Random primer on the conflict in northern Uganda

Because I am interested in random things, particularly man's inhumanity to man, I did some research recently on Uganda. And since I put it all together already, I figured I might as well share it with the internets. I looked for good non-fiction books on the topic and didn't find anything written for a general audience, so perhaps other people will find a centralized, condensed source of information helpful too. I am not an expert, clearly; I learned everything I know about Uganda in about two weeks and I don't have a fact-checking team (more's the pity), so caveat leactor, but here it is. Let me know if you find broken links or errors or anything.

1. Précis
   Ugandan history and country information in an über-brief format. With maps. I basically condensed all the dry encyclopedia-type crap that's nonetheless good to know into the most concise and least boring form I could manage.
   
   
   
   Ugandan history in brief:
   Uganda was a British protectorate from the late 1800's through 1962, when there was a coup and the British were routed. The president (Muteesa) and the Prime Minister (Obote) managed to get along peacefully for all of four years, at which point Obote dumped the constitution and declared himself President. Then everyone played King Of The Hill with the Presidency for another twenty years; Obote himself was ousted twice by various coup d'etats.
   
   The part of this history westerners probably know most about is the 1971-1979 rule of Idi Amin. Amin killed as many as 300,000 civilians during his eight years as president, and, in his second year, expelled all Uganda's Asians almost overnight, seriously fucking up the economy. Amin attempted to invade Tanzania in 1978. Tanzania retaliated, and, with the help of exiled Ugandan opposition members, deposed Amin. Obote was then President again (by fraudulent election, apparently) until 1985 until he got toppled by someone who in turn was toppled by the current president and leader of the National Resistance Army, Yoweri Museveni.
   
   An extended timeline of Ugandan history is linked later on.
   
   Religion:
   Uganda is 66-85% Christian, mostly Catholics and Anglicans. 10-16% of Ugandans are Muslim, and then there's a smattering (2-18%, the figures vary widely depending on what source I look at, so I'm giving you ranges) of a bunch of everything else. There was a history of religious persecution under Amin, particularly against Jews and Hindus.
   
   Health:
   Unlike many African countries, Uganda's response to the AIDS crisis has been forward-thinking and supported at the highest levels, though there is some question as to the government's management of the money; some international aid was withdrawn for a short period a few years ago due to mismanagement of funds. Still, they've been hit hard; infection rates are down to 4.5-7% from around 20%, though there have been some questions about how reliable those statistics are. By contrast, the US infection rate is less than 1% (0.6%).
   
   Nearly half of the country's roughly 2 million orphans are orphaned by AIDS (that's, um, a city the size of Houston made up only of orphans, or somewhere around 13% of the entire population of Uganda, for scale), and half of all Ugandan households (particularly in the north) don't have access to healthcare.
   
   Ethnolinguistic map of Uganda (interesting because it hints at the wider regional differences):
   
   
   Population:
   Uganda is comprised of three main ethnic groups, which appear to actually be more like umbrella categories - Bantu, Nilotic, and Central-Sudanic (traditionally called Nilo-Hamitic). You can see the regional breakdown, as well as the specific names of the ethnic groups that make up those wider categories, on the map above. More than half of the population is under the age of 15 – more than any other country in the world. Uganda's population is predominantly rural, and densest in the southern regions. As of last census, the population as a whole is around 27 million.
   
   There are over 40 indigenous languages spoken in Uganda, the primary being Luganda, but English is the official language. The adult literacy rate is about 69%.
   
   The average life expectancy in Uganda is 47 for men and 50 for women. The average Ugandan woman has seven (holy shit) children, making for a relatively high population growth rate (3-4%).
   
   World Bank economic map of Africa – this is actually one of the clearest political maps I could find that was the right size for printing, but it's interesting information as well.
   
   
   Economy:
   Uganda made it into the "medium" human development category on the UN Development Programme index, up from "low," for the first time in 2005. However, they still depend heavily on foreign aid, from debt relief to direct humanitarian assistance. As of 2002, about 9.2 million Ugandans (or 36% of the population) lived below the poverty line of $1 per day. That's about as many people as live in all of New York City. By contrast, the poverty rate in the U.S. is holding steady around 12.6% -- poverty, of course, being relative – obviously nobody in the U.S. is living on a buck a day.
   
   Over 50% of the business in Uganda happens in the capitol, Kampala. Uganda exports a lot of coffee (also tea, cotton, tobacco, sugarcane, other foodstuffs); it's a primarily agricultural economy.
   
   8% of Ugandan households have electricity, provided mainly through dams on Lake Victoria. The limited electricity supply is another factor affecting Uganda's economic growth patterns.
   
   Conflict in the north:
   Most of the conflict that takes place with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) takes place in the north of the country, particularly in Kitgum, Pader, Gulu, and Adjumani districts, which border Sudan. The LRA is the organization that is kidnapping children to serve as child soldiers, and had ties to the Sudanese government until earlier this year (it is not clear that those have been entirely broken). The Ugandan military has also been implicated in multiple human rights abuses in the region, so nobody's hands are clean. I've included more information on this elsewhere. The Acholi ethnic group is the most heavily affected, but violence seems to be spreading with the recent development in the northeast of Ugandan army clashes with Karamojong warriors over cattle raids.
   
   According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the conflict in northern Uganda has forced almost two million people - close to 90 percent of the region's population - to leave their homes for about 200 camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) scattered around the region. IDPs are heavily dependent on humanitarian support, and access to food, clean water, health care, education, etc. is far more problematic in the camps than in the rest of the country. HIV infection rates are doubled and life expectancy is lower in the regions most heavily affected by the conflict.
   
   The LRA and the government signed peace accords in August of 2006, but implementation was been slow and spotty, and there were several addenda and extensions to the agreement. The ceasefire agreement expired in February of 2007, but talks appear to be ongoing.
   
   The conflict costs Uganda 3-4% of its annual GDP, according to CSOPNU's 2002 estimate, making it far more expensive than the average internal armed conflict or civil war. The loss is estimated in terms of destroyed infrastructure, lost income from livestock and crop production, lost property, loss of development assistance due to regional instability, lost tourism revenue, major public health costs, lost human capital/productivity, disrupted education, environmental degradation, "brain drain" overseas, and military spending on the conflict.
   
   
2. News reports on current events [various, 2007]
   Just bits and pieces of reportage from late May and early June of this year; some of the larger reports I've included, while recent, are from 2005 or 2006, and there have been some developments since they were written. It's always nice to know what's going on in the present moment.
   • May 18, 2007: IDPs begin slow journey home amid concerns over peace process [IRIN]
     
   • May 30, 2007: The LRA and Sudan [IRIN]
     
   • May 31, 2007: LRA talks, pencils, and helicopters [IRIN]
     
   • May 31, 2007 May 31, 2007: Announcement of the release of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative's Status Report:Uganda (summary) [FHRI]
     
   • June 1, 2007: Living with the Lord's Resistance Army [IRIN]
     
   • June 5, 2007: Uganda outgrows its electricity supply [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]
     
   • June 6, 2007: Ugandan rebels have 3 weeks to assemble in South Sudan [Sudan Tribune]
   Also current: the Karamojong conflict and talk about government corruption (Museveni delivered the State of the Union in early June and promised a crackdown).
   
   
3. Uncertain peace process impeded return in north while protection crisis looms in Karamoja region (.pdf) [IDMC, 28 March 2007]
   A relatively clear, relatively recent report (those are hard to find!) detailing the position of IDPs in the north during the ongoing peace talks and giving information on recent violent disturbances in the region between Karamojong warriors and the Ugandan military, which also impacts the displacement situation.
   
   
4. ''Breaking God's commands'': the destruction of childhood by the Lord's Resistance Army [Amnesty International, 1997]
   Please note that this is from a decade ago. Some information will necessarily be inaccurate and I have endeavored to include more up-to-date information in the rest of this material. The Amnesty reports are, however, very well-written and readable, and give a very personal view of the consequences of the conflict for individuals.
   
   
5. Uprooted and Forgotten: Impunity and Human Rights Abuses in Northern Uganda (.pdf) [Human Rights Watch, September 2005]
   This duplicates some of the information in the Amnesty report, but from a general IDP and civilian perspective rather than a youth-specific viewpoint. The second half of this report is particularly worth reading, as it covers human rights abuses by the UPDF (the Ugandan army) in great detail. This also includes a brief section on amnesty and reconciliation, which is part of the current dialogue – HRW has another short piece on this relating to ICC prosecution and national alternatives as well.
   
   
6. Resolving the Three Headed War From Hell in Southern Sudan, Northern Uganda, and Darfur, by John Prendergast, Special Advisor to the President, International Crisis Group. (.pdf) [Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Africa Program occasional paper series, No. 3. February 2005]
   An interesting paper that looks at the Northern Uganda situation in the light of other, interrelated regional conflicts. Much of the Uganda literature focuses on Uganda only; the larger international context is worth reading about as well.
   
   
7. Health and mortality survey among internally displaced persons in Gulu, Kitgum, and Pader districts, northern Uganda. (.pdf) [WHO, July 2005]
   A bit dry, but a good glimpse at how much worse things are for IDPs in the affected northern areas than for the country as a whole.
   
   
8. Counting the Cost - Twenty Years of War in Northern Uganda [CSOPNU, 3/2006]
   A good overview of the conflict and its economic impact of the conflict on Uganda. I included most of the information from a 2002 CSOPNU report that I can't find again online in the précis in condensed form, but this is much more readable than that report was, anyway.
   
   
9. Timeline: Uganda [BBC, April 13, 2007]
   A clear timeline of Ugandan history 1500-present.
   
   
10. Timeline of the conflict in northern Uganda [UgandaCAN, 2006]
    A detailed timeline of the conflict.
    
    
11. Timeline of 2006 Juba peace talks [The Daily Monitor, via UgandaCAN, 2006]
    The accord signed in August 2006 between the LRA and the Ugandan government expired in February 2007, but the peace talks were nonetheless a very important step. I think they are resuming or ongoing at the moment, and there have been several addenda to the original agreement, as far as I can make out, but I can't get more clarity than that about the process since 8/26/06, and it's not covered by this timeline, either.
    
    
12. 2006 Peace Talks in Juba: A Historic Opportunity [UgandaCAN, July 2006]
    A concise explanation of the context and importance of the 2006 Juba peace talks.
    
    
13. From my friend K: Global Voices: Blogging from Uganda - very cool once I had a little context, and a good way to hear a variety of voices coming out of Uganda, not just humanitarian organizations.

Supplemental materials that weren't as clear or readable, but still informative:

• Seizing the Second Chance: Peace on the Horizon for Uganda? (.pdf) [UgandaCAN Policy Brief, 26 April 2006]
  This is a report on some of the issues during the 2006 peace talks. Much of it is outdated, and it's written for an audience that knows a bit more about the context of the talks, but it's worth a look for the final page or so, which is a heartbreakingly hopeful detailing of how much the U.S. Government might help if they would only, well, bother. As we all know by now, they didn't, but it's interesting to read.
  
  
• Breaking the circle: protecting human rights in the northern war zone [Amnesty International, 2000]
  Another older Amnesty report, this one looking at human rights abuses carried out by the Ugandan army, displacement due to the conflict, conditions in the IDP camps, and the treatment of alleged LRA collaborators.
  
  
• The State of Youth and Youth Protection in Northern Uganda: Findings from the Survey for War Affected Youth (.pdf) [SWAY for UNICEF Uganda, 9/2006]
  This report weirds me out a little, because it states as its questions, "Who is suffering, how much, and in what ways?" (iii). Adrienne Rich once said, "Quantify suffering, you could rule the world," and any time I see a question about "how much" someone is suffering, it kind of makes me twitch. But really this was a very pragmatic approach, focused on how to target aid, and my personal theoretical hotbuttons really don't need to be part of it.
  
  This study used a wide sample (detailed on page iv), persistent methods, and both quantitative and qualitative methodology to get a generalizable picture of the situation. The only thing that is regrettable is that they interviewed no women for the survey; sexual and gender-based violence is a huge part of what is going on, and there's no way they could accurately address it without including women in their sample.
  
  Part A is the more interesting part – Part B is about program design and delivery in the light of Part A's findings. But damn, is Part A interesting. If you really can't stand the detail, at least read the executive summary's bullet points.
  
  
• Only Peace Can Restore the Confidence of the Displaced: Update on the Implementation of the Recommendations Made by the U.N. Secretary-General's Representative on Internally Displaced Persons Following His Visit to Uganda, Second Edition (.pdf) [IDMC, Refugee Law Project, and Norwegian Refugee Council, 10/2006]
  I'd say, read the one-page "update to the second edition" and then skip ahead; the foreword is some pretty dense reading about specific measures taken by the government and international community to address the crisis. Again, this is a dense report, but it's got some really in-depth information about the core issues in northern Uganda, including freedom of movement, access to land, adequate protection, gender-based violence, night commuting, and education. If you don't want to read the whole thing (and I wouldn't blame you) the table of contents is on page 7.
  
  
• Pawns of Politics: children, conflict, and peace in northern Uganda (2nd edition) (.pdf) [World Vision, 2005]
  This is a sixty-odd page report, but the five-page executive summary is also available and much faster reading. Their findings about the prevalence of HIV infection in war-affected areas (twice the national rate) are interesting, the summary itself is clear and concise, and the policy recommendations are clear. The longer report is good, but it's two years old, and the UNICEF-Uganda report is more recent.
  
  
• Benchmarks for Assessing Possible National Alternatives to International Criminal Court Cases Against LRA Leaders: A Human Rights Watch Memorandum [Human Rights Watch, May 2007]
  A recent report that indicates that peace talks are about to resume – as I said, that timeline is confusing. In any case, this is worthwhile primarily for the first few pages, which outline the debate among various factions as to whether part of what is on the table for the peace talks is an alternative to international war crimes prosecution for Kory and other LRA leaders. This report recommends benchmarks for any national alternative.