The Foreign Service Journal, February 2007

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 49 their voice, to the international community, to the govern- ment, first and foremost, to be able to inform them of what was going on. And so I chose to remain there as much as possible.” Gaining acceptance from all sides as a woman in the northern Uganda maelstrom was a problem for Bigom- be, especially at the beginning, she recalls. “There were so many things that went against me.” The first reaction from the rebels was, “We are very insulted. We told you Museveni does not want peace! How dare he send a girl?” “They didn’t even call me ‘woman.’ They said ‘a girl ... he (Museveni) is not serious. This is a big joke.’ So a woman had to prove that a woman can go do what men do,” she says. Eventually she won acceptance, but early on nobody — not even aid work- ers — would go with her on missions, Bigombe says. “They were scared to death.” She says her visits to the camps were intense. “I was able to reach all these people. I was able to sit with them, talk, spend the nights, some- times without food.” She says she debunked the widespread notion that no outsider would spend the night at a camp and endure the same hard- ships as those living there. “It was a terrible situation. You have all these bugs. I had lice all over me. You’re living in a very deplorable situation. Then they realized a woman can do this. A man probably would not stay here and get lice and bugs all over his body.” John Prendergast, an Africa expert at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, has accompanied Bigombe on visits to the camps. “She gets mobbed,” he says. “Some day there will be peace in Uganda. She’s the flame that people have looked to in the hope that their situation is not per- manent.” He characterizes her role as “pure sacrifice. There is no other way to describe it. She has sacrificed her entire career to this endeavor.” A Fateful Day Various strategies were used over the years to achieve a settlement, including Ugandan military pressure on the LRA, peace talks and offers of amnesty. But peace proved to be elusive. One promising negotiation fell short in 1994. And, having failed to win re-election to parliament, Bigom- be gave up her quest in 1996. At that point, she took an entirely new path, leaving the Uganda bush for the pillared precincts of Harvard University, where she received a master’s degree in 1997. She then took a position at the World Bank specializing in post-conflict issues, and kept tabs on the situation in northern Uganda from a distance. But on a fateful day in February 2004, Bigombe sudden- ly abandoned her comfortable life to return to her home- land. She was prompted by a television account of an LRA massacre that claimed some 200 lives. When her picture flashed on the screen, and the TV reporter noted her near- success in bringing the two sides to the negotiating table in 1994, she decided it was time to give it another try. The tim- ing was propitious because the LRA seemed to be willing to bargain. Its resources were dwindling, and top commanders were deserting. Last August, Bigombe convinced the Ugandan government to impose a unilateral cease-fire, a major break- through. Prendergast says Bigombe “almost single-handedly laid the groundwork” for the cease-fire. Jimmy Kolker, who served as U.S. ambassador to Uganda from 2002 to 2005, says it’s hard to imagine anyone doing a better job than Bigombe, even the most skilled U.N. peacemaker. “There is no special envoy who could have done what she did.” Shortly after the truce took effect, Bigombe again left the bush and is back in the Washington area, living in leafy Bethesda. She keeps busy with her work at the insti- tute and writing her book on her off-and-on, 18-year peace- making effort. She also dispenses advice via e-mail and tele- phone to peace negotiators back home. Meanwhile, the truce has given the government and LRA negotiators breathing space to hammer out what they hope will be a definitive settlement of the conflict. These discus- sions are being held in the southern Sudanese city of Juba. Unprecedented Suffering The estimates of the number of Acholi living in camps today vary widely, from a low of 800,000 to 1.8 million. (Bigombe embraces the latter figure.) Many were forcibly removed by the Ugandan government from their homes to the camps to protect them from rebel attacks. The number of dead is well into the thousands, victims of either violence, disease or malnutrition. It is hard to exaggerate the brutality the LRA has com- mitted against the Acholi in northern Uganda. Its forces have killed and mutilated innocent civilians, abducted chil- dren and adults, looted homes and public buildings and vil- lages and burned fields. According to estimates, the LRA has kidnapped around 20,000 children since 1987 for use as It is hard to exaggerate the brutality the LRA committed against the Acholis in northern Uganda.