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Email this citationCIAO DATE: 05/04
Northern Uganda: Understanding and Solving the Conflict
April 14, 2004
Abstract
The war between the Ugandan government and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), now in its eighteenth year, has frustrated the country's aspirations to develop a pluralist political system and entrench the rule of law. It is tarnishing the record and international prestige of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), which came to power in 1986 with a comprehensive program to overcome the turmoil and bloodshed that had disfigured Ugandan politics since independence. The corruption, maladministration and increasing intolerance of political opposition that have begun to shadow the NRM's many achievements are exacerbated by the war, or at least made more difficult to remedy.
The government has largely attempted to defeat the LRA militarily, while paying little regard to the effects of its strategy on the population or to the wider factors that underlie the conflict. Military action to impede LRA operations and better protect the population should be an important element of any strategy but it will not be more effective unless problems within the military (Ugandan People's Defence Force, UPDF) related to corruption, politicisation, logistics, structure, equipment and tactics are dealt with. Furthermore, to end the insurgency and promote conditions for national reconciliation and prosperity, the government's strategy must include political measures designed to improve the conditions of those affected by the conflict. The objectives should be to keep pressure on the LRA militarily, politically and diplomatically and to isolate the charismatic Joseph Kony, the leader upon whom the insurgency is dependent. This would maximise the opportunity for negotiations, particularly with those in the LRA leadership who may, in a deteriorating environment, seek a way out. The international community has an important contribution to make, politically and financially, in helping the government develop and implement a comprehensive strategy.
