Report on refugee situation in northern Uganda launched today

The conflict in northern Uganda has continued for nearly 18 years, and there appears to be little end in sight. Over 1.4 million people have been displaced, tens of thousands more have been killed, raped or abducted, and the war has spread into Teso and Lango districts. Through presenting an in-depth analysis of the war, the RLP hopes to give renewed focus and motivation to the relevant actors working to end the conflict. RLP Director, Zachary Lomo, said: “This war has gone on for too long. The most important thing about the report is that it highlights the challenges to existing approaches to ending the war. It is a national issue, not just a northern war.” The report asserts that while people living in the north have deep-rooted grievances against the current government that date back to the first northern rebellions, Kony’s LRA is a poor expression of these and enjoys no popular support amongst the civilian population.

At first glance, the persistence of the LRA over such a long period is incomprehensible: the majority of the force is made up of kidnapped children held against their will, the LRA is extremely unpopular among civilians because of its brutality, and it operates in an environment without significant natural resources to sell for arms. However, Kony’s apocalyptic spiritual vision – analysed in-depth in the report – and his use of fear and violence to maintain control within the LRA haveallowed the conflict to continue for nearly 18 years. As RLP Senior Research and Advocacy Officer, Dr. Lucy Hovil, said, “Kony doesn’t fit within standard categories of political insurgency. We need to think outside the box, because the current understandings of what motivates the LRA have hindered efforts to end the war.”

The war is in reality two conflicts in one: a multi-faceted northern rebellion against the NRM government whose root causes have never been fully resolved, and a war with an LRA that does not fit conventional models of political insurgency and is motivated by a worldview that combines traditional spirituality and Biblical interpretation. The deeper northern conflict originated with the UPDA and Alice Lakwena’s Holy Spirit Movement rebellions, when northerners felt cheated by the breaking of the 1985 Nairobi peace accords. In addition, the protracted nature of the war has created new conflict dynamics, with many of the war’s horrific consequences – such as mass displacement, a perceived war economy, and a military response that often fails to protect communities – having turned into reasons for its continuation. With the population blaming the conflicting parties for such suffering, the ensuing lack of trust has led to intense three-way tensions between the LRA, the civilian population and the government that has both compromised intelligence gathering, and turned the rebels against civilians.

The recent spread of the war has also raised several new issues. The government-sponsored Arrow and Rhino militias in Soroti and Lira, while appearing successful in protecting the populations in their regions in the short-term, is of long-term concern: the arming of over 20,000 civilians may potentially threaten the security of the country. Heightened inter-ethnic tensions between citizens of northern and eastern Uganda are also of increased concern. The report offers a fresh analysis of the conflict and concludes that the approaches used to date to end the war are inadequate. The report gives a number of recommendations for the way forward, addressing the three main strands of the conflict: the root causes that continue to feed grievances in northern Uganda, the LRA insurgency itself, and the consequences of the war that are interpreted as ongoing causes of the war.

Approaching negotiations with the precondition of a particular list of grievances, for example, has proved unworkable given Kony’s particular worldview. A national truth and reconciliation process is another recommendation. As Director Zachary Lomo commented, “A national truth and reconciliation process is a bold assertion. Others have tried to localise the conflict, but by saying that allowance should be made for a reconciliation process where everyone can participate, then things can really change. The truth needs to be known before reconciliation can start.”

*The full report is available for download at www.refugeelawproject.org

For further enquiries, please contact: Zachary Lomo, Director, The Refugee Law Project (RLP), Faculty of Law, Makerere UniversityTel: 041-343 556 or 077-659 731