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Introduction:

For more than 20 years, Uganda has witnessed civil war between its army and the 
Lord&rsquo;s Resistance Army under the leadership of Joseph Kony. The Army&rsquo;s name 
comes from a conviction that the Lord has given them the power to implement 
governance based on the Ten Commandments. 
 
The LRA enlist child-soldiers and are accused of many other human rights 
violations. This is why the ICC (International Criminal Court) has issued warrants 
for the arrest of Joseph Kony and other LRA leaders. 
 
The roots of the conflict are in British colonization of Uganda, where colonizers 
favoured ethnic groups located in the southern part of the country. This meant that at 
the time of independence in 1962, the country was practically divided into southern 
Uganda, where the politically powerful and well-educated people lived, and northern 
Uganda, which provided cheap labour. 
 
This led to various attempts to overthrow the government as the north and south 
fought for power. We should mention Milton Obote who led a military coup in 1966 
and YoweriMuseveni who carried out a successful coup in 1986. Museveni (M7) is 
still in power and will remain in power until at least 2016. 
 
From 1986, the LRA fought in the north of the country and everyone there felt 
threatened. This was why Musevenisent thousands of people to live in &ldquo;protected&rdquo; 
camps under precarious living conditions. 
 
The drawn-out conflict may be better understood when you take into consideration 
that it is in M7&rsquo;s interests to prolong the conflict and as such delay development of 
northern Uganda. 
 
The reintegration of LRA members has already begun but the central core of the 
movement has left the country, firstly going to Sudan and, having been expelled 
from Southern Sudan, moving into the Congo and the Central African Republic. 
In 2008 an attempt was made by Africom and the Ugandan army to pursue the LRA. 
And at the time of writing this article, the American government has given the green 
light to a military campaign to pursue the LRA in the name of peace, reconciliation 
and human rights. But in fact, this is a demonstration of American power and its 
interests in the eastern Congo. 
 
So now M7 is a great friend of the Americans. Ironically, he does not have a good 
human rights record. But this is not important to the Americans. He recently won the 
elections with a 68% majority, but this was by means of intimidation. The West had 
no problem validating these elections even though it knew that the result was not 
recognised by the African Union. 
 
In the files you will read more about dirty political games. Good luck!

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