WASHINGTON (AP) — A House panel has approved legislation that would expand the State Department's rewards for justice program to target the world's most serious human rights abusers such as African warlord Joseph Kony.
The Foreign Affairs Committee, on a voice vote Wednesday, approved a bipartisan bill authorizing operations for the State Department. One provision increases the department's authority in publicizing and paying rewards for information about individuals involved in transnational organized crime or foreign nationals wanted by any international criminal tribunal for war crimes or genocide.
California Republican Rep. Ed Royce, a proponent of the provision, said the top target is Kony, the ruthless leader of the Lord's Resistance Army. The group is responsible for a 26-year campaign of terror in Central Africa that's been marked by child abductions and widespread killings.
