Prosecuting International Crimes in Africa - PULP - University of ...

2 Genesis of the conflict
Prosecuting international crimes by the LRA in Uganda 199
Traces of the causes of the conflict could be found in the period when
Uganda was still under British colonial administration. Like in many parts
of the world, the British colonial administration in Uganda used the divide
and rule technique. In Uganda, the colonial administration, amongst
others, created inter-ethnic competition for power, which, coupled with
the regional income inequalities, resulted in a North-South divide. 3 Most
economic activities, including crop production, were undertaken in the
South, while the North was treated as a reservoir for cheap labour. In the
last years of its rule, the colonial administration had also recruited large
numbers of northerners into the armed forces, especially the Acholi, based
on the myth that the Acholi were a ‘martial tribe’. 4 The colonial
administration’s decision to select the military from the North was also
based on a fear of the impact of arming members of consolidated kingdoms
and chiefdoms in Southern Uganda. The administration thus found it safer
to arm dispersed tribes in Northern Uganda. 5
At independence the army was dominated by northerners. Hence,
although the North remained economically inferior, it remained militarily
superior to the economically superior South. 6 When it became necessary
for politicians - like Apollo Milton Obote 7 - to resort to military force to
satisfy political ends, the northerner-dominated army lent support. In
1966, Obote used the army to overrun the palace of Buganda, the most
powerful kingdom in the country, forcing its King (the Kabaka) into exile. 8
These events were recorded by the Baganda, a dominant southern ethnic
group, who extended the blame to all northerners, especially the Acholi. 9
The period after 1966 and during the reign of Amin was dominated by
ethnic politics and manoeuvres. During the Obote II government (1980 to
1985) ethnicity became part of the politics of the military, the Uganda
National Liberation Army (UNLA), with Acholi and Langi (Obote’s
ethnic group) rivalling for control. In 1985, Acholi officers, in a bid to
survive against the Langi, precipitated a coup d’etat that gave the Acholi
3 International Crisis Group (ICG) Northern Uganda: Understanding and solving the conflict
Africa Report 77 (2004) www.up.ligi.ubc.ca/ICGreport.pdf (accessed 2 February 2010)
2.
4 S Lwanga-Lunyigo ‘The colonial roots of internal conflict’ in K Rupesinghe (ed)
Conflict resolution in Uganda (1989) 24.
5 H Lunde Night commuting in Gulu, Northern Uganda: From spontaneous strategy to new
social institutions Master’s Thesis in Peace and Conflict Studies (2006) Fafo – Institute
for Applied International Studies 31.
6 As above, 32.
7 First Prime Minister of Independent Uganda.
8
G Kanyeihamba Constitutional and political history of Uganda: From 1894 to the present
(2002) 99.
9 Human Rights and Peace Centre (HURIPEC) and Liu Institute for Global Issues The
hidden war: The forgotten people, war in Acholi and its ramifications for peace and security in
Uganda (2003) 22.