INTRODUCTION

JOSEPH RAO KONY, was born on July 24, 1961, into an Acholi peasant family in Odek, a
village in northern Uganda, Mr Kony is remembered as an amiable boy. He became a traditional
healer after leaving primary school, but in the 1980s was drawn to the Holy Spirit Movement led
by charismatic figure Alice Auma, better known as Alice Lakwena.

He is the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a guerrilla group that formerly operated
in Uganda. His rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is notorious for abducting thousands of
children to use as soldiers or sex slaves.

Following a 2005 International Criminal Court arrest warrant Mr Kony is wanted on 12 counts of
crimes against humanity and 21 counts of war crimes.

He is accused of brutalising civilians in northern Uganda through murder, abduction, mutilation

and the burning of property.

From the 1990s, LRA attacks became infamous. Rebel fighters would hack off their victims'
limbs or parts of their faces.

Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes, tens of thousands were killed
and thousands of others were abducted for fighting and sexual slavery.

Why has he used violence against his own people?

Joseph Kony has described himself as a "freedom fighter" but has been accused of being
responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in the north of Uganda.

He has used biblical references to explain why it was necessary to kill his own people, since
they had, in his view, failed to support his cause.

KONY 2012

Joseph Kony and the LRA received a surge of attention in early March 2012, when a 30-minute
documentary titled Kony 2012 by filmmaker Jason Russell for the campaign group Invisible
Children, Inc. was released. The intention of the production was to draw attention to Kony in an
effort to increase US involvement in the issue and have Kony arrested by the end of 2012.

Kony2012 has been criticized for simplifying the history of the LRA conflict, and for failing to
note the fact that Kony was already pushed out of Uganda six years before the film was made.

In April 2017, Ugandan and US military forces ended their hunt for Kony and his group, with the
Ugandan spokesperson stating that “the LRA no longer poses a threat to us as Uganda”. At that
time, his force was estimated to have shrunk to around 100 soldiers.
KEY PLAYERS
Joseph Kony and the LRA

Date of birth: Unknown, approximately 50 years old

Place of birth: Omoro County, Gulu district, Uganda
Nationality: Ugandan
Current status: Alleged Commander-in-Chief of the Lord’s Resistance
Army (LRA)
Warrant of arrest: Issued under seal on 8 July 2005, amended on 27
September 2005 | Unsealed on 13 October 2005
Status of proceedings: Execution of the arrest warrant is pending

In 1986, the armed rebellion waged by Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army (NRA) won
the Ugandan Bush War and achieved control of the country. The victors sought vengeance
against ethnic groups in the North of Uganda. This led to the formation of rebel groups from the
ranks of the previous Ugandan army, the UNLA. However, the southern-dominated army did not
stop attacking civilians in the north of the country. By late 1987 to early 1988, a civilian
resistance movement led by Alice Lakwena was formed, The Holy Spirit Movement, which
sought to unseat the Kampala government.

The leaders of the Uganda People’s Democratic Army signed an agreement with the Ugandan
government called the Gulu Peace Accord of 1988 in which most of the former rebels were
integrated into the government's army. Kony refused to go along with the agreement and
splintered off with other soldiers and also recruited members of the Uganda National Liberation
Front, as well as the remnants of the Holy Spirit Movement. With the combination of his military
background and religious beliefs he created the Uganda Christian Democratic Army and began
fighting against the government. In 1991 he changed the name of the group to the Lord's
Resistance Army, LRA.

Joseph Kony is a proponent of polygamy, and is thought to have had 60 wives, and to have
fathered 42 children. Kony insists that he and the LRA are fighting for the Ten Commandments,
and defended his actions in an interview, saying, "Is it bad? It is not against human rights. And
that commandment was not given by Joseph. It was not given by LRA. No, those
commandments were given by God." Kony believes himself to be a spirit medium.
Vincent Otti

Date of birth: Unknown, approximately 70 years old

Place of birth: Atiak Sub-County, Gulu district, Uganda
Nationality: Ugandan
Current status: Alleged Vice-Chairman and Second-in-Command of the
LRA
Warrant of arrest: Issued under seal on 8 July 2005 | Unsealed on 13
October 2005
Status of proceedings: Execution of the arrest warrant was terminated.

He joined the Lord's Resistance Army when it was founded in 1987. He rose to the rank of
Lieutenant General and became the LRA's vice-chairman, second in command to Joseph
Kony. He was reportedly a member of the "Control Altar", the core leadership group that
devises the LRA's strategy.

In 1994, the LRA attacked Atiak, Otti's home town, killing more than 200 people. Otti's brothers
reportedly fled the village after the family was accused of breeding a "killer". He is alleged to
have led the Barlonyo massacre in February 2004, during which more than 300 villagers were
shot, hacked and burned to death.

During the Juba peace talks, which began in July 2006, Otti emerged as the chief
spokesperson for the LRA. According to LRA defector Sunday Otto, Otti was also the LRA's
leading advocate of joining the peace talks. Otti's push to negotiate an end of the conflict led to
tension with Kony and a growing split in the LRA.

In October 2007, sources in the Ugandan military reported that "Otti was killed on or around 8
October 2007 during a high command meeting that Kony convened at his base camp in
Garamba", following a disagreement with Kony over the peace process. LRA defector Sunday
Otto, who claims to have been present during the execution, states that Otti was killed on 2
October, along with two other officers.

Raska Lukwiya

Date of birth: Died August 12, 2006

Place of birth: Uganda

Nationality: Ugandan

Current status: Third highest-ranking leader of the Lord's Resistance

Army (LRA)

Warrant of arrest: Issued under seal on 8 July 2005, amended on 27 September 2005 |
Unsealed on 13 October 2005

Status of proceedings: Execution of the arrest warrant was terminated.

He was killed in fighting with the government Uganda People's Defence Force while peace
negotiations brokered by the government of Southern Sudan were still underway.
Dominic Ongwen

Date of birth: 1975, 40 years old

Place of birth: Coorom, Kilak County, Amuru district, Northern Uganda
Nationality: Ugandan
Status: Ex-commander of the LRA
Warrant of arrest: Issued on June 2005
Status of proceedings: Surrendered and btained by the International
Criminal Court (ICC) and has been awaiting trial. Proceedings commenced
6 December 2016

Charges
He is the only one who the court succeeded in detaining, and, with the exception of the leader,
Joseph Kony, is the only one now left alive.

 He was initially charged with four counts of war crimes (murder, cruel treatment of
civilians, intentionally directing an attack against a civilian population and pillaging) and
three counts of crimes against humanity (murder, enslavement, and inhumane acts of
inflicting serious bodily injury and suffering).

 On 21 December 2015, the ICC charged Dominic Ongwen with crimes in addition to
those set out in the warrant of arrest: a total of seventy counts.

 The counts brought against the suspect in the context of these attacks include attacks
against the civilian population, murder, attempted murder, torture, cruel treatment, other
inhumane acts, enslavement, outrages upon personal dignity, pillaging, destruction of
property, and persecution.

 10 of the charges against Ongwen were kept secret for “security reasons”.

Dominic Ongwen is almost certainly not his birth name. Like most other children of his age in
Acoliland at the time, his parents would have trained him to give a false name if ever he was
abducted, to protect the rest of the family.

Ongwen was abducted by the LRA as he walked to Koro Abili Primary School. According to his
own testimony this happened in 1988 when he was fourteen. However, it has often been
reported that he was nine or ten, and also that he was carried by other captives all the way up to
the LRA’s main military bases because he was ‘too little to walk’.

Once abducted, he was tortured and forced to watch violent rituals of people being killed and
subsequently indoctrinated, while still a child, as an LRA fighter. He then rose within the ranks
and eventually became head of one of the four LRA brigades.

At the end of 2014, Ongwen escaped detention by Joseph Kony for having disobeyed Kony's
orders and having refused to answer Kony's radio messages. Having escaped the camp near
Songo, in Kafia Kingi, Ongwen came across nomadic cattle herders who took him to a Seleka
rebel group near Sam Ouandja in CAR. Ongwen was then transferred successively to the
Ugandan forces, the Central African Republic forces, and ultimately to the ICC.
During the time between his arrest and his transfer to the ICC Ongwen participated in several
media activities including a radio broadcast, meetings with journalists and a video recording in
which he claimed that he had given himself up because he was "wasting his time in the bush"
as "the LRA has no future". He urged other insurgents to resume their civilian lives.

Raska Lukwiya
Date of birth: 1980, died 2013
Place of birth: Uganda
Nationality: Ugandan
Current status: Alleged Senior leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)
Warrant of arrest: Issued under seal on 8 July 2005, amended on 27
September 2005 | Unsealed on 13 October 2005
Status of proceedings: Execution of the arrest warrant was terminated.

He is believed to have become deputy leader of the LRA following the (alleged) death of Vincent
Otti in October 2007.

In April 2008, it was reported that Odhiambo and eight others had been killed by LRA leader
Joseph Kony during a dispute over a proposed peace deal. However, on 29 January 2009,
Odhiambo said he had suffered a serious gunshot wound during a clash with Ugandan forces
and was defecting from the LRA. He told Agence France-Presse, "We have requested a safe
corridor. I want to come out. I am tired of going up and down all the time." He contacted the
International Organization for Migration seeking safe passage to Uganda, along with 45 other
rebels and 10 abductees, but said he would not surrender unless he was given a guarantee that
he would not be turned over to the ICC. The government of Uganda has indicated that it would
try Odhiambo in a national court rather than surrender him to the ICC.

An LRA spokesman dismissed the reports of Odhiambo's planned defection, claiming the story
was invented by the Ugandan army "to create disharmony and danger to LRA fighters".
In February 2014, it was reported that Odhiambo had been killed in October 2013. Odhiambo's
body was found based on GPS coordinates provided by the man who buried him after his death
and afterward defected to UPDF forces. His body was exhumed on March 20, 2015, and flown
to Entebbe, Uganda for identity confirmation.

Alice Auma

Date of birth: 1956

Place of birth: Uganda
Nationality: Ugandan

She worked in the midst of the chaos of the anti-National Resistance Army (NRA) insurgency of
the Uganda People's Democratic Army and the increasingly brutal counterinsurgency of the
NRA. Legend in the later movement holds that on 6 August 1986, Lakwena ordered Auma to
stop her work as a diviner and healer, which was pointless in the midst of war, and create a
Holy Spirit Movement (HSM) to fight evil and end the bloodshed. This divine mission required
the retaking of the capital of Kampala. Thus the Acholi would redeem themselves from the
violence they had collectively imposed on the civilians of the Luwero triangle, and would initiate
a paradise on earth.

After a series of spectacular victories, Auma led the Holy Spirit Movement (HSM) south out of
Acholiland towards Kampala. There, she garnered much support from other ethnic groups that
had grievances with the Museveni government. However, subsequent military setbacks
suffered by the HSM prompted some followers to accuse Auma of being a witch and of using
spirits for destructive ends. As the HSM suffered its final defeat under artillery fire in the forests
near Kampala, Auma fled and claimed Lakwena had left her.

ATROCITIES
Makombo Massacre

It took place from 14 to 17 December 2009 in the Haut-Uele District of Democratic Republic of
the Congo in the village and region of Makombo.

The LRA pretending to be Congolese soldiers demanded that local villagers bring food and
other supplies to them and turned to violence when they refused.

LRA forces attacked at least 10 villages, capturing, killing, and abducting hundreds of civilians,
including women and children. The vast majority of those killed were adult men, whom LRA
combatants first tied up and then hacked to death with machetes or crushed their skulls with
axes and heavy wooden sticks. The dead include at least 13 women and 23 children, the
youngest a 3-year-old girl who was burned to death.

The adults were made to act as porters, with those unable to keep up with the pace, refusing to
cooperate, or trying to escape were killed.

Lukodi Massacre

The gruesome attack is chronicled in detail by the Justice and Reconciliation Project, a
partnership between the Gulu District NGO Forum and the University of British Columbia.

“At around 4:00pm, Laloyo, a local leader in Lukodi, received two unexpected visitors under the
mango tree at his home. One of the two visitors (a young boy) had just escaped from the LRA
and wanted to surrender,” the organisation states in a 2011 report on the attack.

Shortly before local authorities could verify the boys’ accounts, LRA rebels raided Lukodi village
where the IDP camp was located and embarked on a campaign of killing and looting.

“The rebels divided themselves into three groups. The first group engaged the soldiers in
combat and with time, overpowered them. The second group targeted the civilians and started
killing them. The third group was taking cattle and other things that they needed to help them in
the bush, such as food, clothing and other valuables,” an eye witness recounts in the report.

The rebels later fled with an unspecified number of men, women and children, and mothers
were forced to trample upon their own children and set huts on fire, according to eye witnesses.

The attack on Lukodi shares a pattern with earlier attacks on Abia IDP camp in Lira district in
which over 70 people were killed and another on Barlonyo IDP camp in which 300 people died.
Abia Massacre

During the LRA attack on Abia IDP camp, at least 70 people were killed, over 40 wounded and
scores of civilians were abducted, according to a Sunday Vision report of February 6, 2004.

John Obong, a survivor of the attack told Sunday Vision he saw some of the victims being
hacked with pangas, while 17 people were struck on the head using a pounding stick.

“I saw 17 bodies scattered in the compound with my eyes. We still expect more deaths
because the rebels abducted several people and we fear they might have been killed in the
bush as they were retreating,” Obong said.
Among the deceased were Ogwal Omara, Julio Okwir, Jasper Okullo, Yuventino Odong, Paul
Ogwang, Opong Alobo, Okeng Ayok, Apolo Odyek Okello, Paul Okello, Kasilina Akoli, Eseza
Amolo Obua, Omara Odongo, Paul Aramo, Filda Apio, Paul Ayela, Ogwang Okello, Aaron
Ogwok and Wilbert Okeng.

Some of the victims were burnt in their houses and the army said the attack was led by Okot
Odhiambo, another LRA senior commander. Ongwen is said to have led the attack.

Maj. Chris Magezi, the then UPDF 5th Division spokesperson, (currently spokesperson of the
army’s Special Forces Command) said Odhiambo and Ongwen were operating in the area.

Barlonyo Massacre

Within weeks of the attack on Abia camp, LRA rebels descended on Barlonyo camp in Cuk
Adek village, about 25km from Lira town.

During the attack, the rebels killed children and adults, including pregnant mothers. Over 480
huts were burnt, rendering 4,810 people homeless, according to a New Vision report.

The rebels disguised their appearance by wearing green military uniforms similar to those of
the UPDF as they moved house to house bludgeoning their victims, according to an eye
witness.

At least 15 other people were killed about 500m from the camp. Survivors of the attack were
left with deep cuts, swellings and burns, while the stench of burning bodies filled the area. The
rebels also abducted hundreds of people, including young children who were reportedly
recruited into the LRA as fighters, porters or sex-slaves.

Odek Massacre

On April 29, 2004, LRA rebels commanded by Ongwen attacked Odek IDP camp, killed scores
of people and abducted 12 others. The area is where LRA leader, Joseph Kony was born.

“It was 5:00 pm and most people were going about their normal day or waiting for the children
to finish their school day when a group of 200 to 300 LRA fighters from the Sinia Brigade, led
by Dominic Ongwen, attacked Odek camp and massacred 93 men and women including school
children from Odek Primary school,” a 2014 Justice and Reconciliation Project report states.

Camp leaders and survivors said that 71 people, including 42 women, 20 children and nine
men were abducted by the rebels. Some of the abducted women who were carrying their
children on their back were forced to drop the children in the bush in order to carry what the
rebels’ looted.
Omot Massacre

Considered one of the most grisly attacks in the history of the LRA, the rebels rounded up
residents of Gang Pa Aculu trading centre, Omot sub-county in Pader district on October 23,
2002.

“Forty four fighters from the Sinia Brigade were released under the command of Commander Y
and Junior Commander X to carry out their mission in Omot sub-county. The team started their
operations at Par Samuelo Acak, near river Agogo...” reads an excerpt from the the Justice and
Reconciliation Project’s 2010 report. Ongwen was at the time a commander of the Sinia
Brigade, one of four LRA brigades.

At Gang Pa Aculu village, the victims were tied kandoya-style (hands tied tightly at the elbows
from the back) using sisal ropes and chopped into pieces.

“After the massacre, the rebels then set a huge pot on three stones, chopped off the victims’
heads and limbs and stuffed the parts in the pot,” the New Vision reported on October 24,
2002.

The victims whose body parts were stuffed in the pot were Okidi Doctor and Ochan Lomoi.
Other captives were executed in turns while others were told to eat roasted human flesh.

Other residents killed were: Martin Ocii, Alphonse Econg, Dennis Nyuta (a teacher at St
Charles Lwanga, Kalungu) and Okello Otwoli, whose body parts were roasted and placed on a
dish; Kastorio Ogwal, Nyeko Aguda, Philimeto Okech, Christine Abiya, Cantina Alanyo, Andrew
Kiwel and Night Oali, all from Bar Otiba and Patongo sub-counties.

The incident was a punishment to the residents for allowing a captive to escape through their
village. The captive had allegedly escaped with a gun, money and a Polaroid camera.

Massacre in Mucwini

In the early morning hours of 24 July 2002, Joseph Kony is believed to have ordered the local
unit commander to attack the village of Mucwini and to “slaughter everything that breaths”. The
villages around Mucwini awoke to the bloodied corpses of 56 men, women and children. The
massacre was a deliberate and ruthless retaliation by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) after a
local man they had abducted escaped from them with a gun. After they were finished with their
‘work,` the LRA wrote a letter to the populace, blaming them for the massacre and threatening
more killings if the stolen gun was not recovered.

Christmas Massacres

The Ugandan army attacked the LRA headquarters in Congo's Garamba National Park, near
the border with Sudan. Following this attack, the LRA dispersed into several groups, each of
which targeted civilians along its path. The rebels waited until December 24 for the most
devastating of their attacks, waiting until people had come together for Christmas festivities,
then surrounding and killing them by crushing their skulls with axes, machetes, and large
wooden bats.

Media reports indicated that more than 800 people were killed; many of them hacked into
pieces, decapitated, or burned alive in their homes. Several people reportedly had their lips cut
off as a "warning not to speak ill of the rebels", and two three-year-old girls suffered serious
neck injuries when rebels tried to twist their heads off.
ABDUCTIONS:
Aboke Abductions

The Aboke abductions were the kidnapping of 139 secondary school female students from St.
Mary's College boarding school by rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) on 10 October
1996, in Aboke, Kole District (then part of Apac District), Uganda. The deputy head mistress of
the college, Sister Rachele Fassera of Italy, pursued the rebels and negotiated the release of
109 of the girls.

At 2:30 am, the night watchman at the college knocked on Sister Fassera's door stating: "Sister,
the rebels are here." Sister Fassera immediately woke Sister Alba and then moved out of the
convent towards the front gate, which was actually a net, of the compound and spotted the
rebels outside the gate. Thinking that the rebels had been slowed by the gate and that they may
be able to evacuate the girls through the back gate, the nuns moved back towards the four
dormitories, each of which had about 50 students. As they drew closer, however, they saw
flashlights around the dormitories and realized that the LRA had already come through the back
gate.

In the knowledge that, if caught, the rebels would force them to open the doors, Sisters Alba
and Fassera woke the one older nun, Sister Matilde, and together hid in the compound's stock
house. Through the night, they heard the sounds of rebels moving through the compound but
never the voice of any of the girls, giving them hope that the rebels had been kept out of the
dorms by the iron reinforced doors and windows. Later estimates put the number of armed
rebels at about 200. They burned the school vehicle, ransacked the clinic, and unsuccessfully
attempted to burn several buildings.

As dawn approached, the nuns heard the sounds of the rebels leaving. At first light
(approximately 6:30 am), Sister Alba sighted a small group of girls wandering in the open. When
asked if they were okay, Claudia, a girl in the second class, stated that the other girls had been
taken away. They reported to the sisters that the rebels had abducted classes one, two, and
three. Fassera immediately volunteered to go after the girls and Sr. Alba agreed. Fassera
changed clothes and took some money from the office to buy the girls' freedom when two male
teachers, Bosco and Tom, came in and volunteered to accompany her in the pursuit. Fassera
managed to negotiate the release of 109 of the 139 girls that were abducted. One of the
survivors of the 30 girls that were left behind is Grace Akallo, on an interview she said that, “It
was like a grave. It was like you’ve gone to the last place on earth.” She is now a spokesperson
for children affected by armed conflict and founded “United Africans for Women and Children
Rights”. She has a master’s degree in International Development and Social Change from Clark
University in Massachussets.
.
MUTILATIONS:

Oryem Kenneth, 42

Oryem was abducted by the LRA for two days in 2003. They cut off his lips, nose and ears with
a knife and his fingers with an axe.

Maracillina Amee, 68

In the early 1990s, Ugandan LRA soldiers attacked Maracillina's village, killed her 10-year-old
daughter and cut off her nose with a knife.
Lucy Lamara, 51

In 2003, Lucy was shot through the mouth by an LRA soldier and lost an eye. The wound still
bleeds and she suffers almost constant headaches.

Oyaka Evelino Jalon, 52

The LRA removed Oyaka’s eye with a bayonet and cut his torso during an attack on his village.
Almost 50 people died in the massacre.

Unnamed Mutilation Victim

“No one knows how many people were maimed by the LRA in northern Uganda – yet thousands
are thought to bear the scars. Mutilation – the hacking away of lips, ears, noses, hands and feet,
with pangas (machetes), scissors and knives – was the group’s grotesque calling card.”
Human Rights Violation of the Lord’s Resistance Army / Joseph Kony
Under the International Criminal Court (ICC)

Charges:

The warrant of arrest for Joseph Kony lists thirty-three counts on the basis of the following
provisions under the International Criminal Court:

Article 25 Individual criminal responsibility

(3) In accordance with this Statute, a person shall be criminally responsible and liable for
punishment for a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court if that person:

(a) Commits such a crime, whether as an individual, jointly with another or through
another person, regardless of whether that other person is criminally responsible;

(b) Orders, solicits or induces the commission of such a crime which in fact occurs or is
attempted;

Twelve counts of crimes against humanity:

Article 7 Crimes against humanity:

(1) For the purpose of this Statute, ‘crime against humanity’ means any of the following
acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against
any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:

(a) Murder;

(c) Enslavement;

(g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced

sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;

(k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great

suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.

‘Enslavement’ means the exercise of any or all of the powers attaching to the right of
ownership over a person and includes the exercise of such power in the course of trafficking in
persons, in particular women and children.

Twenty-one counts of war crimes:

Article 8 War crimes

(2) For the purpose of this Statute, ‘war crimes’ means:

(c) In the case of an armed conflict not of an international character, serious

 violations of article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949,
namely, any of the following acts committed against persons taking no active part in the
hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those
placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention or any other cause:

(i) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel
treatment and torture;

(e) Other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in armed conflicts not of
an international character, within the established framework of international law, namely,
any of the following acts:

(i) Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as

such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities;

(v) Pillaging a town or place, even when taken by assault;

(vi)Committing rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, as

defined in article 7, paragraph 2

(f), enforced sterilization, and any other form of sexual violence also constituting
a serious violation of article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions;

(vii) Conscripting or enlisting children under the age of fifteen years

into armed forces or groups or using them to participate actively in hostilities;

Peace Talks and Foreign Involvement

Operation Iron Fist

In March 2002, with the permission of the Sudan government, the UPDF launched a major
offensive against the LRA in southern Sudan. The initial plan to eliminate the LRA failed,
as the LRA fled to mountains in southern Sudan and then crossed back into Uganda. These
military operations had a horrendous impact on the civilian population in northern Uganda and
southern Sudan.

ICC Indictments

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on July 8 and September 27 2005,
against Joseph Kony, his deputy Vincent Otti and the LRA commanders Okot Odhiambo,
deputy army commander and Dominic Ongwen, brigade commander of the Sania Brigade of the
LRA. The four LRA leaders were charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes,
including murder, rape, and sexual slavery. Ongwen however was not charged with recruiting
child soldiers; he is now facing prosecution in the ICC.

These were the first warrants issued by the ICC since it was established. The LRA has long
stated that they would never surrender and accede to the peace talks unless they were granted
immunity from prosecution. The indictments may have garnered praise from the international
community but the Acholi people had mixed emotions about them. Many of the Ugandan people
thought that Amnesty for the LRA members and their eventual surrender was the best hope for
peace and the indictments reduced the LRA’s commitment to the peace talks.

Juba Peace Talks

In Joseph Kony’s first interview to the press after 20 years in late June 2006, he denied that the
LRA had carried out the atrocities and blamed them on the UPDF and the Ugandan government
for oppressing the Acholi. The government of Southern Sudan invited Uganda to attend the
peace talks.

The Juba peace talks were a series of negotiations between the government of Uganda and the
LRA over the terms of the ceasefire and possible peace agreement. The talks began in July
2006 and were mediated by Riek Machar, the Vice President of Southern Sudan. The LRA and
the government signed a truce on August 26, 2006. Under the terms of the agreement, LRA
forces were to leave Uganda and gather in two assembly areas, where the government
promised they would not attack and the government of Southern Sudan would guarantee their
safety. Due to Kony’s concern of the ICC indictments, punishments he might be facing and
availability of government posts for the LRA officers, delayed the signing of the deal. On May
2008, the government of Uganda set up a special war crimes court with the mandate to try the
LRA in attempt to convince the ICC to withdraw its indictments against the LRA leaders. Since
April 2008, the LRA had begun rearming and abducting recruits. The LRA attacked the Sudan
People’s Liberation Army camp, killing 21, seven soldiers and 14 civilians. The government of
Southern Sudan announced on June 8, 2008 that they would no longer mediate, citing many
reasons, including the recent attacks by the LRA.

Garamba Offensive - Operation Lightning Thunder

In November 2008, U.S. President George W. Bush personally signed a directive to the United
States Africa Command to provide assistance financially and logistically to the Ugandan
government. There were no US troops involved, but 17 US advisers and analysts provided
intelligence, equipment and fuel to Ugandan Military. The operation pushed Kony from his
jungle camp, but he was not captured. This operation prompted the LRA to focus their
movement in CAR, Southern Sudan and DR Congo.

Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2010

The Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act was a 2010 US
congress act promoted by the Obama Administration that makes it American policy to kill or
capture Joseph Kony and to crush his Lord’s Resistance Army.

On October 14, 2011, Obama announced that he had ordered the deployment of 100 US
“military advisors”, Army Special Forces, with the objective of training, assisting and providing
intelligence to help combat the LRA.
EFFECTS

Night Commuters

In northern Uganda an estimated 30,000 child "night commuters" flee their homes at night and
go to urban areas and to the centre of larger camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs). The
"night commuting" phenomenon started in 2003. A main reason for this movement is to escape
attacks and the risk of abduction by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and a general climate of
insecurity. Most of the children commute without the protection of adult family members and
"face the threat of physical abuse, sexual exploitation and gender-based violence, including
rape."

Children have suffered disproportionately in this conflict. As many as 25,000 children have been
abducted by the LRA since the conflict began, for use as soldiers, sex slaves and porters. 7,500
are girls with 1,000 having conceived children during captivity. An unknown number have been
killed.

Walking several kilometres each way, many children sleep at specially established centres in
towns and their outskirts. These centres, run by non-governmental organizations, provide a safe
and clean place to sleep, clean water and sanitation, basic health care and counselling. Scores
of children also sleep at temporary shelters, hospital compounds, verandas and other public
places. At its peak in the spring of 2004, there were 40,000 children commuting every night.

Internally Displaced Persons

Internally displaced numbered almost 2 million residents of the northern of Uganda, due to the
fighting between the Ugandan Army and the LRA. In the peak of the conflict in 2005, there were
1.84 million IDPs living in 251 camps across 11 districts of northern Uganda.