Lord's Resistance Army Research Articles

Beyond Selective Justice

Abstract In the wake of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) conviction and sentencing of Dominic Ongwen, this article explores the complex justice landscape in Uganda. It examines how the ICC’s selective focus on the crimes of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and its reluctance to investigate and prosecute alleged crimes committed by soldiers of the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) continue to shape the trajectory of justice in Uganda and how this has contributed to the failure to investigate and prosecute UPDF atrocities in Uganda’s courts, thereby denying justice to victims of these atrocities. While Dominic Ongwen’s conviction represents a step forward in providing acknowledgement and redress to a fraction of the victims in Northern Uganda, it also underscores the broader justice deficit in Uganda. The article emphasizes the need to bridge the justice gap by implementing credible justice and accountability mechanisms that hold all perpetrators accountable, including state actors, while ensuring timely and adequate reparations for victims.

The conjugal order and long-term reintegration in Northern Uganda: how ideas of sexuality and patrilineality shape reintegration processes of men, women and children born in captivity

ABSTRACT Research on the reintegration of ex-combatants has mostly focused on a short period after the end of conflict. Building on this observation, I analyse the long-term reintegration processes of formerly abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda from a feminist perspective. Specifically, I explore how long-term reintegration differs for returning men, women and children born in captivity (CBC). To understand these long-term processes, it is crucial to analyse the wider societal order into which returnees reintegrate. I argue that in Northern Uganda a conjugal order centred around ideas of sexuality/marriage and patrilineality shapes the different reintegration experiences of returning women, men and CBC. I find that gender affects both short-term and long-term reintegration, with returning women and their children encountering significantly more difficulties than returning men. Interestingly, male CBC transitioning into adulthood are confronted with more problems related to the conjugal order than female CBC. Overall, my findings suggest that reintegration is an open, dynamic, and intergenerational process that cannot be confined to a fixed time frame.

The Ongwen Judgments

Abstract The Ongwen trial and appeal judgments are an affront to child soldiers everywhere and to international criminal justice. The judgments fail to treat Mr Dominic Ongwen as an individual within his own social context, in which culture and race are significant factors. The Chambers invisibilized the victimization of Mr Ongwen within the cruel and ruthless conditions of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) as a child and young adult. Seeking justice for Mr Ongwen and ensuring he had a fair trial has been a Sisyphean struggle for the defence counsel, who have tried to humanize the lived experience of our client within the courtroom of the Hague. The Chambers acknowledged the brutality and bestiality of the LRA, led by Joseph Kony, yet created an ‘Ongwen Exception’ that dehumanized him as detached from the Court’s previous rulings on the long-term social and psychological effects of being forcibly recruited as a child soldier. In these observations, the Defence discusses Mr Ongwen’s social context, emphasizing the importance of culture and race within it, and the dangers of the Chambers’ rote and narrow interpretation of Article 26 ICC Statute, which underlies Mr Ongwen’s convictions.

Exploring the Lives of Children Born of Conflict‐Related Sexual Violence Through Art

Although the realities of children born of conflict‐related sexual violence have gained increased attention, limited research has explored the issue from the perspectives of the children themselves. Drawing upon a sample of 79 children born of sexual violence in Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) captivity, and using arts‐based methods, this study explored the wartime and post‐conflict experiences directly from children born of conflict‐related sexual violence in northern Uganda. The study illustrates how the arts‐based methods of mask‐making, drawing, and life maps—developed in consultation with local researchers and youth born in LRA captivity—helped to capture the complex wartime and post‐war realities of this unique population of children and youth, as well as enabled young people to choose what to share and what to withhold during the research process. More easily distributed, accessed, and consumed than traditional academic publications, the medium of art can have a widespread, immediate, and powerful impact. The article concludes with the strengths, limitations, and ethical implications of arts‐based methods, as well as the importance of considering culture and context for future research.

Responsibility for Uganda’s Children Born in Captivity

The responsibility to protect doctrine attributes the first responsibility for protecting vulnerable persons to the government in which they live. It is only in circumstances where a country is unwilling and unable to offer such protection that external intervention is permitted. The response to persons formerly associated with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) (those abducted and those born in captivity) indicates action by both the government of Uganda and external actors (especially international NGOs). Following the reinsertion and start of a new life of the affected persons among communities in Uganda, concern has emerged in some literature, regarding their well-being- specifically their reintegration and integration challenges. Hence, concerns for such long-term integration and reintegration cause questions of responsibility to re-emerge. Using field data from research conducted by Akullo (2019), this chapter provides a discourse analysis of the common discourses that emerged from the research participants in the study. The analysis of these discourses reaffirms the view on the responsibility to protect and also highlights the importance of culture in re-enforcing the primary role of the state in guaranteeing protection. There is also hope that the political discourse can be reinforced by outcomes of litigation processes linked to the trials of top LRA commanders at The Hague and in Uganda. The paper is therefore important for understanding how to govern this group of war-affected children.

Making home alive again after war: AcoliKaka’s Indigenous land sovereignties in Northern Uganda

AbstractAfter the war between the Ugandan government and the Lord's Resistance Army (1986‐2006), 90 per cent of the displaced rural population in Northern Uganda returned to small‐scale farming on their ancestral lands and their systems of communal land stewardship. At the time, there was much debate about transitional justice interventions to address war's violence, but in that same period over 85 per cent of Acoli chiefdoms saw affiliated clans, or kin‐based political communities (kaka), negotiate to write down their Indigenous governance constitutions for the first time. AcoliKaka’s return to their ancestral lands and small‐scale farming, and subsequent engagements withtekwaro –Indigenous knowledge –through constitution writing, served to strengthen Indigenous governance and law after their weakening in contexts of war and displacement. It is argued here that these engagements and negotiations rooted in the land, regardless of their outcomes, served to orient relationshipsawayfrom the fragmenting, unprecedented, forced Acoli‐on‐Acoli violence experienced during the war. A resurgence of AcoliKaka’s Indigenous law and governance rooted in communal land stewardship is linked to relational repair and supports calls for transitional justice processes to nurture and respect Indigenous land rights. These ethnographic arguments also lend support tokaka’s ongoing efforts towards clan unity (ribbe kaka) and to secure communal land sovereignties.

Love and Care in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda

Abstract Dominant storylines about armed conflicts and rebel groups, such as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group in Uganda, typically focus on violence, suffering, harm, and abuse. Without a doubt, life within insurgency groups, including in the LRA, is characterized by immense social suffering, typically portrayed to be beyond the pale of humanity. Yet, what of the connections of compassion, joy, love, and care that emerged in the context of cohesion and alongside these aspects and experiences of violence, suffering, and abuse? Over the years, our interlocutors narrated to us what can be understood as meaningful forms of kinship, social connections, or intimacy during and after their time with the group; in the context of conjugal spousal relations, among fellow recruits, or between abductees and their families and communities. This article focuses on these practices of love and care within and in the wake of life in the LRA, and how they are entangled with and sit alongside experiences of violence. The simultaneities of care and suffering constitute a key aspect of this analysis; not intending to negate, downplay, ignore, or trivialize the detrimental impact of violence within rebel groups in general, nor to idealize the relations of compassion, love, or care that emerged within this context. This dual focus, we maintain, is important for unearthing the complexities, intricacies, and nuances of peoples’ lived realities in the context of insurgency movements, and in the context of armed conflict more broadly, holding important analytical and ethical implications.

Breaking Through the Legal Binary: Media Labelling of Dominic Ongwen as a Victim–Perpetrator

Individuals formerly involved in armed groups are positioned in the victim–perpetrator binary by legal systems and societies. Media participates in this process and influences the relationship between law and society by reproducing or challenging legal and social designations. We assess the relationship between the International Criminal Court's (ICC) prosecution of Dominic Ongwen, a former child soldier in Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), and media representations of Ongwen. We conduct a content analysis of 779 Ugandan, African, and international newspapers’ English-language articles published between January 2005 and October 2022. We find that media coverage focuses on Ongwen's adult roles in the group, including as an LRA leader, largely reproducing the ICC's portrayal of the accused. A minority of articles acknowledge a more complex status and increase in frequency once Ongwen's ICC trial is underway. An important faction challenges the ICC's narrative, with non-Africa-based media presenting a more complex depiction of Ongwen.

Author 's Response: Kony as Moses: Old Testament Texts and Motifs in the Early Years of the Lord's Resistance Army, Uganda.

Author 's Response: Kony as Moses: Old Testament Texts and Motifs in the Early Years of the Lord's Resistance Army, Uganda.

Kony as Moses: Old Testament Texts and Motifs in the Early Years of the Lord's Resistance Army, Uganda, Nkabala, Helen Nambalirwa

Kony as Moses: Old Testament Texts and Motifs in the Early Years of the Lord's Resistance Army, Uganda, Nkabala, Helen Nambalirwa

Justice Delayed but not Denied: The Prosecution of Thomas Kwoyelo for International Crimes in Uganda

This article investigates the challenges of the application of international law in a domestic setting as depicted in the ongoing trial of Thomas Kwoyelo. Kwoyelo, a former child soldier and commander in the Lord's Resistance Army, is being prosecuted for the commission inter alia of murder, kidnapping with intent to murder, and pillaging, all as war crimes and crimes against humanity under International Humanitarian Law, Customary International Law and the Penal Code Act of Uganda. He is currently standing trial at the International Crimes Division of the High Court of Uganda. This trial is a unique test for the Ugandan judiciary, as it is faced with its first prosecution of an individual charged with crimes under international law. In a bid to apply international law domestically the Court has faced several challenges which have disabled the progress of the trial on many levels, arguably at the expense of the accused and the victims at large. The article primarily seeks to analyse the capability of the court to prosecute Kwoyelo for the commission of international crimes as well as to examine the challenges faced by the Court. The history of the conflict will be examined. This will be followed by an overview of the judicial hurdles faced by the Ugandan State in eventually charging Kwoyelo. The article will then analyse the present challenges faced by the Court. Finally, several recommendations are offered.

The Effects of Female Participation in Ideological Rebel Groups on the Patterns of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence

This essay analyzes how female participation may affect the perpetration of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) by rebel groups. I look at leftist, Islamist, Christian, and Buddhist rebel groups, examining how these ideologies interact with the factor of female participation. I hypothesize that while female participation in leftist and Buddhist rebel groups may reduce CRSV, it may have relatively little impact in Islamist and Christian rebel groups. I test these theories individually through the case studies of the Farabundo Mart National Liberation Front (FMLN), the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), and the United People's Democratic Front (UPDF). Due to the lack of data on Christian and Buddhist rebel groups, I only statistically corroborate my hypotheses on leftist and Islamist rebel groups.

Analysis of International Criminal Law Cases

The title of my thesis is whether prosecutions do or do not stand in the way of peace. In international criminal law, criminals who are heads of state or symbols of state, like members of royalty, often do not receive the punishment they deserve. Whether or not to prosecute them is also a problematic issue that often leads to international conflicts if not appropriately handled. To address this issue, there are often different solutions for different situations. I will use the following four cases to analyze whether prosecution is appropriate in different situations and what consequences may occur after prosecution. My thesis has five parts; the first part is the case After world war II, Should the emperor of Japan be prosecuted."The second part of my thesis is the case about "the government of Uganda prosecuted the head of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA). " The third part of my thesis is SLC and Mielovi. "Milosevic is the first person who was prosecuted as a head of a country. The fourth part of my thesis is about Pugin and Russia." In the end, the conclusion is about Whether or not prosecutions do or do not stand in the way of peace; it depends on the different situations.

Ongwen and Mental Health Defenses at the International Criminal Court.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) case against Lord's Resistance Army commander and former child soldier Dominic Ongwen of Uganda resulted in a guilty verdict and 25-year prison sentence. Mr. Ongwen unsuccessfully raised defenses based on mental health. These included fitness to stand trial, insanity under Article 31(1)(a) of the Rome Statute (a first at the ICC), mitigation in sentencing based on diminished mental capacity, duress (also a first), and the cumulative effects of mental health and duress. These defenses were hampered by limited and ambiguous textual support, which occurs in a politico-legal context that is cautious regarding such defenses. Another group of challenges comes from the inherent difficulty of international forensic practice. In regard to how mental health affects the duress defense, the text of the Rome Statute and the Ongwen decision create a burdensome legal framework for defendants, particularly where mental illness limits but does not "destroy" decision-making, as Article 31(1)(a) requires for an insanity acquittal. Going forward, defense teams may attempt to address the court's all-or-nothing conception of mental illness, perhaps arguing a diminished mental capacity theory that accounts for psychiatric function that is reduced but not destroyed.

The Lord's Resistance Army 1987-2012: A Historical Study.

تعرض هذه الدراسة لمرحلة دقيقة من تاريخ أوغندا الحديث والمعاصر، إلى جانب تسليطها الضوء على فصول صراع محموم، لاتزال تعاني منه قارة إفريقيا حتى اللحظة، والكشف عن الانتهاكات الخطيرة لتنظيم جيش الرب للمقاومة ضد السكان الريفيين العزل. تتمحور مشكلة الدراسة في الرغبة بالإحاطة بمعضلة جيش الرب للمقاومة وخطورته على مستقبل البلاد، لاسيما أنه يعد فصيلاً أوغندياً متمرداً منذ تأسيسه على يد جوزيف كوني في نيسان 1987، وقد اتبع خُطا حركة روح القدس، رداً على أعمال عنف في شمال البلاد، ارتكبها جنود جمهورية أوغندا تحت قيادة الرئيس يويري موسيفيني منذ عام 1986. أصبح التنظيم المسلح يعرف بجيش الرب للمقاومة في مطلع التسعينيات، ونشط في المنطقة الحدودية لجمهورية الكونغو الديمقراطية، وجمهورية إفريقيا الوسطى، وجنوب السودان، وتمتع بالدعم في البداية بين سكان الشمال، ولكن التجنيد القسري للأطفال والانتهاكات الوحشية، كقتل المدنيين العزل، أدى إلى كراهية معظم السكان له. لقد قتل جيش الرب للمقاومة، عبر مسيرته، القرويين واختطف عشرات الآلاف بمن فيهم الأطفال؛ الأمر الذي أسفر عن صدور عدد من مذكرات التوقيف بحق قائده جوزيف كوني وأتباعه من قبل المحكمة الجنائية الدولية، وتواصل الجهود الدولية للحد من الانتهاكات الخطيرة للتنظيم، لاسيما بعد مبادرة التعاون الإقليمي ضده، بقيادة الاتحاد الإفريقي في 24 آذار 2012، التي شملت آلية للتنسيق المشترك ومركز عمليات مشتركة لمواجهة التنظيم وأعماله القمعية. لم تقتصر الدراسة على المنهج الوصفي فحسب، بل اتبعت المنهج التحليلي أيضاً؛ إذلم تكتفِ بمعرفة مجريات الأحداث، بل اتجهت إلى السعي الحثيث لتفكيك المعلومات المتوفرة وتجميعها، والوصول إلى النتائج التي تخدم الدراسة كلها. توصلت الدراسة إلى استنتاجات مهمة، منها أن التنظيم على الرغم من ترويجه لمقولة إنه يمثل مظلومية الشعب الأشولي في الشمال على يد سلطات البلاد، فإن الانتهاكات الخطيرة التي قام بها لاحقاً، دفع دولاً عدة إلى محاربته؛ بغية تجفيف منابعه والقضاء على القسوة المفرطة التي تميز بها.

Resilience among Children Born of War in northern Uganda

The literature on children born of conflict-related sexual violence, or Children Born of War (CBOW) is dominated by accounts and perceptions of suffering and risks that they experience both during and after armed conflict. In contrast, this article focusses on nuanced experiences of CBOW after suffering adversities. The study applies the culturally sensitive revised 17-item Children and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM-R) to 35 CBOW conveniently sampled from a population of those born to former forced wives of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and another population born between 1993 and 2006 as a result of sexual violence perpetrated by cattle raiders in northern Uganda. Following the analysis of the CYRM-R scores, eight participants representing different quartiles, different scores on the relational/caretaker and personal resilience sub scales were identified to take part in a subsequent semi-structured interview process. The aim was to examine how CBOW in northern Uganda demonstrate resilience, the factors that influence their resilience experiences, and what it means for the broader concept of integration. Overall, CBOW are not merely stuck in their problems; past and present. Rather, findings indicate CBOW are confronting the realities of their birth statuses, and making the best use of their resources and those within the wider environment to adapt and overcome difficulties.

The meaning of land and place for children born of war in northern Uganda

ABSTRACT The abduction and forced marriage of females was a key military strategy of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) during northern Uganda’s civil war (1986–2007). Thousands of abducted girls became pregnant from sexual violence, giving birth to large numbers of children born of war. This article explores the experiences of 85 children born in LRA captivity, with a particular focus on the implications and meaning of both land and place. In the aftermath of the war, these children have been compelled to integrate into families and communities that often reject them because of their birth origins, identities, and former LRA affiliation. Facing multiple post-war challenges including poverty, and discrimination, many participants sought to retrace and reconnect with their paternal families to secure a better future. We highlight the important role of both land and place in the lives of children born in LRA captivity, particularly as it relates to belonging, social acceptance, and financial security. We conclude with a discussion of the potential risks and benefits of family tracing endeavors with children born of war in northern Uganda.

Violated by Rebels, Violated by Family: Returnee Girls of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda

In the prologue to his book Frontiers of Violence in North-East Africa, Richard Reid recounts how in the first few years of the third millennium, the region of North-East Africa has been enmeshed in conflict. This region which includes Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Southern Sudan has experienced intermittent violent conflicts and destruction by wars based on reasons and excuses ranging from ethnicity and religion, to political disagreements caused by thirst for power. This region also includes Northern Uganda, particularly Acholi-land, which was caught up in the throes of violent conflict since the mid- eighties, between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the government of Uganda. For more than three decades, Acholi-land was engulfed in untold suffering, unleashed upon its population by foes from without and, tragically, attackers from within! An historical occupation of being exceptionally good soldiers that had stood them in good stead in colonial and post-colonial times turned out to be a curse they would always true!

“They Now Know That They Are Children of War”: Forcibly Abducted Mothers and Fathers Balancing Disclosure and Silencing to Their Children Born of War in Northern Uganda

In recent years, scholars have emphasized the need for a relational understanding of the impact of collective violence pointing to the myriad interconnections between individual and communal experiences and consequences. These interconnections are particularly strong in the (re)integration of formerly abducted children and youth, and their children born of war, since various social, relational and cultural processes play a key role in their wellbeing and healing. One example is the way in which trauma communication is shaped by culture and context, and intersects at the level of the individual and the collective. In this paper, we will explore how forcibly abducted mothers and fathers in post-conflict Northern Uganda perceive the trauma communication about the context in which their children born in forced captivity were conceived. Case study research was used to understand the dynamic trajectories of this trauma communication, placing parents' experiences within broader life histories, and the social and relational context. Repeated interviews were performed with six mothers and four fathers who became parents in forced captivity with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Central in the participants' stories is their agency in the careful, individual choice “to be silent” or “not to be silent” toward their children, family and community members. However, these choices are shaped—and often restricted—by the relational and cultural context. A dynamic interplay of several factors, such as the age of the child, the emotional impact of disclosure, a lack of resources and support in the upbringing of children, identity and belonging, and perceived or potential future stigmatization are explored in this paper. Trauma communication can be seen as a socially negotiated choice, interacting in a complex dialectic relationship between silencing, disclosing, forgetting and remembering. As such, the study revealed important insights into post-conflict healing and reintegration in the day-to-day lives of formerly abducted children and youth, and their children born of war, on an individual and collective level.

Children Born of Rebel Captivity: Politics and Practices of Integration in Uganda

Many studies have documented and analyzed the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) forced conjugal association patterns and practices (“forced marriage”). However, the focus has been on the experiences of abducted girls forced to serve as conjugal partners to commanders (“forced wives”). The experiences of children born as a result of these relationships are under-investigated. Receptor communities in northern Uganda are assumed to be places of hope, comfort, and protection for these children. However, they can also be hostile, leaving the children in precarious and vulnerable situations. This article draws from ethnographic fieldwork in the Acholi region and interviews with formerly abducted mothers focusing on their children's integration processes and experiences. It argues that return is not integration, as it often coincides with further exclusion and alienation. In Uganda's patriarchal and patrilineal social systems, children with no paternal lineage are viewed as of lower status. Stigmatization facing children born of the LRA captivity condemns them to this status, consequently excluding them from mainstream society. Findings show that stigma remains central to the life experiences of these children several years after the end of the conflict in 2006. Their persistent stigmatization is linked to broader discriminatory socio-cultural and patriarchal ideas and practices.