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UGANDA: Poverty, wars and alcohol perpetuate domestic violence

Some 92 percent of 6,000 people surveyed by the Uganda Law Reform Commission reported some form of domestic violence was taking place in their communities. The highest levels were recorded in northern Uganda, which is struggling to emerge from more than two decades of conflict between the rebel Lord's Resistance Army and government troops. (IRIN, July 2008)

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79259

(Added: Mon Jul 21 2008   Hits: 7)

Civil Society and Conflict Resolution: The Role of the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI) in the Northern Uganda Conflict

The ARLPI main aim has been to make contact and initiate talks with the Lords Resistance Army, with a view to ending the rebellion. The aim of this paper is to review the work that has so far been done by the ARLPI in the context of its aims. Whilst the group has been instrumental in keeping the peaceful method option to ending the conflict alive, its work has sometimes been undermined by the Uganda government's insistence that Kony can only be defeated militarily. (Apuuli Phillip KASAIJA, 2006)

http://www.istr.org/conferences/bangkok/WPVolume/Kasaija.ApuuliPhillip.pdf

(Added: Fri Jan 11 2008   Hits: 27)

Peace in Northern Uganda? [pdf]

The peace talks in Juba between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government have made surprising progress, with a formal cessation of hostilities agreement signed on 26 August. Though there are reasons for optimism, the challenges are daunting. The discrepancies over expectations within the LRA itself, the questionable legitimacy of its delegation in Juba, differences in agenda and vision between the two parties, and limited capacity all suggest a new, two-phase mediation strategy may be required. (International Crisis Group Policy Briefing, September 13, 2006)

http://www.reliefweb.int/library/documents/2006/icg-uga-13sep.pdf

(Added: Fri Sep 15 2006   Hits: 41)

Peace in Northern Uganda?

Peace talks in Northern Uganda have shown surprising promise, but they will need a new approach to move significantly further. This briefing examines the steps taken and the hurdles ahead in the negotiations between the Ugandan government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). It calls for a new two-phase mediation strategy to move beyond the current talks led by Dr Riek Machar, vice president of the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS). (International Crisis Group, 13 September 2006)

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/getfile.cfm?id=2523&tid=4374&l=1

(Added: Thu Sep 14 2006   Hits: 34)

Wildlife Expert Persuades Notorious Rebel Army To Join Fight To Save Rare White Rhino

A wildlife expert has told how he convinced an African rebel army, which has fought a bloody struggle with the Ugandan government for nearly two decades, to sign up to a conservation project to save one of the world's rarest animals. The Lord's Resistance Army - the leaders of which are wanted for war crimes by the international criminal court - is to join with scientists to protect the northern white rhino, of which only four are thought to remain in the wild. As part of an ongoing peace process, the rebels have pledged not to harm the animals and to tell wildlife experts if they see one. (The Guardian, September 13, 2006)

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,,1871219,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1

(Added: Thu Sep 14 2006   Hits: 82)

UGANDA: Daunting post-conflict challenges in the north

Post-conflict challenges such as resettling internally displaced persons (IDPs) and re-establishing civil services in war-ravaged northern Uganda will be heavier than the war itself. (IRIN, 3 September 2006)

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55348

(Added: Mon Sep 04 2006   Hits: 98)

Britain 'blocking peace deal' for Uganda

President Yoweri Museveni's government and Lord Resistance Army representatives have signed a truce hailed as a major step towards a permanent ceasefire. But any conclusive deal is threatened by the continued absence from the talks of the LRA leader Joseph Kony and three of his top commanders. They fear arrest under warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has indicted them on charges including murder, rape and abducting and conscripting 25,000 children. In a bid to secure peace Uganda has promised full amnesty to them - but Britain and others oppose this, instead supporting the ICC. (Xan Rice, The Guardian, 28 August 2006)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1859638,00.html

(Added: Tue Aug 29 2006   Hits: 62)

UGANDA: Government and Rebels Sure of an End to 20-Year Conflict

Both the Ugandan government and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) were upbeat on Monday about a peaceful end to their 20-year-old war that has killed thousands and displaced almost two million people in the north of the country. The signing on Saturday of an agreement to cease hostilities gave both sides new hope that a comprehensive agreement was in sight, although they acknowledged the need for continued vigilance. (IRIN News, August 28, 2006)

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55290&SelectRegion=East_Africa&SelectCountry=UGANDA

(Added: Tue Aug 29 2006   Hits: 142)

Sign up for a GuluWalk and Be a Reason for Hope in Northern Uganda!

U.N. Under-Secretary General of Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland has called the situation in northern Uganda "the world's most neglected humanitarian crisis" and "one of the biggest scandals of our generation." As many as 40,000 children walk from their rural villages into the town of Gulu and other urban centres to sleep in relative safety and avoiding abduction by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) for use in the country's 20-year civil war. The plight of the children sparked the idea for GuluWalk, which has now grown into an international tool for public engagement and active global citizenship. It has also become a fundraising initiative to support children's programs in northern Uganda, which focus on education, rehabilitation and youth outreach.

http://www.guluwalk.com/

(Added: Fri Aug 18 2006   Modified: Fri Aug 25 2006   Hits: 304)

War and Justice in Northern Uganda: an assessment of the international criminal court's intervention (pdf)

In Northern Uganda the government and rebel forces have been at war since the 1980s. Massacres and abductions are common and human suffering immense. Several thousands live in refugee camps. Since 2003, this situation is being investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC). This 100 page report looks at what progress has been made towards ending the war. (Tim Allen, Crisis States Research Centre, London School of Economics, 2005)

http://www.crisisstates.com/download/others/AllenICCReport.pdf

(Added: Fri Jul 21 2006   Hits: 64)

Small Arms Survey 2006: Unfinished Business

This is an independent research project at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. This edition features case studies on small arms violence in Papua New Guinea and Colombia, armed groups in West Africa, and the Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda. The final chapter "Angry Young Men" considers why young men account for the lion's share of global small arms violence. Summaries of all 12 Chapters are available. (July 2006)

http://hei.unige.ch/sas/files/sas/publications/yearb2006.html

(Added: Mon Jul 17 2006   Hits: 92)

UGANDA CASE STUDY: Mary's sisters, 'night commuters'

Priscilla, Annette and Constance are among the thousands of children in rural northern Uganda who walk up to 20 kilometres (12 miles) every night to sleep in town. These "night commuters" hope to avoid marauding rebels who might abduct them and force them to be soldiers, porters or sex slaves. (Alertnet, 7 July, 2006)

http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/reliefresources/115229236615.htm

(Added: Wed Jul 12 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 80)

Beyond Victimhood: Women's Peacebuilding in Sudan, Congo and Uganda

Countries in crisis and the wider international community must do much more to support women's involvement in solving Africa's deadliest conflicts. In Sudan, Congo and Uganda, an array of women's organisations and leaders are doing remarkable work, under difficult circumstances, especially in community organisations and informal conflict resolution mechanisms. Still, women remain marginalised in formal peace processes and post-conflict governments. Donors and others in the international community all need to do much more to offer sustainable support rather than just rhetoric. It is not merely a question of fairness or equity: women make a difference in part because they often adopt a more inclusive approach toward security and address key social and economic issues that would otherwise be ignored. Peace agreements, post-conflict reconstruction and governance work better when women peace activists are involved. (International Crisis Group, 28 June 2006)

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=4185

(Added: Thu Jun 29 2006   Modified: Thu Jul 13 2006   Hits: 300)

IRIN Web Special on the crisis in Northern Uganda

For the last 19 years the Acholi people of northern Uganda have been the victims of a brutal, unrelenting rebel insurgency. This website gives you background information, testimonies, latest reports, along with links to more resources on human rights in Uganda.

http://www.irinnews.org/webspecials/uga_crisis/default.asp

(Added: Mon May 08 2006   Modified: Thu Jul 13 2006   Hits: 66)

A strategy for ending northern Uganda's crisis

This report, from the International Crisis Group, discusses the history of the conflict currently taking place in Northern Uganda between the Lords Resistance Army and the Government. The report outlines some of the suffering caused by the conflict and attempts to propose some strategies for conflict resolution.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/DPAS-6KXE9Y?OpenDocument

(Added: Tue Feb 07 2006   Modified: Thu Jul 13 2006   Hits: 261)

IRIN Web Special on Life in northern Uganda: "when the sun sets, we start to worry..."

The long-running conflict in northern Uganda is one of extreme brutality and callousness. Characterised as one of the world's "forgotten crises" by the UN, it has recently escalated to engulf huge swathes of the countryside, trapping tens of thousands of innocent people in a seemingly endless cycle of violence and suffering. Using personal testimonies and powerful black-and-white photographs, "When the Sun Sets, We Start to Worry..." aims to draw attention to the plight of more than a million Ugandan children, women and men whose present existence encompasses a degree of misery and horror seldom seen elsewhere. "When the Sun Sets, We Start to Worry..." portrays the extraordinary resilience demonstrated by the people of northern Uganda as they piece together lives disrupted by violence, and cherish hopes and dreams whose fulfilment depends on the return of peace to their region.

http://www.irinnews.org/webspecials/northernuganda/default.asp

(Added: Mon Apr 26 2004   Modified: Mon Aug 14 2006   Hits: 198)