Violence, Reconciliation and Identity

The document examines the cycle of abduction, militarisation, and reintegration of children in Northern Uganda, specifically those targeted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). It details the psychological brutalisation used to control child soldiers, the role of spiritual rituals in the LRA, and the effectiveness of psychosocial rehabilitation centres like GUSCO and World Vision. The authors argue that the focus on child soldiers often serves as a 'smokescreen' that obscures the underlying political disenfranchisement and economic collapse of the Acholi region, while highlighting the importance of traditional Acholi cleansing rituals in facilitating community reconciliation.

• The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) used extreme violence and sexual degradation as primary tools of control over abducted children. The UN Secretary General reported that at least 85% of girls arriving at the Gulu trauma centre had contracted sexually transmitted diseases during their captivity.
• The LRA's structure is characterised as 'warlordism' rather than a political insurgency, as it lacks a coherent political agenda and relies on the personal magnetism of Joseph Kony and the use of terror to exploit the Acholi community as a resource base.
• Abducted children undergo a process of psychological brutalisation and identity transition, where the military uniform and the possession of a gun serve as symbols that reduce mistreatment but create internal conflict between their identity as a captive and as a soldier.
• Psychosocial rehabilitation centres, such as GUSCO and World Vision in Gulu, provide essential services including counselling, skills training, and the re-establishment of normative routines, which lead to better mental health outcomes compared to children returned directly to communities.
• Traditional Acholi cultural rituals, such as 'the breaking of eggs' and 'yubo kom' (cleansing the body), are used to rid returnees of 'bad cen' (evil spirits) and facilitate their reclamation by the family and clan.
• The conflict has caused a near-total collapse of the Acholi economic and social fabric, with cattle populations in Arua and Kitgum dropping from 285,000 in 1985 to an estimated 5,000 by 1997.
• The authors argue that the international and local focus on the horrors of child abduction acts as a 'smokescreen' that diverts attention from the root causes of the conflict, such as political disenfranchisement and the economic marginalisation of the Acholi region.
• Reintegration is complicated by the fact that returnees are often viewed as 'internal strangers' and face tensions in their communities, with some being labelled as 'rebels' or perceived as more aggressive due to their experiences.

APA

Veale, A., & Stavrou, A. (n.d.). Violence, Reconciliation and Identity. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Mono92.pdf

Chicago

Veale, Angela, and Aki Stavrou. Violence, Reconciliation and Identity. Institute for Security Studies, n.d. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Mono92.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Veale |first1=Angela |last2=Stavrou |first2=Aki |title=Violence, Reconciliation and Identity |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Mono92.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{vealendviolence, author = {Veale, Angela and Stavrou, Aki}, title = {{Violence, Reconciliation and Identity}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Mono92.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }