Category Archives: Blog

“I want to ask, why are you writing this?” – Documenting the experiences of children born into LRA captivity

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We Are All the Same-Beth Stewart

JRP’s 23rd Field Note, We Are All the Same: Experiences of children born into LRA captivity documents the views, experiences and hopes of 29 children living in the urban centre of Gulu over the course of a three year project. In this blog, researcher Beth W. Stewart reflects on the process and the lessons learned from the children that participated.

“I want to ask, why are you writing this?”

Every year the same boy asked us this same question. To my research assistant and I, the reason seems obvious: children born into the LRA, like this boy, have unique identities, experiences, and needs that are both valuable to society to understand and necessary to address. But to this boy, and the other children like him, they are just children. They laugh, love, play, learn, and dream just like everyone else. Children are children, no matter where they come from, no matter who their fathers are. And yet, there are aspects of their lives that are unquestionably unique and undoubtedly shaped by their pasts and identities. Doing a long term project with the same group of children has provided a rare and intimate look into the children’s special lives revealing why we should care about them.

The project that informed this Field Note began in 2011 after many mothers who had children born in LRA captivity repeatedly requested attention for their children. They wanted to raise awareness of their children’s needs and fight the stigma they faced. Once the project began, JRP became the safe space where the children gathered, away from prying eyes and ears. It became the one place in their lives where everyone could be open about that part of themselves, about their pasts and identities that they normally had to keep secret to avoid stigma. Also significant to the children, JRP became synonymous with a place for play. Through play and open sharing, the children made important new friends. For years now, the children have supported each other in numerous ways, from listening when times got hard to sharing their bed when the other had none. The children, who are now quickly becoming adults, continue to meet and support each other almost five years on.

An exceptional aspect of the project is not only the connections made between the participants, but also the trust and care that grew between the participants and the researchers. It’s common for research projects to begin then leave shortly thereafter, especially in war-affected areas. But this project has persisted, resulting in meaningful relationships and giving the researchers important insight into the more nuanced and vulnerable dynamics of the children’s lives. The project’s research assistant, Aloyo Proscovia, has been the crux of the project and an always caring figure in the children’s lives. This consistency is evidenced in the comfort and ease of the children that participated and also in the depth of knowledge they shared. It’s also worth noting that for the researchers, building relationships with each of these children has been an enjoyable and deeply moving process – these are remarkable children, full of laughter with so much to say.

It is difficult, however, to watch as the children’s pasts follow them into their adult lives. As northern Uganda moves further away from its experience of active war, the ramifications continue to be lived each day. The case of children born into the LRA challenges us to question if a war is ever truly over. Without measures to address their needs and rights, the violence of the war continues. This Field Note presents the children’s contributions toward educating us (readers), their communities, and their leaders about what remains to be done for northern Uganda to transition to peace. As one girl put it: “We have to be treated equally, in other words by treating us well by loving us the same way like the other children.”

Beth W. Stewart is a a PhD Candidate at the University of British Columbia.

ABCD Young workshop in Milan

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Participants in the ABCD Young workshop pose in Milan, Italy, November 2015. Photo courtesy of Soleterre.

 

During the month of November 14th to 24th 2015, I represented JRP in ABCD young, an international advocacy and digital activism for human rights workshop organized by SOLETERRE held in Milan, Italy at Lombardia hotel. The ten day workshop was attended by 24 participants from Uganda, Ivory Coast, El Salvador, Honduras, Spain and Italy. It aimed at building the capacity of young people to develop a platform for human rights advocacy. In June 2015, JRP began working with SOLETRRE to jointly implement the project ABCD young; Young people across borders, culture and diversities with over all objectives of improving quality of youth work and to increase synergy and complementarities.

Being the 2nd workshop for the same participants, I was the only new participant and the first facilitator was such very concerned to make me fit in the group. Applying theatre skills to make a new participant join and feel at ease, the other participants were made to seat themselves in a circle and I was asked to find my way in the circle and join them. Belonging to a practical community theatre background, it took me few seconds to get in the circle as I tickled them and they had to break apart. I did that after consulting with the facilitator on whether it was culturally appropriate to tickle since we all came from various cultural backgrounds. I was then formally introduced to the old participants of the ABCD young program.

Over the workshop, four themes were discussed and these include the following.

Theatre of the oppressed: This requires investing in people’s emotion to understand their needs and to create change. Theatre approach is a tool that can be applied when dealing with a group(s) of people that requires appropriate tool to enable then participate. We learned that the oppressed group of people find it hard to get involved and participate in a given course. Therefore theatre is a tool that can make them open up. Theatre is instrumental in building trust, listening skill, responding to distress, building team, creating harmony, perseverance and agreement.

Advocacy: The facilitator guided us to agree that advocacy aims at improving the condition of the marginalized. It requires effective research and analysis, campaigning, networking and alliance and lobbying to achieve an advocacy goal. It is important to understand the stakeholders and to influence institutional program. Those with power and interest needs to be understood and engaged appropriately during advocacy process and the objectives and goal for the advocacy must be clear. To build a campaign, you need to work with others and step such as elaboration of common goal, creation of a process in a team working dimension, defining long term strategy and developing a specific role for every expertise are crucial. An institution like an NGO needs to be credible, transparent, open minded, have specific expertise, creative, have strong value, be willing to share responsibility and have networking capabilities.

The usage of photographs during advocacy: We also learnt that using photographs in advocacy keep the historical context of the event and while using photograph, the story text must be in line with the image. Photograph has the characteristic of universal language and it has immediate impact. Images are powerful in attracting people’s attention, contextualizing the setting and in summarizing the news. To make a project using photograph, you should chose/take photograph that portray human rights gaps, create a theme over the photograph and share to the public to trigger reaction for action to change the state of affair.

Digitalizing advocacy: to digitalize advocacy: The usage of social media such as face book and twitter, televisions, electronic billboards/posters and newsletter are some of the tool that can be employed to reach your target audience to buy their support to an advocacy. When using social media, the goal and objectives of the campaign should be well thought of and the medium chosen should encourage exchange of ideas between the initiator and the target pressure group: opening a face book page can allow elaborate campaign. While posting advocacy issue, sharp remarks/questions that provoke positive reaction to the campaign should be made. For the case of campaign on poor health service in health centers in a given community, question such as, “this is our routine; do you want the same for your child?” could make visitors to that site feel empathy and join the campaign with comment for change.  Use of social media should help you to make comparison with other situation by posting photograph that depicts context of human rights gaps.

As part of the workshop, we also visited a social center for supporting young minds growth and the municipality of Milan. The social center for young minds supports young people of all races in both academic and social development. In our visit to the Municipality of Milan, we interacted with the management of ‘House of Rights’ that is coordinating human rights activism in Milan. In my analysis, gender gap mainstreaming is not as much of a priority issue there as is the case of Uganda.

The workshop was participatory in nature with a lot of group work giving opportunity to share personal experiences and relating the theme to the local context of human rights abuse in our respective countries. While in the workshop, I was imagining the reparation gap for victims of conflict with medical challenges being posted in social media with their voice clips.

The workshop was closed with evaluation themed to content of the workshop, facilities, facilitators’ ability and welfare. With the knowledge gained from the workshop, participants are expected to launch a human rights campaign either as a group or on their own to denounce human rights abuse of a given nature in their respective locality. I would as well integrate knowledge and skills learnt in the workshop in our ongoing program and when developing new activity proposal.

Okwir Isaac Odiya is the team leader for Community Mobilisation at JRP.

 

 

Listen to JRP’s new podcast

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We at JRP are very excited to launch a new podcast where we’ll be reflecting on justice and reconciliation issues in northern Uganda and Africa’s Great Lakes region. The first episode features Oryem Nyeko, Lindsay McClain Opiyo and Nancy Apiyo talking how about JRP’s new field note, My Body, A Battlefield: Survivors’ experiences of conflict-sexual violence in Koch Ongako came about. 

Listen to the podcast below:

A transcript of this episode can be read here: http://justiceandreconciliation.com/media/audio/2015/jrp-podcast-episode-1-documenting-conflict-sexual-violence/

Monuments in Odek and Burcoro bring communities full circle

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When the Justice and Reconciliation Project’s Documentation team began working with the community of Odek in Gulu district in 2014, the sense was that the community wanted acknowledgment for the many violations they experienced during the war. As the ancestral home of LRA commander Joseph Kony, the area suffered the stigma of that association, and many there said that their experiences had been ignored over the years.

A similar feeling was held in Burcoro, a village in Awach sub-county, for survivors of an NRA operation where civilians, accused of being rebel supporters, were tortured, sexually violated, abducted and killed over the course of four days in April 1991.

So when this past week, the JRP’s Community Mobilisation department worked with those two communities to launch monuments to commemorate those experiences, it felt like the communities calls had come full circle.

In Odek, at the sub-county headquarters, on a white-tiled block the names of 44 people that died during an attack by the LRA on an internally-displaced persons’ camp there on 29 April 2004 are listed on a plaque (the LRA’s massacre, and other experiences are documented in JRP’s 2014 field note, “Forgotten Victims: Recounting Atrocities Committed in Odek sub-county by the LRA and NRA”). Clan chief Rwot Ocan Jimmy Luwala of Puranga and Gulu District Council Speaker, Okello Douglas Peter Okao, joined the community, survivors and relatives of the victims to officially launch this monument on 2 December 2015.

A week later, on 8 December, Burcoro Primary School – the scene of the NRA’s 1991 operation – also hosted community members, survivors and relatives to launch a monument in the shape of a tree for their experiences. The tree symbolizes the community’s experiences, in particular the place where a man called Kapere Alfoncio, who was accused of being a rebel, was shot and killed by fire squad on the final days of the operation. The launch of the monument was also used to share JRP’s field note “The Beasts at Burcoro”, which recounts events that took place, with the community.

Following a blessing of the monument by religious leaders in Burcoro, Resident District Commissioner (RDC) for Gulu, Okot Lapolo, received a memorandum from the Burcoro 1991 Military Operation Survivors Association addressed to Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, and calling for support. The RDC promised to deliver it to the president and to remind him about pledges he made in 2011 to provide compensation.

Survivors, relatives of victims, invited guests and the JRP team pose infront of the monument for the atrocities committed in Burcoro by the NRA in April 1991.

Now that both communities have their experiences documented and have monuments in place, they plan to host memorial prayers at their respective monument sites in the future to commemorate the events.

“Many people were thinking that their plight was not known but now they feel relieved,” a survivor of the Burcoro incident told me, “What was disturbing was the [fear that because the Burcoro incident was state-led] that if you exposed yourself as a victim, you may be in trouble.”

See pictures of both launches on JRP’s Facebook page.

Oryem Nyeko is the Communications and Advocacy Team Leader at JRP.

The AU’s Panel of the Wise reflects on on silencing the guns in Africa

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Two weeks ago, I attended and presented at the third retreat of the African Union’s Panel of the Wise in Addis Ababa. The Panel of the Wise is a body established by the AU’s Peace and Security Council protocol. It is constituted by five “highly respected African personalities who have made outstanding contribution to the cause of peace, security and development on the continent” and their job is to support the Peace and Security Council, the AU’s body responsible for “the maintenance of continental peace and security”, by carrying out mediation, brokering peace agreements and playing an advisory role to the Council.

This year, the Panel held its third annual retreat, which is a meeting that brings peacebuilding, conflict-prevention, mediation and transformation actors from across Africa to discuss and develop “traditional, homegrown approaches” to ensure lasting peace in Africa with each other and the Panel. This year, the meeting was guided by the theme “Silencing the Guns by 2020”.

Even though the theme of the meeting was forward looking, a lot of attention was paid to ongoing conflicts since, for many, these hit close to home. Burundian presenter, Dr. Marie-Louise Baricako, spoke about what is happening in her country and said that where peace is concerned, the signing of peace agreements is simply not enough. “There must be a process of reconstruction after an agreement is signed,” she said.

At the start of the meeting, a moment of silence was proposed for the victims and families of the recent attacks in Paris. In response, it was suggested as well in addition to Paris, we would stand in solidarity with the peoples of Burundi, Nigeria and other places for whom active conflict is raging.

Bishop Dinis Salomao Sengulane of Mozambique wears a cross made from the remains of weapons used during war.
Bishop Dinis Salomao Sengulane of Mozambique wears a cross made from the remains of weapons used during war.

I was asked to speak during a session dedicated to “the role of local actors in conflict prevention, mediation, dialogue and peacebuilding”. I saw my task as simple – to draw attention to the opportunities for the mediation of conflict in the African context that involves and uses lessons learned from witnessing the resilience and strength of the communities and individuals in northern Uganda whose daily lives are affected by war. So, I stressed how important it is to involve affected-communities and individuals in mediation, dialogue and peacebuilding because they often already have the capacity, skills and desire to mediate, dialogue, and prevent conflict. The role of other actors – civil society, government and so on – is to provide the platforms to do this, which is the essence of a bottom-up approach.

Fortunately, this sentiment was shared by most of the presentations made at the retreat – so even though the meeting was simultaneously conducted in four different languages, I didn’t feel like I was speaking a foreign tongue. Many of the presentations spoke about the value and importance of involving people of different sectors – youth, women, and civil society and so on – and how it has been consistently shown how important these are for ensuring lasting and effective resolution of conflict. During her opening remarks at the beginning of the meeting, Panel of the Wise member Dr Speciosa Wandira reflected this when she remarked that this was a “time to redeposit power for the people”.

A highlight during the retreat was a presentation by Bishop Dinis Salomao Sengulane of Mozambique who listed ten key ways by through peace can be maintained. One which struck me was the importance of not leaving peacemaking in the hands of the few. “Violent people,” he said, “are not in the majority.” It is also important, he said, to disarm the minds and hands of people in “creative ways”. This could be done through using symbols of violence – such as bullets or guns – and turning their meaning around so that they represent hope and a positive images. In Mozambique, materials used from surrendered weapons from the civil war have been turned into art pieces, including the “Tree of Life”, a sculpture displayed in the British Museum. Bishop Sengulane himself wears a cross sculpted from the remains of weapons used to perpetrate violence, leaving me with the inspiration to know that peace can really be achieved.

 

2015 Women’s Advocacy Network Annual General Meeting asks “What is the future?”

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The second day of the Women's Advocacy Network 2015 Annual General Meeting, 18 November 2015.

As the year 2015 come to an end, more than 100 members of the Women’s Advocacy Network (WAN) held their annual general meeting at Comboni Animation Centre from 17th to 18th November 2015 to review the year and discuss plans for 2016. The two day meeting was attended by members from all over northern Uganda to discuss the success and challenges of the WAN.

The meeting was guided by questions such as: what has been done? What has not been done yet? What needs to be done? What is the future of WAN?

The meeting began with an opening prayer by participant members from Can Rwede Pe Women’s Group. After this, the WAN chairperson listed the successes the WAN has achieved in 2015. These included opening a WAN bank account and medical services being secured for people with fragments of bullets still in their bodies. The WAN has alsoregistered in Gulu district as a community-based organisation (CBO), conducted child tracing and family reunification processes, and admitted three new groups from Adjumani, Pader and Lira districts.

The meeting informed participants about some of the pending tasks including following up on the petition WAN made to parliament in 2014, advocating to ensure the needs of war-affected women are considered in the PRDP 3, and also organising a meeting with the Office of the Prime Minister to make proposals for consideration of WAN members in government programmes.

However, challenges were also noted: a member from Rwot Lakica Women’s Group said that too much sunshine has affected their harvest which has affected the yield of  a livelihoods project being implemented by the WAN. Also the threat of physical violence during child tracing and lack of unity and cooperation among WAN group members has at times brought other challenges.

When asked what needs to be done to work effectively in 2016, a member of Okony Wa Women’s Group from Pader said that members should have unity, hard work, continuous lobbying and love for one another.

The WAN’s proposed plan for 2016 includes the groups contributing to the new WAN account through membership dues, proposals for funding being written, child tracing and family reunification continuing, sub-county officials being trained on gender-related issues affecting women, conducting group savings, holding exchange visits, as well as trainings on clerical skills for members.

In all, the AGM was a successful event that brought together more WAN members at one time than any other event. It contributed to exchange and learning among members and has set the foundation for an active and fruitful 2016 for the network.

Read more about the WAN here.

See pictures from the AGM on JRP’s Facebook page here.

JRP looks at 10 years of justice and reconciliation

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Voices, Issue, 10 November 2015
Voices, Issue, 10 November 2015

A decade after the publication of “Roco Wat I Acoli”, JRP’s flagship report on traditional approaches to reintegration and justice, we’ve published a special issue of our magazine Voices to look back on the past ten years and look forward to the future.

The November issue of Voices, which happens to be the tenth issue of the magazine, is tied into JRP’s celebration of the ten years of work it has done with war-affected communities in northern Uganda.

This issue features articles by Vincent Oyet, a member of the Lukodi Massacre Memorial Association, as well as by members of the Mukura Memorial Development Initiative, which JRP has worked closely with over the years. Other highlights include articles by Sylvia Opinia on the contributions of the Women’s Advocacy Network to transitional justice discourse, Philipp Shulz on the importance of victim-centric research, as well as a special interview with co-founder Erin Baines.

To read and download a pdf version this issue click here. Selected articles are also featured on Voices’ website: voices.justiceandreconciliation.com

Holding Dominic Ongwen’s confirmation of charges hearing in The Hague is a missed opportunity

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Community members participate in a memorial for the Lukodi massacre of 2004, Lukodi 19 May 2015.
Community members participate in a memorial for the Lukodi massacre of 2004, Lukodi 19 May 2015.

For many years the issue of justice related to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)-Government of Uganda war has been a farfetched dream for communities affected by it until the recent arrest and transfer of alleged LRA commander Dominic Ongwen to the International Criminal Court (ICC). On the 28th of October 2015, however, the Presidency of the International Criminal Court (ICC) made a decision that a confirmation of charges hearing for Dominic Ongwen’s case scheduled for 21 January 2016 will be held at the seat of the court in The Hague and not in Gulu town as had been recommended by the court’s Pre-Trial Chamber II. This is disappointing because holding the hearing in the community affected by the atrocities for which Ongwen is alleged to have been responsible for was a huge opportunity to provide closure for victims.

In northern Uganda, there is a disconnect between the ICC and the communities to which it aims to serve. Despite outreach programs on the ICC, many people here do not understand the work of the court and the justice remedies it can deliver to them. This gap between the affected community and the court could have been filled by holding this hearing in Gulu since it would have brought the justice process closer to them while allowing the work of the court to be experienced by people who have been affected by the conflict. It would have gone a long way to address negative perceptions about the court which are held by many people in the communities in northern Uganda and in Africa in general. Also, it would have been an opportunity to stir up action on justice processes in Uganda such as stalled proceedings at the International Crimes Division of the Ugandan High Court.

That said, the ICC Presidency’s decision not to hold the confirmation of the charges hearings in Uganda during the peak of the political season is a good one given the brutality, chaos and violence that is usually associated with Uganda’s election period. In the past, Uganda’s political campaigns and elections have been marred with violence which could possibly interfere with the court processes.

Nevertheless, it is important that the court continues to work to find ways to bring its work closer home in the future.

Nancy Apiyo is a project officer with JRP’s Gender Justice department.

Breaking the silence through community dialogues on SGBV

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The chairlady of Amapara women’s group addressing the community in Aringapi subcounty on 8th October 2015 on the challenges that survivors of SGBV are facing in the community.
The chairlady of Amapara women’s group addressing the community in Aringapi subcounty on 8th October 2015 on the challenges that survivors of SGBV are facing in the community.

In the past three weeks, JRP’s Gender Justice Department has conducted dialogues in the communities of Adjumani, Pader and Lira districts. The dialogues are part of activities under a project that aims at ending re-victimization of survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and providing redress for the challenges they face with funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The dialogues were an opportunity to openly talk about sexual violence and break the silence that surrounds it since silence around SGBV and the social challenges connected to it make women more vulnerable and often compounds their suffering. Due to the stigma that is attached to SGBV, survivors are usually hesitant to speak and ‘die’ in silence. It is this stigma that has contributed to the under reporting of the crime to authorities or to even family members leading to little or no interventions in communities. Stigma leads to a lack of justice for survivors and is also a source of other human rights abuses such as domestic violence. Opening community spaces to talk about what for generations has been known as a taboo is contributing towards the re-integration of survivors of SGBV in the communities.

A day before each of the community dialogues would begin in their respective communities, survivors engaged their local leaders so that the leaders are able to understand their plight and support them to cope and reintegrate in the communities. Issues that needed the intervention of the whole community were discussed the following day during the dialogue. Community leaders, who include clan elders who are respected people in the community and who play key role in changing community attitudes, then joined hands with survivors to talk to the community on issues such as stigma on survivors of sexual violence and rejection of children born as a result of sexual violence. Using drama and songs, survivors were able to communicate what would have otherwise been difficult to talk about given the social norms around sex and sexual violence that exist in their communities. Following the dialogues some community leaders came up with resolutions to handle re-victimization such as through by-laws dealing with stigma and which would allow for those who insult survivors of SGBV in the community to be arrested.

The community dialogues are aimed at undertaking survivor led engagement with the community and developing a positive attitude towards survivors of SGBV. This is to ensure that future transitional justice efforts towards SGBV are communally owned and supported.  We are also glad to say that women in communities were dialogues took place last year reported reduction in stigma.

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Communities in Lango and Acholi work to memorialise their experiences

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A capacity building workshop is held in Parabongo earlier this year.
A capacity building workshop is held in Parabongo earlier this year.

With funding support from USAID-SAFE Program, the Community Mobilization department at JRP conducted a series of trainings on themes of memory and reconciliation with 39 members of Community Reconciliation (CORE) teams in seven communities across Lango and Acholi sub-regions. Held in May, 2015, these trainings covered a range of topics including conflict mitigation, peace building, forgiveness and reconciliation, gender mainstreaming in peace building and reconciliation programs, trauma healing and counseling skills, and memory and memorialization. This helped the members of the CORE teams to understand the importance of memorialization and to envision an ideal memory and reconciliation project for their communities.

During the training, the participants examined the following questions in order to come up with an ideal memory project for each of the seven communities:

  • What are the conflict events that occurred in your areas?
  • What conflict event do you want to remember?
  • How would you like to remember it?
  • What memory projects would promote healing, advocacy and reconciliation for your communities?
  • What ideal memory project can you implement in your community?

These guiding questions helped the CORE team members to come up with ideas for memory projects in consultation with their respective victims’ communities, which could be implemented within five months in their communities. The seven communities came up with the following innovative ideas for community memory projects which are now nearing successful completion.

Lukodi: The community of Lukodi chose to write a book which documents life before the war, and also emphasizes how culture has been eroded by war and makes suggestions on how it can be rejuvenated. They also chose to legally register the acquired piece of land which serves as the memorial site for the Lukodi massacre of 2004. This would enable the community to transfer a monument for the massacre which is in another area to this land and to develop the site.

Parabongo: The community of Parabongo, with guidance of the CORE team, chose to construct a new memorial stone to replace an older barely visible monument. They envisage having a more visible monument in memory of the people killed by LRA in Parabongo in 2006.

Atiak: Together with the CORE team, the victims’ community in Atiak chose to develop a list of conflict memorabilia to be preserved to document their memory of the war. They also decided to develop a profile of those who were killed in the 1995 massacre, and after verifying the list of names, they will engrave and place it onto a memorial monument. The community also pledged to facilitate a process of community-led documentation through the use of arts to preserve memories of events that became a turning point in the lives of the people of Atiak at the peak of the war.

Burcoro: The community of Burcoro chose to construct a monument in memory of the people killed during the military operation led by NRA in Burcoro in 1991. They wished to preserve memories of state-led atrocities that were never acknowledged.

Odek: The people of Odek also felt they were never publicly acknowledged to have suffered during the LRA war. To them, putting up a memorial monument would communicate what they went through in order for them to also be considered for post-conflict reconstruction services. They, therefore, chose to construct a memory stone in memory of the mass killing by LRA in Odek.

Barlonyo: The community of Barlonyo decided to beautify their memorial site in order to celebrate the lives of their loved ones who perished in the 2002 massacre. They chose to fence and beautify the memorial site with a variety of beautiful flowers blooming in gardens adjacent to well-paved walkways.

Abia: In Abia, the community chose to erect a monument in the form of a statue of a helpless woman which depicts their plight in the aftermath of the massacre of 2004. They also decided to make a painting on the wall of memorial school in memory of their war experiences.

JRP pledged to support the seven communities in the implementation of their respective community memory projects, which have been shaping well over the last five months. As the projects near completion, JRP is proud to reaffirm its support to showcase community-relevant approaches to justice, healing and reconciliation.