The Lord’s Resistance Army

The Lord's Resistance Army is Africa's most persistent and notorious 'terrorist' group. Led by the mysterious Joseph Kony, it has committed a series of horrific human rights abuses, including massacres and mutilations. Since the mid 1980s, it has abducted tens of thousands of people, including large numbers of children forced to train as fighters. The IC in 2005 issued warrants for Kony and his top commanders, and the United States is backing a military campaign against the group. But the LRA survives, continuing to inspire both fascination and fear.Authoritative but provocative, The Lord's Resistance Army provides the most comprehensive analysis of the group available. From the roots of the violence to the oppressive responses of the Ugandan government and the failures of the international community, this collection looks at this most brutal of conflicts in fascinating depth, and includes a remarkable first-hand interview with Kony himself.

Introduction - Tim Allen and Koen Vlassenroot Part I: Interpretations of Uganda's war in the north 1. Exploring the Roots of LRA Violence: Political Crisis and Ethnic Politics in Acholiland - Adam Branch 2. Uganda's politics of foreign aid and violent conflict: The political uses of the LRA rebellion - Andrew Mwenda 3. The Spiritual Order of the LRA - Kristof Titeca 4. An African hell of colonial imagination? The Lord's Resistance Army/Movement in Uganda, another story - Sverker Finnström Part II: Experiencing the LRA 5. Chasing the Kony Story - Mareike Schomerus 6. 'A terrorist is not a person like me' - an interview with Joseph Kony - Mareike Schomerus 7. On the nature and causes of LRA abduction: What the abductees say - Christopher Blattman and Jeannie Annan 8. Between two worlds: former LRA soldiers in northern Uganda - Ben Mergelsberg 9. Encountering Kony: A Madi perspective - Ronald Iya Part III: Peace and justice 10. Northern Ugandan: a 'forgotten conflict', again? The impact of the internationalization of the resolution process - Sandrine Perrot 11. The Role of the Government of the South Sudan in Peace Talks to End the War in Northern Uganda - Ronald R. Atkinson 12. NGO involvement in the Juba peace talk: the role and dilemmas of IKV Pax Christi - Simon Simonse, Willemijn Verkoren, Gerd Junne 13. Bitter Roots: the 'invention' of Acholi traditional justice - Tim Allen 14. The ICC Investigation of the Lord's Resistance Army: An Insider's View - Matthew Brubacher Postscript: a kind of peace and an exported war - Tim Allen, Frederick Laker, Holly Porter and Mareike Schomerus Bibliography