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

Prosecuting international crimes by the LRA in Uganda 201
Sudan, with its polarised borders, as the base for its operations. This is one
of the factors that explain Kony’s ability to sustain the war for such a long
time, coupled with direct logistical support from the government of Sudan.
The Sudanese government supported the LRA as retaliation for Uganda’s
alleged support of the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA). 18 The
war was described as two conflicts in one: 19
[A] multi-faceted northern rebellion against the NRM government whose
root causes have never been fully resolved, and a war with an LRA that does
not fit conventional models of political insurgency and is motivated by an Old
Testament-style apocalyptic spiritualism.
2.1 LRA brutality and the impact of war
The tactics of the LRA were brutal and directed mainly against civilians.
The attacks were characterised by killings and the cutting off of ears, lips,
breasts and hands of civilians suspected of being sympathetic to the
government. This is in addition to the abduction of civilians, including
children, who were recruited either as combatants, porters or used as sex
slaves for Kony and his commanders. This dire situation was summarised
in a 2006 report by Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern
Uganda (CSOPNU) in the following words: 20
[A]lmost 8 per cent of Uganda’s population have been forced to live in
extreme poverty and suffering, ravaged by war that targets civilians and
children; in which 1.8 million people are forced to live in squalid and lifethreatening
conditions, displaced from their homes by violence and coercion;
in which tens of thousands of children are unable to sleep in their beds for fear
of abduction; in which violence, torture and abuse have become normal; in
which livelihoods have been destroyed, cultural norms have collapsed, and
where hope for the future of an entire generation has withered away.
At its beginning, the war in Northern Uganda involved only military
objectives. The situation changed in 1994 when the LRA started
systemically attacking and killing civilians. 21 The most horrific attacks
include the 1995 Atiak massacre in which over 300 civilians were killed. It
is reported that the Atiak massacre, which took place on 20 April 1995,
occurred when the LRA rebels seized the Atiak trading centre from the
government forces. The LRA then rounded up all people in the trading
centre, marched them to a nearby river from where over 300 people were
shot. Some of the survivors were abducted and forced to join the LRA. 22
18 HURIPEC and Liu (n 9 above) 80.
19 Z Lomo and L Hovil Behind the violence: Causes, consequences and the search for solutions to
the war in Northern Uganda Refugee Law Project Working Paper 11 (2004) Report
summary.
20 CSOPNU Counting the cost of twenty years of war in northern Uganda (2006) 7.
21 As above, 9.
22
Liu Institute for Global Issues Remembering the Atiak massacre, April 20 th 1995 The Justice
and Reconciliation Project, Field Notes 4 (April 2007).