Friday 22 January 2010January 21, 2010 (Washington) – The American upper house of Congress has taken bold steps towards the disarmament of the Notorious Lord’s Resistance Army.

The bill comes after year of the armies of Uganda, DRC and South Sudan launched destructive air and ground attacks against the Elusive LRA Leader Joseph and his fighters.

Media reports have revealed the American support to the operations aimed to flush Joseph Kony.

U.S. Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) announced yesterday that support for their legislation to confront Africa’s longest running rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has reached more than half of the U.S. Senate.

The LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, now with 51 cosponsors, requires the Obama administration to develop a new multifaceted strategy to help bring an end to the LRA’s continued terror across three countries in central Africa.

It also authorizes funding to help secure lasting peace in northern Uganda and to help communities outside Uganda that have been devastated by the LRA’s violence. According to the Congressional Research Service, no bill specifically on sub- Saharan Africa has had this many cosponsors since at least 1973.

"The level of support for this legislation demonstrates unprecedented bipartisan consensus that the United States should work to bring a lasting end to Africa’s longest running rebel war,” Feingold said.

Last year alone, the Lord’s Resistance Army killed thousands of innocent civilians and abducted thousands more. With their support for this bill, senators are sending a clear message that this is unacceptable and that the international community, with the leadership of the United States, must do more to protect civilians and prevent further atrocities by the LRA, he added.

"The Lord’s Resistance Army has continued its reign of terror in Africa for nearly twenty five years, abducting tens of thousands of children for child soldiers or sex slaves, killing hundreds of thousands, and displacing millions. The United States must work with the international community to bring Joseph Kony and his terrorist organization to justice and help provide protection and assistance to those who have suffered at the hands of the LRA," Brownback said.

For more than two decades, under the leadership of Joseph Kony, the LRA has kidnapped more than 66,000 children and forced them to fight as child soldiers, wreaking havoc in northern Uganda and southern Sudan, and more recently, northeastern Congo and Central African Republic.

In addition to requiring a new strategy to confront the rebel group, the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act authorizes $10 million in additional funding for humanitarian assistance for those areas outside of Uganda now directly affected by the LRA’s brutality.

The legislation also authorizes $30 million over three years for transitional justice and reconciliation to encourage and help the Ugandan government to address the conditions in northern Uganda that enabled the LRA to emerge in the first place (From Sudan Tribune -click here to go  to the source)