kony: lord resistance army conflict

8/10/2019 KONY: Lord Resistance Army Conflict

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LORDRESISTANCES

ARMY

S T E P H A N I E W O N G Y . 1 0 H O P E


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CHAPTER 1

Dimension 1: Who or how many parties are involved?

Dimension 2: What are the sources of conflict? What is it over?

Dimension 3: Relationships between/among conflicting parties.

Dimension 4: What is the history of the conflict?

Dimension 5: How do we choose to deal with the conflict?

5 DIMENSIONS OF A CONFLICT


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Joseph Rao Kony, born in 1961 in Uganda, He is

the head of Lords Resistance Army, a Ugandan

guerrilla group which was supposed to be a group

to overthrow the bias government who treats the

Acholi people unfairly and then governing the

country of Uganda with the Ten Commandments

and local Acholi traditions. However, when he

lost all of his supporters, he began to abduct

children and training them to become armed

children soldiers, and also sex-slaves. He is being

accused of war crimes and crimes against

humanity. He claims that he is the spokesperson

of God and a spirit medium who has been visited

by 13 spirits.

F a cts a b o u t L R A

1. After 25 years the LordsResistance Army are thelongest continually operatingcriminal group to commit suchcrimes in the world.

2. In the past two decades it isestimated that Joseph Konyand the Lords Resistance

Army has been responsible forthe abduction of between20,000 and 60,000 children.

3. The Lords Resistance Armyhas been found to physicallydisfigure victims, rape women,massacre villages, and abductand force children to kill theirown family members.

4. The Lords Resistance Army iscurrently estimated to have asfew as 300 active members.

5. Joseph Kony became leader ofthe Lords Resistance

Army (LRA) in 1988. He wasin his mid-20s.

6. It is estimated that childsoldiers make up to 90 percentof the Lords Resistance Army.

7. The Joseph Konydocumentary, KONY 2012,tallied more than 45 million

views after being online justthree days.

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Section 1

Joseph Kony


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Section 2

Dimension 1

Who or how many parties are involved?

In the LRA insurgency conflict, there are 9 parties involved.

The alliance of the LRA from 1994-2002 is Sudan, where Joseph

Kony found support from the president of Sudan, Omar Al-

Bashir. The country of Sudan provided them weapons and daily

needs.

However, he lost support from Sudan in 2002 and became

opponents with Sudan, Ugandas People Defense, Sudan PeoplesLIberation, Military of the D.R. Congo, Central African Armed

Forces, UN Stabilization Mission in the D.R. Congo, United States

Army and the African Union.

There are two types of conflicts involved in the LRA insurgency

conflict: International conflict and Global conflict.

The conflict itself is starting to make people from all over the worldto raise awareness since the short film produced by the charity

organization, Invisible Children was

released. People from all nations

made Kony famous through the

Kony 2012 Night Swept on April

20th, 2012.


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Section 3

Dimension 2

What are the sources of conflict? What is itover?

The conflict originally fights over the value of freedom in Uganda

and the group started in 1980s when a woman named Alice

Lakwena claimed that the Holy Spirits has ordered her to

overthrow the Ugandan government, when the government was

being accused of treating the Acholi people in the North of Uganda

unfairly. However Lakwena and the group lost the war against thegovernment and Lakwena was exiled.

In 1986, Joseph Kony rebranded the group as Lords Resistance

Army and initially stated that the LRAs

mission was to overthrow the

government and rule Uganda based on

the Ten Commandments. However when

Kony lost the battle, he began to take ininnocent children and turning them into

sex-slaves and child-soldiers, killing

innocent civilians in different villages.1

1. "The Lord's Resistance Army." War Child. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept.

2012. .
http://www.warchild.org.uk/issues/the-lords-resistance-armyhttp://www.warchild.org.uk/issues/the-lords-resistance-armyhttp://www.warchild.org.uk/issues/the-lords-resistance-armyhttp://www.warchild.org.uk/issues/the-lords-resistance-armyhttp://www.warchild.org.uk/issues/the-lords-resistance-armyhttp://www.warchild.org.uk/issues/the-lords-resistance-army


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Section 4

Dimension 3

Relationships between/among conflictingparties.

The climate between LRA and other parties are intense and extreme.

While different forces from different countries are trying to stop the

LRA, the LRA is spreading all over the world and not stopping. The

LRA are resistance towards the outside world, suspicious, hostile, and

the relationships between other parties are emotionally tense.

The parties come to the conflict with equal power, however the LRA has

a strong army consist of only 250 soldiers, but their destructive power

is disproportionally large.

There is no party who controls the resources and the decision-making.

Many countries, religious and political leaders has sent representatives

and peace negotiator to make peace with Joseph Kony and his army,

however in all 5 times of the peace making ceremony, Kony did not

appear.

The LRA make a huge impact on the people of Uganda, D.C. Congo,

C.A.R., and South Sudan. Its destruction power is disproportionally

large and continues abductions of civilians including young children,

either putting them in hostility, captivity or training them to

become armed soldiers or sex-slaves.

There are many LRA members in Uganda, D.C. Congo, C.A.R. and

South Sudan who continuously loots food and money from civilians,

abductions of civilians, murders of civilians, raging villages,

displacements, etc. There are forces that often encounters with LRA

members, like police, military, securities, etc.

The relationship that both side is not valued equally. While the

religious and political leaders are trying to persuade Joseph Kony, his

top commanders and the whole of LRA to surrender, Kony and his

army would not show up in any of the peace negotiation ceremonies.He would propose peace in order for his army to have a time to regain

strength and would attack again.


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In order to regain peace to the nation and to stop the LRA, Kony must make peace with the leaders and countries that are involved.

Since Kony grew up in Uganda, he would know a lot about Ugandas weak government, geographical advantages, etc. And with the support from

Sudan before, Kony understands things from Sudan which will help him continue to cause chaos. Different nations and people all around the world

knows about this conflict because of the campaign which was organized by Invisible Children called Kony 2012. It is a short film created by

Invisible Children, Inc., authors of Invisible Children, and released on March 5, 2012. The film's purpose is to promote the charity's "Stop Kony"

movement to make Ugandan cult and militia leader, indicted war criminal and International Criminal Court fugitive Joseph Kony globally known inorder to have him arrested by December 2012, the time when the campaign expires.2

The relationship does not matter to the LRA, however does matter to the other parties because if the relationship is very intense then they might not

be able to negotiate with the LRA, which may cause even more abductions, lootings, killings.

Map 1: LRA attack from LRACrisisTracker.com

LRA attacks in the weeks of September 2nd, 2012 - September 23rd, 2012.

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2."Kony 2012." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Sept. 2012.

Web. 29 Sept. 2012. .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kony_2012http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kony_2012http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kony_2012


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What is the history of the conflict?

The duration of the conflict.

This crisis has been continuing for the past 25 years and the LRA is

responsible for Africas longest running armed conflict.

The original parties, includes the LRA and its opponents are still

actively involved in this conflict. The rate of abduction and

displacements by the LRA is increasing everyday, while forces from

different nations continues to force Kony to surrender.

The frequency of the conflict.

Every week there are fights and gunfires between police and security

forces with the LRA members. Map 2 indicates the amount of LRA

member encounters since January 2012 until September 29th, 2012

(includes LRA members spotted, killed, wounded, etc).

According to map 3 from LRACrisisTracker.com, there have been

already 15 abductions just in the month of August 2012.

Map 4 indicates the abduction rate from September 1st September

29th, 2012.

There is no specific periods when the conflict is escalated to severe

levels, however there are sometimes when the LRA mass abducts

children and young adults. According to ThereSolve.org, there was mass

abductions targeting at children and young adults in Obo, C.A.R. inMarch 2008, abducting 73 people and in Duru, D.R.C. in September

2008, abducting 248 people. Recently, the LRA have been abducting

adults more than childrens, because the army needs strong adults

capable of carrying heavy loads of looted goods. According to the LRA

Crisis Tracker data, the abduction age rate of first half of 2012 was

70.6% adults.

The intensity of the conflict.

The conflict is threatens a lot of lives of the people from the four

countries. After being captivated by the LRA, abductees are tortured

(having their noses, lips and ears cut off, arms broken, etc), beaten or

even murdered by the LRA members. When the adult abductees are

usually beaten, used for carrying heavy goods and then released, the

male children abductees are usually trained to be fighters, forcing them

to torture, kill and rape friends, family and innocent people, and the

female children abductees are being raped and forced as sex-slaves.This may cause major psychological traumas to the victims.

This conflict is ideologically charged, because after losing a great

amount of support from the local population due to the cruelty. The

original purpose of the LRA was to overthrow the bias government of

Uganda who treated the Acholi people from the North unfairly, however

its purpose now has been an army for Konys personal use and follows

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Section 5

Dimension 4


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his wills. It became a tool for Konys personal enrichment, including his

God-like status amongst his followers.

The perception of the conflict by both those directly involved

and those who witness it but do not feel directly affected by it.

The perceptions of the conflict by the victims are really cruel and cause alot of psychological traumas to the victims because of their experiences.

Most of the victims would suffer from the mental scars they have

received from the experience, the problems with reintegrating back into

their communities and even the poor sanitized and poor environments

camps they have to live in. The perceptions of the conflict by the other

nations causes a huge awareness on this conflict and the impacts made

on the lives of the victims, also more and more volunteers are willing to

join different charity organizations which helps the victims of the LRA

conflicts and the forces of different countries are also trying to capture

Joseph Kony and his top commanders.

People view the conflict as serious because it is affecting more and more

innocent civilians including young children. There are many abductees

who are escaping from the captivities and also a number of members of

LRA are surrendering to the forces. Moreover, there have been

numerous attempts of making a peace agreement with the LRA and the

Ugandan government, but every time there was ceremonies like this,Kony would not appear. It seems that him proposing peace but

withdrawing is a strategy of his for his army to be able to regain strength

and reorganize.

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Map 2: Amount of LRA member encounters from LRACrisisTracker.com

LRA member encounters since January 2012 until September 29th, 2012.

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Map 3: Abduction Rate from LRACrisisTracker.com

Abduction rate of 15 abductions in the month of August 2012.

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Map 4: Abduction Rate from LRACrisisTracker.com

Abduction Rate in the month of September, 2012 (September 1st - September 29th, 2012).

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How do we choose to deal with the conflict?

It is agreed between nations that the most important things they

should achieve now is civilian protection, peaceful surrender and

rehabilitation and reconstruction.

Avoidance.

Joseph Kony withdrew himself from various peace making

ceremonies and continues with his sinful actions. There have not

been any other options for forces to stop the LRA, but to make

peace between the army or capture Kony and other commanders.

Engage in the conflict.

There have been several direct force attacks on the LRA members

whenever one was spotted. This includes when LRA members are

spotted looting goods from civilians, abductions and killings.

From previous examples of the peace agreement issues with Kony

withdrawing each time, the only way to stop this conflict is to

capture Kony and his top commanders or even shoot them

whenever he is spotted, taking down the important commanders of

the army, which may lead chaos to the army itself. The army will

then breakdown and in most cases, the remaining members will

surrender, and either be taken into custody or be sent to

rehabilitation centers.

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Section 6

Dimension 5

A


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INVESTIGATION PLAN

APPENDIX


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Stephanie Wong

Y.10 Hope 2012 - 2013

Humanities Conflicts Assessment

xiv

Bibliography

"Invisible Children Home | Invisible Children." Invisible Children Home. Invisible Children, n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2012. .

"Joseph Kony." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Sept. 2012. Web. 29 Sept. 2012. .

"Kony 2012." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Sept. 2012. Web. 29 Sept. 2012. .

"Kony 2012." Kony 2012. Invisible Children, n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2012. .

KONY 2012: Part II - Beyond Famous. Prod. Invisible Children. YouTube. YouTube, 05 Apr. 2012. Web. 29 Sept. 2012. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=c_Ue6REkeTA>.

KONY 2012. Prod. Invisible Children. YouTube. YouTube, 05 Mar. 2012. Web. 29 Sept. 2012. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

"Lord's Resistance Army." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Sept. 2012. Web. 21 Sept. 2012.

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