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Existential Motivations in the Lord's Resistance Army’s Continuing Conflict

2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 30; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10576100701200173

1521-0731

Anthony Vinci,

Religion, Society, and Development

AbstractThis article argues that although the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) may have begun its war for instrumental goals, such as to create political change, these goals have largely been replaced by existential motivations, in the sense that the LRA organization fights in order to continue providing security and a vocation to its members, which would be lost by a return to wider society. It is posited that the factor allowing for this turn from instrumental to existential motivation is that the LRA organization has effectively separated itself from wider society and created an autonomous political community. The implication of this is that it may be necessary to first reintegrate members of the LRA into the greater Acholi and Ugandan community and then to find a political settlement. The article also discusses lessons learned for dealing with other existentially motivated armed groups, such as Al Qaeda. Notes01. For more on the LRA's history, see Ruddy Doom and Koen Vlassenroot, "Kony's Message: A New Koine? The Lord's Resistance Army in Northern Uganda," African Affairs, 98(390) (1999), 5–36 and Heike Behrend (trans. Mitch Cohen) Alice Lakwena & the Holy Spirits: War in Northern Uganda, 1985–97 (Oxford: James Currey, 1999).2. Behrend, Alice Lakwena. The Holy Spirit Tactics involved initiation, purification, and ritual through which members of HSM were led to believe that they were invulnerable and that other magical benefits were theirs to use, including the ability to turn stones into grenades and bees into allies.03. Doom and Vlassenroot, "Kony's Message"04. Lawrence E. Cline, "Spirits and the Cross: Religiously Based Violent Movements in Uganda," Small Wars and Insurgencies, 14(2) (2003), 113–130.05. Doom and Vlassenroot, "Kony's Message," 22.06. Behrend, Alice Lakwena, 114.07. Doom and Vlassenroot, "Kony's Message."08. Ibid.09. This behavior is not uncommon in insurgencies, for guerrilla movements that no longer feel they need the local population to survive may turn against it. This occurred during the Greek civil war, where the Communist guerrillas had access to bases in countries north of Greece. The possession of these bases meant the guerrillas "felt free to express their profound, even murderous, contempt for the Greek peasantry among whom they operated." Anthony James Joes, Resisting Rebellion: The History and Politics of Counterinsurgency (Lexington: University of Kentucky, 2004), 19.10. For more on the civil war in southern Sudan, see Douglas H. Johnson, The Root Causes of Sudan's Civil Wars (Oxford: The International African Institute in association with James Curry and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2003).11. For more on this period in Sudanese–Ugandan relations, see Johnson, The Root Causes of Sudan's Civil Wars, and John Young, "Sudan and Changing Relations in the Horn of Africa," paper delivered at Money Makes the War Go Round? The EU and Transforming the Economy of War in Sudan Conference (Brussels, 12–13 June 2002).12. IRIN News, "LRA 'Colonel' returns to Kampala," UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs' UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 4 February 2002.13. Noted in multiple interviews, Gulu, January 2005.14. Interview, UN Access Advisor, Gulu, 14 January 2005. Confirmed in other interviews.15. International Crisis Group (ICG), "Northern Uganda: Understanding and Solving the Conflict," (Nairobi/Brussels: ICG Africa Report No. 77, 2004).16. IRIN News, "Sudanese Government Troops Attack LRA in the South," UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs' UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 12 April 2005.17. IRIN News, "Army to Hunt LRA Rebels Inside Sudan," UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs' UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 11 October 2005.18. For more on the peace process, see International Crisis Group, "Shock Therapy for Northern Uganda's Peace Process," Africa Briefing No. 23, 11 April 2005.19. IRIN News, "LRA Rebels Ask for Peace Talks with Government," UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 30 November 2005.20. BBC News, "Uganda Top Leader Indicted," BBC, London, 7 October 2005.21. IRIN News, "LRA Leaders Not Entitled to Amnesty—Minister," UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 21 April 2006.22. International Crisis Group, "Shock Therapy for Northern Uganda's Peace Process," 2.23. Ibid.24. This framework is loosely based on the work of Christopher Coker. For more concerning the instrumental and existential nature of warfare, see Christopher Coker, Waging War Without Warriors? The Changing Culture of Military Conflict (London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2002).25. Reported in BBC News, "Uganda LRA rebel leader 'speaks,'" BBC News, London, 15 April 2004. Although the interview does give a rare glance into the organization, it should be taken with a grain of salt, as it was conducted by a former Kony body guard who has remained anonymous.26. The Monitor—Frank Nyakairu, "The Reclusive LRA Rebel Leader Joseph Kony has Given His First-Ever Interview and Announced He Might Be Relocating to Ethiopia," The Monitor, Kampala, 15 April 2004.27. Paul Jackson, "The March of the Lord's Resistance Army: Greed of Grievance in Northern Uganda?" Small Wars and Insurgencies, 13(3) (2002).28. Ibid., 47.29. John Mackinlay, Globalization and Insurgency (Oxford, London: Oxford University Press for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, 2002), 70.30. See Anthony Vinci, "The Strategic Use of Fear by the Lord's Resistance Army," Small Wars and Insurgencies, 16(3) (2005), 360–381.31. Various interviews, Gulu, Kampala, January 2005.32. Interview, WFP head, Gulu, 19 January 2005.33. Jackson, "The March of the Lord's," 47.34. Gathered from various interviews in northern Uganda during January 2005.35. Interview with NGO Country Director, Gulu, 13 January 2005.36. Paul Collier, "Doing Well Out of War: An Economic Perspective," in Mats Berdal and David Malone (eds.), Greed and Grievance. Economic Agendas in Civil Wars (London: Lynne Reinner Publishers, 2000), 213–217.37. See for instance, Ken Menkhaus and John Prendergast, "Conflict and Crisis in the Greater Horn of Africa," Current History (May 1999).38. Reported in IRIN News, "Sudanese Militia Vow to Fight LRA Rebels," UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 20 April 2004.39. Again, this framework is loosely based on the work of Coker. For more on the existential aspects of warfare, see Coker, Waging Wars Without Warriors.40. For the most sophisticated example, see Behrend, Alice Lakwena. Jackson also ends with a millenarian-like understanding. Jackson "The March of the Lord's."41. Interview with member of peace negotiations team, Gulu, 14 January 2005.42. Of which Kony reportedly has between 30 and 100.43. Interview with Walter Ochora, Chairman of Gulu local district council, Gulu, quoted in IRIN 2003.44. ICG "Northern Uganda," 8.45. Noted in interviews with local residents in Gulu, January 2005.46. Morten Boas, "Africa's Young Guerillas: Rebels with a Cause?" Current History, 103(673) (2004), 212.47. The number of such children is unknown.48. Human Rights Watch, "The Scars of Death: Children Abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda" (London: Human Rights Watch, 1997).49. Amnesty International, "Uganda: Breaking the Circle: Protecting Human Rights in the Northern War Zone," (London: Macy, 1999), 56.50. ICG interview with Ugandan official, Kampala, December 2003, reported in ICG "Northern Uganda."51. Doom and Vlassenroot, "Kony's Message," 36.52. Ibid., 26.53. ICG "Shock Therapy," 7.54. Ibid., 7, based on "Crisis Group interview, March 2005."55. See Anthony Vinci, "Between Terror and Insurgency: The LRA's Dirty War in Northern Uganda," in The Warrior's Dishonour: Barbarity, Morality, and Torture in Modern Warfare, George Kassimeris (ed.), (London: Ashgate, 2006), 81–100.56. Mao Tse-Tung in Arthur Campbell, Guerrillas: A History and Analysis (London: Arthur Barker Limited, 1967), 260.57. Carl Schmitt, trans. George Schwab, The Concept of the Political (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).58. Frank Van Acker, "Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army: The New Order No One Ordered," Africa Affairs, 103(412) (2004), 335–357, 349.59. A. Lukermoi, "The Effects of the Holy Spirit Movement on the Christian Church," MA Thesis (Kampala: Department of Theology, Makerere University, 1990), 49, noted in Zachary Lomo and Lucy Hovil, Behind the Violence, The War in Northern Uganda, Monograph No. 99 (Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies, March 2004).60. Noted, for example, by David Keen, The Economic Function of Violence in Civil Wars (Oxford, London: Oxford University Press for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1998).61. See discussion of warlord militias in Anthony Vinci, "An Analysis and Comparison of Armed Groups in Somalia," Review of African Security, 15(1) (2006), pp. 76–90.