Interactions of Development Intervention and Conflict in Northern Uganda Henni Alava Helsingin yliopisto Valtiotieteellinen tiedekunta Kehitysmaatutkimus Pro gradu -tutkielma Tammikuu 2008 1 Content List of figures, charts, tables, pictures and appendixes Acronyms PART I: INTRODUCTION AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Chapter 1 - Introduction 8 1.1. The world’s most neglected humanitarian crisis? 8 1.2. Research question and limitations 10 1.3. Methodology 13 1.4. The ethics of research and development intervention amidst displacement and suffering 16 Chapter 2 - Analysing development intervention 21 2.1 Development and intervention 21 2.2. Methodological developmentalism 22 2.3. Social interface analysis 24 PART II: CONTEXT OF INTERVENTION IN NORTHERN UGANDA – FRAMEWORKS AND ARENAS Chapter 3 - Transformed humanitarianism 28 3.1. The merging of development and security 29 3.2. The relief–development continuum 31 3.3. The core of transformed humanitarianism 33 3.4. Expansion and competition in the humanitarian regime 34 3.5. Standardisation and consequentialist ethics 35 Conclusion 38 Chapter 4 - The context of conflict in northern Uganda 40 4.1. Historical roots of the conflict 41 4.1.1. Colonial era 41 4.1.2. Conflict in independent Uganda 44 4.1.3. Obote II and the Bush War 45 4.1.4. Consolidating the NRM/A regime 47 4.2. Conflict within Acholi 48 4.3. Conflict within Uganda 51 4.3.1. Regional inequality and marginalisation 52 4.3.2. Party politics and ethnicity 54 4.4. Northern Uganda within a regional conflict complex 56 4.5. International context of the LRA war 58 4.5.1. Donor relations: a multitude of perceptions 59 4.5.2. Economic reforms 60 4.5.3. Military spending and failed states 65 Conclusions to part II 67 2 PART III: DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTION AND CONFLICT IN NORTHERN UGANDA Chapter 5 - Dynamics of conflict and intervention, 2001–2006 70 5.1. From Operation Iron Fist to increased humanitarian attention 70 5.1.1. Disaster escalates 72 5.1.2. Increased humanitarian assistance 73 5.2. Reasons for interest increase 76 5.2.1. Renegotiation of donor relations 77 5.2.2. Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) 78 5.3. ICC warrants and attacks on humanitarians 80 5.4. Peace talks and intervention in July–August 2006 82 5.5. Uganda and its donors; partners in crime? 84 Chapter 6 - At the interface of intervention and conflict in Kitgum 86 6.1. Transformed humanitarianism in practice: interpreting the situation in Kitgum 87 6.1.1 Influx of actors, increased need for coordination 87 6.1.2. Economic impacts of intervention 89 6.1.3 Conceptualisations of the conflict 91 6.2. Negotiating relief, development and security in Kitgum 94 6.2.1. Development intervention amid conflict in northern Uganda 94 6.2.2 Relief–development: a neat continuum or utter confusion? 97 6.3. Power, authority and disempowerment at the interface 100 6.3.1. Constructing power and authority through intervention 101 6.3.2. Intervention that disempowers 102 6.3.3. Present in body but not in mind or at heart? 106 Chapter 7 - Analysing interactions of development intervention and conflict 109 7.1. Core arguments 109 7.2. (Not) analysing conflict impacts in Kitgum 110 7.3. From searching for impacts to sketching interactions 114 FINAL CONCLUSIONS 117 Bibliography 118 Appendices 124 3 List of figures, charts, tables, pictures and appendices Page Figure 1. Model of a complex political emergency and its transformation 33 Figure 2. Evolution of conflict and intervention in northern Uganda, 71 2001–2006 Table 1. Humanitarian funding to the Uganda complex emergency under 74 the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP), 2000–2007 Chart 1. Funding to the Uganda complex emergency under the 74 Consolidated Appeals Process, 2000–2007 Pictures Signposts by an entrance road to Kitgum 7 (Christopher Leinonen, November 2006. Reproduced with permission) View over Lagoro displacement camp 27 (author, August 2006) Children crowding outside the car at Palabek Gem displacement camp 69 (author, August 2006) Appendix 1. Map of Uganda 124 Appendix 2. Map of Kitgum district 125 Appendix 3. Organisations interviewed in Kitgum 126 4 ACRONYMS ARLPI Acholi Religious Leaders’ Peace Initiative CAP Consolidated Appeals Process, a UN-lead system under which humanitarian assistance is planned and coordinated. The 105 organisations involved in CAP Uganda (2007) make joint funding requests for their humanitarian assistance operations both in Karamoja and LRA-affected areas. CMR Crude mortality rate CPA Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government of Sudan and the SPLM/A, signed in January 2005. DRC Democratic Republic of Congo (named Zaire between 1971–1977). FDC Forum for Democratic Change, Uganda’s main opposition party, headed by Kizza Besigye. GDP Gross domestic product GNP Gross national product HIPC Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, under which Uganda was included in 1998. HIV and AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunodeficiency virus HSM/A Holy Spirit Movement/Army, an originally spiritual millenarian movement led by Alice Lakwena in northern Uganda. Was overrun by government forces after an attempt to capture Kampala in 1987. ICC International Criminal Court ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross ICVA International Council of Voluntary Organisations, a global network of humanitarian and human rights NGOs. IDMC Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, part of the Refugee Law Project at Makerere University in Kampala. IDP Internally displaced person IFI International Financial Institution IMF International Monetary Fund INGO International non-governmental organisation 5 JMC Joint Monitoring Committee, committee mandated under the JMM to implement the Government’s Emergency Action Plan for Humanitarian Assistance in northern Uganda. JMM Joint Monitoring Mechanism, set up by the Government of Uganda in May 2006 to coordinate humanitarian assistance to northern Uganda. LC Local Council LWF Lutheran World Federation LRA Lord’s Resistance Army, rebel movement led by Joseph Kony. Sometimes also referred to as Lord’s Resistance Movement/Army (LRM/A). MSF Médecins Sans Frontières, (Doctors Without Borders) NGO Non-governmental organisation NRM/A National Resistance Movement/Army. Initially a rebel movement led by Yoweri Museveni, which overtook Kampala in 1986. The NRA was renamed UPDF when Uganda adopted a multiparty system in 1995. The NRM is the political party of president Yoweri Museveni. OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development RDC Resident District Commissioner RLP Refugee Law Project, at Makerere University in Uganda SPHERE A project launched by humanitarian actors to define a humanitarian charter and minimum standards in disaster response. SPLM/A Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement/Army U5MR Under-5 mortality rate UMDF Uganda Multilateral Debt Fund UNICEF The United Nations Children’s Fund UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNDSS United Nations Department of Safety and Security UNLA United National Liberation Army. The name of the Ugandan army after the ousting of Idi Amin, in which Acholi and Langi soldiers were predominant. UNMIS United Nations Mission in Sudan 6 UNOCHA United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which at the time of fieldwork was responsible for the coordination of humanitarian and development activities in Kitgum. UNSC United Nations Security Council UPDA United People’s Democratic Army, one of the post-Obote rebel groups that operated in northern Uganda. UPDF Uganda People’s Defence Force, (previously NRM). The Ugandan national army. UK The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland US United States of America USD US dollar WHO World Health Organisation WFP World Food Programme 7 PART I INTRODUCTION AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 8 1. Introduction 1.1. The world’s most neglected humanitarian crisis? The conflict in northern Uganda is the biggest forgotten, neglected humanitarian emergency in the world today… We have to increase our support. We will do things. We the United Nations have also done too little. The donors have done too little. The government has done too little, we have all done too little… I was shocked, it is a moral outrage what has happened and is happening. (Jan Egeland in November 2003, as quoted in AFM 2003). The flight from the international airport in Entebbe, near Kampala, to the airstrip in Kitgum, near the Sudanese border, is illustrative of the globalised nature of northern Uganda’s conflict. On board the flight are some few Ugandans who work for international agencies, and a much larger group of munu (the plural Acholi term for white foreigners): staff of international humanitarian and development organisations, some journalists, and one or two development researchers on their way to conduct fieldwork. Most probably, the underlying reason for each of the muno (the singular form of munu) to be on board the flight to Kitgum is the same: for 20 years the district has been part of the stage of a fierce conflict between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda. The rebels’ brutal attacks, which have included mutilations and the large-scale abduction of children, combined with the government’s anti-insurgency campaigns, have over the past two decades led to massive population displacement and varying levels of humanitarian crisis. Yet three years before my own flight to the district, not many weekly flights were operated – not as many munu had an interest in reaching Kitgum. The conflict was there, the human suffering was there, the munu were not. Why not then, why now? In November 2003 the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland, made a trip to northern Uganda, after which he made the statement quoted at the beginning of this chapter, coining the situation the world’s worst forgotten humanitarian emergency. Three years later – if international presence is taken as a measure – the statement no longer stands. Kitgum, a town that hosted hardly any international agencies even in 2004, is now a hub of the international humanitarian and development industry.