The Foreign Service Journal, February 2007

soldiers and sex slaves. Ex-LRA abductees speak of being forced to kill and maim friends and neighbors as well as participating in grotesque rites such as drinking their victims’ blood. The U.S. Agency for Inter- national Development maintains recorded testimonies of children who have escaped their LRA kidnapers. The Bush administration has generally taken a low-key approach to the situation. President Bush made a four-hour visit to Uganda in July 2003. There was no reference in his public remarks in Entebbe to the mass suf- fering in the region, even though it was taking place not far fromwhere he was speaking. Like most presidential visits abroad, Bush’s focus was on good news. The visit was aimed primarily at congratulating Museveni for his effec- tive policy in combating HIV/AIDS, a program that has received substantial U.S. funding. In March 2006, Bush included northern Uganda in a report on glob- al trouble spots, blaming the violence there on a “barbaric rebel cult.” U.S. relief aid totals $95 million annually, with another $13 million for rehabili- tating children who manage to escape their LRA captors. In Darfur, by contrast, the United States provided $507 million in humanitarian relief in 2005 and $765 million the year before that. The LRA is led by the fearsome Joseph Kony, who claims to be wag- ing war on God’s direct orders. Kony, who has little formal education, shuns dealing with outsiders; Bigombe has been an exception. During the 1990s, she met with the LRA leader four times. They have been in fre- quent telephone contact. “I describe him as someone with multiple per- sonality disorder,” Bigombe says, adding that he can be “perfectly nor- mal” in one-on-one conversation. She declines to give details about her conversations with him, considering them to be private. Kony, who is said to have 48 chil- dren and scores of wives, cites Old Testament teachings in defending LRA atrocities. A left arm that sins must be cut off, and the lips of people who have said bad things must suffer the same fate, he believes. Eyes that have seen what they shouldn’t must be plucked out. His followers “are con- vinced that he’s got supernatural pow- ers,” Bigombe says. “When the spirits move him, his eyes pop and he starts foaming at the mouth. You can’t end this war without understanding his spirit.” Juba: Opportunity for Peace In early November 2006, the LRA agreed to extend the August truce. The language of the extension called for fighters to assemble at two points in southern Sudan while they await the conclusions of negotiations for a final settlement. Government nego- tiators in Juba said that Kony’s lieu- tenants have been muting their demands for religious piety and stressing instead the need for Kampala to end its historic neglect of the country’s northern region. Bigombe is optimistic. “The Juba talks are the best opportunity for peace,” she told an Institute of Peace gathering a week after the addendum was signed. For years, the LRA had been able to rely on arms and equip- ment from neighboring Sudan, but that pipeline was cut off several years ago as part of a deal between the Ugandan and Sudanese governments. In return, Kampala ceased support for southern Sudanese who had been fighting the Khartoum government since 1983. That war ended with a peace agreement in 2005, and Bigombe believes northern Uganda is ripe for peace as well. She says International Criminal Court arrest warrants in 2005 against Kony and four other LRA chieftains (one has since died) have put added pressure on the LRA to seek a deal. The ICC has charged Kony with 12 counts of crimes against humanity and 21 counts of war crimes. “The LRA realizes that if they don’t do some- thing now, the whole world will be against them,” she says. As of the end of 2006, all sides were in agreement that the warrants should be set aside in the interest of getting a peace settlement. To facili- tate LRA participation in peace talks, Museveni said in October that no effort was being made to track down Kony at his hideout in the Garamba Forest in eastern Congo, across the border from northern Uganda. Mus- eveni spoke following a historic 20- minute meeting with LRA delegates in Juba. Bigombe believes in the peace first, accountability later approach, as does the United States. “We believe that the priority has to be peace,” Assistant Secretary of State for Afri- can Affairs Jendayi Frazer told report- ers during a visit to Gulu in northern Uganda last June. But she added that following through on the indictments is “extremely important.” Frazer sug- gested that the situation in northern Uganda is comparable to the one in Liberia in 2003, when the war crimes prosecution of former President Charles Taylor was deferred in the interest of securing his removal from 50 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 7 Gaining acceptance from all sides as a woman in the northern Uganda maelstrom was a problem for Bigombe, she recalls.