The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is a rebel group formed in 1987, which operates mainly in the northern Ugandan region of Acholiland from bases established in southern Sudan.
The LRA is led by Joseph Kony, a self-proclaimed spirit medium who claims to have received the order to form the LRA from the Holy Spirit in order to liberate the people of Uganda “from corruption, sins and immoral thinking“. Whereas Kony’s exact political goals remain unclear, he is said to aim at erecting a Ugandan theocracy based on the Ten Commandments.
While the LRA is not in a position to destabilize the Ugandan government, it has for 18 years terrorized the civilian population in northern Uganda. The LRA has its origin in an uprising of the Acholi people against the south-Ugandan Yoweri Museveni, which started after the latter overthrew the then President Okello in 1986. However, Joseph Kony did not gain the lasting support of the Acholi and was soon forced to retreat into Sudanese territory. Feeling betrayed by his own people, he has since then directed most of the LRA’s attacks against the civilian population of the Acholi.
The main characteristic of the LRA is that it is made up of up to 85% of children between 11 and 15 years of age. To fill their ranks, LRA troops systematically abduct children, using them as soldiers, porters and sexual slaves. According to estimates, some 20'000 children have been abducted. The abducted children are often forced to kill their own parents to destroy any prospect of returning home. To deter the abductees from trying to escape, the LRA force the children to kill those who tried to escape.
The LRA is responsible for widespread abuses against the civilian population. They have killed tens of thousands of civilians, and many more are said to have died as a result of hunger and disease caused by the conflict.
The LRA’s soldiers are notorious for maiming alleged collaborators with the government by cutting off their hands, lips and ears. As a result of their looting and destroying whole villages, up to three quarters of the Acholi people have been forcibly displaced.
Some observers claim that the Sudanese government was supporting the LRA, because Uganda allegedly supported the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the rebel movement which fights the Sudanese government. However, in a 1999 bilateral agreement, the two governments vowed to stop supporting the rebel groups.
Also based on a bilateral agreement with Sudan, the Ugandan government may pursue LRA rebels on Sudanese territory, but only up to a “red line“, which is marked by an overland-road about 100 km into the country.
On 10 October 2005,however, the Ugandan government reported that Sudan had given them free reign, during one month, to pursue the LRA anywhere across the border.
Criminal Justice or Amnesty?
Many NGOs, allegedly speaking in the name of the victims, demand that an end should be put to the ICC’s efforts to prosecute Joseph Kony. They argue that only a general amnesty can bring peace in Uganda. The prosecution by the ICC, which would proceed unhampered by a national amnesty, was leading to a prolongation of the conflict, as the LRA would only fight even more bitterly and would lose any will to take part in peace negotiations.
Other NGOs are of the opinion that the international attention that resulted from the deferral of the situation to the ICC had as a consequence the withdrawal of Sudan’s support to the LRA. Because of the opening of the investigation by the ICC, greater pressure had been put on the two conflicting parties, a circumstance which already led to peace negotiations.
A July 2005 survey published by the International Center for Transitional Justice, for which more than 2'500 inhabitants of Northern Uganda have been interviewed, concludes that the population had mixed feelings about the LRA rebels, the main reason being that many of their own children are fighting within the LRA’s ranks.
This is also the reason why half of the persons interviewed did not wish that lower-ranking members of the LRA should face criminal charges. Their opinion with regard to the LRA’s leaders is different. Three quarters of the persons interviewed thought that the leaders should face up to their responsibility. A great majority spoke out in favour of their punishment: on the question which fate the LRA leaders should face, two thirds answered in favour of criminal prosecutions and only a little less than a quarter wanted to let them go free of any charges, resulting from the classical solution of an amnesty. Close to 84% of the persons interviewed were of the opinion that the international community should be involved in this process. A great number of these persons thinks that the international community should be the main actor in the struggle for justice in Northern Uganda..
On the question of whether the peace process should be accompanied by an amnesty or criminal prosecutions, a small majority of53% answered in favour of a peace based on the criminal prosecution of the criminals involved.
To summarize, it can be said that contrary to the opinion of many NGOs, peace and criminal justice are not mutually exclusive in the eyes of the population of Northern Uganda. Putting the LRA’s leaders face to face with their responsibilities is considered a very important issue by the population.
