Odoch Athii, and the late Odoko Amida Martin of Odek. Most particularly I am grateful to my colleague and friend, Komakech Charles Okot. For sharing his experiences in the LRA, I shall always remember and respect the late Yakobo Engena. To Father Carlos, who has the courage to speak out, my thanks also.
For back-stopping me in various phases of the development of this book, many thanks to Judy el Bushra, Niki Kandirikirira, Jeff Handmaker, Judith Large, Barbara Harrell-Bond, Effie Voutira, Faisa Loyaan, Ian Swartz, Shamani Shikwambi, Vanessa Farr and my brother Phil Dolan. All deserve special mention, as does Thi Minh Ngo for both moral and practical support. I owe special intellectual debts to David Keen and Tim Allen, both of whom stayed with this project for the long haul and encouraged me to publish, and to John Cameron and Tania Kaiser who engaged so rigorously and unstintingly with this work.
ABBREVIATIONS
| ACF | Action Contre la Faim |
| AAH | Action Against Hunger |
| ARLPI | Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative |
| AVSI | Associazione Volontari per il Servizio Internazionale |
| CDC | Centre for Disease Control |
| CO | Commanding Officer |
| CRS | Catholic Relief Services |
| DEO | District Education Office |
| EU | European Union |
| FEWS | Famine Early Warning System |
| GISO | Gombolola Internal Security Operative |
| GoS | Government of Sudan |
| GoU | Government of Uganda |
| HSM | Holy Spirit Movement |
| HURIFO | Human Rights Focus |
| HURIPEC | Human Rights and Peace Centre |
| ICRC | International Committee of the Red Cross |
| IGAD | Inter-Governmental Authority on Development |
| IGO | Inter-Governmental Organisation |
| IRIN | Integrated Regional Information Network |
| INGO | International Non-Governmental Organisation |
| KICWA | Kitgum Concerned Women's Association |
| LC | Local Council/Councillor |
| LRA | Lord's Resistance Army |
| LRM | Lord's Resistance Movement |
| MSF | Médecins Sans Frontières |
| MUAC | Middle Upper Arm Circumference |
| NGO | Non-Governmental Organisation |
| NRA | National Resistance Army |
| NRM | National Resistance Movement |
| NURP | Northern Uganda Reconstruction Programme |
| OPM | Office of the Prime Minister |
| PRO | Public Relations Officer (UPDF) |
| PRRO | Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation |
| PTSD | Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder |
| RPF | Rwandan Patriotic Front |
| SPLA | Sudanese People's Liberation Army |
| SPLM | Sudanese People's Liberation Movement |
| SCF | Save the Children Fund |
| UHRC | Ugandan Human Rights Commission |
| UNDP | United Nations Development Programme |
| UNDMT | United Nations Disaster Management Team |
| UNHCR | United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees |
| UNHCU | United Nations Humanitarian Co-ordination Unit |
| UNICEF | United Nations Children's Fund |
| UNLA | Uganda National Liberation Army |
| UNOCHA | United Nations Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
| UPC | Uganda People's Congress |
| UPDA | Uganda People's Democratic Army |
| UPDF | Uganda People's Defence Force |
| USAID | United States Agency for International Development |
| WFP | World Food Program |
| WNBF | West Nile Bank Front |
Map of ‘Protected Villages’ in which Fieldwork Was Conducted
Map showing Gulu, Kitgum, Nimule towns and the ‘protected villages’, in which the majority of fieldwork was conducted: Atiak Biabia, Acet, Anaka, Awer, Awere, Awac, Cwero, Odek, Pabo, Palaro.
1
INTRODUCTION
Why, when almost every concerned party says they wish it would end, does a situation of suffering such as that in northern Uganda continue and indeed worsen? When I first went to northern Uganda in 1998 it was already a pertinent question; by 2006, with ninety per cent of the population internally displaced or in exile, further thousands raped, killed or forcibly abducted, and the economy in tatters, it was still more so. Even as the two ostensible parties to the conflict, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda (GoU), stated their commitment to peace during two years of talks in the southern Sudanese town of Juba (2006–2008), the question and its answer remained fundamentally important. For the legacy of two decades of violence and violation in northern Uganda is well beyond the scope of any peace deal, not least because many of the actors are not even visible in the talks. Insofar as the situation in northern Uganda exemplifies the ‘new wars’ of the post-cold war era, the question and its answer should also have resonance in a number of other situations whose persistence taxes both the intellect and the imagination.
Contrary to popular presentations of the situation as being primarily an internal war between the LRA and the Government of Uganda, this book makes the case that it is instead a form of mass torture, whose principal victims are the population within the ‘war zone’, and whose ultimate function is the subordinate inclusion of the population in northern Uganda. The so-called ‘protected villages’ for the internally displaced are primary sites of this process, which I shall call Social Torture, as evidenced in widespread violation, dread, disorientation, dependency, debilitation and humiliation, all of which are tactics and symptoms typical of torture, but perpetrated on a mass rather than individual scale.
In this interpretation visible perpetrators include the Government and LRA, but a range of less visible actors are also involved, not least the donor governments, multi-lateral organisations, churches and NGOs. In many instances these can be regarded as complicit bystanders; like doctors in a torture situation, they appear to be there to ease the suffering of victims, but in reality they enable the process to be prolonged by keeping the victim alive for further abuse. Doing this serves a number of inter-linked economic, political and psychological functions for perpetrators and bystanders alike, and is underpinned by both psychological and discursive processes of justification, the most important of which is the idea that this situation is indeed a ‘war’ between the LRA and the Government. Furthermore, by virtue of the scale at which it operates, Social Torture becomes in several senses self-perpetuating and time-indifferent.
In short, whereas torture is generally seen as a tactic with which to prosecute war, in this situation war is being used as the guise under which to perpetrate social torture. Once this reversal of the relationship between means and end is clear it also becomes much clearer why the situation continues: steps to end the war focused on dealing with the LRA through negotiations or military means are necessary but not enough. What is also needed are interventions which address the multiple dimensions of social torture. These include addressing political and economic inequities, governmental impunity and harmful psycho-social dynamics. As those who in principle have the most power to make these changes are implicated in the social torture themselves, the focus has to shift from the intentions of visible perpetrators to the responsibilities of a far wider range of actors.
The Mainstream Discourse of Today's Wars
Arriving at this thesis was not a linear process. Rather it involved an iterative to- and fro- between review of academic literature, policy positions, media coverage, and field-work findings. In the course of this I came to see the literature in terms of two broad types;
