Northern Uganda: Money, confused strategies and spirits make the conflict go on

Thousands killed, raped, or abducted. 1.4 million forcibly displaced. And the conflict in Northern Uganda now continues into its 19th year. Here the Newsletter suggests why

By Harriet Namisi, Deniva

It is sometimes said that people in the north have supported the rebels hence fuelling the war. Ojok Kellobino Vice Chairperson LC 5 in Gulu says that in every war, one can’t rule out allies and opponents. And that in the beginning, local people including the local leaders supported the rebels.

“In 1986 when the war started, many people including me thought it was the most important decision to fight the Museveni government and defend our people. This was based on the experience we had with the Amin government, which had earlier killed our people and looted property. So it was better to resist this time round,” says Ojok Kellobino,

Still, blaming the ongoing conflict on the support of the local people - who also bear the brunt of violence - would be most unfair. Several other factors play a more significant role now.
The economic agenda

The rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) fighters and some errant soldiers have been accused of fuelling the war. They are blamed for plundering and looting property to make their own business.

“Some of the shops in Gulu town were once under investigation because the owners were not known and yet they were fully stocked, says Ojok Kellobino.

The economic benefits at a higher level has been mentioned in for instance a World Bank commissioned study, that states that especially the so-called ghost soldiers and army procurement continue to be lucrative to close associates of the President and senior commanders in the field.

Military approach or peace negotiations

Fragmented groups of peace negotiators in the north are seen to have created a big challenge to ending the war. It is said that so many groups including the district peace teams, the Acholi Religious Leaders, the presidential team, and foreign diplomats are way too many, and yet less coordinated.

The government appointed peace mediator Betty Bigombe herself further notes that her original entry point was wrong.

“I should have started by mediating the mediators before mediating between government and the LRA,” she says.

“Some of these tried to undermine me as this seemed to have interfered with their source of livelihood.”

Bigombe indicates that government’s approach of fight and talk is challenging. Each time she agrees with the LRA to talk at a certain time, and as they try to look for network for the phones, they are attacked by military and contact is lost. So to her, “fight and talk” do not give a conducive environment for negotiations.

The International Criminal Court

The Ugandan government referred the war in Northern Uganda to the International Criminal Court, ICC in December 2003. This was also aimed at ensuring that the Sudan government that is believed to have supported the LRA war to comply and withdraw all the assistance offered.

The ICC is an independent and impartial organ in this case expected to deliver justice to the efforts in ending war in the north. However, Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu Catholic Archdiocese says:

“We feel that the presence of the Court and its activities, are in danger of jeopardizing efforts to build the rebel’s confidence in peace talks”.

To him, the activities of the ICC are in direct contrast to government’s offer of amnesty to any rebel who denounces the rebellion.

In an interview with the UN news agency IRIN in June, the ICC prosecutor, Louis Moreno-Ocampo, however, said:

“Domestic amnesties are strictly a matter for national authorities and do not act as a bar to an investigation by the ICC. In accordance with the policy and strategy of the office of the prosecutor, the investigation and prosecutions will focus on those limited number of individuals who bear greatest responsibility for committing the most serious crimes within the jurisdiction of the court.”

Spiritual fanatics

The LRA leader Joseph Kony probably qualifies to be one of the greatest psychopaths the world has ever had. All the people abducted by the LRA go through a session of spiritual indoctrination as a form of socialisation and initiation into their system.

According to peace mediator Bigombe, “his people even the educated believe he has spiritual powers”.

This could explain why people forced to join the LRA don’t attempt to escape: They believe that Kony knows everything, even what everyone is thinking at that very moment. Spirituality could in the same manner be the reason for many Acholis not actively opposing the LRA, because the beliefs in a sense has disempowered people.