Tag Archives: Okwir Isaac Odiya

Barlonyo vigil

Standing together for the commemoration of the 13th anniversary of the Barlonyo massacre

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Barlonyo vigil
Mourners light candles in memory of Barlonyo victims during a candlelight vigil, 2012.

On behalf of the Justice and Reconciliation Project (JRP), it is my honour to celebrate with you the lives of those who perished during the tragic Barlonyo massacre of 21st February 2004. I am honoured by the legacy set by the victims’ community to commemorate the lives of their loved ones on an annual basis.

Remembrance has proven to be a strong tool for social reconstruction especially in dealing with trauma, conflict and tension, and also in addressing stigma within the community. It provides an opportunity to understand shared conflict experiences and for victim communities to chart a way forward to deal with their transition challenges for harmonious coexistence.

Promoting justice and reconcililiation

Community memorialization is also a community relevant transitional justice approach to justice and reconciliation, an approach that needs to be supported by local government and international organizations to promote justice and reconciliation especially in the absence of official transitional justice framework. I want to applaud Lira district local government for taking up the challenge of leading the arrangement of this year’s Barlonyo memorial prayer as well as thank all partners that supported the process.

Over the last 11 years, JRP has played a key role in understanding and explaining the needs, concerns and interests of war-affected people in northern Uganda through research and documentation. Adopting a victim centered approach, we have built the capacity of many victim communities to play a lead role in advocating for justice, accountability and reconciliation as well as dealing with their conflict challenges on their own.

We have also supported community justice, accountability and reconciliation initiatives which have moved victims to another level in as far as social recovery is concerned. We are happy to see the community of Barlonyo, with whom we have worked with for a long time, keeping up the momentum to socially reconstruct their society by collaborating with other partners, especially local government.

Holistic approaches

In a survey we conducted in 2015 on opportunities for regional reconciliation, we found a number of justice, accountability and reconciliation needs within communities and between the different ethnic communities in northern Uganda. This is a huge transition challenge that calls for holistic approaches to provide substantive responses to the transition challenges.

I therefore urge the government of Uganda to pass the transitional justice policy of Uganda and expeditiously implement programs to answer the justice, accountability and reconciliation needs in war affected communities. This will go a long way realize sustainable peace and reconciliation in northern Uganda and achieve national unity.

In conclusion, I want to thank the community of Barlonyo and Lira district local government for initiating the commemoration of the 13th anniversary of the Barlonyo massacre. I urge every stakeholder for a positive remembrance through an approach that deals with conflict trauma, stigma as well as the reconciliation needs of the affected community.

JRP remains committed to support justice, accountability and reconciliation efforts of conflict affected people and we shall always be there for victims and with victims.

May the souls of those who perished rest in peace and their spirits leave to promote community and regional reconciliation.

Okwir Isaac Odiya is the Head of Office with the Justice and reconciliation Project

 

Mapping Regional Reconciliation in Northern Uganda: A Case Study of the Acholi and Lango Sub-Regions

Mapping Regional Reconciliation in Northern Uganda: A Case Study of the Acholi and Lango Sub-Regions

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Mapping Regional Reconciliation in Northern Uganda: A Case Study of the Acholi and Lango Sub-Regions
Mapping Regional Reconciliation in Northern Uganda: A Case Study of the Acholi and Lango Sub-Regions

 

Led by Justice and Reconciliation Project (JRP), with funding support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Supporting Access to Justice, Fostering Equity and Peace (SAFE) programme, this report, titled Mapping Regional  Reconciliation in Northern Uganda: A Case Study of the Acholi and Lango Sub-Regions, examines key conflict drivers at the sub-regional and community levels in the Acholi and Lango sub-regions, specifically, and northern Uganda more broadly, and identifies effective mechanisms for constructive social change processes towards regional reconciliation. It is a significant step towards comprehensively identifying and analysing obstacles to positive peace and reconciliation in the region to ensure that post-war recovery, reconciliation and development interventions are conflict-sensitive and aligned with the social, political and economic needs of the communities.

The report also identifies strategic and effective mechanisms to foster regional reconciliation in ways that value embedded local capacities, narratives and forms of agency in the communities. The report concludes by highlighting recommendations directed to key actors across the horizontal and vertical axis of the society, eliciting a multi-stakeholder approach to engendering sustainable structures of lasting peace and reconciliation in the Acholi and Lango sub-regions.

Download this report here: Mapping Regional Reconciliation in Northern Uganda (pdf)

JRP Podcast Episode 2 – Mapping regional reconciliation in northern Uganda and Dominic Ongwen

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(Oryem Nyeko) Hello and welcome to the second episode of JRPs’ podcast. I am Oryem Nyeko, I am  with my colleague Okwir Isaac Odiya of JRP  to talk about a report title ‘ Mapping Regional Reconciliation In Northern Uganda: A Case Study Of Acholi And Lango Sub- Region.

(Okwir Isaac Odiya) Across Ethnic Boundaries project came from the background of our interactions with the community of Acholi, Lango, Teso and West Nile which we learned about the poor relationship and the accusations that is within these communities. We thought of doing this regional reconciliation project to understand whether there is need for regional reconciliation in northern Uganda. This made us to do a baseline study which we came out with the result. This baseline study or the regional reconciliation survey that we did was meant to provide us a baseline for peace building and reconciliation undertaking in northern Uganda. Basically to inform us whether it is true that there is need for reconciliation between the people of northern Uganda and what mechanism therefore should be adopted in order to foster reconciliation in Northern Uganda.

(Oryem)  So the baseline is reported in this report that we are talking about…

(Isaac) Exactly, the ‘Mapping of Regional Reconciliation in Northern Uganda’ is the result of the baseline survey that we did.

(Oryem) So what are some of the findings in the report? What did you find out about the need for regional reconciliation?

(Isaac) From the report, we came with key findings and one of it is the negative perception about the civil war – the war that was fought between the government of Uganda and the LRA. We realized that many people perceived the war as a war that was planned by one ethnic group against the other which basically in many communities that we interacted with, they claim that it was an Acholi war made to make other ethnic groups suffer. So that is one of the findings we realized on the ground.

The second finding is about the tension which is among the ethnic groups in northern Uganda as a result of the crimes that were committed among these communities. There is interpersonal community and ethnic tension which basically people think they were made to suffer because of some other individuals, because of some other community or because of some other ethnic groups.

From the survey that was conducted, we noted that 62% says that there is poor relationship among the people of Lango and Acholi which is as a result of LRA war. They feel that the people of Acholi planned to kill the people of Lango so because of this, there is that poor relationship between the people of Acholi and the people of Lango.

We also noted that in the communities or among the different communities there is fear of revenge by other communities because of what they did maybe. In some of the communities there are some individuals that were involved in some of the atrocities and because of what they did in the atrocities that they feel that their counterparts are going to revenge on them. So there is that fear of revenge within the communities. So generally there is that accusations among the communities, they claim that they suffered because of that individual or that community.

We also found that the community and the individuals are so bitter for lack of accountability and reparation programme. Many individuals and many communities were made to suffer but there is no acknowledgement of the crimes committed on them, there is no accountability for what they underwent and there is no programme to repair them. So the communities are so bitter on the government, they are so bitter on their leaders, they are so bitter on each other within the community because they feel they are not being repaired, they are not being acknowledged for the wrongs that happened to them. Generally the communities feel that they are being segregated in post-conflict service provision. There are a number of programmes that are enrolled by civil society organisations, by the local government but they feel that the services are balanced. It’s not reaching them all, it’s only being directed to one section of the community. Because of this they feel that there is segregation in provision of these services that should really help them to come out of the problem they went through to repair them, to recover from the shock of the war. And because of this segregation, they feel that they are not being honored, they are not being acknowledged as people who also suffered.

In our own analysis we feel that this is another potential source of conflict in that if they feel that one section of the community is being supported to recover from the problem, it means they are not being supported and easily they can begin to revenge, they can begin to cause another conflict on the government or on the communities that are benefiting from some of these services.

 (Oryem) I’m curious, what do you think are some of the root causes of what you are talking about – the segregation; some communities not receiving the programmes that are meant to address the legacy of the war. What’s the cause of that, do you think?

(Isaac)  I think there is lack of a baseline study to understand the different needs of the communities and what they went through. Our service providers – it looks like they don’t understand our communities, what they went through and the kind of services they need so they are kind of neglecting some of these communities to benefit from some of these services. To me I feel that they are not informed, they don’t know what services are supposed to be provided for which communities, which is a gap and that is the only gap I feel.

But also, it is important that we need to train our service providers to know how to work with the victims of conflict. In a way we may also be causing conflict by failing to understand the circumstances that our communities went through. Like when we were interacting with this communities, the people of Odek made mention about the kind of segregation that they are going through. We were made to know that the people of Odek are being considered as Kony, in that they have supported Kony, they groomed Kony to be what he is and Kong is now affecting.  So they contributed in making Kony who he is, and because of that they are being treated as Kony. So I feel that the service providers should be able to separate the people of Odek and Kony himself, taking the fact that they also suffered a lot in the hand of Kony.

(Oryem) So what needs to be done? I mean, you’ve elaborated a bit on that with service providers maybe needing to be more informed about the needs and experiences of the various communities, but what’s a next step in terms of reconciling some of these issues?

(Isaac) In line with service provision, that is basically one of the reasons why we did this report. We want this report to inform transitional justice processes in Uganda and in northern Uganda. We want these key findings and recommendations in this report, Mapping Regional Reconciliation, to really inform the different stakeholders – peacebuilders and reconciliation activists to really know what are the gaps in the community and then what are some of the steps that are required to be taken in order to mitigate or to provide remedies to some of these gaps in the community. So that is the first step.

I would urge the different stakeholders to really pay attention to this report so that they can learn the kind of community we are working with, the gaps in the community and the kind of careful steps they should take in order to provide reconciliation within these communities.

Secondly, it is important to work in partnership, the different civil society organizations, the NGOs and the government, the local government. We need to be coordinating so that we inform each other on the gaps on the ground and then the best step, we can brainstorm on the best steps that should really be taken so that we really reach this community so that we address the specific gaps in this community. And by doing this we are going to act in the interests of the community we are serving.

I want to mention another few things in regards to reconciliation gaps. What requires to be done. We also noted that there is a lack of platform to foster reconciliation, in that victims’ communities are there in the community, but they lack forums to which they should really communicate, to which they should really engage to address some of their own problems. This is also coupled with the criminal prosecution process that is going on, the trial of Kwoyelo, the trial of Dominic Ongwen, which is kind of fueling more conflict in the community. So there is also this problem that is existing in the community following the survey that we conducted, or working with these communities. Which my recommendation would go to the various stakeholders to really support the peacebuilding and reconciliation structures that we have on the ground or to establish more, so that they provide pillars to these conflict affected community to interact with, to discuss their issues, to support them in their reconciliation and recovery programme.

It’s all about providing a platform for these people to interact, to really try to see the best way of addressing some of their issues, to channel their problems so that it is heard and addressed by the stakeholders.

I would also recommend for a trauma healing project to really be enrolled in the community so that people find ways to move out of their problems instead of getting stuck. Much as accountability has not been done, much as there is no adequate reparation they still need to move on with their lives. So it is important to have such programmes.

(Oryem) Can I just ask how do the criminal proceedings fuel conflict in these communities?

(Isaac) From the interaction we had with these communities, we learned that they have varying interests in line with the result of the verdict. In the case of Dominic Ongwen’s trial, there are those who want to see Dominic Ongwen prosecuted, they want to see him guilty and there are those who want to see Dominic Ongwen coming back home acquitted from the sentence.

So you can see the communities are now looking at those who are in support of Dominic Ongwen as those who supported the atrocities that made them suffer in northern Uganda. Those who look at the people who want to see Dominick Ongwen jailed, they look at them as those who do not want reconciliation to be done so that people get to live back together.

(Oryem) Because of course the question of criminal accountability and Dominic Ongwen has implications on the communities that have been affected by the case for Lukodi, I imagine that’s what you’re talking about, and the other communities, Odek, Abok, and so on, that his charges are based on, they obviously have a vested interest in seeing some sort of accountability towards him. Whereas in other communities, in Coorom, for example, where Ongwen is from there is a sense that there should be more of a reconciliatory process. Although in my experience, I found that even people in Lukodi also want to reconcile with the people from where Ongwen is from, which I find interesting and I think it kind of speaks to the point that you’re making that these issues have a regional aspect to them. In that it’s not the same everywhere. Not everyone in northern Uganda has the same sense, not everyone in Acholi and Lango has the same feelings towards Ongwen or to criminal accountability or to the impact of the war. I think that’s kind of it

(Isaac) Exactly, and that’s where it calls for how do we manage the process?  So that at the end of it all, irrespective of the result of the trial, how are we going to ensure that there is reconciliation, how are we going to we to work together, the people of Lango, the people of Acholi, the people of Lukodi, the people of Coorom, irrespective of the results of the hearing. This is what we should manage.

 

 

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.

 

 

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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.