Part I
In an increasingly capitalistic world, sentences that start with “I need” start to sound awfully silly when they end with “those shoes (of which I admit full and repeated guilt),” “another drink,” or “a plasma TV.” Much to the chagrin of the gazillion ad agencies who exploit our every material whim, the simple fact is that what we actually require in order to survive can be counted on one hand. The top two? My guess is most of us would say air and water.
Imagine the nonsensical scenario where someone actually makes us choose between our two most basic, interconnected needs. In all likelihood we would give them a quizzical look and politely point out that while neither air nor water is on its own sufficient to keep us alive, both are necessary to do so. We need both to sustain ourselves. We need both to grow. And we need both before we can even think about our other basic needs (still not shoes, ladies).
Now switch the words air and water with peace and justice. Imagine you are a civilian in war-torn Northern Uganda, ravaged by a twenty-year civil war that has left you and your family reeling from its effects. Imagine you are missing your hands, ears, and nose, and your children, desperate to avoid becoming child soldiers, commute miles at night to avoid abduction and forced recruitment. If your government/the United Nations/the international community gave you a choice between ending the violence tomorrow or letting the perpetrators of the crimes avoid criminal responsibility only to commit the crimes again, chances are you would think twice between choosing. But here too this “choice” is as nonsensical as choosing between air and water: we need both peace and justice to survive, heal, and ultimately, thrive after being subjected to such violence. Put in wonky academic terms (my apologies), peace and justice are integral elements of any sustainable resolution to conflicts that involve grave human rights violations against civilian populations.
The Republic of Uganda is a landlocked East African country with Kenya, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Tanzania as its neighbors. After being a British colony for almost 80 years, Uganda gained independence in 1962. After several coups and the violent rule of infamous dictator Idi Amin, National Resistance Army leader Yoweri Museveni overthrew then President Tito Okello in 1986 and has ruled Uganda ever since.
Notwithstanding early signs of a more stable government and notable progress with various domestic challenges such as HIV/AIDS, President Museveni cannot profess to have clean hands. Aside from involving Uganda in the Second Congo War and other violent conflicts in Africa’s Great Lakes region, Museveni’s government has been engaged in a devastating civil war with the cult rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) since the late eighties. The LRA is one of the most notorious rebel groups in Africa, operating out of Northern Uganda and increasingly, parts of Sudan. The LRA’s founder and current leader, Joseph Kony, considers himself a “spiritual medium,” claiming to draw on the Ten Commandments and his native Acholi traditions to “liberate” the Ugandan people. Yet the LRA systematically brutalizes the Acholi and other populations in Northern Uganda by using tactics such as maiming, mutilation, and rape. It also relies heavily on child soldiers who are forcibly recruited and ordered to fight and kill other soldiers, victims, and—in an effort to prevent their demobilization—their own family members. The Ugandan civil war between the government’s forces and the LRA is the longest running conflict in Africa with hundreds of thousands of lives, limbs, and childhoods lost.
If any of the names, dates, and events above sound familiar to you, it’s probably because you’ve heard recent news stories covering the peace talks (of which there have been many in the past) between Museveni’s government and the LRA. The latest round of the Juba Peace Talks come after a key event in the history of the violence: Uganda joined the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2002 and President Museveni referred the LRA situation to the ICC to investigate in December 2003.
The ICC’s resulting investigation led to the landmark issuance of arrest warrants for Joseph Kony and four other senior LRA leaders accused of committing grave crimes and massacres since the Court’s establishment in 2002. Not surprisingly, the arrest warrants have become a source of great concern for the LRA leadership who have enjoyed rampant impunity for two decades now. In fact, since the commencement of the Juba Peace Talks, the LRA has threatened to abandon the peace talks if the ICC doesn’t withdraw its warrants. The LRA’s threats have precipitated a highly charged “peace vs. justice” debate in the context of Northern Uganda. Some advocates argue that peace must come at all cost, even if that means denying Ugandans long-overdue justice for the LRA’s heinous crimes. Others argue that justice and accountability must be a part of the greater plan for peace if the goal is a lasting, sustainable end to the ongoing cycle of violence. But what do Northern Ugandans want? The answer was unwavering and unequivocal last week—tune in for Part II, coming up next.
