"From the Trampled Grass" Post III: Slowly but steadily, peace takes root in northern Uganda
This is the third post in a series of reflections from Paul Ronan, Director of Advocacy for Resolve Uganda, as he travels for two months in Uganda, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Central African Republic to interview victims of LRA attacks, civil society leaders, and local officials about how LRA violence can be ended and affected communities best assisted. Click here to read his first post from Juba, Sudan and here to read his second from Yambio, Sudan. For more details about the series see below.
At 6pm the local ballplayers begin to trickle into Kaunda Grounds, a sprawling field in the middle of Gulu, northern Uganda to warm up and shoot around before starting up informal basketball games. Last week I hitched along with a friend to join them for a few games in at the Grounds, glad to have the chance to unwind after enduring a 30-hour minibus ride from Yambio, South Sudan to Gulu a few days before. Unfortunately, the sun soon set and we were all forced to go home, wishing that there was enough light to allow play to carry on.
Just a few years ago though, even the brightest stadium lights would not have allowed basketball players in Gulu to continue playing past dark. During particularly intense periods of the two decades of conflict here between LRA rebels and the Ugandan government it was not safe for people to travel after dark. Rebel attacks were often a concern, but perhaps even more dangerous was the potential to be harassed or even arrested by suspicious Ugandan security forces who restricted movement.
Four years free of LRA attacks and gradual professionalization of the Ugandan military have improved conditions enough in Gulu to allow young athletes to play basketball until sunset. Though such improvement in conditions has been welcome, it has not brought a sense of permanent peace or fixed the damage done by decades of war and displacement. The war’s legacy is engraved in the landscape here in the form of collapsed school buildings, overgrown fields and hidden landmines. The legacy of this conflict - during which ordinary people became both forced combatants and persistent targets of brutal violence - is also engraved into people’s memories and feelings.
The war's remaining effects were quite evident when I visited the community of Pabbo last week, 20 minutes drive outside of Gulu. During the war, Pabbo was home to a squalid displacement camp housing tens of thousands of people, one of the largest in northern Uganda. The people I spoke to who remain in Pabbo shared their frustration about the slow pace of progress on tamping down government corruption, rebuilding the judicial system, and improving access to schools and health centers.
Even if the LRA never returns to northern Uganda, failure to address these issues could mean dark clouds on its horizon. Northern Uganda’s educational performance is the worst of any region in the country, robbing the region’s growing population of youth of opportunities to build peaceful lives. Conflicts over land ownership, often violent and mostly affecting women and children, are enabled by the weak judicial system.
Most disturbingly, the Ugandan government has yet to prove it can govern effectively and fairly. Consequently, many people here are concerned that opportunities for strengthening democracy and spurring development – such as the 2011 national elections and discovery of enormous oil deposits in the north – will instead by flashpoints for further division and even violent conflict.
However, signs of hope for northern Uganda’s future can also be found in Pabbo town, perhaps most visibly in the hundreds of mud houses that have been destroyed around the town center. Like over a million other northern Ugandans, the people who once lived in them have taken advantage of the improved security to return to their homes and slowly rebuild their lives in peace.
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If passed by Congress and signed into law by the President, the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act - currently being blocked single-handedly by Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma - authorizes critical new funds to help address the root causes of the violence in Uganda and support justice mechanisms. To help rebuild northern Uganda by passing this legislation, take action at www.coburnsayyes.com
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"When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers" is a tragically familiar proverb in many African communities, alluding to the collateral damage of war, namely the innocent women and children who are often the most affected by war's evils while benefiting the least, if at all, from its spoils.
As Resolve Uganda seeks to amplify the voice of those affected by this war and effectively contribute toward sustainable peace in the region, we recognize the necessity of listening, documenting, and sharing the stories of those most affected by the LRA and whose active involvement is essential for lasting peace. Paul Ronan, our Director of Advocacy, is spending the next eight weeks traversing central Africa to listen, learn, and document as much as possible in areas most recently affected by the LRA. As he travels, he will be sending back reflections, stories, and photos from the region to our headquarters in DC so that we can in turn share them with you. We invite you to follow his journey as he shares stories "from the trampled grass."