Feature Reflection
Healing the Region
The Eastern African region has gone through myriad of conflicts in the last twenty years. Most of them have been internal conflicts tipping different groups with varying interests within the same borders. The Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda is one of those conflicts that went beyond the borders of the country and engulfed other people and threatened the stability of neighbouring countries. Julius Ojok unravels for us one the mystery behind LRA and the steps that have been taken in bringing peace to the Region that has known misery and death for over twenty years. Full story below...
News and Events
- Psycho-social support by JHC
- Economic Justice Conference
- Launching Ambassadors of Peace, 19th April
- JHC In Siaya and in Addis Ababa
- Call for Contributions: Hakimani: Jesuit Journal of Social Justice in Eastern Africa
Heroes of Peace
Babu is a head teacher in one of the schools in the worst hit areas in Nakuru. In height of the skirmishes he found himself saddled with the fate of six teachers and their families who were non Kalenjins in his school. He went visited each one of them and assured them of his personal support. In addition he consulted with the local leaders, chief and elders over their protection. However the warriors who went round the villages kicking out “non natives” did not heed to any prior arrangement and Babu was forced to hide one of the teachers in the ceiling of his house for a week, keeping him safe from the attackers and finally took him out of the village to safety.
The Challenge of traditional forms of forgiveness, healing and reconciliation
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) war has been one of the mind-boggling conflicts in recent decades; from its inception perhaps to its conclusion, mysteries and myths surround this conflict. The puzzles of the war have not only disturbed the military strategists but conflict analysts, human right and criminal practitioners, international lawyers, religious and traditional leaders and more so the politicians.
One of the greatest challenge has been the stern reminder to the western world and the international community of the traditional methods of conflict resolution-the “mato oput” and also the unrelenting appeal of the religious and the traditional leaders and a section of the people to forgive those who have consciously committed the most horrendous crimes against their mothers, fathers, brother and sisters.
The fact the LRA fighters have meted this serious mayhem against not only their own people but the people they claim to fight for, is in itself another mystery that is still difficult to comprehend and remains to be unravelled.
A bulk of both written and oral literature attribute the start of the LRA war to Alice Lakwena a relative of Joseph Kony. Alice Lakwena claimed to have been possessed by the Holy Spirit and thus she named the rebellion the “Holy Spirit Movement”. She waged war on the president Museveni government from 1986 until her defeat in October 1987 East of Jinja town about eighty kilometres from the Ugandan Capital Kampala. The Holy Spirit Movement inspired a lot of support within her own ethnic group the Acholi people- both among the elite and the non-elite. She later died in a refugee camp in Kenya after being defeated and moving to Kenya as a refugee.
As Lakwena and her Holy Spirit Movement were defeated and faded away, there emerged the Lords Resistance Army-the LRA. In the initial stages the LRA appeared to have had at least some support from a section of the Acholi people. As the rebellion progressed, the fighters started to adopt more brutal force. Massacres, rape, amputation of limbs and body parts like the breast, lips and others became common. Abductions as opposed to voluntary recruitment became the main means of recruiting and sustaining the movement with children being the major target perhaps they were easy to indoctrinate and always because they would have difficulty locating their way back to the community.
Some of the above factors did combine to force the people of northern Uganda into internally displaced peoples’ camps. It is estimated that about 80% of the population in northern Uganda of about 1.5 million people were forced to move to the IDP camps mainly in Gulu and Kitgum districts and thereafter in Pader district after carving it out from Kitgum district. Thousands of lives have been lost as a result of this war.
Militarily, the Uganda Peoples’ Defense Force launched a number of assaults against the LRA with the most serious being the Operation Iron Fist in March 2004. Operation ‘Iron Fist’ included a protocol with the Sudanese government that allowed the UPDF to pursue the rebels on the Sudanese soil. The operation saw UPDF launch serious military offensive against the LRA both ground and air strikes.
On the part of dialogue, Ms Betty Bigombe was appointed by the government to negotiate with the LRA; however, there was no meaningful stride to peaceful resolution of the conflict. In 2004 the government of Uganda referred the situation of northern Uganda and in October 2005 the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Joseph Kony and four other top commanders of the LRA some of whom have been allegedly reported dead.
A combination of military assaults, the ICC warrants, perhaps dwindling supplies, the signing of the Comprehensive Peace agreement in Sudan, repeated call from the religious and traditional leaders, forced the LRA to come to negotiating table with the government of Uganda to amicably resolve the problem. In July 2006 the LRA declared a ceasefire and in August a month later the government of Uganda and the LRA signed the cessation of hostilities, which paved way for the signing of other agreements.
So far the parties have signed the following agreements; the Cessation of hostilities Agreement and its six addenda, the agreement on comprehensive solutions and its protocols, this addressed the deals with security arrangements, power and wealth sharing among others; agreement on Accountability and Reconciliation and its annexure, this deals with the war crimes, crimes against humanity and the issue of the trial by the ICC. Agreement on a permanent ceasefire and agreement on Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration and the agreement on the implementation and monitoring mechanism and the implementation schedule. All these will form part of the final agreement [to be] signed in April 2008.
The Agreement on Implementation and Monitoring Mechanisms does stipulate that there shall be established an 'Oversight Forum' to oversee and monitor the& implementation of the Final Peace Agreement and to provide advice and support to the parties and any relevant institutions established under the Final Peace Agreement. The Forum shall operate for a period of nine months upon the signing of the Final Peace Agreement and may be extended in consultation with the government of Uganda. This Oversight Forum shall be chaired by the Chief Mediator; Dr. Riek Machar while the Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary General for LRA affected areas and former President of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano shall be the Spokesman of the Forum. The membership of forum shall also include one representative from each of the African Union observer countries; one representative from the European Union; and one representative from each of the countries, which are witnesses to the Final Peace Agreement and these, shall include the United States of America, Norway, Canada, among others.
A Joint Liaison Group (JLG) with membership of three persons to be nominated by the government of Uganda and three persons to be nominated by the LRA/M. The Chief Mediator in consultation with the two parties shall nominate the chairperson of the JLG.
The parties have so far signed the following agreements; the Cessation of hostilities Agreement and its six addenda, the agreement on comprehensive solutions and its protocols, this addressed the deals with security arrangements, power and wealth sharing among others; agreement on Accountability and Reconciliation and its annexure, this deals with the war crimes, crimes against humanity and the issue of the trial by the ICC.
The functions of the Joint Liaison Group shall include monitoring the implementation of the Final Peace Agreement on the ground in accordance with the Schedule agreed upon by the parties. The JLG shall also propose the names of persons from the conflict affected areas to be considered for political and diplomatic appointments in the government of Uganda and shall ensure that all departments implementing national programmes relevant to the Final Peace Agreement cooperate with the work of the JLG.
A Ceasefire Monitoring Team (CMT), to monitor the implementation of the agreement on disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of the LRA combatants who are not qualified or willing to join the Ugandan national army or other security agencies shall also be established. The leader of the CMT and deputy leader shall be senior officers from the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) with membership of five from each of the two parties, the African Union observer countries and the United Nations.
The government shall ensure the implementation of the agreement while the LRA shall ensure that they maintain a permanent ceasefire and the SPLA will create a buffer zone of ten kilometres around the LRA assembly point.
In the final analysis the peace negotiations in Juba and the signing of the agreements have been a painful path especially for the people of northern Uganda who for the sake of having peace and sleeping in their homes and not the IDPs have accepted to forgive the perpetuators of the most serious crimes against them. The strong emergence of the tradition method of conflict resolution still remains to be tested against the western and the statutory system of criminology and penology.
Julius ojok, lawyer by profession, serves at the Justice and Peace Department of Sudan Catholic Bishops' Regional Conference.