Lords Resistance Army and Conflict and Peace Building in Uganda

For more than 25 years, an army of mostly child soldiers, some barely able to hold guns, led by a man named Joseph Kony have been massacring and kidnapping civilians throughout Uganda. This conflict has since spread out of Uganda to the north and west into other regions such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and areas of southern Sudan. The conflict also affects other key areas of central Africa as Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army has killed thousands and displacing millions of Africa natives. Despite several attempts at meetings in addition to arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court against Kony and his troops, Kony has refused to cooperate and this war still rages on as one of the longest-running conflicts in African history.

Conflict background and causes

The conflicts in Uganda historically a power struggle between two primary actors such as northern tribes versus south, Acholi versus Langi, and Bantu-speakers versus Niolitic are specifically triggered by the central themes of control. During the late 1800's and early to mid 1900's, also known as the Colonial period, Uganda was divided between southern, Bantu-speaking groups and northern Nilotic-speaking groups. While the Bantu speakers were favored politically and economically, the Niolitic had military dominance. This remained the case throughout the presidencies of Milton Obote and Idi Amin. (S1) General elections were held in 1980 following the overthrow of Idi Amin in which Milton Obote won. Obote came back into power in his second presidency term until 1985. The general elections are believed to have been rigged to allow Obote to regain power. The army formation, traditionally dominated by northern Ugandans led to a polarization between the north ...

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...of the ICC. “The ICC in Uganda is dependent upon the Ugandan state, which is, of course, a protagonist in the conflict. It also means that effectively the ICC has been asked to deal with criminal activity that is outside the control and the capacity of the Ugandan judicial system.” (S10)

Several critics have suggested moves to examine traditional justice against the ICC warrants. If accused with the ICC warrants, the LRA will be able to prepare a defense which could in turn be an embarrassment for the Ugandan government. With a traditional system, the Acholi's are implied to be more primitive' and would only involve countries in the regional conflict as opposed to the outsiders. The traditional system is designed to “facilitate forgiveness and reconciliation within communities”, and would not provide Kony and the LRA a platform for defense against the Acholi's.