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Returning to Peace
IPF Local Partner: P.H.A.R.P. (Peace-building, Healing, and Reconciliation Program)
CHIPS (Christian International Peace Service)
FORTY - Foundation for Youth Transformation
IPF Projects:Reconciliation & Healing for Uganda’s People Traumatized by WarPromotion of Cross Border Dialogue & Positive Interactions in NE Uganda
Location: Northern Uganda, Gulu Province (PHARP), Amuria, Katakwi, & Moroto, NE Uganda (CHIPS)
Peacemakers Mr Robert Kennedy Lokuda - Project Manager, CHIPS Uganda
Background
Since
the late 1980s Uganda has rebounded from the abyss of civil war and
economic catastrophe, but the lives of hundreds of thousands of people
in the north remain blighted by one of Africa's most brutal conflicts.
In the 1970s and 1980s Uganda was notorious for its human rights abuses, first during the military dictatorship of Idi Amin from 1971-79 and then after the return to power of Milton Obote, who had been ousted by Amin. During this time up to half a million people were killed in state-sponsored violence.
Since
becoming president in 1986 Yoweri Museveni has introduced democratic
reforms and has been credited with substantially improving human
rights, notably by reducing abuses by the army and the police.
The president came under fire for Uganda's military involvement, along with five other countries, in neighboring DR Congo's 1998-2003 civil war. DR Congo accuses Uganda of maintaining its influence in the mineral-rich east of the country. Uganda says DR Congo has failed to disarm Ugandan rebels on its soil.
At home, the cult-like Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has perpetrated massacres and mutilations in the north for nearly two decades. The group's leader has said he wants to run the country along the lines of the biblical ten-commandments. The violence has displaced more than 1.6 million people and tens of thousands of civilians have been killed or kidnapped. The UN estimates that the group has abducted 20,000 children.
The LRA and government signed a truce in August 2006 aimed at ending the long-running conflicts.
