Post date: Apr 30, 2012 12:43:2 PM
OBBO, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC (APRIL 29, 2012) (REUTERS) - In a bare concrete room in a far-flung corner of Central African Republic (CAR), U.S. Special Forces and Ugandan soldiers map out the hunt for one of Africa's most wanted rebel leaders.
U.S. soldiers use technology and local nomad intelligence in the hunt for LRA fugitive leader Joseph Kony and his group.
Kony has evaded the region's militaries for nearly three decades, kidnapping tens of thousands of children to fill his militia's ranks and serve as sex slaves as he moves through the bush. Thousands more have died in the wake of his brutal army.
The deployment of elite American forces to help track Kony and his senior commanders in the dense equatorial jungle across a region that spans several countries has raised hopes the sadistic warlord's days are numbered.
The U.S troops main focus is on improving intelligence on Lords Resistance Army (LRA) positions gathered both electronically and from tip-offs.
By meshing stories from hunters and nomadic cattle herders of encounters with the rebels together with sophisticated surveillance imagery, allied forces chart suspected rebel activity and coordinate the regional armies' pursuit of Kony.
"Specifically LRA-related, a lot of it is building the mechanisms to have information flow, coming in and going out, and also the local populace of the villages. Some of the situation we have, maybe a local hunter runs into the LRA in the bush, it would take him maybe two weeks to come out of the bush with information, and then once we verify where it's at and talk to him, it could potentially take two or three days for the UPDF (Uganda People Defense Forces), the FARDC (Armed Forces of Democratic Republic of Congo) elements to go investigate what's going on, so a lot of our working is building those communication mechanisms to allow information flow, one of the big things we do. Also advising and assisting both UPDF and FARDC to help improve any mechanisms they have in place and stream line what they've got going on," said Captain Gregory, a 29-year-old Texan hidden behind sunglasses and a wide brimmed hat told Reuters.
Kony, a self-styled mystic leader who at one time was bent on ruling Uganda by the ten commandments, fled his native northern Uganda in 2005, roaming first the lawless expanses of South Sudan and then the isolated northeastern tip of Congo.
In December 2008, after last-ditch peace talks failed, Ugandan paratroopers and fighter jets struck the LRA's Congo hideouts. Kony slipped through the net, raising suspicions he had been tipped off. He and many of his combatants moved north into CAR.
"Certainly in this part of the world, this part of these countries, there is not a lot of government presence, so it's easy for them to move around. They all even use foot carriers to travel between groups to pass messages. And the other piece I think is what he seems to have a unique psychological grip on people.
You hear this from even people who have managed to escape from LRA years ago. They still don't feel complete peace of mind as long as they know Kony is out there. That does seem that even if he is away from certain elements of the LRA, they still defer to him," said U.S. Department LRA expert Jason Lewis.
Kony was thrust back into the spotlight earlier this year when a video, "Kony 2012", highlighting the chilling mutilations, rapes and murders carried out by his spell-bound fighters went viral on the Internet.
Facing war crimes charges, Kony has transformed himself from a one-time altar boy to a master of jungle survival and evasion. His fighters have become increasingly savvy in concealing their movements, wading through crocodile-infested rivers and walking backwards and in loops to disguise their tracks.