Four countries plagued by democracy, governance, human rights abuses, ongoing conflict, international resource plundering and transnational threats such as the terrorist Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), were the subject of a hearing today by Chairman Chris Smith’s (NJ-04) Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations.

    U.S. policy toward four countries of Africa’s Great Lakes region–Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda–was laid out by top Obama Administration officials.

     “This hearing is particularly timely because the Administration has yet to officially extend its participation in the counter-LRA effort, and continuing conflicts in the region see more people die or suffer horrendous, life-changing abuse each day,” Smith said. “And today we hope to encourage a more regional approach from the Administration to the challenges being faced in the Great Lakes.” Click here to read Chairman Smith’s opening remarks.

    According to Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield there is reason to be particularly concerned about the state of the Great Lakes region:

    “The progress made in this region is fragile and is at great risk; in fact, this is the region I am the most concerned about, as it is out of step with the progression of the rest of the continent,” Thomas-Greenfield said. Click here to read her testimony.

    Despite all the conflict in the Great Lakes region, Special Envoy Thomas Periello said that is not the prime focus of U.S. policy in the region.

    “Our attention is focused acutely at this time on related, underlying challenges: the establishment of strong institutions of governance and harnessing the power of democratic voices in order to ensure that the people of the region are empowered to determine their countries’ futures,” Periello said. Click here to read his testimony.

    The LRA has plagued Uganda and neighboring countries where thousands have been killed, maimed, kidnapped or enslaved by its hands was the focus of a congressional hearing chaired Smith in September. That hearing examined the ongoing LRA threat in East and Central Africa and the efforts of the multi-national effort to end the LRA menace, and heard from one victim who testified that she had lost 28 members of her family killed by the LRA and that six children in her family were abducted and forced to become LRA sex slaves or child soldiers. Click here to read her testimony.

     Smith has held previous hearings on the LRA and its the group’s leader, Joseph Kony.

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