• HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH:Impunity and Human Rights Abuses in Northern Uganda • LIU INSTITUTE: Roco Wat I Acoli: Restoring Relationships in Acholi-land • ICTJ // HRC: Forgotten Voices: A Population-Based Survey on Peace and Justice • UNITED NATIONS: Health and Mortality Survey Among IDPs in N. Uganda • CRISIS GROUP: Building a Comprehensive Peace Strategy for Northern Uganda • UNICEF: Suffering in Silence: A Study of Sexual and Gender Based Violence • AFRICAN STUDIES QUARTERLY: Political Violence and the Peasantry, 1986-1998 • CRISIS STATES RESEARCH CENTRE: An Assessment of the ICC's Intervention • WCRWC: Learning in a War Zone: Education in Northern Uganda • INSTITUTE FOR SECURITY STUDIES: Behind the Violence: The War in Northern Uganda • REFUGEE LAW PROJECT: Causes, Consequences and the Search for Solutions to the War • INSTITUTE FOR SECURITY STUDIES: Reintegration of LRA Child Abductees in N. Uganda HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH Uprooted and Forgotten: Impunity and Human Rights Abuses in Northern Uganda October 2005 The Ugandan military and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army continue to kill, rape and uproot civilians in northern Uganda with brazen impunity. A brutal rebel group responsible for countless atrocities, the Lord's Resistance Army continues to wage war against the Ugandan government, whose undisciplined army has committed crimes against civilians, the very people they are supposed to protect, with near-total impunity. Today, as the war continues into its 19th year, 1.9 million displaced civilians in northern Uganda remain isolated, ignored and unprotected, vulnerable to abuses by both rebel and army forces. This 76-page report documents how the ongoing lack of accountability and civilian protection in the north has fueled atrocities by both sides. In each of the displaced persons camps visited, Human Rights Watch found cases of abuse by Ugandan government forces as well as rebel combatants. The international community and the Ugandan government must act now to radically overhaul the protection and accountability structures in the north to ensure that, in peace or war, the continuing suffering of the people of northern Uganda is alleviated. Continue Reading LIU INSTITUTE // GULU DISTRICT NGO FORUM // KER KWARO ACHOLI Roco Wat I Acoli: Restoring Relationships in Acholi-land: Traditional Approaches to Justice and Reintegration September 2005 When the Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced its intention to investigate the LRA in 2004, many local leaders in northern Uganda were opposed to the initiative. Traditional, religious and civil society leaders have argued that the ICC places ‘their’ children at greater risk, and threatens to further damage their cultural identity and beliefs. Traditional justice, based on restorative principles, is widely supported as a preferable option to the punitive approach of the Court. A number of advocates, therefore, argue the Court should cease its current investigation until local approaches are given an opportunity to work, or until peace is realized in the region. Despite this, very little is known about traditional justice in Acholi beyond its normative dimensions. This report provides a much needed analysis of what traditional justice in northern Uganda is, how it is currently practiced and what value it could add. In a seven month study, it documented existing practices of traditional justice in 16 internally displaced persons (IDP) camps and how some of these rituals have been adapted to promote the reintegration of former rebels. It does so in order to provide an initial assessment of whether or not traditional rituals and ceremonies could be further adapted in the context of the enduring 19-year old conflict. Recommendations to local, national and international actors are made in the conclusion of the report. Continue reading
INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE // HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER Forgotten Voices: A Population-Based Survey on Attitudes about Peace and Justice in Northern Uganda July 2005 This report urges the national and local authorities of Uganda and the international community to work together to develop an integrated and comprehensive strategy for peace and justice in Northern Uganda. The report is based on detailed interviews, conducted in April and May 2005, with more than 2,500 Ugandans on their personal experiences of the conflict and their opinions on how peace and justice should be achieved. Recently, the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced plans to issue indictments against Ugandan rebel leaders. In the heated international debate surrounding the ICC’s first intervention, the voices of Ugandans have gone largely unheard. This report presents, for the first time, a comprehensive survey of the people most affected by the conflict in Uganda—residents of the northern districts, many of whom are routinely terrorized by rebel attacks. Survey respondents expressed strong support for transitional justice mechanisms, including a truth commission and reparations. Over 80% of respondents said that they wanted to speak publicly about the abuses they had suffered. When asked what should happen to leaders of the LRA, 66% were in favor of punishing them, while 25% suggested measures such as forgiveness, confessions to the community, and compensation. Of those who had heard of the ICC, now investigating war crimes in Northern Uganda, a majority believed that the court would contribute both to peace (91%) and justice (89%). Continue reading MINISTRY OF HEALTH, REPUBLIC OF UGANDA // UN AGENCIES Health and Mortality Survey Among Internally Displaced Persons in Gulu, Kitgum and Pader Districts, Northern Uganda July 2005 In northern Uganda, nearly two decades of conflict have resulted in the internal displacement of up to two million persons. In Gulu, Kitgum and Pader Districts, the most affected by violence, nearly 90% of the population had relocated to camps as of 2005. The Government of Uganda’s national policy for internally displaced persons (IDPs) calls, among others, for provision of medical care and water and sanitation to all IDPs by both central and local government, and entitles them to security of person and property. The Office of the Prime Minister is tasked with advocating on behalf of IDPs and sharing information nationally and internationally on their plight. In 2005, the Ministry of Health of Uganda and the United Nations Childrens’ Fund (UNICEF) requested assistance from the World Health Organization (WHO) to assess the health status of IDPs in the three Districts. The study was led by the Ministry of Health and WHO in partnership with the offices of the District Director of Health Services of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader, UNICEF, the UN World Food Programme, the UN Population Fund, and the International Rescue Committee. Continue reading CRISIS GROUP Building a Comprehensive Peace Strategy for Northern Uganda June 2005 Peace may yet be possible in Northern Uganda in 2005. Many elements seem to be in place, but they need to be pursued by President Museveni's government in a more comprehensive framework, given stronger international support and -- most urgently -- be committed to by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the context of a specific process with a clearly definable endgame. The unanswered question is whether Joseph Kony, the unpredictable insurgent leader, is truly nearing a strategic decision that his prospects and those of his supporters are better served by a deal or whether he is merely playing for time in order to regroup as he has done several times previously. The mediation has been pursued in recent months against a backdrop of continuing LRA atrocities directed at Acholi civilians. The LRA remains focused on terror tactics, not the control of territory. Even with gradually eroding force levels, it still can wreak havoc with spectacularly brutal strikes, which prevent resettlement of the 1.5 million displaced persons and give the appearance the government is not in firm control of the North. Continue reading
UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND Suffering in Silence: A Study of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) In Pabbo Camp, Gulu District, Northern Uganda June 2005 This study on sexual and gender-based violence has identified rape, the sexual abuse of children and physical assault as being among the most common forms of sexual violence inside the Pabbo internally displaced persons camp in Gulu District, the largest and one of the oldest such settlements in northern Uganda’s conflict-affected districts. Suffering in Silence: A Study of Sexual and Gender-based Violence in Pabbo IPD Camp, released here today, also finds that girls aged 13 to 17 are most frequently reported as survivors of sexual violence, followed by women aged 19-36 and children aged 4 to 9. In particular, sexual violence is a highly traumatic event that impacts every aspect of the victims life. Girls and women who have been raped are particularly vulneralbe to sexually transmitted infections and other physical and mental illnesses, the study says. Continue reading
AFRICAN STUDIES QUARTERLY Neither Peace Nor Justice: Political Violence and the Peasantry in Northern Uganda, 1986-1998 April 2005 Uncertainty abounds concerning the 19-year conflict in Northern Uganda between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government. Two questions have received the most attention and could have the most bearing on efforts to resolve the conflict: first, why has the Ugandan government been unable or unwilling to end the war for nineteen years? Second, why has the LRA chosen to use extreme violence against the Acholi instead of trying to build popular support? First, this article addresses these questions, arguing that the debate has failed to take into account the political agency of the Acholi peasantry in the conflict and the relations between the peasantry and government, on the one hand, and the peasantry and the LRA, on the other. By putting the Acholi peasantry and its relations with government and rebels at the center of the analysis, the longevity of the war and the tendency by both rebels and government to use violence against the peasantry can be made sense of as a consequence of both sides' failure to realize an effective popular mobilization among the Acholi. Second, the article traces historically these failures of popular mobilization and the paths by which both the Ugandan government and the LRA came to see the population as a threat and potential enemy instead of as a potential support base. Third, by putting the people at the center of the analysis of the conflict, the groundwork is laid for putting the people at the center of the resolution of the conflict, transcending the current tendency of conflict resolution agendas to focus only on elites, treating the civilian population as passive bystanders or victims. Continue reading
CRISIS STATES RESEARCH CENTRE War and Justice in Northern Uganda: An Assessment of the International Criminal Court's Intervention February 2005 In December 2003 the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate 'the situation concerning the Lord’s Resistance Army' (LRA). The LRA have been waging a war against the Ugandan government in the north of the country for many years. Massacres of civilians have been perpetrated, and hundreds of thousands of people are living in displacement camps. Abductions by the LRA have been common, including abductions of children, some of whom have been forced to commit atrocities. The scale of suffering is immense, and there is no doubt that crimes falling within the jurisdiction of the ICC have occurred. The legal process in northern Uganda is the ICC’s first big case. Human rights groups have been very enthusiastic about its potential to end impunity. However, serious concerns have been raised about the legal process in northern Uganda, particularly with respect to the effects on children and other vulnerable groups. Several organizations and analysts have raised similar and additional concerns, and the ICC has generally had a frosty or even hostile response from local representatives of civil society on the ground. This independent report examines the current ICC investigations and possible prosecutions, and assess the risks to children - including the children still in captivity (i.e. those living and perhaps fighting with the LRA), and the formerly abducted children that are now living at one of the reception centres or have returned to their families. The report is also aimed at providing an understanding of how the actions of the ICC are likely to affect national, regional and local reconciliation and the entire peace building process. Continue reading
WOMEN'S COMMISSION FOR REFUGEE WOMEN AND CHILDREN Learning in a War Zone: Education in Northern Uganda February 2005 Perhaps the most heinous component of the war in Northern Uganda is the kidnapping and use of boys and girls as soldiers and slaves by the LRA. It is estimated that over the course of the conflict, more than 28,000 children have been abducted, and that currently 80 percent of the fighters in the LRA are children. To avoid abduction, about 45,000 children “night commute” each evening, walking from their homes to centers where they sleep en masse, most often on the ground. They are cold, there are not enough latrines or water sources, there is little light. Incidents of gender-based violence and stealing occur. In the morning, the children walk home, perhaps eat something, then walk to school. In September 2004, staff from the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children went on a mission to northern Uganda. One focus of the mission was to look at the education situation in the north given that the region has been and is currently in a situation of violent conflict. With 1.6 million people displaced, learning systems and structures have been altered significantly, even with the Ugandan government’s pledge of Universal Primary Education (UPE). This report is a snapshot of education in two districts, Gulu and Kitgum, based on interviews with representatives from NGOs, youth groups, teachers and heads of schools, local government officials, multinational actors and the children themselves. See also "Resilience in the Darkness: An Update on Child and Adolescent Night Commuters in Northern Uganda". Continue reading
INSTITUTE FOR SECURITY STUDIES Behind the Violence: The War in Northern Uganda March 2004 The war in northern Uganda is now entering its eighteenth year. Initially rooted in a popular rebellion against President Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) government, the conflict has since been transformed by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) into a brutally violent war in which civilians are the main victims. More than 1,4 million people have been displaced, and tens of thousands more have been killed, raped or abducted. At first glance, the persistence of the LRA over such a long period is incomprehensible: the majority of the force is made up of kidnapped children held against their will, the LRA is extremely unpopular among civilians because of its brutality and apparent lack of an overarching political agenda, and it operates in an environment without significant natural resources to sell for arms. Indeed, the conflict has not only continued for nearly 18 years, but in 2003 spread significantly east into the Teso and Lango regions. Based on extensive interviews in Gulu, Kitgum, Lira and Soroti, with additional consultations in Kampala, Luwero, London and Washington, this monograph examines the structural causes that underpin the war, its current dynamics, the implications of the conflict spreading further east, and ideas for resolution. Continue reading
REFUGEE LAW PROJECT Behind the Violence: Causes, Consequences and the Search for Solutions to the War in Northern Uganda February 2004 The war in northern Uganda is now entering its eighteenth year. Initially rooted in a popular rebellion against President Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Movement (NRM) government, the conflict has since been transformed by Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) into a brutally violent war in which civilians are the main victims. Over 1.4 million people have been displaced, and tens of thousands more have been killed, raped or abducted. This report examines the structural causes that underpin the war, its current dynamics, the implications of the conflict spreading further east, and ideas for resolution. The report asserts that while people living in the north have deep-rooted grievances against the current government, Kony's LRA is a poor expression of these and enjoys no popular support amongst the civilian population. The war is thus two conflicts in one: a multi-faceted northern rebellion against the NRM government whose root causes have never been fully resolved, and a war with an LRA that does not fit conventional models of political insurgency and is motivated by an Old Testament-style apocalyptic spiritualism. Continue reading
INSTITUTE FOR SECURITY STUDIES Violence, Reconciliation and Identity: The Reintegration of Lord's Resistance Army Child Abductees in Northern Uganda November 2003 In Uganda, forced conscription of children into conflict as soldiers and combatants first gained prominence during 1980, when Museveni’s resistance force had recruited an estimated 3,000 child soldiers. Although estimates vary, most would suggest that by the end of 2000, over 15,500 children have been abducted since the beginning of the war. Less than 6,000 of these children had managed to escape or have been liberated from captivity. In spite of the culture of peace and discourses of forgiveness and reconciliation within recipient communities, there are real tensions around reintegration and reconciliation surrounding the return of ex-abductees. Experiences within the LRA may have fundamentally altered the manner in which ex-abductees function as members within a family or as constituents within a community. Community members have concerns that this may be negative, and that ex-abductees may be aggressive or violent as a result of the violence they themselves were exposed to. Teachers and community leaders noted another side to this story. Some of the children who returned were stronger and more confident than children who were never abducted and their experiences in the bush coupled with the success of escaping gave them a newfound confidence from which leadership qualities have grown. Continue reading
Compiled by Robert Hartfiel Human Security Research is produced by the Human Security Centre at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at UBC. The Human Security Centre produces the annual Human Security Report and is funded by the governments of Canada, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. For more information on human security visit the Human Security Gateway, an online research and information database that contains a broad range of human security-related resources. To subscribe to Human Security Research , send an email to hsc.list@ubc.ca with 'subscribe HS Research' in the subject field or click here. To unsubscribe, please reply to this message with 'unsubscribe HS Research' in the subject heading. |
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