Francesca Agege and Taylor Rydbom
International Relations
April 5, 2014
Since 1987, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a violent rebel group headed by Joseph Kony, has been terrorizing the people of Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Central African Republic (CAR), and Southern Sudan. The issue was recently brought to light in the media under the Kony 2012 movement. The international community struggles to see how the Ugandan government has failed to suppress the terrorist group. Several of the mainstream perspectives look to explain the conflict by means of understanding the clash of ideals between the leader of the LRA and the government, the economic corruption that have led to extreme poverty, and the LRA’s strive for power. In this paper, we will be discussing the government’s inability to suppress the actions of the LRA through the use of the mainstream International Relations perspectives.
The Kony 2012 movement, started by a small non-profit organization called Invisible Children, brought international attention to the issue, despite the fact that LRA has been active since the 1980’s. The LRA was established in spite of the national government. The group was designed to rebel against Yoweri Museveni’s presidency. They were unhappy with the shift of power from Tito Okello, who hailed from the north, to Museveni, a southern Ugandan. Much of the activities were out of spite and revenge against the north. Joseph Kony became a prominent figure in the fight when he formed the LRA and was the forerunner of the rebellion. He was first linked to the group called the Holy Spirit Movement. The organization was a Christian group that had the firm desire to create a theocracy in Uganda, which only allowed for Christia...
... middle of paper ...
...s to be an even stronger nation. On December 14, 2008, the Ugandan government again decided to deal with the LRA militarily, with armies of Southern Sudan and Congo and with the support of the United States. Realists would argue that this is due to a lack of resources from the Ugandan government, However, all of the LRA commanders escaped unharmed.
We agree mainly with the identity perspective in this case due to the fact that the roots of the issue stem from ethnic conflict. From ethnic conflict it move towards religious conflict and the concept of humanity was eradicated. The government is unable to shut down the LRA due to the fact that they cannot compromise. Although there is much strength in the realist and liberal perspectives, the answer to the question of why the government has been unable to suppress the LRA lies mainly within the identity perspective.
The Sierra Leone Civil War was a savage conflict that would rage for over a decade, claiming the lives of 300,000 and displacing 2.5 million civilians. The Bite of the Mango and A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier are firsthand accounts of children affected by the war. Mariatu Kamara had her hands severed and was left for dead. Ishmael Beah was conscripted by the government army to fight the rebel forces. Ishmael and Mariatu were both victims of the bloody Sierra Leone civil war, however their journeys to safety were vastly different.
In 1996 the war in Sierra Leone was becoming a horrific catastrophe. Children were recruited to be soldiers, families were murdered, death came easily, and staying alive was a privilege. Torture became the favorite pastime of the Revolutionary United Front rebel movement, which was against the citizens who supported Sierra Leone’s president, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. I was in the grips of genocide and there was nothing I could do. Operation No Living Thing was put into full effect (Savage 33).
“Sierra Leone Rebels Forcefully Recruit Child Soldiers.” HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH. 1 June 2000. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
“Darfur Genocide.” World Without Genocide. William Mitchell School of Law, n.d. Web. 16 April 2014. .
Political violence is action taken to achieve political goals that may include armed revolution, civil strife, terrorism, war or other such activities that could result in injury, loss of property or loss of life. Political violence often occurs as a result of groups or individuals believing that the current political systems or anti-democratic leadership, often being dictatorial in nature, will not respond to their political ambitions or demands, nor accept their political objectives or recognize their grievances. Formally organized groups, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), businesses and collectives of individual citizens are non-state actors, that being that they are not locally, nationally or internationally recognized legitimate civilian or military authorities. The Cotonou Agreement of 2000 defines non-state actors as being those parties belonging to the private sector, economic and social partners and civil society in all its forms according to national characteristics. Historical observation shows that nation states with political institutions that are not capable of, or that are resistant to recognizing and addressing societies issues and grievances are more likely to see political violence manifest as a result of disparity amongst the population. This essay will examine why non-state political violence occurs including root and trigger causes by looking at the motivations that inspire groups and individuals to resort to non-conforming behaviors that manifest as occurrences of non-state political violence. Using terrorism and Islamic militancy on the one side, and human rights and basic freedoms on the other as examples, it will look at these two primary kinds of political violence that are most prevalent in the world ...
In the The War on Second Chances by Sean Fine the beginning of the story puts the reader in the shoes of a child soldier. Reading through the story, it reminded me of the Kony 2012 campaign. Kony was a Ugandan warlord who was indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. He kidnapped thousands of children and turned them into soldiers whose focus was to kill the enemy and use them as sex slaves. When Christopher’s story is introduced, the author puts the reader in his shoes. “You feel abandoned. You figure your mother doesn't love you” Christopher then begins to abuse drugs and alcohol and commit crimes. This reminds me of a guy I knew in high school named Lucas. From what I knew, Lucas came from a rough home. He stopped going home after the tenth grade and he was known in high school for distributing drugs around Burlington. He was always getting into trouble with the school and the police which eventually ended up in him
The Rwandan Genocide was a terrible event in history caused by a constantly weakening relationship between two groups of people. The country of Rwanda is located in Africa and consists of multiple groups of people. Majority of Rwanda is Hutu, while a smaller amount of people are Tutsis. The genocide started due to multiple events that really stretched the relationship between the two groups to its end. One of the starting factors was at the end of World War 1. Rwanda was a German colony but then was given to Belgium “who favored the minority Tutsis over the Hutus, exacerbated[exacerbating] the tendency of the few to oppress the many”(History.com). This created a feeling of anger towards the Tutsis, because they had much more power then Hutus.
Child soldier is a worldwide issue, but it became most critical in the Africa. Child soldiers are any children under the age of 18 who are recruited by some rebel groups and used as fighters, cooks, messengers, human shields and suicide bombers, some of them even under the aged 10 when they are forced to serve. Physically vulnerable and easily intimidated, children typically make obedient soldiers. Most of them are abducted or recruited by force, and often compelled to follow orders under threat of death. As society breaks down during conflict, leaving children no access to school, driving them from their homes, or separating them from family members, many children feel that rebel groups become their best chance for survival. Others seek escape from poverty or join military forces to avenge family members who have been killed by the war. Sometimes they even forced to commit atrocities against their own family (britjob p 4 ). The horrible and tragic fate of many unfortunate children is set on path of war murders and suffering, more nations should help to prevent these tragedies and to help stop the suffering of these poor, unfortunate an innocent children.
During the author’s life in New York and Oberlin College, he understood that people who have not experienced being in a war do not understand what the chaos of a war does to a human being. And once the western media started sensationalizing the violence in Sierra Leone without any human context, people started relating Sierra Leone to civil war, madness and amputations only as that was all that was spoken about. So he wrote this book out o...
Capturing children and turning them into child soldiers is an increasing epidemic in Sierra Leone. Ishmael Beah, author of the memoir A Long Way Gone, speaks of his time as a child soldier. Beah was born in Sierra Leone and at only thirteen years old he was captured by the national army and turned into a “vicious soldier.” (Beah, Bio Ref Bank) During the time of Beah’s childhood, a civil war had erupted between a rebel group known as the Revolutionary United Front and the corrupt Sierra Leone government. It was during this time when the recruitment of child soldiers began in the war. Ishmael Beah recalls that when he was only twelve years old his parents and two brothers were killed by the rebel group and he fled his village. While he and his friends were on a journey for a period of months, Beah was captured by the Sierra Leonean Army. The army brainwashed him, as well as other children, with “various drugs that included amphetamines, marijuana, and brown brown.” (Beah, Bio Ref Bank) The child soldiers were taught to fight viciously and the effects of the drugs forced them to carry out kill orders. Beah was released from the army after three years of fighting and dozens of murders. Ishmael Beah’s memoir of his time as a child soldier expresses the deep struggle between his survival and any gleam of hope for the future.
The Sierra Leone Civil War lasted eleven years and left Sierra Leone scared and unconstructed. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) bombarded the country but faced constant resistance from the Sierra Leone Military. Both sides relied heavily on child soldiers throughout the war and a projected 5,000 to 10,000 child soldiers were collectively used by both the Sierra Leone government and the RUF. These children forcibly entered into a life of violence and oppression, and they have since struggled to reintegrate back into society. Child soldiers have returned home with no family or future and many still face severe complications.
Despite the many obstacles that Uganda’s people must overcome, this extraordinary country has a rich history filled with remarkable traditions and devastating conflicts that give it the distinct character it has developed over time.
Based on the constructivist view, the Civil War in Syria is initiated by the identity conflict between two groups which are the Assad’s regime and the rebel. Assad’s regime originates from minority Alawite, who made up 12 percent of the Syria population and also dominates most of the position in Syria government (citation). However, this identity conflict is not on religion based as the rebel’s side consists variation of group such as Sunni sect, Free Syrian Army (FSA) and other citizens. Besides, the Assad’s regimes as well consist of other society despite of the Alwite. Based on this condition, it is clearly portray that, even though a group is made up of multiple identities, they still can pursue t...
For over 20 years, the Lord's Resistance Army has been at war with the government of Uganda, causing a civil war. The Army's Rebel Groups, have attacked small villages, resulting in thousands of innocent deaths, and the abduction of children to fight with the rebels. In order to maintain these organizations, the Rebel Groups are faced with the difficult task of recruiting individuals. With limited available resources, the Rebel Groups cannot offer any appealing incentives to their recruits, but require complete loyalty (Vermeij, 2009). A child's innocence, trust, and blind obedience make them desirable soldiers. For the Rebel Groups in South Africa, children are therefore strategically used as pawns in combat. Children under the age of 18 make up 60% of the Lord's Resistance Army (Vermeij), and “world-wide, 300 000 children are currently used as child soldiers” (Derluyn et. al). The purpose of my paper, is to explore the reasons why child soldiers remain loyal to their leaders and what measures these authorities take to maintain the power and control in their societies. A stolen innocence morphed into immorality, young boys are turned from child to monster, “we were dangerous, and brainwashed to kill” (Beah, 2007). What motivates these children to fall into such savage behaviour, and how does the Lord's Resistance Army motivate and control its members? Simply put, the socialization of the boys plays an essential role in creating the allegiance and conformity that is most prevalent amongst these Rebel Groups. Therefore socialization is a crucial tactic used by leaders to benefit and improve the army. The role of a strong authority figure for a child, the primary socialization of children, and the process of socializat...
Org. Updated Feb. 11, 2005. GlobalSecurity.org, Accessed 06 March 2005 &nbs 5 Ibid 6 Ibid 7 Ibid 8 Ibid 9 Ibid 10 “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” Conflict in Congo, PBS, October 22, 1998. Transcript. The.