Young women perform traditional dances during an event in Gulu district, 2010
Initiatives to end violence often focus on ‘silencing the gun’ and bringing home largely male combatants. As a result, girls and women who were captured, raped, and forced into marriage and childbearing by armed groups remain largely unacknowledged and ignored. In this statement, we focus on the unique justice and reconciliation issues facing young mothers and their children in northern Uganda who have returned from captivity. We offer specific recommendations to ensure their holistic well-being and successful reintegration into society.
JRP partnered with Child Voice International to transport a delegation of young mothers to Gulu District’s Day of the African Child celebrations.
As we reflect on this year’s celebrations for the Day of the African Child on June 16, we wish to emphasis the unique peace, justice and reconciliation issues hindering the well-being of children affected by conflict.
JRP held a community dialogue on June 6 in conjunction with Mega Fm, which discussed a broad range of justice issues, including the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Uganda’s new War Crimes Division, and TJ mechanisms. Three key themes emerged from the dialogue:
The importance of knowing the truth
The need for compensation
The question of accountability for government perpetrators
Over 200 people were in attendance, and the meeting created an opportunity for the Mucwini community to interact with their local leaders and discuss these important TJ issues.
JRP traveled extensively across Pader and Kitgum districts during May. Our team visited communities in Corner Kilak, Tyer-Achol pii and Omot in Pader, and Palabek Kal, Palabek Ogili and Ayuu Alali in Kitgum. The photos from this set were taken at the Acholi Pii mass grave.
The primary objectives of these visits were 1.) to meet with members of the communities and discuss significant events that took place there during the conflict and 2.) to discuss whether or not the communities want such events to be documented.
JRP learned that there is an eminent need for documentation in the communities we visited. Many significant events took place there during the conflict but little or nothing has been officially documented. In whole, the communities value documentation as a tool that will preserve the memory of what happened and to prevent the repetition of such atrocities in the future.
The rare process and ceremony of mato oput is undertaken only in the case of intentional or accidental killing of an individual. The ceremony involves two clans bringing together the perpetrator and the victim in a quest for restoring social harmony.
Mato oput begins by separating the affected clans, mediation to establish the ‘truth’ and payment of compensation according to by-laws. The final ritual, ‘drinking the bitter root’ is a day-long ceremony involving symbolic acts designed to reunite the clans.
The photos below illustrate the ‘beating of the stick’ followed by the sacrifice and exchange of sheep by both parties; the mixing of the bitter oput root with kwete and blood to be drunk by both parties as a symbol of washing away the bitterness; and the eating of the liver, to restore good relations.
The ceremony is followed by a celebration and restored relationships.
The cleansing of an area through ritual sacrifice to chase away discontented spirits (and prevent misfortune) or to appease the ancestors (to encourage good fortune). The ritual is being done at areas of massacres or war related fighting to prevent further deaths from occurring in the area.
As one Elder stated: “The issue of communal ceremonies came about because of the conflict and the magnitude of the problem associated with it….The people have lost their shrines (kac) and in Acholi these shrines are supposed to be in the original homestead or clan. The traditional rituals need money [but] our people cannot afford them. So we felt these communal ceremonies would help those who cannot organize it on their own.”
On October 23rd 2002, an estimated forty-four fighters of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) entered Omot sub-county from Par Samuelo Acak, near the river Agogo. They were given instruction by their LRA Commander, “as soon as we cross the river, abduct whoever you come across until we reach Corner Gang pa Aculu in Opota Trading Centre.”3 The team, consisting mostly of young soldiers, first moved North East, abducting twelve people in Lawal Ode, an additional eight people in Lalur Onyol and finally another twelve people were abducted from Latin Ling before they reached the point of slaughter.
The Opota Trading Centre at Corner Gang Pa Aculu was the site where twenty-eight people lost their lives in the brutal and dehumanizing Omot massacre. People were murdered, cut into pieces and then placed in cooking pots in front of dozens of witnesses.
This report is the first systematic documentation of the massacre that took place in Omot. Eight years later, the community has far from achieved reconciliation and restitution. The people of Omot have been stripped of their right to justice; the wrongs committed against them unacknowledged by Government or LRA, no system of redress has been explored. What is more, the community is divided. Victims of the massacre continue to resent the clan of ‘Samuel’, a young resident who was recruited by the LRA and then later ran away with a gun, leading ultimately to the Omot massacre as retaliation. The community does not feel they have been compensated by Samuel’s family for the deaths that occurred as a result of his desertion. In Omot, it is important for support to be provided for community reconciliation.
As Long as You Live, You Will Survive recommends that the Government of Uganda:
Formally acknowledge the Omot massacre of 2002 as well as all other massacres that have occurred in communities in Northern Uganda;
Recognize and redress their failure to protect Ugandan citizens from the LRA attack;
Hold perpetrators accountable for their crimes;
Support local approaches to justice and reconciliation that will address tensions within;
Provision of reparations;
Provision of a memorial designed and constructed with victims.
In this community dialogue report, respondents discuss some of the many problems faced by those living in areas affected by the conflict in northern Uganda. The issues mentioned include the reintegration of formerly-abducted youth, disputes over land amongst those returning from captivity and from displaced persons camps and the collapse of traditional family structures through family breakdown, the phenomenon of child-headed households and a loss of respect for parents and elders.
Traditional spiritual understandings, particularly those related to the burial of people killed in the conflict, are used by many of the respondents to explain the hardships faced by their communities and to formulate possible solutions.
A former LRA Major is accepted back by the community in Pajule
Simon Watmon was abducted as a young father of two small children by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in 1996. After 5 years and at the rank of a junior commander, he risked everything to return home via Sudan. Settled back in Pajule, he encountered many of the same challenges faced by all those who escaped: poverty, stigma and rejection by his family. Rather than be defeated by these, Simon emerged as an informal leader amongst his peers and is today recognized as a peace builder at the community level.
This Field Note documents the experience of Simon. It is a case study of how former Lord’s Resistance Army captives are not just victims, but can also be agents of social change and reconciliation. His story is illustrative of previous JRP reports: With or Without Peace: Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration in northern Uganda and Sharing the Burden of the Past: Peer support and self help among former Lord’s Resistance Army youth. These two reportsoffered insights into the challenges currentlyfaced by returning combatants and how apeaceful and successful disarmamentdemobilization and reintegration (DDR)process, and coping with the devastatingimpact of the twenty year conflict in NorthernUganda, could take place.
