Part of the International Conflicts series

 

Joanna Quinn: Getting to Peace? Negotiating with the LRA in Northern Uganda

• Joanna Quinn is the Co-Chair of the Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict Research Group at the University of Western Ontario.

She discussed the ongoing peace talks in Uganada, and began by providing some background to the conflict.

Milton Obote was in power for most of the time following the 1961 independence from Britain.

He was followed by Idi Amin, under whose rule between 300-500,0000 people were killed.

Obote came to power again in 1979, but was involved in a war in the Luwero triangle with Yoweri Museveni in which 3 million people died. Museveni himself came to power in 1986, and has ruled Uganada to this day.

However, Museveni also found himself in a conflict from 1984 with Joseph Kony, who lead the Lord ’s Resistance Army (LRA). This dispute displaced 1.8 million people, nearly 80% of the population of northern Uganda.

Even though the war is officially over, there are about 200,000 soldiers still active, and 1,000 people are dying every week.

After signing the Rome Statute in 1999 there was a split among the factions involved. The Lord’s Resistance Movement (LRM) is the political wing of of the LRA movement. They have little or no combat experience, are not extensively involved with the LRA.

The role of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is actually seen as a stumbling block to the Juba talks between Uganda and the LRA.

There is little incentive for the LRA to negotiate with threats of the ICC hanging over their head. The ICC and the International Bar Association have both insisted that Uganda arrest Kony and others for their involvement in the conflict according to the Rome Statute.

These notes are from the Cross-Purposes? International Law and Political Settlements conference at the University of Western Ontario, on Jun. 9-10, 2007, with some editorial content added by Omar Ha-Redeye.