Communicating Justice

The following report was broadcast on Uganda Radio Network on April 2, 2008 and does not necessarily reflect the views of the BBC WST.

Lira, Northern Uganda, April 7, 2008 -- A team of Ugandans leaves for Sierra Leone on April 15 to study how the country has supported the rehabilitation of war victims. This team is led by the Presidential Advisor in charge of Northern Uganda, Richard Todwong.

“The trip is to enable us to understand how victims’ associations are helped in countries that have gone through this kind of hardship that we have gone through,” says Todwong. “We have decided on Sierra Leone because the nature of atrocities and victims there are similar to those in northern Uganda.”

Sierra Leone is one African country that is just emerging from a 10-year civil war. The war was masterminded by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), led by Foday Sankoh, whose group was infamous for using amputations and mass rape to terrorize the population and gain control of the country's lucrative diamond mines. Todwong said he had information indicating that the government in Sierra Leone was trying to move a bill in parliament to provide for compulsory compensation of war victims.

War displaced in Co-Pe camp near Gulu, 
northern Uganda. 
Photo © Julia Crawford, February 2008

In Uganda, the implementation protocol to the Juba peace talks agreement on Comprehensive Solutions, signed between the government and Lords Resistance Army rebels, states that government is to develop and implement a policy for the support and rehabilitation of the victims of the conflict. Some of the victims in Northern Uganda, many of whom lost relatives or bear disfigurement, are now claiming they need to be compensated, and there is debate around possible enactment of a War Victims Compensation Act. 

Todwong says that the team will also seek to understand how the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone is helping the victims of war to gain justice. This court was set up in 2002 under an agreement between the Sierra Leone government and the UN to try those most responsible for the crimes committed during the civil war there.