efforts have complicated matters and have failed to yield lasting results. Ill-timed military campaigns have undermined numerous mediation efforts, and the ICC indictments have led the LRA to question the sincerity of the amnesty deal offered by the government leaders.

Further, both the Government of Sudan and the LRA have routinely violated the agreement that is called the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement which has now expired without ever having been fully implemented. These actions have prompted skeptics to warn that both sides may be using the pretext of talks to rearm and replenish their forces.

If this is in fact the case, both the LRA and the Ugandan Government should be reminded of the fact that a military solution has alluded them for over 20 years. It is unlikely that a military solution will be any more viable now.

Thankfully, peace talks between the Government of Uganda and the LRA have resumed in Juba, Southern Sudan, and appear to be gaining momentum. Despite numerous challenges, not the least of which is the fact that delegations allegedly representing the two parties have questionable credibility, the Juba process is being hailed as the best chance yet to ending the conflict by political means.

H. Con. Res. 80 serves as an expression of support for this political dialogue. It expresses disapproval of the LRA leadership and its inconsistent commitment to resolving the conflict and it urges both the LRA and the Government of Uganda to engage in good-faith negotiations. It encourages all parties to immediately stop human rights violations and address the issues of accountability, and it calls on both the LRA and the Government of Uganda to renounce any intentions and halt any preparations to resume this violence.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, the resolution calls on the State Department, on the United States Agency for International Development, and other similar government and nongovernment organizations within the international community to continue and to augment efforts to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in northern Uganda and to support a peaceful resolution to this humanitarian crisis.

According to the U.N. Office of Humanitarian Affairs, the conflict of northern Uganda is characterized by a level of cruelty seldom seen, and few conflicts rival it for its sheer brutality.

Despite all of this, Mr. Speaker, it remains one of the most overlooked humanitarian and human rights crises in the world today. H. Con. Res. 80 seeks to shed some well-deserved attention on the crisis in northern Uganda. It affirms the resolve of this Congress that the victims of this atrocious conflict shall not be forgotten.

Mr. Speaker, I thank you for bringing this important resolution to the floor. I urge support by all of our Members.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith).

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, having personally visited Uganda in April 2006, I chaired a hearing on the endangered children of northern Uganda for the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations. We heard from a number of witnesses and we raised it and continue to raise it with the administration.

But one of our witnesses was a particularly noteworthy person, Grace Akallo. Grace is, or was, a child soldier, an abducted young girl, who was totally mistreated by the Lord's Resistance Army. She was turned into a child soldier. And just a couple of days ago, announced her new book called ``Child Soldier'' which makes chilling reading for anybody who wants to know what really goes on in northern Uganda, and how crazed Joseph Kony

and his people are; and how, as the distinguished gentleman said just a moment ago, they turn girls into sex slaves and killers and the young men into killing machines. It is a terrible, horrible indictment on how low the individual can sink to.

And Joseph Kony, as we all know, has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for serious crimes against humanity. And, regrettably, this killing continues to go on.

I urge Members to read the book. It is an awakening not just on how she suffered, but also how a person when surrounded by people who love her and give her the kind of support that any individual like herself needs to get, how they can come back, the resiliency of the human spirit. She is a soft-spoken, poised, gentle, lovely young woman who has a great future, but she has been through a nightmare. We ought to keep her and her friends in our prayers.

She also pointed out just last week in a meeting that we had announcing her book that she cries out and prays every day for her friends, many of whom she does not know what happened to them. They are still there, she thinks. They may be dead. But she has no idea. I think that puts additional impetus on us to do more, to save these children, this lost generation.

Mr. Speaker, over the last 20 years as many as 1.5 million persons, an estimated 90 percent of the population of the Acholi area in northern Uganda have been forced into internally displaced camps as a result of the violence between the Lord's Resistance Army and the Government of Uganda. Nearly half of these internally displaced persons are children under the age of 15, people like Grace Akallo.

One quarter of the children in northern Uganda over 10 years of age have lost one or more parents. About a quarter of a million children receive no education at all. The fact that 60 percent of the schools in northern Uganda no longer function is directly attributable to the war. I point out that those that do function do so in a very meager way.

Because of the war in the north, Uganda has developed a lost generation that has grown up in dire circumstances with fear and deprivation as their constant companions. Nearly half of the children in one town are stunted from malnutrition. They are likely to never recover.

The latest 2006 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices summarized in a chilling fashion the horror that has been perpetrated on the people of northern Uganda, particularly by the head of the Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Kony. It states that ``at the height of the war, the LRA, led by Joseph Kony, committed serious abuses and atrocities, including abduction, rape and the killing of civilians. The LRA used children as soldiers, held children and others in slave-like conditions, and subjected female captives to rape and other forms of severe sexual exploitation.''

This resolution tries to put additional focus, additional girth, behind the effort to finally find a negotiated solution to this ongoing killing fields, and we all hope and pray this will have at least a happier ending than thus far.

Again, I urge Members to read the book by Grace Akallo, ``Girl Soldier.''

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 80) calling on the Government of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) to recommit to a political solution to the conflict in northern Uganda and to recommence vital peace talks, and urging immediate and substantial support for the ongoing peace process from the United States and the international community, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I first want to thank the distinguished gentleman from Georgia, Mr. Hank Johnson, for sponsoring this important and timely resolution on the nightmarish conflict in northern Uganda.

Two decades of horrific battle between the Lord's Resistance Army and the Ugandan government have taken up to 200,000 lives and displaced nearly 2 million civilians from their homes. But the human tragedy in Uganda cannot be simply represented but numbers and statistics. It is about the daily pain and terror of victims and their families.

Like other rebel forces that have fought the tragic civil wars of Africa, the Lord's Resistance Army built its ranks with child soldiers, both girls and boys, and used vicious and unspeakable methods to alienate these children from their families and their villages. Time and again, Uganda child victims have been forced to commit unthinkable acts, to kill their parents and other relatives before being abducted themselves.

Over two decades of war, more than 30,000 children have been kidnapped and faced a horrible fate, becoming absorbed into the LRA. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of terrified children leave their home villages each evening at dusk and walk to distant towns to avoid being kidnapped by the LRA and pressed into service. They are known in Uganda as the ``night commuters.''

Mr. Speaker, every parent in the United States labors to reassure their young children that they are safe at home when sleeping in their own beds. The greatest crime of the Lord's Resistance Army is to take even this basic right away from children and families of northern Uganda.

While the LRA is responsible for the overwhelming majority of violence and abuse of children and their families, the government of Uganda also has been cited time and again for human rights violations. In August of last year, South Sudan's President brokered a cessation of hostilities agreement between the government and the rebel forces, but the accord broke down and only last month did the 10-month effort resume.

I believe the Uganda people deserve both peace and justice. It is incumbent upon the international community to work with Uganda people, particularly the people of northern Uganda, along with the International Criminal Court and the Ugandan judiciary, to make sure both a lasting peace and real justice are achieved.

The healing and the recovery of the Uganda people, particularly the children, from this tragic war, requires that we make their personal peace the priority right now. It is the only path to lasting stability for northern Uganda. That is why I urge the passage of this legislation, to put Uganda on a path to peace once again.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Johnson).

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentlewoman from California and also the honorable gentlewoman from Florida for their support for this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Con. Res. 80, a resolution that I introduced which calls on the Government of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army, or the LRA, to recommit to a political solution to the conflict now raging in northern Uganda, and to recommence and sustain vital peace talks.

It also urges immediate and substantial support for the ongoing peace process from the United States and the international community.

When it comes to international affairs, Mr. Speaker, the Congress is somewhat limited in the action that it can take to address issues of concern. As we all know, it is primarily and rightfully a function of the executive branch. However, we do have the right and the ability to use this platform to focus attention on human suffering around the globe, if only for a moment.

So now is our moment to put a spotlight on the situation in northern Uganda. The situation has been explained by both the gentlewoman from California and the gentlewoman from Florida so I will not duplicate what they have said.

My sincere hope is that H. Con. Res. 80 will help bring peace to the ravaged region of northern Uganda. Specifically, this bill calls on the Government of Uganda and the LRA to recommit to a political solution to the conflict in northern Uganda and to sustain the vital peace talks that are now ongoing. It also urges immediate and substantial support for the ongoing peace process from the United States and the international community.

Mr. Speaker, the tragedy in Darfur rightfully has been receiving a great deal of attention as of late, but to the southeast of that region, another tragedy has been developing for nearly two decades. More than 200,000 Ugandans have died from the violence and disease brought about by the conflict between the Ugandan Government and the

Madam Speaker, I stand today to express my support for House Concurrent Resolution 80, introduced by Congressman Hank Johnson. This is the first action to be taken by the House concerning the continuing conflict in northern Uganda which has claimed so many lives. I am a proud cosponsor of a resolution calling for an unprecedented and historical effort to peacefully resolve the Ugandan conflict and garner international support for an ongoing peace process.

Jan Egeland, former United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, has described the crisis in Uganda as ``the biggest forgotten, neglected humanitarian emergency in the world today.'' Twenty years of conflict has afflicted Uganda's innocent civilians, including women and children, with experiences of torture, displacement, rape, murder and enslavement. The ensuing violence impedes trade, development and democracy, and prevents humanitarian workers from providing much needed assistance to the region. Peace talks last year appeared promising; however, the ceasefire has expired and there is concern about the possibility of a return to armed conflict between the government of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

We live in a global society. This conflict and its aftermath are an international responsibility. Immediate action must be taken to ensure that the peace talks continue in northern Uganda. House Concurrent Resolution 80 calls on the Ugandan government and LRA to recommence peace talks and urges the U.S. and international community to support the peace process. I commend these efforts, endorse this bill, and look forward to a day when armed conflict and human rights violations no longer afflict our world.