Kitgum: The LRA (Lord's Resistance Army)
I'm gonna raise an army, some tough
sons-of-bitches
I'll recruit my army from the orphanages.
Bob Dylan - Thunder on the
Mountain
5th November 2006
A Brief History of the LRA
Uganda's history is a long and complicate one and for the most part
fairly horrendous. I'm going to pick up the history from the point twenty
years ago when the current president, Yoweri Museveni, came to power via
a violent civil war. The people of the North (the Acholi) were not too
happy about this.
Around this time, a man called Severino claimed to have been
possessed by an spirit called Lakwena when he was at the Nile
River. The spirit stayed with him briefly and then passed to his
daughter Alice Auma - who later changed her name to Alice Lakwena in honor
of the spirit. Alice used the spiritual powers bestowed on her to
heal the injured Acholi soldiers.
The spirit told Alice to abandon her healing mission and
lead a war against the evil forces of Uganda by forming the HSMF (Holy
Spirit Mobile Forces). Alice fought the
Museveni led NRM (National Resistance Movement) for
three long years until she was defeated near Jinja (where I recently
went white water rafting).
Alice fled to exile in Kenya and the Lakwena spirit is
returned to her father who briefly tried to reform the HSMF until he too
was defeated.
One of the most vocal critics of the spirituality aspect of the HSMF
was a man called Joseph Kony. Once Alice and her father had both
been defeated, he claimed to be the cousin of Alice and that the
Lakwena spirit now possessed him. Both Alice and her father have
now renounced violence and preach a life of prayer and fasting.
Joseph Kony was not interested in peace and formed the LRA (the Lord's
Resistance Army).
For seventeen long years Joseph Kony and his LRA has fought a war
against the government forces of Uganda.
One of the more puzzling things about the LRA is that they claim to
be fighting for the Acholi people, and yet the Acholi have
suffered most under the LRA. One of the locals I talked to said the LRA say
that if you are not for us, then you are against us. Just about
every Acholi person is against the LRA.
Problematic Neighbors
Kitgum shares a border with the Sudan. The
United States government have publicly called what is going on in the
Sudan as a
genocide (if only they could of done that for Rwanda as well...).
Despite the plight of the Sudanese people, precious little is being
done. The "government" (read "warlords") of
Sudan have refused to allow the U.N. a military presence there, which is
never a good sign.
The Sudanese government is sympathetic to the LRA's plight and allows them to cross the border
freely. The Uganda Army is not allowed such access as it would be
considered an act of war. Which all works out very well for the
LRA as it allows them to terrorize the people of Kitgum and then have a
relatively easy run back to safety of the Sudan.
Atrocities
Some serious shit has been going down in Kitgum in the last twenty
years or so thanks largely to the LRA. The
LRA has been responsible for many crimes against humanity in the Kitgum
area including:
- Child Abduction
Nobody joins the LRA willingly. The LRA kidnaps children as
young as four and indoctrinates them into the LRA using violent
means. Children walk many miles each night so that they
can sleep safely in the night shelters
of Kitgum.
Some of you may be familiar with the plight of the child in Kitgum
(and the more famous Gulu) as told in the movie Invisible
Children.
In May, I went on a Global
Night Commute to raise awareness of the plight of the night
commuter.
- Rape
Any young girl captured by the LRA can expect to be
systematically raped.
- Mutilation of people
The LRA often attacks isolated villages in guerilla style
warfare. Once the village have been captured and the people
are subdued, the LRA will typically divide the people up into
groups.
Young boys and girls are taken by the LRA to become child soldiers
Older males are killed because they are too old to be
indoctrinated into the LRA and will only escaped if taken into the
nearby safe haven of the Sudan.
One lady told us how the LRA sometimes ask the men if they would
prefer a long sleeve or short sleeve shirt. A long sleeve
shirt means that their hands are cut off and a short sleeve shirt mean
their arms are cut off above the elbows.
Older females often have their hands cut off as they would only use
their hands to prepare food for those who oppose the LRA.
Many of the abducted children are forced to carry the looted food
along with them. The walk is often many miles long and their feet get
bruised and cut. Anyone complaining of tiredness is offered a
chance to rest by the LRA soldiers. They are summarily
executed when they sit down, thus giving them a "rest".
The removal of ears, lips and noses is also quite common.
The future of the LRA and the peace talks
Joseph Kony and some of his senior cronies are wanted by the ICC (International
Criminal Court) for their crimes against humanity.
Yoweri Museveni has offered them amnesty for their crimes. This is proving to be a
major stumbling block in the current peace talks.
The people of Kitgum want Joseph Kony forgiven and all the soldiers
to return home. They are no longer interested in justice, only
peace.
Thankfully, the peace talks are holding together so life is fairly safe
for the people of Kitgum at the moment.
This is a part of a series of pieces on Kitgum. To see a list
of other entries, click here.
Questions? Comments? Try contacting
me.
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(c)
2005 and 2006 Malcolm Trevena.
All the stuff on this site is written by me, Malcolm Trevena. Feel free to
link to this page. Heck, you can even copy stuff from here if you
want. Just make sure you sight me as a reference.
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