Suchergebnisse

This book is an effort to provide a more nuanced analysis of the LRA. Certainly, the group's endemic human rights violations receive considerable attention. Without understanding the types and extent of the abuses, the reasons for the widespread deep fears among the civilians in the LRA's areas of operations cannot be fully appreciated. Likewise, the peculiarities of the LRA's ideology must be assessed in order to describe how the group initially mobilized and recruited its members and how it continues to retain its voluntary members. There are, however, two main goals of this book. The first is to put the LRA in context. Although it might be easier -- and perhaps in some ways more comforting -- to view the LRA as uniquely violent, this simply is not accurate. As is hoped will be demonstrated, there is much more to the LRA than being a violent cult with unusual impact. Historical antecedents and the larger political and ethnic environment in Uganda helped create the conditions in which the LRA could be created. Also, although certainly with its own specific aspects, the forms of the LRA's ideology and organization are not unique among violent groups. Likewise, cultural and religious factors within Uganda and regional countries have a major impact on their internal stability. In many cases, religion (of several forms) has been a critical mobilizing and organizing tool for groups of potential security concern. Without understanding these factors, it is impossible to understand the LRA. The second goal is to assess the response to the LRA. Some of the misperceptions about the LRA in fact have shaped the responses, both regionally and internationally. Clearly, for a group that has survived for over 20 years, the adequacy of governmental responses has been a critical issue. In general, the response to the LRA by the affected countries has been military. Although the military tools have had some success in limiting LRA activities, they obviously have not eliminated the group. This in part has forced a greater emphasis on various peace negotiating strategies. The peace initiatives are given particular attention, largely because they help illustrate the seemingly endless complications in dealing with insurgent groups in complex security environments.

An examination of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which killed more than 40 civilians in a 2004 attack on a camp of internally displaced persons near Lira, notes that such events are becoming commonplace in northern Uganda. Four theories about the LRA are considered: (1) LRA's leader, Joseph Kony, is a "madman" carrying out a purposeless campaign of violence; (2) the conflict is the result of legitimate complaints of northern peoples; (3) the struggle is a "byproduct of the larger geopolitical rivalry between the Sudanese government & Uganda;" & (4) Uganda is the site of an emerging "political economy of conflict" in which various actors are economically benefiting from the war. It is contended that none of these theories explain all of the circumstances surrounding the conflict. Attention is called to the increase in LRA attacks on civilians, especially children; recent LRA attacks outside its usual zone of conflict; & the failure of the Uganda People's Democratic Army's "Operation Iron Fist" project. The chances for peace are assessed. 7 References. J. Lindroth

During the period 1986 through the mid-2000s,var ious rebel movements arose in Acholiland in northern Uganda to struggle against the National Resistance government of Yoweri Museveni who himself had come to power in January 1986 after overthrowing the regime of Tito Okello Lutwa. Of these rebel movements, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony was the most notorious and its activities plunged northern Uganda into a civil war with devastating consequences. Whereas it began as a struggle for political inclusion of the Acholi, the LRA carried out massacres, lootings, mutilations and abductions against the very people that it claimed to fight for.

Part 1. Interpretations of Uganda's war in the north: Exploring the roots of LRA violence: political crisis and ethnic politics in Acholiland / Adam Branch ; Uganda's politics of foreign aid and violent conflict: the political uses of the LRA rebellion / Andrew Mwenda ; The spiritual order of the LRA / Kristof Titeca ; An African hell of colonial imagination? The Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, another story / Sverker Finnstrom -- Part 2. Experiencing the LRA: Chasing the Kony story / Mareike Schomerus ; 'A terrorist is not a person like me': an interview with Joseph Kony / Mareike Schomerus ; On the nature and causes of LRA abduction: what the abductees say / Christopher Blattman and Jeannie Annan ; Between two worlds: former LRA soldiers in northern Uganda / Ben Mergelsberg ; Encountering Kony: a Madi perspective / Ronald Iya -- Part 3. Peace and justice: Northern Uganda: a 'forgotten conflict', again? The impact of the internationalization of the resolution process / Sandrine Perrot ; 'The realists in Juba'? An analysis of the Juba peace talks / Ronald R. Atkinson ; NGO involvement in the Juba peace talks; the role and dilemmas of IKV Pax Christi / Simon Simonse, Willemijn Verkoren and Gerd Junne ; Bitter roots: the 'invention' of Acholi traditional justice / Tim Allen ; The ICC investigation of the Lord's Resistance Army: an insider's view / Matthew Brubacher -- Postscript: a kind of peace and an exported war / Tim Allen, Frederick Laker, Holly Porter and Mareike Schomerus.

"Understanding the Lord's Resistance Army Insurgency provides a concise overview of the LRA, which has, for almost 30 years, conducted untold atrocities across the central African nations of Uganda, Southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. This book examines the LRA's emergence and evolution, the ideology, strategy and tactics behind it, motivational aspects of its recruitment, its engagement in peace processes, and a detailed description of leadership and group dynamics. This work is based on a wide range of written sources and extensive interviews with individuals intimately related to the group including top LRA commanders, government sources, victims, child soldiers, abductees and wives of Joseph Kony. Moving past stories of unimaginable brutality, forced recruitment, and the group's mystical belief system, the book provides a well-grounded analysis of the different stages of the LRA's development. It demonstrates how the group represents an obscure case study that challenges many of the common assumptions about the operational dynamics of terrorist organizations. Written to fill a gap in academia in relation to African- and Christianity-based terrorism, this book is suitable for students, researchers and practitioners in political sciences, war, conflict and terrorism studies, African politics and international relations and development."--Publisher's website.

"This is not about crimes against humanity. Rather, it is an indictment of "humanity", the concept that lies at the heart of human rights and humanitarian missions. Based on fieldwork in northern Uganda, this book brings readers inside the Lord's Resistance Army, an insurgent group accused of rape, forced conscription of children, and inhumane acts of violence. The author talks with and learns from former rebels as they find meaning in wartime violence, politics, spirituality, and love--experiences that observers often place outside the boundaries of humanity. Rather than approaching the LRA as a set of possibilities, humanity looks at the LRA as a set of problems, as inhuman enemies needing reform. Humanity hegemonizes what counts as good in ways that are difficult to question or challenge. It relies on very specific notions of the good--shaped in ideals of modern violence, technology, modernity, and reason, among others--in ways that do violence to the common good. What emerges from this ethnography is an unorthodox question--what would it mean to be 'against humanity'? Against Humanity provocatively asks us how to honor life existing outside normative moralities. It challenges us to shift toward alternative, more radical approaches to humanitarian, political, medical, and other interventions, rooted in anti-humanism"--Provided by publisher

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is one of Africa's most notorious armed rebel groups, having operated across Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When they entered the Juba Peace Talks with the Ugandan Government in 2006, the peace deal seemed like a gift to fighters who had for years barely been surviving in Central Africa's jungles. Yet the talks failed. Why? Based on exclusive interviews with LRA fighters and their notorious leader Joseph Kony, Mareike Schomerus provides insights into how the LRA experienced the Juba Talks, revealing developing dynamics and deep distrust within a conflict system and how these became entrenched through the peace negotiations. In so doing, Schomerus offers an explanation as to why current approaches to ending armed violence not only fail but how they actively contribute to their own failure, and calls for a new approach to contemporary peacemaking.

Despite being a relatively marginal armed group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has triggered forced displacement on a massive scale. But why have national, regional and international responses so far failed to dismantle the group and to protect civilians effectively? Adapted from the source document.