Tag Archives: Dominic Ongwen

Returning from the LRA

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“The international community appears to be more interested in the infamous Kony and his LRA outfit than in their many victims in CAR and other countries in the region. The LRA threat will hopefully diminish and eventually disappear – with Kony and other LRA leaders brought to justice – but the victims will remain.” – Godfrey Byaruhanga, Amnesty International Central Africa Researcher in a 2012 report.

It is believed that in the coming months the numbers of those leaving the LRA will steadily increase. It is time to look at some of the challenges that come with reintegrating into society.

Recently, Invisible Children sent out an update to its subscribers with the following headline “Top LRA commander killed in combat.” Finding news sources that confirm this was an unexpectedly difficult task. However, not because it is not true, but because in large the media seems to take little interest in this recent development as our television screens focus on efforts to regain control in Mali.

A Ugandan newspaper does report on the death of Binani – according to them “Kony’s chief bodyguard.” While that sounds essentially different from “Top LRA commander”, it is clear that Binani had been at the centre of LRA structure. The source further reports that in the last 6 months, 200 women and children had been freed from the LRA. In addition, the hopes are high that the death of the commander will lead to more people leaving the LRA.

With this in mind, we want to delve a little into some aspects of the process of reintegration into society of those that had been abducted, because the story does not end when they return home…

The 2000 Amnesty Act and “Justice”

While the LRA is now mostly in the Central African Republic (CAR), and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), it is still worthwhile to look at Ugandan legislation, because many of the rebels have been abducted within Uganda as children.

“Amnesty” means a pardon, forgiveness, exemption or discharge from criminal prosecution or any other form of punishment by the State” – Ugandan Amnesty Act, 2000

In an effort to end the atrocities, the Ugandan government enacted Amnesty in 2000. This basically meant that any LRA rebel would be forgiven by the State, so long as they turned themselves in and renounced rebellion. The idea behind this was that if the rebels knew that they had no punishment to fear, they would return to society. So Amnesty was supposed to bring peace.

And it proved successful. This statement by the Enough Project laments that the Act has not been renewed after it expired in May 2012. Roughly 26,000 rebels from over 25 different armed groups had received the Certificate of Amnesty.

But as things usually go there is a ‘however’… Many Ugandans were not satisfied with the Amnesty Act. Grace Acan, who had talked about this matter at an event in the Liu Institute in UBC Vancouver, has denied the government’s amnesty offer. As a former LRA abductee, she finds that it is not her that needs to be granted forgiveness, but the government, for failing to protect her and many others who were then children.

The UN has also released a report on the impacts of the Amnesty Act. While recognizing a state’s sovereign right to grant amnesty, they are critical of the long-term impacts of such a policy. “Experience has shown that a culture of impunity and a legacy of past crimes that go unaddressed are likely to undermine a lasting peace.”

Reintegration into the military

After having been pardoned by the government, some former LRA members choose to become part of the army and help track down those who used to be their comrades, as the UN organization IRIN reports. This may sound like a good plan from a military perspective, but there are grave concerns with this strategy. The above article points out the negative effect this can have on LRA victims. It specifically mentions a woman that recognizes the man who raped her among those that had been pardoned.

The role of the International Criminal Court

It is not just Ugandan law that has failed to provide the justice that people seek – some regard the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as even more controversial.

The ICC has indicted 5 of the LRA’s top commanders (the first indictments ever of this organization). Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti, Dominic Ongwen and Okot Odhiambo are all on the list (Raska Lukwiya deceased in 2006). These indictments were a wake-up call to the international community and raised hopes locally that the problem could soon come to an end.

Of course things are more complicated than that…

The ICC decisions made the LRA less willing to have peace talks. It was more difficult to bring the LRA to the negotiation table, since they had little incentive to leave their hiding places. This has attracted critiques, stating that the ICC indictments would interfere with local efforts. Indeed, the ICC contradicts the Amnesty efforts of the Ugandan government. On the other hand, as we saw earlier, that system is also problematic. There is also the argument that the LRA had more than enough time to come to a peace agreement and chose not to.

While institutions struggle to find a way to bring justice, civil society fights for reconciliation.

Civilian Efforts

Regardless of the justice system, those who return from the LRA or other armed groups often face other challenges or strong stigmas upon returning home. Many grassroots and civilian organizations have formed. We would like to highlight one group who we are partnering with.

The Women’s Advocacy Network (WAN)

The WAN is a local grassroots organization composed of several advocacy groups in Uganda. These women support each other in many ways: together they raise the money for their children’s school fees, they approach the government with a unified voice and they support each other with everyday challenges of post-conflict northern Uganda.

Being in a network of others that have had same or similar experiences has helped many of the women to process their time in the LRA. Many of them also face the same daily challenges – such as illiteracy, if they were abducted before receiving an education.

In the end justice remains a vague and difficult concept. The international community and the Ugandan government have been contradictory in their approaches. However, more recent developments show that joint efforts are on their way.

And as the Women’s Advocacy Network initiative (and many others) shows, there is progress. And there is hope.

7 Days of Sober Thought after Kony 2012: Part 1

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Over the next few days, ACAC will be posting a series of reflections on “Kony 2012.”  We realize there have been a multitude of responses to this viral video.  We thought we would take the time to summarize the main arguments made by others, elaborate on these with examples and further analysis, and provide a few unique observations of our own.

Stay tuned – later this week we’ll unveil a new series by ACAC’s own Tanja Bergen, with her Reports from the Field, based on her recent trip to Gulu, Uganda. Those of you who are interested in a more up-to-date, on-the-ground picture of the region should be sure to check in.

March 5, 2012 will now be known, for as long as our distracted social media-driven memories will allow, as the day Joseph Kony, Invisible Children and the child soldiers of the LRA were catapulted into popular consciousness.  For better or for worse, the “Kony 2012” video has become one of the most successful viral campaigns employed by an international NGO, maybe ever.  At the time that we write this, the 30-minute video has had 72,433,716 views online. 72 million.  By Wednesday, #stopkony was a worldwide trending topic on Twitter, while by the end of the week, “Uganda” remained a trending topic on Canadian Twitter feeds. Some have reported Invisible Children has raised $5 million in sales of their Kony 2012 Action Kit.

Almost as soon as the video went viral, so too did countless critiques of it and of Invisible Children’s approach, a sampling of which we compiled into a round-up you can see here.  Since the critiques continue to rapidly emerge in blogs, vlogs, editorials and the like, this is by no means an exhaustive list.  There are many.  Over the next few days we are going to expand on the critiques already penned by many authors online, as well as add a few points of our own.

Issue: Over Simplification

Critics have expressed a problem with:

-             the unequivocal dichotomy that is created between “good guys” and “bad guys;”

-             the implication that capturing Joseph Kony will bring peace to the region;

-             the explicit focus on short-term ‘solutions;’ and

-             the reduction of the complexity of the LRA’s power structure.

Sample critique: This post by HelloAfrica contributor Debbi N. Onuoha.

Our Response

One key figure that demonstrates the problematic nature of the good guy/bad guy dichotomy employed by Invisible Children is a man named Dominic Ongwen.  (Much of our information on this figure comes from the work of Erin Baines, who discusses the ambiguity of Ongwen and victim/killer labels in this article).  Ongwen, believed to be now in his 30s, is also an indicted war criminal, wanted by the International Criminal Court for his involvement in the LRA.  However, unlike other figures on the list, Ongwen is the first to be charged with the very war crimes of which he is also a victim.

Ongwen, born in Northern Uganda, was abducted by the LRA at the age of 10.  He quickly moved up to the highest ranks within the rebel group because of his ‘loyalty,’ or his willingness to carry out leaders’ orders and the efficiency with which he did so.  All of this is complicated by the fact that he was a child – just like the filmmaker’s friend Jacob – at the time, and yet, his ‘loyalty’ continued well into adulthood, now making him one of the world’s most wanted criminals.  Child soldiers aren’t children forever.

Ongwen’s reported compassion further complicates his role in the LRA and his label as a “killer.”  As Erin Baines describes, Ongwen is said to have occasionally shown mercy to families during village raids (i.e. by leaving at least one child behind with their family), and is said to have spared civilian villages from violence when they were caught in between his conflicts with other rebel groups.

Clearly, the case of Dominic Ongwen is not so clear-cut.  He is neither a good guy, nor a bad guy, and hardly fits into the simplistic model of child soldiers put forth in the Kony 2012 video.  The picture that Invisible Children captures – a world where big bad Joseph Konys exploit innocent little Jacobs – may be slightly out of focus.

What’s more, the Ongwen case illustrates the problem with assuming that capturing Kony will dismantle the LRA.  This is because Ongwen is one of two men (the other being Okot Odhiambo) who are in a position to take over leadership of the LRA in the event of Kony’s arrest.  This also illustrates the complex power structure of the rebel group (which extends far beyond Joseph Kony), and the flaws of such a short-term solution without a long-term sustainable plan for peace.

To this we add: The significance of stigma

One issue ACAC has yet to see emerge from the multitude of critiques of Kony 2012 is the issue of stigma and the politics of ‘reunification.’ In the video, there is a shot of (what we are likely meant to assume is) a former child soldier, being reunited happily with his parents.  This image misrepresents the incredibly complex relationship between family members and those who become, willingly or unwillingly, involved violent acts or armed groups in Uganda.  As stated earlier, child soldiers are not children forever – sometimes the reunification or reintegration process happens after children have aged into adulthood, complicated their relationship with their families.  Often times families treat former family members with direct hostility, having known the level of violence their children, sisters, or brothers may have committed on others or even on their own community.

The Kony 2012 video states outright that boys are recruited to be child soldiers, and girls, sex slaves.  While this may be true, these roles are not exclusive – Uganda girls have been documented as both child soldiers and sex slaves (or forced into ‘bush marriages’) and boys are not immune from sexual violence.  The stigmatization of female child soldiers is extreme, as is the stigmatization of rape victims, outright rejected by some communities who fear HIV infection or ‘bad luck.’

For a summary of a panel related to these issues, visit this page by the United States Institute for Peace.

Next post: Issues of misrepresentation and omission