Friends For Peace In Africa

David Herbert (Monitor, Soroti, Uganda)

More than 30 victims of the Lord’s Resistance Army met with MPs in Soroti Thursday to recommend how best to bring justice to the female casualties of that conflict, presenting a side of the 20-year struggle that has often been ignored.

The Northern Uganda Women’s Forum organized the meeting, as well as simultaneous gatherings in Gulu and Lira, to debate the merits of different legal systems in prosecuting LRA suspects and how to incorporate women’s issues into the ongoing Juba Peace Talks.

While Soroti has suffered less violence at the hands of the LRA compared to its neighbours to the northwest, this district was terrorized by Joseph Kony’s forces for a few months in 2004 and still has a small population of refugees.

Thursday’s meetings were an attempt to make the eventual peace agreement in Juba more likely to stick, said MP Alice Alaso (Soroti district).

“The stakeholders need to be on board,” said Ms. Alaso, who was joined in Soroti by MP Agnes Akiror (Kumi district).

Whether Joseph Kony will face trial in a Ugandan court or in the International Criminal Court is still in doubt, as is the fate of his commanders and foot soldiers. The government and the LRA signed a pact on accountability June 29, an agreement which promised the use of both the formal legal system and traditional mechanisms in holding rebel suspects accountable. But where and how those competing legal frameworks will be implemented is still undecided.

Victims and lawyers spent most of the day debating which legal systems to use for different crimes, ranging from cattle rustling and arson to forced marriage, rape and murder. Most in attendance favoured a formal legal framework for violent crimes and traditional mechanisms - and the reparations they bring - for theft.

But Hilda Akabwai, a legal consultant in the peace talks, said that many females are wary of how traditional systems are implemented.

“The traditional mechanisms often discriminate against women,” said Ms. Akabwai, who emceed Thursday’s meeting. “For example, when a woman is beaten by her husband, the husband gives a goat to the brother-in-law, not to the woman herself.”

As Uganda faces the possibility of prosecuting alleged war criminals, question marks remain, chief among them whether any legal system can quantify and indemnify tragedies like a disrupted education or a ruined business. And the victims, many of them having grown up under varying tribal justice systems, were at times unclear about legal basics - at one point a woman in the crowd asked for a definition of the word “crime.”

Still, many of those who packed into the open-air meeting hall hoped that the Juba Peace Talks would be a magic bullet for the violence that has plagued the district for decades. Women spoke of rape not only at the hands of the LRA but also the Karimajong, the Uganda People’s Defence Forces and the Uganda People’s Army. Some in attendance used the gathering as a forum to decry what they consider insufficient government protection against the Karimajong, heavily armed cattle rustlers who have preyed on the Iteso for decades.

But Apiny Rose doubts the current talks can provide the cure-all that her neighbours are hoping for. She told the Daily Monitor that she was abducted and defiled by the Karimajong in 1982 and later raped by the LRA. Ms Apiny argued that the cycle of violence is too strong, and even if peace comes, nothing can restore what was taken from her.

“When you are raped you still feel isolated, even after you are counseled,” she said. “Being isolated from others doesn’t just wash away. It stays with you.”

The meeting came to a standstill when Jennfier Adongo, a 14-year old former LRA abductee stood to offer an opinion. Wearing a crisp school uniform, she softly spoke in support of amnesty for LRA commanders.

“I suggest Kony should move through Uganda and ask forgiveness,” she said through an interpreter before sitting and burying her face in her hands.

George Okwaput is the programme manager of Action Against Child Abuse and Neglect, a rehabilitation programme that counsels and educates Ms. Adongo and more than 1,000 other former LRA child soldiers and porters. For young victims, he said, forgiveness is rooted more in fear than generosity.

“They want whatever system has the greatest chance of success,” he said. “They are scared of Kony still being in the bush, still able to target children.”