- Escapin | eawt Was Yous, ecne Sp 5 ako ng she Si), 7.7. 9 “Conflict is a preventable disease”: Recovering child soldiers teach the practice of peace Deborah Davis Introduction ‘This chapter discusses the Work of a small group of former child soldiers calling themselves Friends of Orphans, who train other former child so diers to be peacebuilders in their communities. The group operates in northern Uganda, where 2 rebel militia known as the Lord’s Resistance ‘Acmy (LRA) waged a brutal war of attrition against members of its own, ethnic group, the Acholis, for more than 25 years from the late 1980s until 4 peace agreement was finally signed in early 2009.’ During that period the LRA, led by the notorious Joseph Kony, abducted an estimated 40,0000-64,008) Acholi boys and girls as young as eight years of age, and indoctrinated them into a nihilistic crusade of cultural destruction by forcing them to kill their parents, teachers, neighbours and siblings: “Those who resisted were hacked to death as an example (o other children While an estimated 4,000-5,000 managed to eseape and find their way to an IDP (internally displaced person) camp or were rescued by the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDP), tens of thousands of others were never seen again, Based on the horrifying stories told by the chil- dren who came back, most of the missing died from starvation or disease, were shot trying to escape or are still being held as “wives” of the sol diers. Those who made it to a camp were given medical care and trauma counselling for a few weeks by one of the aid agencies in the conflict zone. Some agencies also hired men trom the camps to carry out abbrevi- ated versions of the traditional Acholi forgiveness and conciliation rituals, ‘Escaping vicimmhood: Children, youth and pesi-confict peacebuilding, Sehmabel and ‘abyshaieva (eds), United Nations Univeriy Press 2013, ISBN 978-02-08-1211-4198_DEBORAH Davis since the tribal elders were (oo demoralized by the disintegration of their communities to perform them.’ An unknown number of children were recaptured by the LRA, were rejected or killed by the villages to which they returned or were so tormented by the spirits of the people they had Killed that they committed suicide. The older brother of Richard (Ricky) ‘Anywar, the founder of Friends of Orphans, was one of the latter, A note on methodology ‘The chapter uses an ethnographic approach* (o examine the peacebuild- {ng methods of Friends of Orphans in the [DP camps in northern Uganda ‘This approach was chosen for two reasons. Firs, the author's training as a cultural anthropologist and community development specialist provided! useful research tools in the absence of quantitative data, which is a sig- nificant research constraint in northern Uganda, as in all conflict affected Societies, due to the disruption of normal data gathering by local govern- ments and the dangers for outside researchers. And second, the ethno. graphic approach was much better suited to describing Friends of Orphans! highly original system of micro-peacebuilding, or which metrics have not Yet been developed. It will be left to future rescarchers to carry out quam titative assessments of the organization's results, ‘The main research was conducted between August and October 2008, when the Acholis were still being terrorized by the Lord's Resistance ‘Army: This was a period during which stalled peace negotiations, thy con. Unuing abduction of children and the emergence of sevetely damaged children from the bush were all taking piace simultaneously, The research consisted of a literature review and extensive interviews, The literature review included studies of traditional Acholi peacebuilding practices? UN documents pertaining to the issue of child soldicrs® the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) indictment of LRA leader Joseph Kony in 20605 and legal writings pertaining to the indictment;’ and field reports om the situation in northern Uganda by international agencics* The interviews were conducted with Friends of Orphans founder Ricky Anywar, with the group's co-founder and programme director, Francik Orem: and with volunteers und relief agency staff who have worked in Partaership with Friends of Orphans on trauma counselling, skills train, i, art, music, athletics and other healing activities. The interviews with Anywar and Orem were held by telephone from Washington, DC: Any. war spoke from his office in Kampala, and Orem from the group’s train. ing centre in Pader town council, the municipality elusest to the IDP camps in which Friends of Orphans operates. In addition, face-to-face interviews th Ricky Anywar were conducted in New York, where he travelled in RECOVE October 2 agency. At community transcripts published ington, DC raise mone Additior chapter wa eral import diers® The. and Kony's charges ag: versy surro feel is dive, serious pro! ding disease ages of five Ugandan tween node mentary me endnotes. Ii deeper und: Child sold evidence « ‘The involves whether the tive merits 0 forgiveness tributive just nity, support war criminal children has they catried LA's conte Moreover, m inhibitions a again, The A’ return, One | her to deathbuild. anda, gas a RECOVERING CHILD SOLDIERS AND THE PRACTICE OF PEACE 199 October 2008 to receive an award from an international child protection agency. At that meeting, he provided the author with copies of the group's community training manuals, concept papers, funding proposal, budgcts, transcriptions of testimonies of escaped child soldiers and other non- Published materials. A further face-to-face interview took place in Wash- ington, DC, in November 2011, when Anywar was in the United States to Taise money for a community radio station. ‘Additional research was carried out in March and April 2012, as this chapter was being prepared tor publication, 1o include references to sev- ‘eral important studies that consider the degree of culpability of child sol- diers? There is new material on the peace negotiations with the LRA, and Kony's refusal to siga a peace agreement until the ICC dropped the charges against him. New material has also been added on the contro- versy surrounding the film Kony 20/2,"° which many in northern Uiganda feel is diverting attention and resources irom what is now a much more serious problem - the spread of a fatal neurological illness known as nod- ding disease. Like the LRA, nodding disease targets children between the ages of five and 15 in conflict-affected areas of northern Uganda." The Ugandan Ministry of Health is currently investigating # possible link be- tween nodding disease and war trauma. Much of this new and supple- ‘mentary material is not included in the narrative but is elaborated in the endnotes. If read in parallel with the main text, the notes will provide a dceper understanding of the issues. s their survival Child soldiers and restorative justice: evidence of their guill? ‘The involvement of child soldiers in atrocities has raised questions about whether they should be treated as victims or perpetrators, and the rela- Live merits of retributive versus restorative justice — of punishment versus forgiveness and reintegration into the community, The advocates of re tributive justice, including the majority of the international legal commu- nity, support the ICC's indictment of Joseph Kony and his associates as war criminals. However, the question of how to handle the abducted childrea has been more complicated. ‘Their very survival is proof that they carried out atrocities for the months or years they Were under the LRA’s control —if they had refused t0 do so, they would have been killed. Moreover, many who returned now ave no feelings of connectedness, 10 inhibitions against violence, and are therefore quite capable of kiling again. The Acholi tell many stories of children who have killed after their return, One girl, for example, had an argument with her mother, hacked her to death with a machete, and did not understand why that was wrong,200_ DEBORAH DAVIS. ‘The unbearable tragedy of the child soldier situation has made the i Bovernment unwilling to prosecute them for war crimes, Instcad, the Ammesty Law, adopted in 2000," provided for those who returned to be given “reinsertion packages” consisting of a tent. seeds, gardening tools and cooking utensils ~ everything they would need to get their lives going again, except for a way of not becoming permanent outcasts. “Children like thet,” Ricky Anywar says, “remain in the community and live lonely, miserable lives, steal food t0 survive and get into fights, and are so weak and malnourished that even the army doesn't waat them, They can go on that way for about five years, and then they fall sick and always die be- cause nobody will feed them or take care of them, When you're extreme, People just look at you.” The antes who escape this fate often end up in Prison for assault, murder, rape or other violent orimes, Former child soldiers now comprise more than 76 per cent of the juvenile prison popu- lation in Uganda. The failure of restorative justice to help child soldiers Efforts to ease the minds and spirits of these children have largely failed in northern Uganda because they have been unconnected to community healing, ! In northern Uganda, as in other agrarian socicties, restorative justice Practices evolved as a way to prevent grievances aver land or water rights, theft of women or livestock and affronts to dignity from escalating into a cycle of murder and revenge kiflings. The entire community woutd be involved in the rituals of confession, apology and restitution between the wrongdoer and the victim's clan or family. This form of justice all but disappeared in Africa during the colonial period, and was not revived tuntil South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission ~ followed by | @ similar commission in Sierra Leone and by the village-level gacaca courts after the genocide in Rwanda - used public confession as 4 Way 10 heal the deepest kinds of societal wounds, the kind that cannot be healed merely by punishing the perpetrators. The power of this modest, victine Jed mechanism of reconciliation and forgiveness to restore social equilib- rium in Rwanda, Sietra Leone and South Africa was all the more remarkable, in the view of Western Jegal scholars, in that it no longer in- volved families arguing about personal insults of local water rights, but armed groups that had inflicted mass trauma on the population in order to achieve political power. Restorative justice in these countries was successful for two important reasons, First, the truth-telling process, whether carried out in a national (South Africa and Sierra Leone) or community-level (Rwanda) public aseed5 made the astead, the umned to be ening tools ives going “Children live lonely, re 50 weak jean go on ays die be- re extreme, vend up in rmer child ison popu- Ss pely failed ommunity ive justice For water escalating ity would n between ice all but 1 revived llowed by el gaceca 5a way to be hcaled at, victim a equilib- the more longer in- ights, but in order mportant national a) public RECOVERING CHILD SOLDIERS AND THE PRACTICE OF PEACE 21 forum, was endorsed and financed by the government. And second, the process took place in addition to ~ not as a substitute for ~ the ICC trials ‘of the major war criminals. Indigenous justice in northern Uganda, however, has been problematic for several reasons. First, the healing ceremonies are not authentic, not concerned with truth-telling and not rooted in the wisdom of elders; rather, as noted above, they are superficial rituals that are reconstructed by outsiders to help an individual. Second, Joseph Kony's demand for re- storative justice instead of a etiminal trial ~ his refusal to sign the peace treaty, his continued abductions and killings when the ICC would not drop the charges against him — drained the concept of all meaning." By 1999, when Friends of Orphans was created, an entire generation of Acholis had grown up in the camps and knew nothing about indigenous justice; and many of the older people in the camps, those who had lost their homes or their children, no longer believed in justice of any kind. Some aid agencies nevertheless attempted to use Acholi justice rituals to facilitate the reintegration of groups of escaped child soldiers after they completed their few weeks of trauma counselling. In recreating these ituals, the agencies took care to use the correct roots for the bitter drink in the mato oput (reconciliation after a killing) ecremony, and the correct, leaves to cover the egg that is stepped on in the nyono tonggweno (Cleansing and welcoming back) cetemony, following procedures detailed in studies of Acholi culture."® However, these enactments did not come close to capturing the lengthy processes of mediation, confession, apol- ogy. explanation and discussion about the sources of the problem, which were facilitated over # period of months by the elders of the affected clans and traditionally preceded the public ceremonies, As a result, they did litte to relieve the sense of estrangement between the escaped child soldiers and others in the camps, who continued to fear and despise them. “The entire community.” Ricky says, “was at war with itselE” Ricky’s story Ricky Anywar was abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army in 1988, when he was 14 years old, His brother, abducted at the same time, was 17 ‘They were forced to watch as the LRA burned down their house with their family inside. Then they were marched at gunpoint into the bush, where they were held for two-and-a-half years. “here was no talking about escape.” Ricky remembers. “If you even looked like you were thinking about it, the abductors would kill you.” Ricky and his brother were in different brigades that operated in the same area, “I used to see my brother often, and we would talk in parables. [told him, if any of us202_ DEBORAH DAVIS becomes the first to reach oben, then greet them for me’.” Obeno, the Acholi word for the cloth used to strap a baby to ils mother's back, was the brothers’ code word for home. “I once saw him carrying a wounded commander on his back who had been freshly shot on the battlefield, My brother was covered with his blood. He died on my brother’s back.” Hor- tified by that experience, soon afterwards his brother escaped. By the lime Ricky was able to escape and return to obeno three months later, his brother bad committed suicide. The neighbours said he had been tor. mented by the ghosts of the people he had killed. “He thought it was the ‘end of the world, the end of the road,” Ricky says, “He lost confidence in life." With the last of his family dead, Ricky survived in the village by work- ing for food. He was abducted again, escaped again, and found work with 4 woman who was known 10 give jobs to escaped child soldiers, Ricky ‘went fo work in her small factory, sewing blue jeans. “She asked me what 1 wanted,” Ricky recalls. “I said 1 wanted an education, so she paid my school fees” It was the early 1990s and the non-governmental organiza- tions (NGOs) had not yet come to northern Uganda, so there were no Feception centres to provide food and medical care for escaped child sol- diets and no programmes to rehabilitate them, “But my employer talked to me, different people talked to me, and | was more resilient than my brother. Despite all I had gone through, my spirit never went low, be= cause I saw what had happened as completely abnormal.” Ricky worked in the woman's factory until he finished high school. Then he left the war zone for Kampala and found a job in the personnel department at the Ministry of Education. At night he took courses at the university in busi- ness and development studies, He earned a business degree and opened a small stationery store that brought in enough money for him to live on. “But my heart kept telling me T wanted to help them,” Ricky says. “L wanted to go back to Northern Uganda to help the children.” He bought an old Toyota pickup truck for $2,(00 and began driving out to the [DP camps every weekend, leaving Friday night and arriving on Saturday, a 14-hour journey over 600 kilometres of unpaved and broken roads; then driving back to Kampala on Sunday night in time to open up his station- ery store on Monday. Tn the war zone, Ricky saw children who had eseaped from the LRA wandering the streets with vacant eyes, which to the community meant they were passessed by evil spitits because of the abominations they had committed, Some were missing limbs or had bullet wounds; some were out of their minds with grief or trauma. Ricky drove them 80 kilometres to the nearest hospital. For those who were capable of going to school, he paid the school fees. These children were orphans in a way that Acholi children had never been orphans. Ricky says: vrnee aRGeld. My .” Hor | By the ths later, peen tor Ewa the idence in by work. ork with rs Ricky me what paid my. tganiza were 10 hild sot- r talked than my Tow, be- worked the war i at the in busi- pened a on. says “I + bought the IDP urday, 9 ds; then station- ne LRA y meant hey had ne were jometres hook, he t Acholi RECOVERING CHILD SOLDIERS AND THE PRACTICE OF PEACE 203 All children used to be our community children, We dida’t have street children, Families would farm together, cvok together in big pots eat together in one big ‘group, and that’s how orphans were accommodated. But then Ue war came and people were moved into IDP camps and could not grow their own food, and the World Food Programme [which supplied food to the camps} would count the number of people in a family. Taking in an extra person would not change the family’s food allocation; i just meunt less food for the family, ‘The shortage of food caused nearstarvation in the camps.“‘Some fami- fies took them in, but there was very, very litte food, all the children had extended stomachs und almost everyone was malnourished.”? Alter two months of travelling back and forth, Ricky sct up Friends of Orphans with Francis Orem and two others from the university who had also been child soldiers, In 1999 they opened a reception centre in the hheart of the conflict zone, in Pader district, where the aid agencies would not send their staff."“I went to an opinion leader, a retired teacher,” Ricky says, “and she gave us land inside the camp on which we built a small building. Then the community started bringing the children to me, and 1 tried to wash away the tears that had been rolling down their checks for 4 Tong, Jong time.” He paid for their food out of his savings until he was able 10 persuade the World Food Programme to contribute food to his project. ‘The military had imposed a rule that all child soldiers taken in by an aid agency must be turned over for questioning before they could receive assistance of any kind, They were normally released within two or three days, although an unknown number were kept to help the army locate LRA weapons’ caches. Others were recruited as government soldiers Says Orem’ From the moment we got them back, we began by finding something for these People to feed on, because the majority of them were malnourished. That is the first thing, something to eat, and then secondly you need to dress them because. their clothes are all dirty and torn. Each time itis a process, you have received them, you have given them clothes, you have given them food, you have given them maybe something to sleep on, then you begin getting near to them, build ing relationships, siting and playing together with them, and then you begin asking them where the parents are, how they entered into the bush, so that you know the child's story before you begin doing the counselling, Because if you rush and ask these questions when they have just come from the bush, they can become very violemt. For its first three years of operation, the Friends of Orphans reception centre provided the same basic serviees as those run by aid agencies in other parts of northern Uganda ~ emergency medical care and psychosocial208 DEBORAH DAVIS Support through both individual and group counselling, “What we did first depended on the level of trauma,” Ricky says. The most traumatized children, those who were highly aggressive, terrilied of strangers, or Sat BY themselves and cried, received extensive individual counselling by one of the former child soldiers working with Friends of Orphans. “We started talking 10 them about their situation and how we could help them, telling them that what happened to them wasn’t their fault, that they coukd make their own future when they are rehabilitated.” Some were so tor ‘mented by nightmares, hallucinations, suicidal thinking and fear of being reabducted that Ricky took them to the hospital for medication. ‘The psy- ehiatrist who treated them served as an adviser to Friends of Orphans tumit his death from Ebola haemorrhagic fever in 2005. ‘The children also attended group counselling sessions aimed at helping them to control their aggression, $0 they cout! interact safely with the ‘community and be able to walk away from the many people who rejected cor insulted them, instead of attacking and perhaps killing them, Children who did not get this type of counselling could be extremely dangerous Referring to the incident mentioned above, Ricky told of one girl who escaped from the LRA and returned home without having gone through a reception centre. Her family accepted her, and her mother took her out to dig in their garden. They had angry words, and the girl cut off her mother's head, Then she continued to dig next to her mother’s dead body. “She was too traumatized to know what she did,” Ricky said. “It wus only ‘when one of the elders talked to her that she started crying,” “Just because the guns are silent, it doesn't mean there is peace” Rejection by the community was a pervasive problem, particularly for older boys and for girls who had suffered sexual violence and returned ‘with children born from that violence. This was not a situation that could be solved by the reception centres, which had a limited mandate and, in any event, lacked the capacity to follow up on the children’s progress. ‘The girls with babies, whom Ricky calls “child mothers", were generally accepted by their parents, but regarded with contempt by siblings and community members, Their babies were especially vulnerable to stigmati- zation, which increased the child mother's distress. Many boys reacted to the rejection by gambling, drinking, stealing or bringing guns into the camps, which served to isolate them further. Some overcame their fecl- ings of uselessness by going back to the LRA or enlisting in the army, for which they needed forged papers and a community leader's recommen- dation, “We were in a process of recycling these children,” Ricky says, SSESETEES ESES CReRSSRERRE om ze SR GRE EBmat we did reumatized r3,0F sat by g by one of ‘We started bem, telling they could vere 50 fOr of being mn. The psy- of Orphans 1 at helping ly with the ho rejected n. Children dangerous. 16 gil who ne through ok her out cut off her dead body, It was only ere is ularly for d returned that could ate and, in progress e genetally ings and stigmati- reacted to 8 into the their feel- e army, for RECOVERING CHILD SOLDIERS AND THE PRACTICE OF PEACE _ 205 “They were in the centre for two weeks, brought home, killed or re- abducted, o they committed suicide, which created more conflicts in the community. Just because the guns are silent, it doesn't mean there is Peace.” Ricky saw that the evil of the LRA had penetrated every aspect of Acholi life - every month, whole families were murdered in land dis- putes; every day, women were beaten by their husbands or deliberately infected with HIV/ALDS, and children were disviplined by means of burning or starvation, He had a powerful sense that the Acholi people were in the grip of kirr, or abomination,”* which disturbs the spirit world, disrupts the moral order and breeds collective trauma. In the community's unwillingness to care for its children, Ricky recognized a manifestation of that trauma, “It was clear that the entire society was suffering.” he says, “The community had been gtieving for a long, long time.” Elements of micro-peacebuilding: The continuous creation of peace In 2002, a8 other aid agencies began to open reception centres in Pader district, Friends of Orphans turned its attention to the larger problem of how to break through the eycle of violence and despair that had taken hold of the Acholi community. The group had already expanded its pro- gramme to include skills training — in brickmaking, iron work, tailoring, cooking, accounting - to help former child soldiers regain their sclf- respect, earn their own livelihoods and be of some value to the commu- nity. Those who received training were expected 10 create self-sustaining, micro-enterprises, which Eriends of Orphans supported with small amounts of mictofinance. As other reception centres were opened, Friends of Orphans expanded its training programme and began to focus on the larger issue of how to create peace. Ricky's idea was to incorporate what he calls micro-peacebuilding into every aspect of life in the camps. In conceptualizing his approach, Ricky looked to the titerature on hu- man rights and conflict resolution. From the human rights literature, Ricky identified two categories of actors in the struggle for dignity and justice — rights holders and duty bearers. Adapting these ideas to commu- nity peaccbuilding, he defined rights holders as former child soldiers, child mothers, HIV/AIDS victims, the illiterate, the unemployed and adult defectors from the LRA. They were all struggling, to survive, even without knowing that they had the right to have rights — to peace, security, respect, education, healthcare and productive activity. The duty bearers were community elders, religious leaders and local elected officials who206_DEBORAH DAVIS had an obligation to respect those rights and, in every action they took, to help make them a reality for those who did not yet have them. The con- fict resolution literature gave Ricky a framework for analysing the com- ponents of violence in the camps - its root causes, such as poverty, greed, grievance, corruption; immediate triggers, such as drunkenness, wife beat ing, disputes over land or boreholes; relationship between the parties, whether intact, broken, cooperative or power based; and stage of te con: ‘ict, either emerging, escalating, confrontation, stalemate or ctsis. Using ‘every instance of conifict in the camps as an opportunity to talk to a trau: matized population about their mutual rights and obligations, Ricky be- gan the process of re-empowering those whose rights were habitually being violated, including by illness, as well as those whose natural author- ity in the community had been lost.” ‘One of his most important acts of empowerment was to train former child soldiers as community peace counsellors. Of the 500 who applied to participate in the initial round of training, Friends of Orphans chose 80 women and 120 men who had done the most (0 rebuild their lives ~ by pursuing university studies, building a business, finding a paying job at an NGO ~ and so had the potemtial to become opinion leaders. Friends af Orphans trained them in human rights and conflict resolution; then each peace counsellor was given responsibility for developing @ peace plan for his or her section of the camp. The counsellors began by talking to the residents about what was wrong in their lives and how they coukt help them, Some women had been given a cow or goat by Friends of Orphans 10 support their role as caregivers to young children, and those animals were grazing in other people's gardens. “These were the kinds of things that used to lead to family, community conflict,” Ricky says."“So the peace ‘counsellors sat together with their group of families to consider the prob- lem, and they agreed to put aside a separate plot of land only for graz- ing.” Some who had not been given an animal were resentiul, so the counsellors Jed discussions in which the community decided that the off- spring would be given to those who did not yet have an animal. ‘As more peace counsellors were trained, Friends of Orphans began to address issues of culturally embedded violence such as wife beating, which was a point of pride with many men in the camps ~ “if you don't beat your wile, you're not a man,” Ricky observes. The counsellors began holding community sensitization meetings to talk about human rights, the ‘equality of women and men in the eyes of God, the obligation to treat the woman as a partner, the dangers of beating the mother of one’s children. “The woman will go away, and feeding the children needs two people,” the counsellors said. “Or you can inflict injuries, you can disable ‘or kill them, then you with go to jail and leave the children as orphans, and we have enough orphans already.” There are also sensitization meet- raty took, to “The con- the com- ry, erced, wile beat- Ne parties, Ricky be- habitually al author- in former applied to chose 80 lives - by job at an Friends of then each e plan for ng to the auld help Orphans e animals of things the peace the prob- for grar- il, 80 the tthe off began to beating, you don't ors began rights the nto treat of one’s weds two n disable orphans, jon meet- RECOVERING CHILD SOLDIERS AND THE PRACTICE OF PEACE 207 ings on the issue of children’s rights, with the peace counsellors explain- ing that children have a right to be protected and cared for, and not to be beaten, used for tabour or turned over by community leaders to the UPDF. The meetings often end with peace counsellors asking for ideas about the way forward, and the community talking about the need to protect one another and report instances of wite or child abuse 10 the police. These protections are reinforced by a network of pewoe scouts trained by Friends ot Orphans, who act as watchdogs for thase who have been abused. “The rights and obligations of people in the camps have also heen ri forced in @ number of other ways. For three years, Friends of Orphans held a series of children’s parliaments” which passed resolutions ~ no more abductions, beatings or sexual defilement, and equal treatment of omphons ~ that were broadcast over the radio, with Friends of Orphans, paying for airtime. ‘The peace counsellors have organized peace clubs in the schools, where children talk about what it means to live @ peaceful life. For the women there have been women’s parliaments, which have issued resolutions demanding the right to own property, to choose their own husbands, to inherit Jand and not have it taken by their husband's family, 10 refuse sex with infected men and to not be beaten. Mhese reso- Jutions have also been broadcast." With these broadcasts, the peace clubs and peace scouts and the community on the alert, it has become 2 matter of public knowledge, and shame for the abuser, if someone whose voice has been heard then has his or her rights violated. “Men and their bad ‘cultural practices started fearing to be exposed to the community,” Ricky says, “so the level of violence went down.” Ricky Anywar also sees HIV/AIDS as a threat to peace in the camps, since “people who are sick cannot think about peace”. He invented an AIDS awareness game” for young people; itis played by four teams, each consisting of two girls and two boys. Fach team is responsible for the welfare of a fictional teenage gir! who, over a period of three yea faced with a series of situations that put her under pressure to exchange sex for the food or money she needs for her survival or that of @ parent or sibling. The objective is to get the girl through the game without her suffering HIV infection, pregnaney or family breakdown. The gitls on the team learn to respect themselves enough to resist pressures to have sex, and to think of alternative ways of coping with their situation; while the boys learn to feel protective rather than aggressive towards the girls, and to understand how their behaviour can have life-changing consequences, Friends of Orphans found that other forms of violence could not be addressed without the involvement of the police, the UPDF or the na- tional parliament, Land theft used fo be one af the most dangerous prob- ems. Ricky says:208 DEBORAH DAVIS Land wranglers were rampant in the area, They would bribe the police to de- clare them the owners of other people's land, which led 10 many killings. So we wont on the radio, brought community leaders to talk. We said no. We tld our MP [member of parliament] that we wanted Parliament to give back the power to resolve land issues to clan and community ieadess, since they knew whers ‘every family had lived for the last 50 years “The change was enacted, and the land killings stopped. Yet there is always the unrelenting problem of child soldiers: how to keep the children away from both the LRA and the UPDF, and how to help them when and if they make it back. Fur most of the time that Friends of Orphans has been in existence, children in northern Uganda were still being abducted by the LRA and still, with the cooperation of community leaders, being recruited by the UPDF; and this ongoing mili tarization of the youngest people in the camps — despite the comprehen- sive peacebuilding activities ~ was a continuing source of destabilization, grict and despair. The peace counscliors talked to the children about how to behave if they were abducted. “Sometimes when people are abducted they go wild,” Ricky said. “We teach them, ‘when you are abducted don’t abuse people, let it not come from you, always try to be calm and try t0 escape, if you are told to fight, you do what you have to, but do not have it be your idea to kil.” The children with this training who were ab- ducted and later escaped were considerably less traumatized than those who had not had such training, Friends of Orphans also held community meetings with the UPDF to discuss the army's practice of recruiting child soldiers. and to ask or more protection from LRA attacks. Former child soldiers spoke at these meetings about how their experiences had made them lose hope in life, and they appealed for an end to the recruiting, Although the army continued to deny that it was using child soldiers — and parliament, on the same grounds, refused to pass a law forbidding the practice ~ the community leaders who had been participating in the recruitment decided to stop playing their part, and the numbers went down. The UPDF did agree to respond more quickly when it received reports that the LRA was approaching the camps. Since the peace scouts and other former child soldiers knew the LRA’s travel routes and loca- tions of its weapons’ caches, their information has made it possible for the army to capture a number of LRA commanders, recover thousands of weapons and free hundreds of abducted children. With the army's greater attention to LRA activity in the area, the number of abductions also ‘went down ~ although the LRA is now abducting children in Sudan and Congo (DRC), With all that Friends of Orphans has done to end the violence in the camps in Pader district over the past 14 years, peace remains elusive at TEBLAZOL ST SRS ER EE ESSRSRRSBe 0 RR TRERTWe told our ck the power knew where ers: how to. and how to ¢ time that ern Uganda peration of ngoing mi comprehen- tabilization, about how fe abducted. ucted don't band try 10, do not have 0 were ab- than those community iting child ormer child Shad made recruiting. d soldiers — mbers went it received eae SCO s and loca- ible for the pousands of ny’s greater sections also Sudan and lence in the 6 elusive at RECOVERING CHILD SOLDIERS AND THE PRACTICE OF PEACE 208 the national level. Anywar believes that lasting peace will come only through an accord between the government and the LRA. As a parncr in the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative, Friends of Orphans, along with other civil society groups, helped to persuade the government to offer amnesty to Joseph Kony, the leader of the LRA, Kony tele- phoned the BBC saying he was ready to talk in 2004, but the ICC in- dicted him for war crimes the following year, and Kony announced that hhe would not sign a peace agreement until the indictment was withdrawn, But since that time more than 50 of the LRA’s 1,000 field commanders have come out of the bush, saying they had learned from Friends of Orphans’ radio broadcasts that others who had come back hud not been punished, but instcad had gone through the months of discussions abaut ‘what went wrong that constituted restorative justice, “Kony also listens to our radio broadeasts,” Ricky said. “He has been calling in to the radio programs to give his opinion, He says that people have been sutfering for many years and need peace. He says he is ready for peace talks.” Dues he believe that Kony can change? “Peace is the only solution.” Ricky said, Conclusion and recommendations As this chapter was being finalized, Ricky Anywar contacted the author to ask for help raising money to continue the work of Friends of Orphans. ‘The group has been operating on a budget of several hundred thousand dollars a year, some of it from the European Commission but most from small NGOs and individuals. The lack of predictable funding is a serious threat to the group's existence. Friends of Orphans has not received sup- port from any of the multidonor DDR (disarmament, demobilization and reintegration) operations in Africa; and when the author referred him to the head of the Kampala office of an international aid agency invelved in such programmes, he was unable to get an appointment, ‘The rehabilitation of child soldiers is a complicated business that cannot be carried out in isolation from the social and political environment that gave rise to the problem, While donordriven DDR programmes, with their emphasis on regional peace initiatives and the demobilization of adult combatants, have been a significant factor in stabilizing countries burdened by conflict, they have done tittle ta support local initistives that are dedicated to rebuilding the lives of child soldiers by creating sustainable change in their communities. Such programmes depend first and foremost on the creation of normal, predictable resource transfer systems from na- tional or local governments. They also depend om the ability and wiling- ness of local governments to take account of such programmes in theit developing planning, And finally, the sustainability of local peacebuilding.210 DEBORAH DAVIS initiatives depends on the development of community-level social capital, so that conflict-affected communities can play an active role in their own, healing and development. In the past three years several former child soldiers who created suc- cessful enterprises with support ftom Friends of Orphans have been elected to local councils, where they are advocating for the needs of child soldiers and attempting to generate support for the group's programmes. ‘Their efforts may be paying off; a local government official told Ricky Anywar that he Would like to consult with him about developing plan- ning, Yet resources remain scarce for all of northern Uganda, and these development plans will need to be supported by larger donor programmes. A starting point would be for one of the large multidonor DDR peo- grammes to conduct @ needs assessment of all community-based peace initiatives in northern Uganda and identify those that would benefit from untied donor support. Over the longer tetm, so as not to foster de~ pendence on external sources of aid, donors would do well (o work with national and local governments to develop mechanisms to support grass- roots peacebuilding initiatives, so that communities torn apart by the ab- duction and destruction of their children can leave their victimhood behind and become agents of their own development. Notes 1, Fora history of the confit vee Zachary Lomo and Lucy Hovil, "Behind the Violence ‘Tae War in Norther Uganda", Monograph 98, Institute [or Security Studies Pretoria, March 2004, www isaftiea orgjuplosds)Mono32 pa 2, For Turthor deals on the LRA’ methoxs of indhetrination aod contsl se ti 3, Those traditional rituals, hased on ancient customs snd longstanding Family relation ships used to take wecks or months to cary out. The eller would go ack und Torth hetmcen dhe two Fumie slowly rebuilding gust and a sense of mutual obligation, and when the public recunciiation citual Onally oscurted. the entire community was ine Solved in witnessing i 4, The cihnogrsphic method hs its roots n cultural anthropotogy is purpose K 1 Boner ste understanding of culture from an insiders point of view rather than sbroueh thes ‘es or hypotheses Ethnographers often play the Tole of panicipant-observer, immersing shomselves in the culture and recording thei ebservations The methud cun aso rly on Interviews with Ley informants who are part vf the culiure bul who, Uhrough edi or travel, have gaincd an objective undevstanding of ts practices, valucs and ws tof meaning. For a detailed discussion of the principios and methods of ethnographic research ste Michael Genzuk, "A Synthesis of Ethnographic Research”. Occasional Papers Series Center for Mululingua, Multicultural Rexcarch, Rosser Schoo of Education, Univondty of Southern California, 2413, wwareLasecdw/Si7Egencuk/Ethnoraphic Research pul, For recent in-depth ethnographic sudiss of northean Uganda soe Seether Finnstrom, Living with Bad Surroundings: War, Hetory, and Everyday Moments in BESESTREDERES SPRATT SE PERREPROSTHNET RS LER EERE KEEScreated suc- s have been eeds of child programmes, I told Ricky loping plan- a, and these programmes, « DDR pro- based peace benefit from, 0 foster de- 0 work with, apport grass rt by the abs victimhood, 1 the Violence: Lies Previa, see ii. fai rlatinne tack and forth obigation, und sy was in ese to gener pthioygh ure rer. immersing an ako rely na throug educa. aus and wehs Hf etnograpie 3H", Ocean ol ol Edeaton, Ethnographic pda se Sverkr gy Moments in RECOVERING CHILD SOLDIERS AND THE PRACTICE OF PEACE 211 Nonhern Uganda, Dutham, NC: Duke University Press 208; Kristen B, Choney, Pitre of the Nation: Child Citizens und Ugandan Nasional Development, Chica, IL: Univer- Sy of Chicago Press, 2000 Fora dolled deseiption of traditional Ashol peacebuilding practices ses Erin Baynes, “he Cooling uf Hearts: Community Truth Tolling in. Aeholtland”, special ‘pon, Justice and Reconciliation Project, Gule Dxlict NGO Forum, Lit Insitute fa Glbhal Issues, University of Beith Columb, Voncouver, UC, Jay 27. Absa sse Willan Mezker, “Traditional Cleaning unl Reconciliation Riwuls of the Achol”, esearch Paper submitted to American University School of Invemnalional Service, September DUT (contact: meckerwill@ymilcom) The author is xrateul 4 Willison Meck for _gencrouslyallewing her to use this and exhee mater For UN reports on child soldiers sce Off of the Special Representative ofthe Scere: tary-Genvtal for Chidwen and Armed Contiet, wawun orgjehidrenfcontcfenglshy Index huml. For the UN position on chikl solders im Uganda seo "Repwrt the Seeretary-General un the Situation of Children and Armed Confit Affected by the Lon Restance Army”,25 May 2012, warwswal chi. orgiordpresrpcimtnlfuplaady 'SCWG-Condusions- LRA-2413 pa For discussions of the ICC"s indictment of Koay see David Lane,“The ICC's Inerwen- tion in Nonlin Uganda: Beyond the Simplicity of Peace vs Justi”, Fleicher School af Law and Diplomucy, Medford, MA, May 2017; Adam Branch, "t gad Chol War aod the Polis of ICC Intervention”, Ethics & femational Affairs 21(2), 2007, pp. 1-1 Justice aod Revoncilation Project, "Alice's Story: Cultural and Spiitual Dimensions of Reconciliation in Novthern Utada, Fickd Notes No, Febroary 200, Liu laste Giobal Isues, Vancouver, BC. and Gulu Distrit NGO Forum, sew hpi she cof stestiay AlegPubiications/22Fet2006,FieldNotes_AbcesStoesJRP pul ‘There isa growing body of teal, medical and policy titerature devoted (0 a nuanesd ‘consideration of whether, 19 what degre snd a eal age chil soles can by held 7 sponsible for their actions Sec, or example, Mask A. Drumbl, Remaining Chlid So lers iy Iniemational Law ard Potey, Oxlord: Oxlord University Pros, 2012; Grace ‘Akcilo, Annemick Richles and Ria Res, “Reinugration of Former Child Soldiers in NNorthera Uganda: Coming 1 Tous with Chitdren’s Ageney and Accountability lier: enton 4(2), 206, pp. 229-285. On the different apis at which iden van leg be reruled andor vitious international kaws and conventions sce Steven Fiveland, Child Sridiers and Intecnational Law’, presentation, Mp//S0.203.86 S/Cipt Lectures Seiminar/2007/Frovianl%20-% 20Porwcrpont pl. The video Kony 2012 was prouosd by lavsible Chiles nc, an NGO hased ja Sa Diego, Cattorna, and, according to Mike Plans, was pented 1 the himakaring sites ‘YouTube snd Vireo in March 2012 ws purt of the groups viral social sete campaign to tun Joseph Kony into a type af celebrity monster, with the aim of forcing the US fepvecrment 10 sca miilary advisers 10 Allica wo slp capture him, Ti keep up the Dresury, the group's cnline store suld Kay Action Kits for $3 aiivisk woul! Bol 8 Kony tshirt (sizes XS to XL), a Kony bravsél,« Kemy action guide, Kony sicker, & Kony bution and Kony posters "People will think you're an advocate of awowinas wath this oficial Action Kil” the group's website explains "Since KONY 2012 1.4 yearns, ‘campaign, you can decorate yourself and the wwa al year ong with this One iop shop Everything youll need to take part in oor KONY 2012 campaign i incised.” Ther ‘were only two problems: Kony hud already Hed Uganal and wis presume be bing in te Democrat Repubiie ofthe Conga and US military adviss were ready work ing on the Kony issue wich Alvcan Union troup. Further the majonty al pple in romhern Uganda feared that "Making Koay ‘lamoun’ sould) make him siranger’ as sed by Javie Ssozi, an inlluentiat Ugendan Blogger eld by Pha Swi sso fk chat1, 212_DEBORAH DAVIS “Arguing for mone US (roops coUM make him seared, apd make him sbJuet more chil trea, or goon the offonsive” What the Ugandans really waned was aid 10 rebuild. See Mike PNanz, Joseph Kony 2012: Growing Oowage in Uganda over Film”. Daily Teer raph, 8 March 2012, sww telegraph co.ok)news/worklnewsafricasndindianoccan) {uoeaj915448/loseph Kony-2012-growing-outrage-n-Ugand-necttitn Mo Sev Gretchen Vogel, “Mystery Discase Haunts Region”, Science 3366078). 13 Apa 2012, pp. IH-14h The US Centers for Disease Cantrul and Prevention ana the World realth Organization are investigating several possible cause, including « parasitic in felon ofthe brain and a new form of epilepsy. The Ugandan Ministry of Health isi vestigating 4 pestble ink hetween nodding disease and wat trauma, since the neatly 220M children affected hy the disease are concentrated in the three dstriets ia northern Uganda svhere the LRA had hcon ment active, as well as children in the LRA-iofested areas of the Demucrate Republic of tke Congo and South Sudan. Qo the war tums Thcory ste www.cinemalorpeace-foundation comyProjecs taller nf. hide brain ease-throuyh-war-taumul Many national and fnternational exports inthe DDR fehl argue tha it was the ICC Aetermination Go prosceute Kony thut caused the failure of the pace negotiations e= ‘oween the LRA and the government of Uganda, knuvn as the Juha peace proses ‘which hegen in 2006, the year after Kony's unietment, and fase until 2009. Arcshes bout this comiraversy have bocn compiled by the Coalition for the International faa) Court, wewiccnowory/Pmod=newsctail&newss1843. For more information on the 1CC's impuet on the Ugansan peace process see John Prenderpas ans! Aslam O'Brien, “A Diplomatic Surge for Northern Uganda", Center for Anieti¢at Progress ‘Washington, DC, 12 December 2007, Fur an alternative view see Robert Fekiman, “A. [Deal withthe Devil: Issues in Offering Joseph Kony Amnesty to Resolve the Conflict it Uganda”, Sealf Wars and Ineurgencies 1s(1), 2007, pp. 134-143. For a more inedept analysis sce US Department of Slag, "Northorn Uganda ~ Recovery Process ~ Pease ‘and Reconciliation”, United Staley Virtual Presence Prat, US Depariment of St, ‘Washington, DC, hipffmrineenoganda usepp gowipeacenec? hl “The Amnesty Act of 2000 provides that any Ugandan wishing eo abandoo rebellion wil be pranted amnesty without risk of eciminal prosecution or punishment sn 8 national ‘curt for offences related 19 the insurgency. DDR. initiatives in Uganda between 2410 and 20 wore caried oUt within the framework of thy Amnesty Act and the Amnesty Commission, xs a necessary response to the ow of escaping chil soldiers In 208 iter the failure of the Juha peace process, the government ol Uganda hogan 10 work with donors 40 develop two formal peace and reconaliation process in the evnMict ure, ‘One programms, the Peace, Resovery and Developmen! Plan far Northera Ugands, al- ‘ireses some of the issues raised Uuting the Juba pracess ubout inequitaMe tceatment ff the north hy promoting economic development in the region, The other, the Emer ‘geney Demobilization and Reintegration Projec, supports the Amnesty Commission's ‘mandate of demobalizing and reintegrating rhel soldiers who have defected from the LRA. The lntter programe, supported by « World Bunk managed Multi-Donor Trust, Fund, will be carried out in clase collaboration with several implementing partners snd networks, including the urgaizations The curcently manage recepiton evntres fo ey ‘apes child soldiers The US Agency for International Development and the UN Devel ‘opment Programme ate also supporting the work ofthe Amnesty Commission theouth the International Organization for Migration. For more information op formal DDR. cifris io Uganda see www mdrporg: wwewundde orgjcountry programoics: and wns \wortdbank.org. For a mre general discuss of these issues see Ana BovzcIhl. "The Cholicnge of DDR in Northern Uganda: The Lord's Resitamoe Army", Confce Soeur ly & Development 7(3), 207, pp. 387-415. M4 Akt 15. Whe, ally ‘how use 16 See, Myc vue YOR, ea sai RR, Nov Teak ‘nik ok Ga ie me 21. Fam ncetuct moe cil to rbull. Soe n°, Daily Tete nindanocsan) ur. 78). 13 April aad the World pareitic i af Health nce the meaty sin northern LRA infect ie war trauma -dayfchidcens eas the ICC's eqtitions he Peace process 12008. Ailes ational Crim aformatin on pst and Adam can Progress Bellon. A the Contr in more indepth rors ~ Peace ment of Skate, fn reltion will in satin between 210 A the Amnesty $a 2 alice nto work wh cit are Uganda, ad ble troatment he, the Eee y Camis eed frm the h-Donar Trust ns pariness and ents for cw the UN Devel- sin thee 0 formal DDK. mcs ard ws Borel, "The Conf, Secur RECOVERING CHILD SOLDIERS AND THE PRACTICE OF PEACE 213 14, Abello, Rchters and Reik note 9 above 15, When the government of Uganda finaly acceded to kaeph Kony's demands und for sully asked the ICC ts drop the ehaes against him (which the ECC did not Uo, ab ‘though ts dekberations bought Kany sonw tims} ey Ushurnoured the idea of restorative jmtie Cuther by Necing dhe county 16, See for example, Thomas Heshieher, Francs Xavier Oke, Caroline Aloyo Obonye, Mychelle Balthazard and Ronald Atkinson, “Traditional Ways Coping in Ache: Cul tural Provisions for Reconeiiaion and Healing om War", Caritas Gulu Archdiocese. Kampala, 2006, bripsdocs pong comiacuntesgulayhwerPx-v&pid=sitsBi ‘Y2FyaNRhe22HHU ub3 aNd AdSupcDDn3ODENGY wNmR iN MW VE 17. The Sod criss the aps lasted until 2006, when tne LRA cetrated to Sudan and it became safer tor people 0 ave the cimps and work in thelr vogotable arden, 18 Justice nd Reconciliation Project, ““ANomination’: Lixal Behiet Systems and Inter rational Justice", Pekd Notes Na. S, September 203, Lu Insitute far Global Isstes, Vincouver, Cand Guba District NGO Forum, worwigiubesahitsulilesPubicationy IRPURPENSSep2007. pot, Reseutch was carried wut in [DP camps of northern Usa. 19, The human rights and confict resolution erature contains many variations Of these ideas and Ricky did not ce any speciic soures, Useful doeuments include UK De. ent for International evelopment, “Conducting Confit Assessments: Gude Notes", DFID, Leadon, January 2002; Barry Har, James N. Dus and Sam Gi, Doe, Trams Healing and Reconctiation Training Manual: A Handbook for Vramers and Trainees, Moravia: Sabanioh Printing Press, 1995. On the tolationship between health Initiatives and. post once reconcitution see for example J Macrae, A. Zw andl 1 Birungi,"® Healthy Peace? Rehabilitation and Development of the Health Sector in PosiConlct Situation - The Case nf Uganda: Report on a Pot Study" Londen Scho! of Hygiene and Tropieal Medicine, Landon, 1995, Act Alan, “Guide ot Community Based) Psychosocial Supports Stages of Mediation”, hlps/peychosinalctaiance ors; ‘Groeme MacQueen and Joana SantaBarbara, “Peace Building though Healy (nti tives", Brish Medical Journal 32, 29 Sly 24), pp. 293-296, 20, Appeonimately 3000 chien pr yea pustiipated in uke childrens palismens, which set three Times a week for Go Years Each session Somssted of « new group oF aroun Dechildten ofallerent ages wnd backgeounds 21, Funding forthe broadcests wis provided By the NGO WarChild UK. Although tere us futher Tun for the sancn'spartiaments their Jseusions an teslions sre Ccontouallyrebroadcasiedtheoughout northern Uganda 2 Creal im 20, the pie is available (com Friends of Orphans, ww eauganda.org, oF the author of Unis eaptcr. deborahdaviyahoo.oen.