African Insights Blog
May 7, 2009
Northern Uganda – “Give Peace a Chance”
Peace in Northern Uganda
The long journey from war to peace in Northern Uganda
Before 2007, northern Uganda was a place to avoid; one UN report called it “the most dangerous place to live in the world.”
Many northern Ugandans fled their homes, their towns and their villages, leaving everything behind. Those who had the education, resources and connections left for the west where they started life over again.
Most remained behind moving into Internally
Displaced People Camps, squalid places of misery, that 2 million
people
would call their home.
Life in the camps was a sad existence, a miserable place for a whole generation of children to grow up in. At times even those places of refuge became places of death and destruction as the Lord’s Resistance raided such camps, the massacre near the town of Lira comes to mind.
The camps became places of squalor and misery that is un-imaginable to someone who has not been there; there was little work for people, often located in the middle of nowhere, simply sad. The result was that self-sufficient people became dependent on aid and handouts from the World Food Program, Aid Agencies of every stripe, the Red Cross and others. Dependency can be most demeaning to someone who had their own farm, cattle, chickens, goats, and now stood waiting in line for a meager handout.
In those camps people lost who they had been, they lost their identity, their culture and traditions. The future to them seemed hopeless as the years dragged on it became hell on earth.
The north of Uganda was a warzone. Te Ugandan army was unable to defeat Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army and stop his reign of blood terror for 20 some years. The people of north felt vulnerable an unprotected.
Abductions of children, of villages, of whole
schools became a daily occurrence. The north lived with fear and
dread
as their daily companion. Children who lived in villages would commute
to the town of Gulu at night to find shelter from the storms of terror
of the LRA. They slept under porches, around hospitals and schools,
public buildings some, most in designated areas operated by NGO’s.
The war in the north brought a lot of suffering to the Acholi and Langi people, dragging on for over 20 years. The Ugandan army unable to arrest or kill Joseph Kony. 30,000 children were abducted during that time period, thousands killed, many more wounded or disfigured. (Even today many of those 30,000 have never been found, and Kony has less than 1000 soldiers) 2 million people were displaced from their homes and the world once again was hardly aware of what was going on in of Uganda, in Africa. Now that there has been peace for over two years the blogs in America, news reports in America portray Uganda as a warzone, not as a country in the recovery and rebuilding process.
Peace came to Uganda when a cease-fire agreement was signed between the government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army. The peace treaty has not been signed because Joseph Kony wants amnesty for himself and his leadership but he and others have an arrest warrant hanging over their heads from the International Criminal Court and so no signing on several occasions. One can only hope and somehow this fragile peace has held.
The cease-fire agreement has now lasted for over two years and northern Uganda is mending. Schools, hospitals, shops, even tourism facilities have been rebuild or newly erected. There is a spirit of hope, the resiliency of the African spirit
The Night Commuter shelters for children seeking
refuge for the night from abduction have closed in 2007, the IDP camps
are closing or are closed. People left because of promises from
government and aid agencies for
support in their transition. Some of
them feel betrayed by what they refer to as false promises. There have
been land disputes as people returned and found their land occupied by
someone else. There have been problems with landmines and other
unexploded ordinances in various areas. Farming equipment that the
government donated to returning Internally Displaced People were shoddy
and broke often on first use and in spite of all of that the rebuilding
goes on, slowly, ever so slowly and much help is needed.
The people of the north have felt neglected by the government in Kampala. The government has a long way to go to earn the trust of the northern people and it is trying with various programs and rebuilding efforts.
Northerners are also weary of some NGO’s who raise
funds off of their past and present miseries, but the claims are that
those raised funds are not passed on, some of the northerners doubts may
be well founded.
Northerners are also weary of what some refer to as westerners who come here with empty slogans and promises, take pictures and leave. Northerners are hoping for concrete action instead of empty words of promise.
The North is a potential powder keg apart from the dangers of any new attacks from the LRA. There are the ex-combatants the LRA that have never reintegrated into society. In Columbia 15,000 dollars are spent to reintegrate an ex-combatant into society, here in Uganda it is 150 dollars.
An LRA soldier is taken against his will, brainwashed into becoming a killer, at times of his own family and now he is just supposed to get a job, sell millet pancakes that he makes alongside the road in Gulu, it simply does not work that way.
The guilt, the rage within, the memories that haunt such a person in the still of he African night, there is no simple switch, left to one self, such a one will turn back to what he has learned in his time with the LRA, violence, killing and death.
The young men and women who were former child soldier or concubines need healing, rehabilitation, training that will equip them for jobs and ease the transition to some form of normal life.
The people of the North who were not members of the
LRA also need help, training, many of them have spent their lives in a
squalid camp, where there was some routine, some aid, some care, little
as it was and as they return to homes where the gardens have returned to
bush, they need tools, cattle (the
Acholi people were proud owners of large cattle herds). They
need start-up help, not pity but concrete help.
I personally admire Chairman Mao from Gulu, a straight shooter, a populist, a person of the people who understands their mindset. He with the assistance of a Canadian, Pastor Skinner from the Watoto church in Kampala, brought a team of Australian architects into epicenter of the past war in order to build a city of hope, a place that is becoming the envy of other towns in Uganda and example to follow. Towns that have never seen war, but simply did not have the leadership that Chairman Mao offers.
There are many challenges for the recovery of the
north of Uganda. The government believes that investors should be
allowed in and be given on which to plant sugarcane. Most northerners
want to return to their
traditional ways such as cattle, farming and
other traditional Acholi ways.
Oil has been found in portions of the north, Uganda is becoming the largest land oil field in sub-Sahara Africa. The question on everyone’s mind is “who will benefit?”
Most northerners that were and are affected by the war in Uganda are of Luo background, some of them have hoped that a fellow Luo by the name of Barack Obama would assist them…only time will tell.
There are signs of hope in the north, the town of Gulu is rebuilding, banks have opened, new businesses are opening each day, and life is coming to the north.
Sadly, the west, especially news reports in the USA, even worst the bloggers in the USA do not recognize that the north is not a warzone in 2009. I just had a woman write me from Bellingham Washington in the USA, a town I lived in for some time challenging me with the question “can you back up your claims that there is peace in Uganda?"
Who are America’s news sources, Twitter? John Stewart? Ah, there are those informed armchair blogs…One woman recently tweeted on twitter “I cannot believe it, NPR did a special on all the wars in Africa and left out Uganda.” Well just maybe NPR knows the reality regarding Uganda.
All you have to do is follow BBC, Economist, Ugandan newspapers and you would know. It almost seems that some do not want the war to end…let me dust off the words of John Lennon from 1969 “give peace a chance”
Uganda needs healing…Uganda’s north needs concrete support, Uganda deserves the peace it is enjoying after a time that BBC called worse than Iraq…from the warzone of dis and mis-information in Uganda…jon
Uganda's
Child Soldiers (Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army): 20
some years of children being robbed of their innocence turned into
assailants and murderers by the madman Joseph Kony and his LRA. What was
it like for a child in the LRA? This was first written in 2005.
Alice
Auma Lakwena: The warrior priestess who led thousands of
Acholi warriors into battle with sticks and stones. Joseph
Kony was her cousin but the two were very different, Alice Lakwena
before her death repeatedly asked Joseph Kony to give up his
destructive ways.
Who
is Joseph Kony? Profile and Background of Joseph Kony
and the Child Soldiers of the Lord's Resistance Army. Joseph
Kony has enslaved thousands into becoming child soldiers, made girls
into concubines, displacing millions from their homes in Uganda.
Catherine Ajok:- 13 years in captivity with the LRA, recently set free. A forced wife of Joseph Kony, read her story of being kidnapped one night from her secondary school, her captivity and eventual freedom from being enslaved by Joseph Kony and the LRA.
The War in Northern Uganda:
The war has deeply affected Uganda's North. Thousands were
killed by the LRA, thousands of children abducted by Kony's Army, many
disfigured and maimed, Two million people displaced from their homes.
Villages burned, Displacement Camps attacked, parents left without their
children, a way to make a living. Now in 2009 Northern Uganda is
rebuilding, but the scars of war remain, mostly within the people of
Northern Uganda.
Where are the children of the LRA?
Over 30,000 children were abducted and enslaved by the LRA in
northern and then eastern Uganda. The question on the mind of
Ugandans and South Sudanese is this -Where are the Children that were
enslaved by the LRA?
Amnesty for LRA Child Soldiers? What you may not realize 24,000 former LRA members have been given amnesty by the Uganda Amnesty Commission. Find out what traditional ways are used to bring healing to the community.
The Night Commuters of Northern Uganda Every evening they would walk for miles to stay safe from the attacks and abductions of Joseph Kony' Army. Sleeping in the streets, bus parks, schools, hospitals and simply under the awning of store-fronts, doing their homework by the light of gas stations.
Child Soldiers - Victims or Assailants: A look at child soldiers in history, where child soldiers are found with lessons learned from the LRA and Joseph Kony. From Colombia to the Congo, from Afghanistan to Darfur, Child soldiers are a reality.
Background information to the LRA and child soldiers.
Uganda 2009 and Joseph Kony LRA: Where is Joseph Kony? The present situation regarding the war with
the LRA in northern Uganda. What is going on with Joseph Kony and his
LRA? How large is the LRA at this time? Joseph Kony, is fortunately alive and
well inside of the DRC, continuing his rampage of killing and
destruction and abduction on the population of the DRC around Garamba
National Park.
Joseph Kony LRA News
Updates: Latest updates regarding the LRA, Joseph Kony
and activities of the LRA now in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Joseph Kony is no longer just a menace to Uganda's north, that was bad
enough, now he is terrorizing a region of North Eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo and continuing his path of destruction and death.
It is still not Christmas in Northern Uganda:
Written - Christmas
2006, Peace talks were under way, there was a glimmer of hope.
The people of the north were weary of the future. The cessation of
hostilities agreement had been signed, but it was not known what it
meant and if it would hold. Over the years there had been many
promises, but little fulfillment of them.
It does not feel like Christmas-Joseph Kony-Christmas 2008:
Operation Lightning Thunder began against the LRA on December 14, 2008.
The peace talks have failed, Joseph Kony refusing to sign the treaty due
to his fears regarding the indictments against him by the International
Criminal Court and his impending arrest. He also wants more
clarification on the Amnesty program inside of Uganda and how and if it
would apply to him.
Uganda is more than Idi Amin, Joseph Kony and the LRA:
The images that westerners have of Uganda is amazing. Rarely do
those images reflect the reality of Uganda. People see Uganda as a
dangerous place, they do not see as a country that is thriving in many
areas, as a country that is rebuilding the North of Uganda with the help
of many. They do not see the pearl of Africa, but filter it all
through the lenses of Joseph Kony, Idi Amin, LRA.
Living in a Warzone - Uganda:
Recently I received an email from a woman, that just happened to be from my hometown in the USA, Bellingham, WA. She challenged me to
prove that Uganda had been enjoying peace and that the north was slowly
rebuilding. Her email is indicative of what people in the west,
especially in the USA think is going on. When you search the
internet, you rarely find that Uganda has enjoyed a fragile peace for
over two years.
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African Insights Blog: Northern Uganda - Give Peace a Chance
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