The Search for Transitional Justice in Uganda: Global Dimensions
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The Search for Transitional Justice in Uganda: Global Dimensions A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Of Master of Arts in Anthropology By Tessa Wright University of Canterbury 2011 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... 5 Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ 6 Acronyms ......................................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................. 9 Contrasting Meetings: Community Dialogue versus International Dialogue .......................... 9 Thesis conception: .................................................................................................................... 11 Research Agenda ................................................................................................................ 11 Thesis Argument ................................................................................................................. 13 Literary Contribution ......................................................................................................... 14 Critical Debates in the Field of Transitional Justice: Literature Review ................................ 15 Unraveling the Liberal, Legalist roots of Transitional Justice ........................................ 15 The Expansion of Critical Debate ..................................................................................... 18 Should Economic Justice be included in the scope of Transitional Justice? ................... 19 The Disputed Role of International, National and Local Actors ..................................... 22 Transitional Justice: A Language of Resistance to Hegemony? ...................................... 28 Methodology: Multilayered Fieldwork in Uganda .................................................................. 31 Road Map: Thesis Structure ..................................................................................................... 35 Chapter Two: War in Northern Uganda ................................................................................... 38 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 38 Colonial and Independence History: the Emergence of Regional Inequality ........................ 39 The Lord‟s Resistance Army ................................................................................................... 42 The Structural Complicity of the Ugandan Government and International Actors .............. 48 Failure to End the War ...................................................................................................... 48 An Internationally Supported War of Convenience .......................................................... 51 Displacement in „Protected‟ Camps: National and International Complicity in Dehabilitation and Dependency ............................................................................................... 56 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 61 Chapter 3: Uganda’s Emergence From War ............................................................................ 64 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 64 The Convenient Alliance of Uganda ands the ICC: Narrowing the Scope of Justice ............ 66 Motivations of Uganda‟s referral to the ICC .................................................................... 66 The Self-interested Approach of the ICC........................................................................... 68 The Impact of the ICC Intervention on Discourses of Justice .......................................... 70 The Road to Juba: the Role of International and Local Actors ............................................... 73 Civil Societies Push for Amnesty and Peace Negotiations in Uganda ............................. 73 The Fraught Road to Juba: the Conflicting Roles of International Actors ...................... 77 The Juba Peace Agreements: An Expanded Justice Discourse .............................................. 82 Socioeconomic Justice, Truth Telling, and Reparations .................................................. 82 The Question of Formal Accountability for State Actors in the AAR ............................... 85 The Role of Transitional Justice Discourse ...................................................................... 88 The Impact of the ICC on the Juba Peace Talks ..................................................................... 90 The ICC and the Trajectory of Transition: Towards Criminal Justice ............................ 90 The ICC Warrants and the Failure of the Peace Talks .................................................... 94 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 96 Chapter 4: Local Approaches to Postwar Justice .................................................................... 99 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 99 Literature Review: Local Approaches to Postwar Justice in Northern Uganda .................. 101 Local Justice Approaches: Controversial Claims.......................................................... 101 The Exclusion of Socioeconomic Issues in the Conceptualization of Justice................ 106 Socio-Economic Justice Issues: the Linchpin of „Embedded Justice‟ ................................. 108 Social and Economic Recovery and Development ......................................................... 108 Land Conflict ................................................................................................................... 112 Targeted Reparations: An Element of Socio-Economic Justice .................................... 114 Local Cosmology and Social Restoration as „Embedded Justice‟ ....................................... 117 A Point of Clarification ................................................................................................... 117 The Reinvention of Traditional Justice: Power Interests and a Quest for Peace ......... 118 Locally „Embedded‟ Justice: Social Restoration ........................................................... 120 The Search for an Inclusive Approach to Local Reconciliation .................................... 125 Indirect Justice: Wider Notions of Reconciliation and Accountability ............................... 128 In Favor of Reconciliation with the LRA ........................................................................ 129 In favor of Criminal Accountability for the LRA............................................................ 131 United Voices: Accountability for State Actors .............................................................. 132 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 133 Chapter 5: The Global Struggle for Transitional Justice in Uganda.................................. 136 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 136 Development of Transitional Justice: The Primacy of Sovereign Power ............................ 138 The Approach of the Ugandan Government to Transitional Justice ............................. 138 The Empty Performance Formal Criminal Justice ........................................................ 140 Government Resistance to Non-formal Transitional Justice Mechanisms ................... 144 The Diverse Impact of International Actors ......................................................................... 146 The Ongoing Impact of the ICC Intervention ................................................................. 147 The Role of Uganda‟s International Development Partners ......................................... 149 Global Civil Society: The Struggle for Transitional Justice ................................................ 152 Kampala-based Civil Society .......................................................................................... 153 „Local‟ Gulu-based Civil Society.................................................................................... 157 The Socioeconomic Justice „Void‟ of Transitional Justice in Uganda ................................ 164 The Divorce of Transitional Justice and the PRDP ....................................................... 164 Civil Society: Socio-Economic Justice at the Margins .................................................. 169 Northern-based Civil Society .......................................................................................... 170 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 172 Chapter Six: Conclusion ..........................................................................................................