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Catholic World News News Feature

The Forgotten War April 01, 2004

The pictures are not pretty. Every now and then the Western world sees photos that bear vivid witness to the bloodshed in northern Uganda: portraits of men, women, and children with mutilated bodies and missing limbs. But the full story of these people, who have been caught in a long and bloody civil war between the government of Uganda and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), has not often reached beyond the small villages of their own region.

For 18 years the Acholi people—a community of farmers and herders who dwell in the Gulu, Kitgum, and Pader districts of northern Uganda near the Sudanese border—have been trapped in the middle a ferocious battle. For the past decade they have rarely been combatants, but frequently victims. The carnage in their remote, primitive region—where the Acholi typically live in huts with mud walls and grass-thatched roofs—has been overshadowed by other more spectacular conflicts in Africa. But in the past generation thousands of people have died in this conflict, and an estimated 1.2 million have been driven from their homes.

The LRA rebels, led by Joseph Kony, who was raised Catholic, are waging war against the United People's Defense Force (UPDF), the army of the Ugandan government headed by President Yoweri Museveni. Kony and his followers profess a desire to set up a new regime based on the Ten Commandments. Beyond that vague claim, observers in Africa have been unable to discern any specific goals, or discover any political agenda, in the rebels' rhetoric.

But the practical consequences of the LRA campaign are very plain to see. When the rebels arrive in the villages of northern Uganda, the residents are subjected to trauma, displacement, or even death. It is not clear what advantage the rebels seek, aside from the intimidation of the local populace. It is painfully clear what their raids do.

SENSELESS SLAUGHTER

On February 5, the LRA attacked the Abiya refugee camp, the temporary home of thousands of displaced families, in the town of Lira. An eyewitness reported that about 100 rebel soldiers surrounded the camp, then moved in, flailing at residents with clubs and machetes. If the civilians attempted to flee, the LRA troops opened fire, gunning them down. Then the rebels set fire to the village, leaving charred bodies and smoldering huts behind as they left. Forty people died in the attacks; scores more were wounded; hundreds were once again homeless.

A Catholic missionary from Lira said that the scene he confronted when he visited the Abiya camp testified to the extraordinary cruelty of the rebels' tactics. "It was horrific to see these poor, defenseless people alone, at the mercy of these bandits," Father Sebat Ayala told the BBC news service. "It's criminal."

Unfortunately such horrific attacks have not been uncommon in northern Uganda during this long war. The Acholi people have been tormented by the struggle, and desperate for help from the international community. But that help has not materialized, leaving the people feeling abandoned.

Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu expressed that feeling of abandonment last November, when he reported the feelings of his people to Jan Egeland, the UN’s undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs. The archbishop said:

We are aware that this is a war that has remained for a long time in the dark, and which fits in the category of the "world’s forgotten conflicts. We have a feeling that too many times, this tragedy has been put under the label of "internal affairs," closing doors to any outside international intervention.

Father Carlos Rodriguez shares the belief that the war in Uganda has largely escaped the attention of the outside world. Father Rodriguez is a spokesman for the Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative (ARLPI), a coalition of Christians, Muslims, and representatives of traditional African religions that is working toward a peace pact in northern Uganda. In a January report for ARLPI, he observed that the battle between the Ugandan army and local rebels had not attracted much international attention until recent months. Father Rodriguez observed that world leaders have been distracted from Uganda by more dramatic conflicts in the Great Lakes region:

This could be attributed to the fact that the conflict takes place in an area without any particular commercial or economic interests. Moreover, events in neighboring zones, such as south Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, or Rwanda have always overshadowed our area.

KONY TAKES CONTROL

The horror of the long civil war in Sudan, and the genocidal clashes that shook Rwanda in the 1990s, cannot be overlooked. But Uganda has also had its share of insurgencies, especially since 1986 when President Museveni took power. The other rebellions have been more effectively crushed, but the LRA remains a potent force, and its battles with the Ugandan military have been the longest, bloodiest, and most brutal in the country's recent history.

The origins of the conflict can be traced back to Museveni's ascent to power. When the current president took office, many of the Acholi people feared that he would seek reprisals against residents of the northern provinces who had controlled the army under the previous regime, and had been accused of their own atrocities. UN human-rights officials attest that these fears were justified, since many Acholi people were abducted during the night soon after Museveni took power. Some were tortured and released; others never returned. "When the sun sets, we start to worry," Acholi leaders reported.

Soon the people of the north began gravitating toward rebel movements, which included the Ugandan People's Democratic Army and the Holy Spirit Movement, founded by the eccentric but charismatic Alice Lakwena. Lakwena, who emerged as a rebel leader in late 1986, claimed to be possessed by the spirit of a saintly Italian military officer who drowned in the Nile during World War I, and who now gave her the inspiration to guide the suffering Acholi people to victory. She assured her followers that if they smeared their bodies with certain herbs, their enemies' bullets would be turned to water and they would become invincible. These mystical claims won her a substantial following among the Acholi, but when the Ugandan army routed her rebel forces in 1987, her influence was shattered.

After Lakwena's defeat, her cousin Joseph Kony took center stage, making different sorts of claims of supernatural support. From the remains of the Holy Spirit Movement, Kony organized a group that was first known as the Ugandan People's Democratic Christian Army, then became the Lord's Resistance Army.

Kony also claims to be guided by the spirit of a deceased Italian—in his case a missionary priest who passed through the region when Kony was a young boy. But Kony's claims go much further. He also tells his followers of eight other spirits: three Americans, two Sudanese, two Chinese, and one Congolese. Kony spends much of his time conferring with these spirits and interpreting their answers to his strategic questions.

As the war rages on, Kony sits well behind the rebel lines, dressed in a white robe, in conference with his council of spirits from another realm. He dips his hands repeatedly into pools of water, explaining that the act helps him to determine how many of his warriors will die that day. He puts small models of guns and helicopters onto a charcoal fire, and says that he can see the lines of battle in the way the figures burn. The leaders of the LRA frequently meet on selected hills, which Kony has declared sacred; they pray and offer sacrifices near springs of water that his "spirits" designate.

At one time Kony banned all smoking, use of alcohol, and sexual activity among his followers. He insisted that his fighters must abstain from meat, revere trees, and respect the anthills, rivers, and outcroppings of rock that they encountered. (In this way he was paying homage to the traditional deities of the Acholi folk religions.) More recently, to counter growing skepticism among his troops, he has relaxed the bans on sex, smoking, and drinking.

ABDUCTION AS A TACTIC

Handicapped by their lack of serious military training as well as their leader's whimsical approach to strategic planning, the young recruits of the LRA have not done well in direct conflicts with the UPDF. Once again the rebels have paid a high price for their superstitions. Kony too has promised his soldiers that plant oils will make them immune to bullets; hundreds of his followers have been mowed down by machine guns. Yet somehow the rebel leader, unlike his cousin, has managed to retain the confidence of his soldiers. He now predicts that a time will come when machine guns are no longer effective, and spears and clubs will be more powerful in battle. The LRA is reportedly collecting spears from villagers in anticipation of that time.

Nevertheless, Kony evidently recognized the limits of his followers' credulity, and after a series of military defeats in the late 1980s and early 1990s he changed his tactics. Rather than risking direct confrontations with the Ugandan army, he began planning lightning strikes—not on military installations but on civilian villages. His soldiers now attack churches and hospitals; they ambush vehicles. Coming into a village, they mutilate any civilians who are thought to pose a danger to their plans, cutting off hands and ears as a warning against anyone who might be tempted to report their activities promptly to the government. Above all, they kidnap children.

The thousands of abductions staged by the LRA have given rise to a new phenomenon in northern Uganda: the "night commuters." To avoid being trapped in small villages where they might be prey to LRA assaults, women and children walk several miles to towns where they can seek safety in numbers, sleeping in church compounds, hospitals, or government offices, or even rolling out their bedding side by side on the streets. The UN has estimated that as many as 25,000 people have become "night commuters" in the Gulu and Kitgum districts. Every night, between 4,000 and 5,000 young children sleep in the streets of Kitgum to avoid rebel kidnappers. Jan Egeland, the UN official who toured the region in December, was shocked to see the young people curled up in their ragged blankets; he spoke with great emotion about the "war against children" conducted by the LRA.

Last June, Church leaders in northern Uganda made their own symbolic comment on the "night commuter" phenomenon. For two nights, a group of Catholic and Protestant leaders, including Archbishop Odama, joined those sleeping on the streets in the town of Gulu. "We are taking this action to show our solidarity with the suffering children," they announced.

The number of children abducted shot up during the spring of 2002, after the UPDF launched an offensive against the rebels. In the entire year 2001, there were 101 children kidnapped in the region. From June 2002 to October 2003, there were more than 10,000 abductions. The total number of children taken from their families by the LRA since the war began is at lest 20,000; some informed observers believe it is closer to 30,000. Once abducted, the children are forcibly recruited into the rebel army. The girls are then given to the commanders as "wives"—trophies of battle. The journey after abduction is a traumatic one, with the children made to carry heavy loads over long distances. Those who show any weakness are killed. Some of the children are forced to beat or even execute others; others are required to watch as punishments are meted out.

HOPES AND DISAPPOINTMENTS

There have been efforts to bring this conflict to a negotiated end. The government and the LRA convened peace talks late in 1993, giving rising to widespread hopes for an end to the bloodshed. But those talks collapsed early in 1994, setting off a new round of violence in the region. The Acholi generally believed that Kony should have agreed to the government's peace terms, and when he failed to do so, he lost most of his popular support in their villages. For his part, Kony saw this as a betrayal, and he reacted ferociously. It was at this juncture in the civil war that he turned to mass abductions.

Although the Acholi as a group withdrew their support from Kony's movement in 1994, they retained their distrust for the national government. As late as 1998, Acholi leaders cited that distrust as a reason for the continued conflict. They also pointed out that some civilians in the region profited from the war, since they provided weaponry for one or both sides. And they observed that Sudan was giving its support to Kony's rebels, in response to Uganda's support for the rebel Sudanese People's Liberation Army.

Whatever their political sympathies might have been, however, by 1998 the Acholi people were ready to take action to bring the war to an end. Early that year the Christian and Muslim leaders of the region joined to form the ARLPI. Since that time the group has been actively involved in efforts to promote a peaceful settlement, sometimes opening its own negotiations with rebel leaders, and sometimes facing death threats from Kony's lieutenants. The Ugandan government, too, has had a stormy relationship with the religious leaders, sometimes accepting their initiatives and sometimes describing the ARLPI as an impediment to the peace process. Last June, Joseph Kony issued an order for all of his followers to "destroy all Catholic missions, kill priests and missionaries, and beat nuns black and blue." That call to violence left Church leaders understandably shaken. Father Joseph Gerner, who cares for a parish in Kitgum, reported: "We as missionaries are taking Kony's words very seriously, and do not at all feel that they could be interpreted as a joke." He pointed out that "the daily violence against civilians" in northern Uganda "makes us believe that everything may be possible." In September, President Museveni wrote to Archbishop Odama, warning that Kony had ordered his soldiers to kill the prelate. But the archbishop, vowing that he would not be deterred by threats, said that he would pursue efforts to arrange negotiations with the rebel leader.

It is not clear why Kony has chosen to target the churches and their leaders. Some observers say that Kony is suspicious of the ARLPI, and fears that he could be captured and turned over to the government in an ambush arranged under the guise of negotiations. He is also reportedly annoyed that the churches continue to provide care and support for the Acholi people who, in his view, betrayed his righteous cause.

Despite the rebels' threats, the ARLPI presses forward. In its more ambitious efforts, the religious group has sought to persuade international leaders that they should intervene. Last July the ARLPI wrote to US President George W. Bush:

We appreciate the concern your government has in pursuing peace for Africa in countries like Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sudan. You have also recognized the need to neutralize terrorism in Eastern Africa (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Djibouti). We believe that the government of the United States of America has the might and the ability to help end the suffering in northern Uganda.

We therefore urge the government and people of the USA to: • Put pressure on the Government of Sudan to stop supplying arms to the LRA, even by proxy. • Protect the children from abduction. • Assist the government of Uganda by investing in socio-economic infrastructure in the region to enhance peace. • Support every opportunity and effort to solve the conflict by peaceful negotiation and dialogue. • Lobby to include the northern Uganda conflict on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council and other international bodies as a matter of urgency.

This letter is thought to have moved the US government to add the LRA to its official listing of "terrorist organizations" as of December 2003.

SUDAN'S INVOLVEMENT

Another key to a peaceful solution for northern Uganda is the attitude of Sudan. For years Sudan and Uganda have been at odds; the Khartoum government has accused Uganda of supporting rebels in southern Sudan, while Kampala responds with the charge that Sudan provides safe harbors for the LRA. In 2001 the Sudanese government announced that it had cut off all support to the LRA. The rebel group, fearful that Sudanese troops would rout the LRA soldiers out of their camps on Sudanese soil, relocated its headquarters to the remote Imatong Mountain regions on the border between the two countries. Nevertheless some ARLPI negotiators maintain that the Sudanese army has continued to provide arms for the Ugandan rebel group, working through their civilian proxies.

In the past three years the tensions between Khartoum and Kampala have subsided, and in 2002 the two nations concluded a diplomatic agreement that allowed the Ugandan military to conduct cross-border raids onto Sudanese territory to attack LRA bases. This agreement allowed the launching of "Operation Iron Fist," a UPDF offensive aimed at "eliminating the LRA threat and freeing abductees." To that end, the UPDF deployed more than 10,000 troops in the region.

Mounting their own counteroffensive, the LRA returned in full force to northern Uganda in June 2002—reportedly with new equipment, uniforms, and training. After crossing the border the rebel forces broke up into smaller units, then stepped up their attacks, abducting thousands of children and targeting religious leaders and church properties in their raids. The rebels also began hijacking convoys of trucks bringing relief supplies to the suffering populations of northern Uganda and southern Sudan.

PEACE PROSPECTS Through it all the ARLPI has continued its mediation efforts. Late in 2002 the religious leaders convinced the Kampala government to appoint its own team of negotiators. After first resisting the idea, Kony raised their hopes in March 2003 by declaring a unilateral ceasefire. President Museveni initially rejected the rebel leader's initiative, but then responded with his own call for a ceasefire, and talks between rebel officials and a presidential negotiating team. Within a month the ceasefire collapsed, when the LRA killed a presidential emissary. Open warfare quickly resumed.

Today ARLPI leaders believe that the war will not end unless a powerful third party becomes involved in the process, forcing the Kampala government and the LRA to the negotiating table. But the government has been reluctant to accept any international intervention; Museveni insists that the conflict is an "internal affair," which Kampala can handle on its own.

Each side of the conflict also harbors a deep mistrust for its adversaries. In January of this year the Kampala government offered a 3-month amnesty for LRA fighters, but pointedly excluded Kony and his chief lieutenants from the offer. In fact, the Ugandan government announced that it will seek international arrest warrants for the top rebel leaders, hoping to have them tried before the International Criminal Court.

Father Rodriguez, the ARLPI spokesman, observes that since the rebel force has been charged with multiple atrocities, the government's public stance is likely to harden the position of the LRA leadership. He does not condone the tactics of the rebels, Father Rodriguez emphasizes. He explains:

The reasons for opposing the prosecution of the LRA high command have, rather, to do with the practicalities of luring them into peace negotiations. Nobody can convince a rebel leader to come to the negotiating table, and at the same time tell him that when the war ends he will be brought to trial.

The Acholi people are skeptical of the government's amnesty proposal. Why, they wonder, would the Kampala regime make this gesture as evidence of its interest in negotiations, while simultaneously taking a stance that seems to discourage rebels from joining any talks?

At the same time, after nearly 20 years of constant fighting, the Acholi people see very little likelihood of a military solution. Their traditional culture supports the effort to negotiate. And thousands of families, whose kidnapped children are now fighting with Kony's troops, want to see those children return home peacefully rather than being killed at the battlefront.

[AUTHOR ID] Fredrick Nzwili, a frequent CWR contributor, is a free-lance journalist based in Nairobi.