Communicating Justice

This report was selected as best newspaper feature produced during the Communicating Justice follow-up training in Gulu from October 20 to 31, 2008.

Gulu- Northern Uganda, October 26, 2008 -- A woman sits in her leaking one roomed grass thatched house as she waits for justice for her brother that she lost to the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army, LRA, in 1998.

Hellen Awor, 30, remembers the day that the rebels of the LRA raided her village in Pader District, Northern Uganda and abducted her brother whom she never saw again.

Living at Lalia refugee camp, about four kilometres from Gulu town, the war- affected mother is now taking her fight to Mato Oput, the ethnic Acholi traditional system of justice, rather than waiting for regional, national or even international justice to act.

Awor is among the thousands of people in Northern Uganda who want justice for their beloved relatives whose ribs were allegedly broken, mouths and breasts cut and heads chopped by the LRA.

Submitting former LRA fighters to Mato Oput for the alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Northern Uganda, reflects a growing frustration with the administration of justice that has gripped the region.

Increasing numbers of Northern Ugandans are now turning to the traditional cleansing that once dealt with minor crimes such as neighbourhood killings, because they believe that former rebels might never be punished.

Mato Oput is the Acholi traditional system of justice that has been used for decades to solve problems ranging from murder to instability within society.  It seeks to repair the offended and the offender so that the two parties live amicably together.

A woman in Omiya-Anyima IDP camp, Kitgum District,
northern Uganda, May 2007.
Photo © Manoocher Deghati / IRIN

Mato Oput involves taking the apex of an Oput tree and mixing it with local brew. Both clans of the victim and perpetrator bring one sheep each. They put the heads of the two sheep facing one another. The sheep are cut and each clan shares the meat from the other clan.  After cutting, the blood is mixed with the Oput bitter fruits, the mixtures are brewed and taken by the two clans in the calabash, showing that they have forgiven one another.  

The traditional rituals which are performed by the council of elders, also serve as a truth telling and confessional forum for former rebels suspected of committing crimes.

Sessions are held out of doors and are open to anyone willing to testify about events during the LRA’s war. A committee of locally elected officials oversees an open air gathering. 

“The bitterness in the Oput tree signifies the bitterness in the hearts of both clans of whatever has happened and it is a covenant made that we shall never do it again. This war, this fighting will never happen again because we have accepted to compensate and forgive one another,” says Emmanuel Mwaka Lutukumoi, the Information and Communication Minister at the Acholi Cultural Institution.

Awor has complained that Jacquelyn Ajok, 18, and Onen Kenneth, 25, both former LRA fighters, killed her brother during a rebel attack nearly 10 years ago. She is currently preparing to go through the Mato Oput ceremony.

“I cannot forget about my lost brother. I cry every moment I think about him,” Awor says as tears roll down her face.

“That day I expect the perpetrators to pay for their sin. I want them to know that there is no one above the human rights law. Former rebels should be punished severely so that they don’t commit crime again.”

Ajok claims Onen ordered her to kill Hellen’s brother because the victim was misbehaving.

“He told me I would also be killed if I didn’t obey his command,” she said. “So I got the gun and killed him in fear of my life.  This really pains me because I never thought I would kill a fellow human being.”

“God should forgive me for this sin. I will never repeat it again,” she said. “I want forgiveness for crimes I committed while I was still in the bush.”

Ajok said she was more than prepared to submit to the Mato Oput on condition that the communities stop discriminating against her and other former rebels.

“The community should note that we are not wrong guys,” said Ajok. “We were abducted and forced to join the insurgents. We did not kill our friends willingly…. We were forced to do so.”  

Onen says the Mato Oput system is good because it provides justice for the perpetrators.

“This system is fit for grave crimes because we realize that when a person comes back from captivity, confesses whatever he has done, maybe, he can be forgiven,” he said.

“I want to be forgiven so that I can live in harmony with Hellen. I did not mean to hurt her but I was also forced to do it.”

Hellen Awor wants Ajok and his co-accused Onen to submit to Mato Oput and pay compensation for her lost brother.

“If those who killed my brother want me to forgive them then they have to confess the truth of what really happened and accept to pay compensation for my lost brother,” said Hellen.

Charles Lukwiya, the Chairman of Mato Oput said according to custom, someone accused of murder would have to accept to provide the family of the victim with eight cows as compensation.

“Mato Oput is a holistic justice system because it seeks to repair the offended and the offender,” he said.

The Acholi society believes that when a person accepts and tells the truth of what he or she has committed and is ready to beg for forgiveness, that person can be forgiven after his or her clan accepts to compensate for the loss of that person who has passed away.

After Mato Oput, Hellen wants the government to come up with uniform reparations for those who have suffered harm during the conflict.

“If justice is to prevail then the government should provide us with uniform reparations so that we are economically and socially repaired,” says Hellen. “We want money and farm implements.”

Despite the public backing for Mato Oput, some do not take this form of justice seriously.

“This is nonsense,” says Mathew Banya, 62, who lost his two sons and four daughters to the LRA.

Banya thinks submitting former rebels to the traditional rituals will never heal the wounds caused by the LRA.

“Those who committed atrocities should be killed. Asking killers to say they are sorry, or making them to drink the bitter fruit of Oput tree is not adequate justice,” says Banya.

Lukwiya says the alleged war criminals are being subjected to Mato Oput, in part out of public frustration that rebel leader, Joseph Kony, has not signed the Juba Peace Agreement.

As part of the peace deal, Uganda has agreed to institute its own war crimes court to judge Kony and other rebel commanders, but no action has so far taken place. However, the International Criminal Court has indicted and issued warrants of arrest for Kony and his commanders for thirty two counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

This article was produced with support from the BBC World Service Trust.