Vicky Esquivel-Korsiak

On November 15, 2012 JRP hosted its first annual Dissemination Forum to showcase five publications produced in the past calendar year. The Forum drew 65 participants from across northern Uganda and Kampala representing victims groups, religious leaders, advocates and other stakeholders. Through the Forum, JRP was able to highlight issues and recommendations arising from its research, including how these recommendations can be carried forward by activists and communities. The Forum also provided an opportunity to elicit feedback on the reports and how JRP can continue to improve its work.

The reports disseminated included:

The Day They Came: Recounting the LRA’s Invasion of Teso Sub-Region through Obalanga Sub-County in 2003. This field note explores the impacts of the LRA incursion into Teso sub-region using case studies and victims’ testimonies from the sub-county of Obalanga in Amuria District.

When a Gunman Speaks, You Listen: Victims’ Experiences and Memories of Conflict in Palabek Sub-County, Lamwo District. This field note focuses on Palabek’s history from 1986 to the present based on victims’ testimonies and information provided by interviewees.

Paying Back What Belongs to Us: Victims’ Groups in Northern Uganda and their Quests for Reparation. This report serves to illuminate the current state, emergence and development of different victims’ groups and associations throughout the Greater North of Uganda and to highlight their activities and demands.

Gender and Generation in Acholi Traditional Justice Mechanisms. This report seeks to understand how traditional ceremonies are helpful to women and youth, and whether such ceremonies are relevant to the unique concerns women and youth face in post-conflict recovery.

The Uganda Reconciliation Barometer 2012. This report measures the attitudes and perceptions of northern Ugandans on critical justice and reconciliation issues since the end of the LRA conflict in Acholi sub-region.

 The reports were well received by all stakeholders and JRP was encouraged to continue improving its research through the use of new methodologies such as that employed in the UG Barometer report.  Across the various discussions participants continually returned to the plight of victims and survivors. Across the North, reparations and compensation are seen as key to communities rebuilding and moving forward. Participants discussed whether a national or regional compensation policy would be more appropriate, and whether the government, who comes up with the policy, should also be in charge of its implementation given the alarming rise of corruption in Uganda. Participants agreed that future meetings should try to bring more government representatives to the table not only to learn about JRP’s research, but to engage in a true dialogue about possible solutions to the plight of victims and survivors.

JRP plans to repeat the forum in late 2013 where it will present four new field notes and the next phase of the UG Reconciliation Barometer focusing on Lango sub-region. 

Oryem Nyeko

FOLLOWING A LAUNCH  in Kampala, the Justice and Reconciliation Project and the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) held the Gulu launch of their most recent report “Unredressed Legacy: Possible Policy Options and Approaches to Fulfilling Reparations in Uganda” on Thursday, 21 February 2013. The event was attended by representatives of northern Uganda CSOs and war victims’ associations such as the Kitgum Women Peace Initiative, the Women’s Advocacy Network and the Moyo Town War Victims Association. It served both as the official launch for many that contributed to its content and as an opportunity for discussion and feedback on the way forward for reparations in Uganda.

A “practical document”

Intended to be a “practical document” for to be presented to the government, the report makes clear what direction reparations in Uganda should take in the view of the ICTJ, JRP and victims’ groups. Drawing on challenges and successes of reparation policies in Peru, Sierra Leone and Timor-Leste, the report discusses the need to establish a legal reparations framework and how such a policy should be framed and implemented in Uganda.

Why now?

The report notes that under international law the state is responsible for reparations for its own actions as well as those of the LRA and other non-state actors as “the primary duty bearer for guaranteeing human rights, pursuing accountability, and delivering justice and reparation to victims”.

Discussions on reparations, and the form they should take, have been on the table since the Juba Agreement on Accountability and Reconciliation was signed in 2007. Despite this, the Government has implemented only ad hoc initiatives in the form of development and humanitarian aid programmes. This report suggests that now is the time to design and implement a comprehensive reparations programme for victims of conflict in northern Uganda that is distinct from these past interventions.

A reparations policy for whom?

The report proposes that the Government implement both an urgent and a comprehensive reparations policy. It stresses the importance of specifically defining who should be eligible, why, and when to avoid ambiguity and the creation of unrealistic expectation – ultimately, the policy should acknowledge as many victims as possible and allow specific material forms of reparation while prioritising those that need them most. For each component of the proposed programme, the report suggests potential lead institutions, such as the Ministry of Health and District Local Government for meeting psychosocial support needs, and identifies the steps required to move forward as well as the potential delivery modalities.

Way forward, recommendations, discussions and implementation

Implementing the programme would require consultation with local government and communities, working with war victim associations, supervision of the implementation at community level by technical government staff, as well as constant dialogue with existing service providers, such as local school teachers, hospital administrators and social workers, who may provide some of the solutions to practical problems. On the issue of funding, the report calls for the creation of a reparations fund under the national budget, narrowing the types of violations which would be eligible for reparations and limiting the amount to what government can deliver over time.

An English version of the report and summaries in Lugbara, Acholi, Langi and Iteso were distributed and are available on JRP’s website. 

Grace Acan

DURING THIS QUARTER, the Gender Justice Unit was able to implement the following activities under its three programmatic areas.

Under our Legal Programme, we have been conducting a survey on gender needs in transitional justice in northern Uganda. The purpose of the survey was to establish unique needs of both women and men in post conflict northern Uganda as well as to identify gender gaps in ongoing transitional justice processes. Last year we conducted interviews and focus group discussions in five Districts and this year we have been compiling the data as well as preparing to begin verification workshops in the five Districts. We hope to launch the findings in early April.

Under the Women’s Advocacy Network (WAN), the department held two meetings with the representatives of various groups belonging to WAN. The purpose of these meetings was to review activities implemented by WAN last year as well as discuss which activities WAN will be conducting this year. During the meetings, the members agreed to expand community outreaches from four communities to six communities, discussed topics of the radio talk shows and the need to continue with activities from last year which include mediation and tracing of children’s paternal families, a very important aspect of the Acholi culture. They also discussed doing advocacy both at local and national level..

Under the Ododo wa program, the department integrated three new groups. These groups are based in Pader, Koch and Atiak. The department held a first meeting with the groups to introduce themselves, the project as well as assess the needs of their members. We shall be meeting the groups quarterly to hold storytelling sessions with them.

Other activities that the department implemented included an end of year evaluation meeting.  Since the department was established at the beginning of 2012, the meeting was important to evaluate our work, its impact, lessons learnt and way forward. During this meeting, the department was able to decide activities and priority areas to work on in 2013.

The department also conducted a gender mainstreaming workshop for the organisation. The objective of the one day training was to train staff on gender and how to incorporate gender aspects in the work of the various department. 

Oryem Nyeko

IN RECENT MONTHS, the LRA conflict has been the centre of a wave of international interest that seemed, on the face of it, to come out of nowhere. It started in 2012 when a worldwide internet campaign was used to bring the conflict, its alleged perpetrators and its after effects to the forefront of global consciousness. The most recent development is under the ‘Rewards for Justice’ programme, an initiative of the United States’ State Department, which has brought the hunt for Joseph Kony and the remaining commanders of the rebel group back to the fore.

‘Rewards’ is essentially a bounty-hunter’s dream – millions of dollars are being offered by the US Government for information that will lead to the capture of notorious wanted international criminals. The programme was initially focused on combating international terrorism and drug trafficking. Since its inception in 1984 it had paid up to $125 million in rewards. Following the recent storm of media attention on the LRA conflict, US President Barack Obama signed in early 2013 into law a Bill that extended the programme to indictees of international tribunals for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide this year. While Joseph Kony was not initially listed as wanted under the programme, he’s been one of several ‘poster boys’ for the new law. In an official statement issued when the law was passed President Obama said:

This powerful new tool can be used to help bring to justice perpetrators of the worst crimes known to human kind. This includes individuals such as Joseph Kony and other leaders of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), as well as certain commanders of M23 and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) … We have made unmistakably clear that the United States is committed to seeing war criminals and other perpetrators of atrocities held accountable for their crimes, and today’s legislation can help us achieve that goal.

‘Rewards’ is just one in a series of initiatives that reflect increased commitment to ending the LRA conflict by the international community. In 2011, military advisors were sent by the American government to lend support to the Ugandan, Congolese and Sudanese governments in order to “kill or capture” Kony and in 2012 the African Union announced that it was sending 5000 troops to conduct that hunt. What do these kind of efforts mean for transitional justice in northern Uganda, where the brunt of the war was felt the most? And does it matter that they are being made now, decades after the conflict began?

“At the peak of the conflict, there were cries of agony and pain from the suffering people of northern Uganda asking for international help and support,” retired Kitgum Diocese Reverend Bishop Macleord Ochola told me in an interview earlier this year, “Unfortunately, [the] international community neither had eyes to see us, nor ears to listen to our cries. We became invisible people.”

In 2008, Operation Lightning Thunder, an offensive by the governments of the DRC, Uganda and Sudan with support from the US, famously resulted in the killing of up to 100 villagers in the DRC as an act of retaliation by the LRA. Bishop Ochola, who participated in the 2007 Juba peace talks, and as recently as 2012 traveled to Banjul in the Central African Republic with other Acholi religious leaders to attempt peaceful discussion with the LRA, was wary of the timing of Rewards for Justice.

“When the Government launched Operation Lightening Thunder [in 2008] there were cries of agony and pain from the people of [the] DRC, the Central African Republic and South Sudan, but the international community kept quiet. After three years they raised the profile of Joseph Kony. The question is – why now? Why should they have special interest to put an end to the conflict of the LRA, when in fact during the peak of the conflict they kept quiet?” he asked.

It must be noted that these kind of military interventions are aimed not just at ending the conflict or capturing Joseph Kony, but at protecting civilians from abduction, torture or death. In the past few years, the LRA has been reported to have been responsible for attacks on several villages and towns in the region, resulting in the forced displacement of many families. According to a 2011 UNHCR report, there have been abductions, indiscriminate killings as well as torture and mutilation in villages and towns in north-eastern Congo by the LRA.

To put this into context: all of this happened after the Juba peace talks collapsed in 2008 when Joseph Kony withdrew from the talks, citing his fear of capture and trial by the ICC. Also, in May of 2012, the period for amnesty set up in Uganda’s Amnesty Act expired – meaning that LRA returnees are not guaranteed protection from being prosecuted for their actions while they were in the bush. Furthermore, the question of amnesty is still up for review with former LRA commander, Thomas Kwoyelo’s, eligibility being under deliberation by Uganda’s Supreme Court.

Is the hunt the only solution?

Despite the efforts of the regional governments and the United States to end the conflict over the years the fact is that the LRA remains alive. Numerous alternatives to military interventions exist – many of which have been documented by organisations like JRP – such as those examining the effects of traditional justice, the value of truth-telling and the importance of disseminating accurate information about the ICC and other international justice mechanisms to both victims and perpetrators. Transparent, expedited prosecution processes may also incentivise Kony and other rebel leaders to return peacefully, as could resolving the ambiguous amnesty issue.

Ultimately, international attention should be focused on finding solutions that both resolve the conflict and give the opportunity for accountability that is sensitive to the interests and experiences of the actual victims of the conflict. This would go a long way to securing peace in the region and satisfying the need for answers about what happened during the two decade conflict.