In this community dialogue, respondents voice their views on the challenges affecting their communities in the wake of decades of violent conflict in northern Uganda. The issues discussed include the unexploded ordinance scattered throughout the region, disputes over land ownership amongst those returning from conflict or from displaced persons camps, the negative effects of humanitarian aid and the issues that arise as former LRA attempt to return to civilian society.
The comments of many of the respondents reveal a deep distrust of the Ugandan government as well as a strong faith in traditional spiritual beliefs, often used as a means of making sense of and developing solutions to many of the problems faced by war-affected communities.
Over the past year, the Justice and Reconciliation Project (JRP) has been grateful for the opportunity to work with a number individuals affected by the war in northern Uganda, including people living in internally-displaced persons camps, youth, women and ex-combatants. JRP would like to express its appreciation to those dedicated individuals who have pursued their own stake in justice by persevering through the Juba Peace Talks, in particular the dilemma of accountability and reconciliation, not forgetting the continued persistence by war affected communities in their efforts to employ local coping mechanisms to promote peace, harmony and social coexistence.
2009 was marked by a significant improvement in the humanitarian situation in northern Uganda as the region embarked on the long road to recovery from conflict. In the wake of a failed attempt to sign the Final Peace Agreement in November 2008, and the resumption of hostilities between the UPDF and the LRA marked by the launch of operation Lightening Thunder, the future of northern Uganda hung in the balance. While many across northern Uganda predicted the worst, the security situation improved substantially, allowing thousands of IDPs to return to their original homesteads while many of the displacement camps were demolished as proof of the finality of the return process. The determination to return to former homesteads and rebuild lives and villages stands as a testament to the capacity of those affected by the conflict to persevere amidst challenges such as lacking educational, health and other social services.
On the transitional justice front, the government of Uganda began to implement elements of the Juba peace protocols still considered valid despite the failure to reach a final agreement. Funds for the peace, recovery and development plan (PRDP) were availed and massive reconstruction works were launched. The government, through the Justice Law and Order Sector (JLOS) working group, also began drafting policies and a framework for the implementation of transitional justice mechanisms. Huge strides were made in setting up the War Crimes Division of the High Court, and countrywide consultations were carried out to solicit views on the domestication of the Rome Statute.
Driven by the desire to pursue justice and reconciliation in Uganda, JRP continued to monitor developments in transitional justice and contribute to policy debates through action oriented research and advocacy in 2009. JRP’s advocacy strategy was dual in nature; at the national level targeting policy makers, donors, and other government organs including the Judiciary, the Amnesty Commission and the Parliament of Uganda; while engaging with grassroots communities at the local level to improve documentation among war affected communities and empower communities to advocate for appropriate justice and reconciliation mechanisms.
JRP has done this using community based approaches, such as community dialogues, dissemination of research reports at the grassroots level, research and documentation of local level transitional initiatives and various other efforts to ensure that the views of grassroots people are included in transitional justice debates. This annual report presents a summary of all activities implemented by JRP in the year 2009. Special thanks go to our donors: the Norwegian Embassy, who made all of these achievements possible.
A community member shares his views at a JRP community dialogue
This report presents the diverging opinions that exist among the war-affected people in northern Uganda concerning how post-conflict issues of justice and reconciliation should be handled.
These responses were gathered by JRP camp focal persons from four community dialogues conducted in Kitgum and Amuru districts in 2008. The dialogues present opinions of participants about how reconciliation and healing can be promoted among the war-affected communities in northern Uganda.
They indicate that while many people in northern Uganda are of the view perpetrators of war crimes need to be forgiven, a significant majority would also like to see some form of accountability meted out. The views of war-affected persons about the role of local mechanisms in post-conflict reconciliation and healing in northern Uganda also feature in the dialogues. While it has always been assumed that war-affected communities wholeheartedly support the use of local mechanisms such as mato oput, it is also interesting to note that a significant minority have reservations about the effectiveness and relevance of these mechanisms. Equally interesting and controversial is the opinion of respondents about who is responsible for the conflict in northern Uganda.
Two residents stand at the site where their sons were killed in the massacre
In the early morning hours of 24 July 2002, the villages around Mucwini awoke to the bloodied corpses of 56 men, women and children. The massacre was a deliberate and ruthless retaliation by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) after a local man they had abducted escaped from them with a gun. After they were finished with their ‘work,’ the LRA wrote a letter to the populace, blaming them for the massacre and threatening more killings if the stolen gun was not recovered.
In the aftermath of the massacre, the victims accused the escaped man of purposely orchestrating the massacre to resolve a long standing land dispute between his clan and that of the majority of victims. Since the massacre, both clans have ceased relations and have threatened retaliation if the issue is not resolved using the traditional mechanism of Mato Oput (drinking the bitter root). The victim clan demands the payment Kwor, or death compensation and the elders have busied themselves trying to cool tensions. In the absence of formal justice, the victims attempt to come to terms with what happened using what is available to them: traditional justice mechanisms.
The aftermath of the Mucwini massacre is an important case study of the justice and reconciliation challenges facing peace builders as the Juba Peace Talks conclude. Documenting the events of the massacre and attempts by victims to come to terms with it, this Field Note identifies three important lessons for understanding the impact of violence on community level relations in northern Uganda, and the prospects for transitional justice. First, it illustrates how the local victim population copes with the aftermath of gross atrocity in the absence of accountability. Secondly, it suggests the need to revisit the potential role of traditional justice mechanisms to resolve local conflicts. Finally, it highlights how the war has exacerbated underlying tensions around land ownership.
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)’s use of abducted children and youth has been much researched, and the horrors of their experiences in captivity and difficulties reintegrating into their communities recorded. Nonetheless, the existing disarmament, demobilization and reintegration strategies pursued to date are brief and insufficient interventions.
This project was conducted by Justice and Reconciliation Project and Quaker Peace & Social Witness. Both organizations had encountered in the course of previous research the existence of self-formed groups of formerly abducted persons (FAPs) / former-LRA, and wanted to assess the role they could and did play in the process of grassroots level reintegration and reconciliation.
Our findings suggest that former LRA peer support groups are an important and effective vehicle for reintegration and reconciliation, all the more so given the paucity of alternative long-term reintegration provision. Former LRA peer groups positively affect:
economic reintegration including provision of livelihoods and microfinance
From July to October 2007, Quaker Peace and Social Witness (QPSW) and the Justice and Reconciliation Project (JRP) conducted qualitative research with ex-LRA fighters on the subject of peer support and reintegration in northern Uganda. These in-depth discussions revealed a number of pressing insights on how to conduct a peaceful and successful DDR process.
July 2007 marked the one-year anniversary of the initiation of peace talks between the Lord’s
Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda, hosted in the southern Sudanese capital of Juba. JRP has taken an active role in bringing the concerns and demands for justice and reconciliation from the grassroots to the bargaining table. The June signing of Agenda Item Three on Accountability and Reconciliation was in part the result of weeks of JRP’s preparation of original research findings into a comprehensive presentation made to delegates. The seminar, entitled Towards a Common Understanding of Traditional, National, and International Justice Options, was co-organisedby JRP with the International Centerfor Transitional Justice and convened Ker KwaroAcholi on June 2 in Juba.The past year of research has uncovered a plethora of issues that must be addressed in order for lasting peace to be attained in Uganda.
From January through March, the JRP team conducted a major research phase in 9 IDP camps, examining community-level mechanisms that might facilitate a process of truth-telling at the local level in northern Uganda. The ensuing report, The Cooling of Hearts: CommunityTruth-Telling in Acholi-land examines the desires and fears of the war-affected populace in learning the truth about the now 21-year-old conflict. In an ongoing strategy of community consultation, this report was translated into Luo, brought back to the camps, and discussed in local papers, international forums, community dialogues, and on the radio. Consultations with local leaders were sought in order to refine the report to truly reflect the opinions of Acholi. It provides important new insights into current debates in the country and at the Juba peace talks on how justice can be served in northern Uganda.
Throughout the course of the truth-telling research, staff also uncovered a desire amongst residents that certain massacres be documented and that their consequences be discussed. JRP responded and produced Field Note 4: Remembering the Atiak Massacre of April 20,1995, released in April. A JRP representative visited the community for the memorial ceremony; the site of one of many as-yet undocumented scars on the populace of northern Uganda. JRP continues to document other major atrocities and several similar reports are forthcoming in 2008.
A fifth Field Note entitled Abomination: Local belief systems and international justice waswritten by JRP in order to emphasize the needfor policy-makers to understand the importanceof understanding local spiritual beliefs in Acholiwhen considering transitional justice strategiesin the region. In the spirit of previous JRPreports such as Roco Wat I Acholi (2005) andAlice’s Story (2006), this Field Note bridged thegap between indigenous and internationalmotives for justice in Acholi.
JRP continues to lead its colleagues locally, nationally and internationally in the unification of local voices aiming to affect positive change in Juba, Garamba and Kampala. JRP was instrumental in to the release of the August 11thLira Declaration on Agenda Item Three of the Juba Peace Talks by Cultural and Religious Leaders, Women and Youth from Madi, Teso, Lango and Acholi Sub-Regions. The Lira
Declaration is the result of a consultation attended and signed by the leadership of traditional and religious institutions, including women and youth representatives.
Project staff actively built upon their capacities as researchers and advocates throughout 2007, attending numerous workshops and presenting solutions to justice and reconciliation issues on behalf of JRP’s community partners. JRP will continue this important work in 2008 and beyond.
Local contexts must begin to better inform Western-based approaches to transitional justice; without them, external interventions often fail to resonate with the values, norms and beliefs of victims. To illustrate this point, this edition of Field Notes focuses on the Acholi concept of kiir, or abomination. Kiir is a transgression of the moral order which is believed to cause serious misfortune, including disease, spiritual haunting and death. Not only has the conflict in northern Uganda created the conditions that have allowed these transgressions to occur; the conflict has also been called an abomination in and of itself. A curse on the people of Acholi and consequent mass displacement are thought to have multiplied acts of abomination as well as reduced the capacity to deal with them: a cleansing ceremony must be performed in order to rectify the impact of kiir.
This Field Note attempts to bring the reader closer to an understanding of local belief systems. Gaining insight into these beliefs can aid international justice systems to better reflect the lived realities of the victim population.
Between the 20-30 August 2007 CSOs working on peace, justice and reconciliation activities in Northern Uganda held four consultative meetings in the regions of Acholi, Lango, Teso, and West Nile to reach a common position on the ongoing consultations on accountability and reconciliation.
A draft committee consisting of three representatives from each sub-region met in Gulu from the 6-7 September 2007 to come up with a common position for CSOs in Northern Uganda.
It is from the proceedings of this meeting and based on regional consultations that we derive the contents of this memorandum, which we hereby declare as a common position for CSOs in Northern Uganda.
