The U.S. Role in Northern Uganda

While in Kampala, we met with political officers at both the Dutch Embassy and the U.S. Embassy. We had heard that the Dutch are particularly supportive of restorative justice in Africa and so we thought we might obtain a few advocacy points for our work with the U.S. government. In fact, both meetings were equally valuable in terms of shaping our approach to restorative justice and affirmed the importance of our work.

I came to Uganda under the impression that the U.S. still needed a lot of education on transitional justice before we would see any real progress, support, or programs from the U.S. government. Instead, our discussions with the Political Officer in Kampala and the USAID Conflict Specialist in Gulu seem to indicate that the U.S. is very supportive of restorative justice and believes that it "should be recognized as legitimate."

Significantly, Kathleen Fitzgibbons, the Political Officer, also said that while State Department recognizes the need for local justice in the north, Congress still needs a lot of education on the issue. As such, she affirmed the importance of our project and provided us with contacts for our trip north to Gulu.

In Gulu, USAID is now transitioning from emergency aid to sustainable development aid. The approach is very locally-driven and will hopefully provide some measure of reconciliation. Of course, I take the information with a grain of salt, being that it came from USAID personnel. Even still, there are positive movements, which is encouraging to see.

The fact that the U.S. government is not a signatory to the Rome Statute (which established the International Criminal Court (ICC)) also shapes their perception of transitional justice. In one sense, it is a good thing, because it means that the U.S. can support local justice without feeling obligated to pursue the international arrest warrants against LRA leader Joseph Kony. It also means that U.S. soldiers can get away with war crimes. The Dutch government on the other hand, while very interested in transitional justice, fully backs the ICC. However, their approach to foreign aid is very different from the U.S. - they put very few conditions on aid and encourage Ugandans to follow whatever path they believe is best for the country. They also do not provide military aid, something that may hamper development of the North in the future.

Posted by Beth Tuckey