Negotiations between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government, which restarted on April 26 in the northern Sudanese town of Juba, have given new hope to a 10-month-old peace process designed to end of one of the longest-lasting and most brutal wars in Africa.
The new peace talks have shown more structure than previous attempts, largely due to greater external involvement, and have made progress in removing LRA rebel fighters from northern Uganda and implementing an agreement to end neighbouring Sudan’s civil war.
But, ”It is hamstrung by major weaknesses in representation, structure, and substance,” says a report released last week by the International Crisis Group (ICG). ”The LRA delegation, mainly diaspora Acholi detached from the conflict, lacks competency, credibility, and cohesiveness.”
The LRA, which employs mostly child soldiers, formed in 1989 as a paramilitary unit for members of the Acholi ethnic group in rebellion against the Ugandan government that took power in 1986.
”The key here is going to be achieving an outcome that includes not only a peace agreement but [also] fair and credible prosecutions for those responsible for the most serious crimes,” says Elise Keppler, counsel with the international justice programme at Human Rights Watch.
The United Nations estimates that about 25 000 children have been kidnapped by the LRA since 1987. The United States government estimates that up to 12 000 people have been killed in the violence, with many more dying from disease and malnutrition as a direct result of the conflict.
More than a million people have been forced to leave their homes and move to camps for the internally displaced to escape the violence.
”There is an intense desperation from people who want to return home,” says Keppler, who has visited the affected areas in Uganda.
Fundamental disagreements
The ICG report, Northern Uganda: Seizing the Opportunity for Peace, says the Juba negotiations have failed to implement fully the cessation of hostilities agreement and fundamental disagreements exist over the issue of comprehensive solutions to the conflict.
”The peace talks have improved security and begun to allow a few of the 1,4-million internally displaced northern Ugandans to return home,” says ICG analyst Adam O’Brien.
”But some of the wrong issues are on the table. The wrong LRA negotiators are present, and UN special envoy and ex-Mozambique president Joaquim Chissano does not yet have sufficient leverage to overcome the mutual mistrust. Simply resuming the talks under the current structure would be a recipe for failure.”
A working solution to the 20-year insurrection in northern Uganda would require a two-pronged approach, according to the ICG.
First, Chissano should be provided more assistance from the US and British governments so he can offer LRA leader Joseph Kony a guarantee of security and livelihood.
Second, a follow-up national reconciliation forum should be set up to address northern Uganda’s economic and social alienation and present a plan for the region to restore its communities and reintegrate returning rebels.
Contingency planning
International Criminal Court (ICC) investigations have pressured the LRA’s indicted leaders to negotiate, and contingency planning should start to prepare a ”regional security strategy” to take action against the LRA if the Juba talks fail. Such planning should be based on military and political cooperation between Uganda, the government of southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the UN missions in Sudan and Congo says the report.
How indicted LRA leaders will be brought to justice hasn’t been completely decided. ”There has been some discussion of alternatives to the ICC. Recent reference has been to national trials or to Mato Oput, the traditional justice of the Acholi,” says Keppler.
The ICG warns that the window for a peace talks may be limited, as the LRA is recruiting former fighters in northern Uganda to rebuild its ranks and is receiving weapons from Khartoum.
”There’s been a massive displacement of people, and the people have suffered tremendously due to crimes the LRA leaders have been implicated in,” says Keppler. ”It underscores the urgency of achieving a durable peace in Uganda, so people can go home and rebuild.” — IPS