Joyce and Emmanuel were childhood sweethearts.  Or rather, they would have been, had Emmanuel not been so shy...

Aside from their slow-blooming love affair, childhood for Joyce and Emmanuel was not so innocent or easy.  They grew up in Kitgum during the time when Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) was destroying the region in its brutal 20-year conflict with the government.  Kony's LRA has killed, raped, and abducted tens of thousands of civilians  The war, which is only now approaching an uncertain peace, has caused over 1.7 million people to be displaced from their homes and in some areas of the north 90% of the civilian population has been displaced.[iv] 

Seeking to overthrow the government of Uganda and rule the country based on the Ten Commandments, Kony is notorious for his abduction of children.  The majority of the LRA forces are children abducted against their will, many of whom were forced to commit violent crimes, often against their own families and communities.[v]  A UNICEF survey estimates that more than one in three young men and one in six young women in the region have at some point been abducted

The situation is further complicated by the fact that in many instances the state itself is responsible for the violence.  In 1991 the Ugandan government forcibly relocated many civilians to internally displaced persons (IDP) camps, and by mid-2006 there was a total of 220 camps.  Those who have survived the conflict in the North frequently report that government soldiers were equally brutal in their attacks on civilian populations.  Chris Dolan, head of the Refugee Law Project in Uganda, explains that "what has passed for ‘protection' in northern Uganda has in fact been a cover for violence and mass humiliation. [vii]

Gender and Conflict

As is often the case, the conflict in northern Uganda has disproportionately and severely harmed women and children.  Emmanuel, who worked with Joyce to start the Center for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims, spoke at length about how the conflict has devastated his community, and women and girls in particular.  Their center runs a project for formerly abducted child-mothers — girls that were abducted by the LRA and became pregnant by rape during captivity.  Returning to their communities has not been easy.  Their families often reject them because they were in the LRA, and potential husbands reject them because they are "used up girls."  Forced to find food for themselves and their children, the girls often turn to sex work, lingering in local bars frequented by soldiers with disposable income.  Those who try to attend school often cannot afford the costs of uniforms or supplies, and seek out soldiers or older men just to procure money for education.  

There seems no end to the reports of gender-based violence in the area - Emmanuel says he hears new stories every day.  Even more devastating is that instances of sexual violence are often committed by those responsible for protection in the region.[vii]  Kitgum's police officer in charge of Child Protection was caught raping a 12-year-old girl, and three men recently rounded up on rape charges included UNICEF and World Food Program staff members.  The stories beg the question that Emmanuel asks angrily -  "who is protecting whom?"

The situation of women and girls living within the IDP camps is equally insecure.  I spent a day with a group of women in Padibe, a camp outside of Kitgum that houses 40,000 people, most of whom have lived there for at least 20 years.  The women I spoke with were selected by their communities to be gender-based violence volunteers.  With support from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) they watch out for instances of sexual assault and domestic violence, assist survivors with emotional and medical support, and raise awareness about gender-based violence through drama presentations within the camp.  The women reported high rates of domestic violence, sexual assault of very young girls, and pervasive alcoholism and drug use among men. 

As a tentative peace holds in the region and communities begin the slow shift out of the camps and back to their outlying villages there is hope that the return home will bring a semblance of safety.  But the transition brings its own problems and insecurity - as parents gradually move from main IDP camps to satellite camps they often leave their girls in the main camp to attend school.  Without parental protection the girls are being raped by neighbors or other relatives.  Girls that moved out to the satellite camps with their parents are being raped as they commute back into school in the main camp.   The situation will likely improve as health care and education services are expanded outward but in the meantime women and girls are, again, left in unprotected and vulnerable situations.

What makes the stories even more painful is that the crimes seem to take place with complete impunity.  IRC staff and local police in Padibe report that their biggest challenge is finding doctors to fill out the examination form when a woman or girl is raped.  The medical examination form, which must come from a government doctor in order to be allowed in court, is the usually the only form of proof that a survivor has against her perpetrator.  Yet government doctors are either not there at all (the one government doctor serving Padibe is often gone from the health center for at weeks at a time) or the doctors are simply refusing to fill out the forms, leaving rape survivors with no evidence to prove their assault.  Even those that are able to obtain the form face other barriers - the cost of a court case is often prohibitive, and sometimes the local councils of male elders will intervene and only impose a minor fine on the assailant.  The IRC staff reported that perpetrators that are arrested must be transported to the town of Gulu for court - in the one-hour drive from Kitgum to Gulu they are often able to bribe the police to release them, and they reappear at the camps the same day. 

Gender, Conflict and HIV

The pervasive gender-based violence in the region becomes even more deadly in the context of HIV/AIDS.  There already tend to be higher HIV prevalence rates during war, with many characteristics of conflict also driving the spread of HIV.  Social disorder, breakdown of family and community values, overstretched social services, desperation arising from uncertainty, and increased poverty all contribute to rising HIV rates.  Situations within IDP camps worsen the situation, due to limited access to HIV information and care, poor nutrition, early sexual debut, and an increase in commercial sex for money or food.

The cyclical nature of gender-based violence and AIDS becomes painfully clear in this setting - HIV is both a source of and a result of violence against women.  Women are contracting HIV from rape and sexual assault, and women suffer violence when they contract HIV and disclose their status.  The community volunteers in Padibe reported that men with HIV sometimes rape women in their community simply "so that they don't die alone."  And everyone I spoke with had stories of women being assaulted when they tell their husbands they have HIV. 

Emmanuel's tone grows heavy when he discusses the issue of AIDS.  His younger brother works at St. Joseph's Hospital in Kitgum, and Emmanuel is there often, providing food for patients.  "It is too much," he says simply.  The reported HIV prevalence rate for Kitgum is 7.6%, but he says the majority of people have not been tested and district leaders do not have adequate statistics.  When testing is done more comprehensively, the results reveal much higher percentages - health workers recently tested all 125 members of a local village and found that 90 of them were HIV positive.  Emmanuel senses that the whole district is affected, leaving him deeply concerned about the future of his community.

Transitioning to peace

Although some calm has been restored to the region, complete and definite peace remains elusive.  Kony has stalled in signing the peace agreement, his location remains uncertain, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) maintains its warrants for the arrest of Kony and other top LRA leaders.  The ICC warrants are a hotly contested issue with international implications -- raising difficult questions of peace versus justice and sparking debate about the benefits and problems of this global court. 

But for the women of Kitgum and its surrounding IDP camps, this debate is irrelevant.  They are tired of the violence and rape and want only peace.  If peace means that the ICC removes its warrants and Kony goes free then, they say, so be it.  The director of the gender-based violence team at the IRC explains that women are now speaking out of hopelessness and exhaustion.  Finally being allowed to return home, they will not withstand a return to camps with no food, bad sanitation, where their children are unsafe and they have to struggle for the survival of their families.

It is unclear what will happen in the coming months, as the prospect for peace seems within reach and thousands begin a slow return out of the camps and back to their villages.  It is clear, however, that the people of Northern Uganda have work ahead of them, especially as they reintegrate traumatized child soldiers with traumatized families and communities.  With populations disbursing to remote villages with limited medical services, community workers fear that the largest struggle against HIV/AIDS is still ahead.  And as large international NGOs, who have long provided some of the only infrastructure in the region, begin to pack up and leave, the work will be left to people like Emmanuel and Joyce.  Emmanuel will continue his work with formerly abducted children, doing human rights trainings and creating income-generating activities for child-mothers.  In September Joyce will leave Kitgum for the UK to do a master's program in clinical psychology - "so that I can come back here," she quickly adds. 

[i] "Only Peace Can Restore the Confidence of the Displaced:  Update on the Implementation of the Recommendations made by the UN Secretary-General's Representative on Internally Displaced Persons following his visit to Uganda."  Published the Refugee Law Project and the Norwegian Refugee Council, October 2006.  [hereinafter IDP report].

[ii] Id.

[iii] Chris Dolan and Lucy Hovil, "Humanitarian protection in Uganda:  A Trojan Horse?"  Humanitarian Policy Group Background Paper, December 2006.  [hereinafter HPG report.]

[iv] IDP report.

[v] HPG report. 

[vi] Id.

[vii] IDP report.

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