New info about war

7.12.06

Today we met with a representative of NUPI – Northern Uganda Peace Initiative – a group that works on peace building in Northern Uganda – specifically preparing the nation for the national reconciliation process. It was a very informative meeting in terms of furthering our understanding of the conflict and its dynamics as well as in getting more contacts to get in touch with both in Jinja and in the North.
According to him, Uganda has seen some 25 armed conflicts since its independence, which was in 1962 (I think). The reason for this is the same that many other African countries suffer from instability and insecurity – that the notion of a ‘nation’ is arbitrary in the first place. For those unfamiliar with this - in 1885, at the Berlin Conference in Europe, the European imperial powers divided Africa amongst themselves without knowing a damn thing continent. So of course different ethnic groups were grouped in the same country without their consent. Throughout the period of colonialism, which technically ended in 1950s, 60s and 70s (although for the most part economic control was never relinquished by the white imperialists so Africa’s economy is now in a state of ‘neocolonialism’ under foreign corporate control), the imperial powers exploited African people’s ethnic and geographical differences, thereby exacerbating potential conflicts. This is the cause of conflict in many of Africa’s wars today and even most of its modern problems in general. The point is, the lack of peace in Uganda is much deeper than just this war. It is rooted in social and other differences which were caused by British colonialism and the practice of each government regime since then. So, there is no sense of Ugandan nationalism or unity.
What was very interesting about our conversation is that we learned that as of now, Ugandan president (or strongman…whichever you prefer) Museveni has no interest in prolonging this war any longer than he has. It is obvious that for a long time it was very much in his interest because as long as he could claim that there was a war, he received Western aid which he invested in building up the government military (UPDF), as well as the fact that the war was destroying his historical enemy – the Acholi Tribe in the North. Now, Museveni is not receiving as much aid and his military has been built up so he is interested in bringing peace to Northern Uganda – at least more so.
In the last 1 or 2 weeks, there has been a lot of talk in the Ugandan news about so called peace talks between the LRA and the Ugandan government, which are supposed to be being mediated by the vice president of the Sudan (borders Northern Uganda), who is a member of the SPLA. The newspapers here write about a new development in that process everyday but its hard to know what to believe and what is being sensationalized.
Apparently, these talks are really just a show. The origin of the idea of the talks is not even certain. As in any conflict, every party has their own interest in mind and the situation is very complex. The SPLA, who was an ally of the Ugandan government and fought the LRA for many years, now wants stability in Southern Sudan in order to develop its destitute economy and society. This of course is just a very short description of this situation though.
My point is that the “war” in the North is not so much of a war now, but more a series of isolated incidents. The current lack of security in the North is now more caused by incidents committed by individuals and individual groups which whom claim to be part of the LRA but are really not.
For more info about this conflict please check my first blog or this website – http://www.ugandacan.org/.
There are more than 400 NGOs working in Uganda and unfortunately this fact has not resulted in a substantial improvement in the lives of most Ugandans suffering from the wars effects. As before, the fear factor that 20 years of death and destruction perpetrated by the LRA remains a key factor in the lack of sustainable development in the North. Until security for the indigenous population is sincerely felt by those people, this situation will remain a one of the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. Many more people are dying from living in the decrepit IDP camps in the North from disease and overcrowding than from any armed conflict there.
Jennifer and I will soon see this for ourselves.