Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Uganda

Today I had the privilege of hearing a man talk who was introduced as a saint. This man quickly dispelled this claim joking that he would be the worst of them all if that were true. This man was Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Northern Uganda speaking at the University of Notre Dame Hesburgh Center today. If not a saint, at least a good man bringing a message of hope from a corner of the world where it often seems there isn't much hope left.

Archbishop Odama began with a brief history on the conflict in Northern Uganda that has now spilled over into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This war with the LRA (Lords Resistance Army) has been going on for almost 23 years and is one of the ugliest and longest running wars of our time. He explained how the LRA with the infamous Joseph Kony as their leader came about in 1987 as a splinter group of the UPDA that remained in the bush and grew in power with the help of the Sudanese government. The whole history can be found here.

LRA waged war on the populace for over 10 years before the peace initiative finally began in 1998. This initiative was started by local religious leaders including Odama. They started with community sensitization. They saw 4 possible paths to peace: 1. Military operation 2. Amnesty 3. Dialogue 4. The ICC. They did not see a military operation as the answer, thus their top 2 paths to peace were dialogue and amnesty, dialogue being the number 1 path. They were resistant to the ICC as they felt an ICC indictment of Kony and his commanders conflicted with the trust required for dialogue between the LRA and the government.

Odama believes that the ICC was responsible for the dialogue starting off on the wrong foot. They had already started to begin the dialogue with Kony and his men when on December 29, 2002 the chief prosecutor of the ICC held a joint press conference with President Museveni of Uganda. This was a very non Partisan move on the part of the ICC. Odama considered this and an official indictment as obstacles to signing a true peace agreement.

Odama believes reconciliation is the true path to peace. This addresses the needs of the victims, the perpetrators and the community. All must be involved. In an international court Kony would not have to face his victims, and might even possibly win with a good legal team. Even if Kony were arrested, that would create a power vacuum that might only lead to further conflicts. In order to fully address the postwar problem and to have lasting peace they needed reconciliation according to the traditional custom "Mato oput".

Asked how you attain both Peace and Punishment, Odama reaffirmed that reconciliation and restoring the relationship between the victims, perpetrators and community was more important than punishment. When asked if there are victims opposed to dialogue, he said that there were groups that wanted Kony to admit to his specific crimes against them, but added that in Uganda the common consensus was that people could forgive Kony if he would only stop the war.

Odama and his group saw themselves as the bridge between the government and the LRA. They were the mediators. On July 14, 2002 in Western Gulu they went to meet one of Kony's top commanders, Vincent Otti. There were 4 of them, mostly priests, traveling in a car with no escort. At 4 o'clock they met Otti. They explained that they had come because the war had lasted too long, and they wanted a clear decision from both sides on how to end it. They had already talked to the government about working towards peace talks with the rebels. Otti asked Odama if he had come as a representative on behalf of the government. Odama told him that he came on behalf of the people of their country who were suffering as the victims of the conflict. Otti was suspicious still and accused Odama of being a government spy. Odama responded that this wasn't true, and that he viewed Otti and others in the LRA as lost sheep who he was coming out into the bush to find. Eventually, Otti warmed up and started to talk. Both sides left the meeting with the mindset that this dialogue would continue. It was silent diplomacy between the government and the rebels facilitated by this group of religious leaders.

At one point Museveni warned Odama not to go back into the bush to meet the rebels as he had it from a reliable source that they would surely kill him. But Odama and his peers continued their dialogue. They also continued to press for advocacy even coming to the US State Department. They created awareness in the world about the so far unknown plight of the Ugandan people, especially the children as the LRA was notorious for abducting children and assimilating them into their ranks. Odama talked about 4 days spent living and sleeping in the infamous bus parks where the night commuters slept to avoid abduction by the rebels. He talked about the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons in IDP camps. Through networking and advocacy with people in Sudan, Kenya, Europe and the US the hope of peace talks started to become a reality.

Finally, in July of 2006 these peace talks began and continued until March 2008. Odama and his fellow religious leaders where the official non partisan observers in the peace talks.

In April of 2008 the final signing of the peace agreement was to take place but it failed. Kony did not show. Another meeting in May failed to happen and another in August. Finally, in November 2008 Odama met Kony face to face in the bush and asked him why he would not show up to sign the peace agreement. Kony said that he would not sign with out the ICC indictment lifted. He told Odama he was like a hunter with a spear going after peace, but then behind him the lion (the ICC) was coming for him. So what was he to do? Continue to pursue peace or turn around and fight the lion? Odama urged him of the great importance of signing the agreement, but Kony was too suspicious.

Only 2 weeks after this meeting the new joint operation of Uganda, DR Congo and South Sudan was launched on December 14, 2008 against the LRA in DR Congo. That conflict is still going on today and Kony and his army are still at large. Odama did not speak much on this current conflict as he was careful to point out that the only news coming from the battlefield was from the army. He said the accuracy of these reports was definitely a concern of the people of Uganda who were eager for the truth. He encouraged the idea that independent reporters need to try and go into Congo and see for themselves and report the truth.

Odama made an apology to the people of Congo for allowing their war to be exported into Congo. Early in his talk when talking about the conflict between the LRA and the government in Uganda he referenced the famous Swahili proverb: "When 2 elephants fight the grass gets hurt." In talking about the current situation in DR Congo he extended this: "When there are many elephants fighting the grass really suffers".

With the dialogue cut off and hopes of further peace talks dashed by the new war, Odama did not show a loss of hope. Even though the war has furthered the mistrust of Kony, Odama still sees diplomacy as the only true answer to this conflict. He said all efforts should be made to try to end the war with diplomacy.

Odama proposes political and religious leaders start to brainstorm on how to end this conflict. He suggested that places like the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame are also good think tanks for finding a new path to diplomacy.

When asked if Kony might only be using the indictment from the ICC as an excuse to continue his war, Odama expressed his belief that Kony has 2 major issues he is facing: 1. Fear of prosecution and 2. He is not alone and must be concerned with the future of his officers. He then expressed a third concern Kony might have which is that he might wonder "can he truly be forgiven". When asked if the ICC has played any positive role, Odama expressed that it did serve the purpose of bringing accountability to the forefront and forced both sides of the conflict to consider the issue of punishment.

At the top I say Odama brings a message of hope. The underlying theme in all of his lecture was that of reconciliation. It was clear that ICC indictments, military operations, or even punishment were not the right answer in his mind. He instead takes the human approach. Repairing relationships is more important than punishment.

The moderator of the lecture asked Odama at the end how he maintains his hope when things have taken such a sharp turn for the worse. Odama simply responded that the mission of peace is not his. He doesn't own it. It is owned by God and he is simply a servant. He said "God wrote straight on a crooked line." He admitted that he didn't know what the next steps towards peace were, but knew that steps to peace can be found. He stressed that to find the solution they need more workers for peace and hope, as many as possible.

And finally, he got personal and said that he always has a soft voice in his head saying "I am with you always. Be not afraid." And he added: "Even to go into the bush and meet Kony".