Fighting a Phantom

Uganda's war against the Lord's Resistance Army may be coming to an end. But many ask, why is it taking so long?

KITGUM, Uganda - Pvt. Joey Ongala of the Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF) has seen so many clashes with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) he can't remember them all. But he does see a pattern.

"They're always young; they're always in tatters," he says. "They also seem very hungry, but they still try to fight us."

Ongala is waiting to lead his squad into a thickly forested area about two miles from an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Amida, northern Uganda.

"I've had to kill many of them -- unless they surrender. I sometimes feel bad, but these children are firing at us," Ongala says.

This area used to be a frequent target of the LRA, whose fighters would scavenge for food or attempt ambushes. But Ongala says they haven't had any contact around here in weeks.

In fact, many UPDF commanders say the LRA is finished -- that their numbers have been depleted from a high of about 30,000 in the late '90s to just a few hundred fighters today.

But why, many people are asking, has it taken the Ugandan government 20 years to put a stop to an insurgency that can accurately be described as a child-snatching, terroristic cult?

Part of the difficulty has been the group's founder and leader, Joseph Kony, who wants to establish a Ugandan government based on the Ten Commandments. He may be bizarre, but many consider him a brilliant battlefield tactician.

Kony's movement seems to be spiritual in name only.

The LRA is accused of committing a litany of atrocities from murder to mutilation. But its main stock in trade has been the widespread kidnapping of children, who are then turned into fighters, servants or even wives for LRA rebels.

Kony uses this strategy, former abductees say, because he knows he can more easily brainwash children than adults. By replacing their family with his, he makes them both vulnerable and obedient.

He has often tested their loyalty by sending them on missions to kill their own parents and family.

Christopher Arwai was a young seminary student when he was captured by the LRA in 1998. He spent two months with them before he was able to escape.

"They try to indoctrinate you," Arwai says, "every day teaching you that any community outside the LRA was immoral. That only those living in the bush were good. It was a blend of spiritual and cult persuasion."

Arwai is now the manager for a Kitgum, northern Uganda, reception center that tries to reintegrate former LRA abductees with their families and their communities. It's rarely easy.

"He's very charismatic," Arwai says of Kony, "I met him during my abduction. He's very literate and convincing, and he has a talent with children. He's had plenty of practice with at least 40 wives of his own and probably dozens of children by them."

"We need to catch Kony alive," says Col. George Etyang, the UPDF's 5th Division commander in charge of the entire northern region. "Many people believe that he's just a myth, a phantom."

The LRA began in the late '80s as one of several "Holy Spirit Movements," groups that professed fundamental Christianity and persecuted "ajwakas," or sorcerers. But many members still dabbled in witchcraft themselves, blending the two -- using amulets and spells to protect them from bullets.

The Holy Spirit Movements wanted to dislodge the government of Yoweri Museveni, whose own National Resistance Army had just overthrown the previous government in 1986, a corrupt and checkered administration led by Milton Obote (who died in exile last week).

The Holy Spirit groups soon splintered, with Kony forming the LRA. By the '90s, it became the strongest challenge to the Ugandan government.

The war with the LRA has been fought primarily in northern Uganda -- and this is where it's caused the greatest suffering.

An estimated 1.5 million people have been displaced by the fighting. According to a new study done by several non-governmental organizations (NGOs), in conjunction with the Ugandan Ministry of Health, at least 1,000 civilians still die every week in the region because of conflict-related causes including violence and disease.

The LRA practice of kidnapping also has led to a phenomenon called "night commuting" in which 50,000 people, 30,000 of them children, leave their rural homes each night and walk several kilometers to "safer" urban areas, where they sleep in shelters, schools, churches or even open porches and verandas.

NGOs say night commuting, while a security coping strategy, has also been a misery multiplier. It interrupts traditional family interaction, providing opportunities for more violence, delinquent behavior, and promiscuity, which experts say has also contributed to an uncontrolled

The Ugandan government has stepped up its response to the LRA insurgency in recent months. In addition to regular UPDF army units, the government also uses its elite mobile forces, whose job is to track and attack the LRA at every juncture.

It's a strategy of constant hounding that the military hopes will wear down the LRA, which already is dependent on scavenging and stealing to survive.

The Ugandan military has taken advantage of the large number of displaced persons by turning their camps into "safe zones." In these zones, IDPs must be registered and movement is restricted to a certain distance beyond the camps.

Within these camps the UPDF also has trained and armed militias called Local Defense Units (LDUs). But some critics say all these measures are exacerbating an already bad situation.

Restricting the movements of people means they can't farm their fields and thus become dependent on aid organizations and the government for food.

Also, unemployment and boredom have contributed to alcohol abuse within the camps. A potent homemade liquor made from cassava roots can be bought for as cheap as 20 cents per mug. NGOs say that's causing a spike in domestic violence and now, with the formation of LDUs at the camps, guns have been introduced into the equation as well.

Outside pressure to end this war is mounting, both from international aid agencies and concerned governments.

Some have charged that the Ugandan government has dragged its feet in ending the war for two main reasons.

First, the Acholi people of the north have never been big supporters of the current government, so prolonging the war keeps them marginalized.

Second, the war has become too profitable for the government, with members of parliament and even military officers buying hotels in the north where they know they will have ongoing business from humanitarian groups, journalists and other organizations monitoring the war.

The United States has placed the LRA on its terrorist exclusion list, which basically just prevents any known members from being granted a visa to the U.S.

It's not a particularly tough sanction. But a U.S. official with knowledge of the region said the American government is very concerned about the humanitarian crisis in northern Uganda that has resulted from this conflict, and that they have a three-pronged strategy to help the Ugandan government end it:

- Continued humanitarian assistance to the north (the U.S. is the largest donor of food and humanitarian aid there, providing $100 million in assistance last fiscal year, all funneled through NGOs -- not through the Ugandan government).

- Diplomatic efforts to support a peaceful settlement with negotiations in Uganda as well as other involved nations.

- A limited, non-lethal military assistance package (the U.S. provided about $4 million last year for trucks and other vehicles as well as training for Ugandan officers and soliders, both in the U.S. and in Uganda).

"There is a reluctance to supply lethal military assistance to Uganda," says the U.S. official, speaking under the condition of anonymity. "The Ugandan army has a checkered past -- they went into the Congo in 2003 and fought a battle with forces from Rwanda in Kisangani. We don't want to get too close to a military that carries out activities like that, but we're happy to support legitimate activities of the Ugandan government to provide security for their people."

Two recent developments may boost Uganda's efforts to end the conflict, but not necessarily with a peaceful resolution.

Earlier this month the International Criminal Court (ICC), the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, issued indictments calling for the arrest of Kony and four deputies.

Ugandan mediator Betty Bigombe, who has been trying to negotiate an end to the war, says the ICC rulings end any possibility of a peaceful settlement.

Also, the Sudanese government has granted Uganda temporary permission to pursue Kony and the LRA deeper into southern Sudan, where he and his followers are said to be hiding.

In the past, Sudan has allowed Uganda to go about 100 kilometers into its territory in pursuit of Kony -- up to the so-called "Red Line."

Now UPDF spokesman Lt. Col. Shaban Bantariza says Sudan will allow the UPDF to go beyond that point, to use helicopter gunships and even to conduct joint operations to oust the LRA from Sudan.

UPDF Kitgum brigade commander Major Mohango says some diplomatic pressure from the U.S. helped forge the agreement with Sudan.

With UPDF forces closing in on the LRA, some are predicting the entire movement will be history by the end of the dry season here in January.

But an end to this conflict, in which more than 100,000 people have died, would mean just the beginning of the massive job of rebuilding communities and lives in northern Uganda.

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