Adventurer aims to track down Kony

[iolsa]

Kampala - Can you crowd-fund the hunt for a war criminal on the run deep in Africa's jungles? A Canadian adventurer with experiences in Afghanistan and Somalia wants to do just that: raise funds and take a small band of former soldiers to find Joseph Kony.

Robert Young Pelton, whose plan has already drawn criticism from a pair of Africa experts, is the latest to join a line of private individuals and aid groups who are trying to corner the alleged mass murderer and members of his Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).  

Kony remains elusive despite the deployment by President Barack Obama in late 2011 of 100 US Special Forces to aid the hunt – which is mostly carried out by Ugandan troops – and the efforts by myriad private groups.

Among those efforts:

* Invisible Children, a US aid group, created a web video seen by more than 100 million people last year that made Kony a family dinner topic, introduced new audiences to the conflict and inspired global action.

* The Bridgeway Foundation, a Houston-based charity, hired a private company two years ago that specialises in military and law enforcement training to teach child hostage rescue techniques to the Ugandan troops tracking Kony. With support from the deep-pocketed Howard G Buffett Foundation, Bridgeway pays an aviation company to fly a Cessna Caravan airplane and a Bell helicopter that are used to extract LRA defectors, transport injured people and broadcast anti-Kony messages from loudspeakers.

Adventurer Robert Young Pelton, who is trying to corner Joseph Kony and the members of his Lord's Resistance Army, says he excels at finding people who don't want to be found.

Associated Press

* Invisible Children and Resolve, another aid group, operates a website called the LRA Crisis Tracker that collects information on LRA attacks – often radioed in by villagers – in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Sudan. The site allows US military officials or aid workers to see where the LRA is concentrating its attacks.

The US State Department said non-governmental groups and foundations "have played a critical role in bringing the LRA's atrocities to the world's attention and continue to play an important role to end those atrocities".

But while the US military's Africa Command and the State Department both said they "appreciate the passion and commitment of Americans and citizens around the world to help the communities terrorised by the LRA", neither would comment on Pelton's effort.

Pelton, the author of The World's Most Dangerous Places, says he has done work for US military commanders in Afghanistan, and that he excels at finding people who don't want to be found.  

If his plan is funded, he would start looking for Kony, who is likely in the Central African Republic, early next year, he said.

"I am actually walking through the jungle myself with a stalwart band of like-minded people with all the right skills," Pelton said by phone, adding that his group won't be looking to kill anyone and intend to comply with local laws.

"I'm not Wyatt Earp," he insisted. "I'm not gathering a posse to chase down Kony for the money. I'm trying to see if I can create a system that works."

By "works" Pelton means a system that can finally get Kony, who was indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2005 on crimes against humanity charges including intercourseual slavery, rape and murder.

J Peter Pham, director of the Africa Centre at the Atlantic Council, a think-tank in Washington, said: "One really does not know whether this scheme merits ridicule or reproach. The notion of asking the public to contribute to sending a self-promoting adventurer and two film-makers off to find an elusive warlord who the militaries of several African countries assisted by US Special Operations Forces have not managed to catch is risible, to say the least."

Pelton's $500 000 (R5 million) crowd-funding bid via indiegogo – a platform like Kickstarter – has raised only about $7 500 in two weeks.

The Ugandan military spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Paddy Ankunda, said he had not heard of Pelton's mission, though he sounded incredulous when it was described to him.

"We wish him good luck. That's all I can say," Ankunda said.

The US Africa Command says the LRA has "murdered, raped and kidnapped tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children" and that more than 380 000 people across three African countries have been displaced while fleeing the violence.  

The US State Department is offering a $5m reward – up to $15m in total – for help in the arrest of Kony and two of his lieutenants.

Ugandan Brigadier Sam Kavuma, who took over earlier this year as the top commander of AU troops searching for Kony in a wild, sparsely inhabited region of dense jungle covering the DRC, South Sudan and the Central African Republic, spoke well of Bridgeway's contribution, saying it made the mission more agile.

Others, though, including those who are generally pleased with the group's role, say that disputes arise between US troops, the Ugandan military and Bridgeway's private contractors.

Simon Mulongo, a lawmaker who sits on the defence and internal affairs committee of Uganda's parliament, said Bridgeway's private contractors are essentially "a mercenary force, and mercenaries have limitations".  

He said there were concerns about the chain of command and possible infighting.

The contractors carry light weapons and tracking devices, Mulongo said. Kavuma disputed this account, saying the contractors are not armed and that only one of them is still active on the ground in central Africa.

Besides its other assistance, Bridgeway is also financing a canine unit to find children abducted by Kony's army.

"What was happening was you just could never find the children in that vast of a jungle, in that thick of a jungle, and so these sniffer dogs would come in and they could smell where the children had bedded down and help find them," said Shannon Sedgwick Davis, Bridgeway's chief executive.

The US State Department said it has no objections to Bridgeway's escalated role and that it seeks to co-ordinate with all such groups where possible.

But despite all the efforts, Kony remains on the loose.

Sapa-AFP