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NEWS STORY
May 19, 2008 Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has recently gone on a new spree of abductions, sexual violence and looting, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday, demanding swift international action. The New York-based rights watchdog said in a statement that the LRA has carried out at least 100 abductions since February in the Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and southern Sudan. "Boys are made to act as porters or subjected to military training and girls are being used as sex slaves," HRW said. "The LRA is also engaged in widespread pillaging of villages." Richard Dicker, international justice director at HRW, said in the statement that the LRA and its leader Joseph Kony "took advantage of the breathing room given to them and appear to be terrorising civilians yet again." Kony had been expected last month to ink a peace deal ending his movement's deadly two-decade conflict with the Ugandan government but he failed to show up at the signing venue in southern Sudan. In 2005, the Hague-based International Criminal Court issued warrants against Kony -- whose group is notorious for raping and utilating civilians, enlisting child soldiers and massacring thousands -- and other top LRA leaders. "Concerned governments and UN officials cannot sit by while the LRA goes on a criminal rampage, committing heinous abuses against children and other people," Dicker said. HRW called on the United Nations and international governments to "develop effective plans to execute the ICC arrest warrants." Kony has consistently demanded that the ICC warrants be lifted for him to sign a peace agreement. He reportedly backed out of last month's peace signing due to concerns over the accountability process. The LRA has said it would prefer a Uganda-based solution but HRW and other international observers have argued traditional rituals and Ugandan courts could not guarantee the highest standards of justice for the victims. The conflict which started in 1986 has left tens of thousands dead and displaced an estimated two million people. story url
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