Today, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted unanimously to approve the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009, bringing the legislation a step closer to reaching President Obama's desk. The bill is now eligible to be voted on by the full United States Senate, and has already picked up the support from a bipartisan set of 29 cosponsors.

"The committee's vote is a ringing endorsement of this legislation and reflects unprecedented consensus in Congress that President Obama should be taking much stronger steps to stop LRA attacks against innocent civilians and children in central Africa," said Michael Poffenberger, Executive Director of the Washington-based advocacy organization Resolve Uganda.

The Senate legislation, introduced in May, seeks to help end one Africa's longest-running conflicts. It would require the Obama Administration to develop a multilateral strategy to help protect civilians from attacks by the LRA and generate increased American assistance to address the needs of displaced persons, former child soldiers, and other civilians affected by the conflict. A similar version of the legislation in the House of Representatives was introduced in May and has been cosponsored by 125 Representatives.

"Congressional leadership on this issue could not come at a more urgent time," said Poffenberger. "LRA attacks are now destabilizing three countries, and are increasingly a threat to the fragile peace deal between North and South Sudan. In the past year, LRA rebels have abducted close to a thousand children in Congo, and more in South Sudan and Central African Republic. The lack of an effective international response to these atrocities is an outrage."

The Senate Foreign Relations committee vote comes on the heels of massive US grassroots mobilization efforts this year aimed at generating more Congressional action on the crisis and increasing pressure on the Obama Administration to respond. Nearly 2000 US citizens came to Washington, DC in June to lobby for the bill's passage.

"Congress is on its way to giving President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a clear mandate to take more effective steps to help permanently end this conflict. What's needed now is momentum within the Administration towards addressing LRA violence in a comprehensive manner, including by developing adequate mechanisms to protect civilians and abductees and facilitate the defection of LRA fighters," said Paul Ronan, Senior Policy Analyst for Resolve Uganda.

"To permanently stop LRA attacks though, a viable strategy should include a multilateral, targeted effort to arrest Kony and top LRA leaders should they continue to refuse to take genuine steps to sign and adhere to the final peace agreement," added Ronan. ??The US legislation would also commit the United States to increase support to transitional justice efforts in Uganda, and press the Ugandan government to prioritize recovery of war-affected areas and progress on national reconciliation initiatives.

"Stopping Kony and top LRA commanders can end the immediate violence, but meaningful national reconciliation and reconstruction in the north are necessary to achieving lasting peace in Uganda. This bill allows the US to play a supporting role in this process, but also recognizes sustainable reconstruction requires improved leadership from the Ugandan government," Ronan said. (From allafrica.com -click here to go to the source)