Relationality, Culpability and Consent in Wartime: Men’s ...blogs.ubc.ca/564b/files/2016/09/Relationality-Culpability-and-Consent.pdf · relatives of both parties agreed to formalize

Relationality Culpability and Consent inWartime Menrsquos Experiences of Forced Marriage

Omer Aijazi and Erin Bainesdagger

A B S T R A C T1

Rights-based approaches to forced marriage in wartime document forms of harmwomen experience to the exclusion of menrsquos experiences Such framing problematic-ally reiterates a binary of womenmen victimperpetrator and consentcoercionArguably this delineation is useful in supporting projects of culpability and legal re-dress However what does such vocabulary obfuscate or render invisible We drawfrom the experiences of men demobilized from the Lordrsquos Resistance Army (LRA) andpresently living in northern Uganda to consider how relationships and social account-abilities are governed in settings of coercion We argue that forced marriage in wartimecannot be understood without examining the multiple relationalities on which it is con-tingent We broaden the remit of menrsquos relationships to women in the LRA to considerhow menrsquos relations to each other and to their children shaped their experiences ofmarriage during the war We conclude by reflecting on concepts of consent and culp-ability in coercive settingsK E Y W O R D S Lordrsquos Resistance Army Uganda forced marriage consent culpability

I N T R O D U C T I O NIn 2004 Onen Kamdulu a former commander of the Lordrsquos Resistance Army(LRA) held his children on his lap as he was seated next to two of his wives duringan amnesty ceremony designed to lsquowelcome backrsquo former rebels in Gulu northernUganda Some weeks earlier Kamdulu had surrendered to the Ugandan military aftera decade and a half of fighting against the Ugandan government When asked why hehad deserted the LRA he claimed it was because he wanted to settle down and

PhD Candidate Educational Studies University of British Columbia Canada Emailomeraijaziutorontoca

dagger Associate Professor Liu Institute for Global Issues University of British Columbia Canada Emailerinbainesubcca

1 The article was written with support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)Insight Grant and SSHRC Partnership Grant on Conjugal Slavery in War The authors thank the editorsand anonymous reviewers for their keen help in revisions colleagues in the partnership for inspiring discus-sion and exchange of ideas in particular Annie Bunting Chris Dolan Sam Dubal and Brandon Hamber aswell as participants from northern Uganda We are extremely grateful to the adept research assistance ofthree Acholi researchers who we do not name for the purposes of confidentiality

VC The Author (2017) Published by Oxford University Press All rights reservedFor Permissions please email journalspermissionsoupcom

International Journal of Transitional Justice 2017 0 1ndash21doi 101093ijtjijx023Article

Downloaded from httpsacademicoupcomijtjarticle-abstractdoi101093ijtjijx0234103679Relationality-Culpability-and-Consent-in-Wartimeby University of British Columbia Library useron 08 September 2017

become a good father to his children1 This was not a unique claim Soldiers in theLRA released their wives and children during military combat to protect them orescaped with them citing a desire to provide a better future for their children2

Some men and women chose to continue as a familial unit postdemobilization toraise their children while others decided otherwise Reasons for nonreunification var-ied including unresolved histories of interpersonal violence or the view that the mar-riage was an imposition to begin with and thus best to dissolve Sometimes relativesor guardians rejected these unions on similar grounds In contrast in some instancesrelatives of both parties agreed to formalize the marriage with luk (a payment madeat the birth of a child by the fatherrsquos kin to the motherrsquos family) and customary bridewealth raised and paid3 Support to children also varied In some instances womenraised their children alone or with the support of their maternal clan In such caseswomen often do not know the paternal clan or their support is undesired4 In in-stances where the father had died paternal relatives worked to build relations withthe motherrsquos clan and offered to either directly raise the child or support the mater-nal clan in doing so5 In still other cases after their partnerrsquos death women marriedinto their childrenrsquos paternal clans according to customary practices in northernUganda6

The majority of scholarship on forced marriage focuses on womenrsquos experiencesof harm As a result menrsquos experiences in relation to women or their children areobscured as are specific research questions that arise in relation to the scenarios pre-sented above For example why release a wife and child or imagine a better futureas a family if forced marriage in armed groups is little more than a war strategy or anact of violence Why do some men and women willingly reunite after escape or re-turn from the LRA Are all relations forged in such settings by default an absolute ar-ticulation of patriarchal power and dominance How are culpability and consent tobe understood in settings of coercion When menrsquos experiences are not incorporatedinto a discussion of forced marriage what else is obscured what other insights areleft out7

With these questions in mind we draw on interviews and focus group discussionswith men demobilized from the LRA We agree with Jelke Boesten that

1 Cited in Erin Baines lsquoGender Responsibility and the Grey Zone Considerations for Transitional JusticersquoJournal of Human Rights 10(4) (2011) 477ndash493

2 Erin Baines Buried in the Heart Women Complex Victimhood and the War in Northern Uganda(Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2017)

3 Eunice Otuko Apio lsquoChildren Born of War in Northern Uganda Kinship Marriage and the Politics ofPost-Conflict Reintegration in Lango Societyrsquo (PhD diss University of Birmingham 2016)

4 Virginie Ladisch lsquoFrom Rejection to Redress Overcoming Legacies of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence inNorthern Ugandarsquo International Centre for Transitional Justice October 2015 httpswwwictjorgsitesdefaultfilesICTJ-Report-Uganda-Children-2015pdf (accessed 31 July 2017)

5 Nancy Apiyo lsquoWe Accept Our Own Blood Reintegrating Children Born of War through FamilyReunionsrsquo Justice and Reconciliation Project 23 June 2016 httpjusticeandreconciliationcomblog2016we-accept-our-own-blood-reintegrating-children-born-of-war-through-family-reunions (accessed31 July 2017)

6 Apio supra n 37 Some of these questions were explored in the Summer Institute on Menrsquos and Womenrsquos Relations in

Coercive Settings Kampala Uganda 15ndash19 May 2017

2 O Aijazi and E Baines

in order to understand the gendered nature of war we need to listen to thecomplex experiences of women [and men] beyond any prewritten assumptionsand scripts as well as examine the gendered character of the behavior of per-petrators of violence8

We assert that forced marriage cannot be understood without an adequate exam-ination of the multiple relationalities on which it is contingent This builds onexperience-based studies of armed groups that situate the actions of men and womenin their lsquosocial and military milieursquo9 demonstrating the importance of context10 Insettings of coercion women make lsquochoiceless decisionsrsquo11 ones that protect them-selves or others or help them to navigate life inside a war zone even if it requiresusing violence or providing support to violent actors Regardless of their complicitywomen are regarded as victims first whose decisions are motivated by survival andlack of choice Yet in this same formulation men are endowed with choice even asthey may be victims Indeed the word lsquoperpetratorrsquo implies men in reference to rapeIn effect women are somehow less culpable than their male counterparts regardlessof whether or not both carried out the same work or both were forced to performdifferent types of labour because of their gender-ascribed roles

This is partly we argue because a womanrsquos capacity to act understood as enact-ing lsquochoiceless decisionsrsquo within settings of coercion is located within specific histor-ies of liberal and western conceptions of individual autonomy12 Rarely are womenrsquosagencies understood in relation to another person or as shaped by and within websof relationships that are in a continuous process of negotiation and reconstitutionIn other words the victimndashperpetrator binary remains unchallenged by most scholarswho study womenrsquos agency in wartime let alone by those who study womenrsquos vic-timization or their inability to act Some studies reverse the victimndashperpetrator bin-ary deliberating women as perpetrators of sexual and gender-based harm13 and menas victims of it14 The ways in which relationships matter how one acts in relation toothers and how this conditions experience are less attended to

8 Jelke Boesten Sexual Violence during War and Peace Gender Power and Post-Conflict Justice in Peru (NewYork Palgrave Macmillan 2014) 112

9 Zoe Marks lsquoSexual Violence in Sierra Leonersquos Civil War ldquoVirginationrdquo Rape and Marriagersquo AfricanAffairs 113(450) (2014) 69

10 Christine Sylvester War as Experience Contributions from International Relations and Feminist Analysis(Abingdon Routledge 2013)

11 Chris Coulter lsquoFemale Fighters in the Sierra Leone War Challenging the Assumptionsrsquo Feminist Review88(1) (2008) 9 Jennie E Burnet lsquoSituating Sexual Violence in Rwanda (1990ndash2001) Sexual AgencySexual Consent and the Political Economy of Warrsquo African Studies Review 55(2) (2012) 97ndash118

12 Sam Dubal lsquoRebel Kinship and Love within the Lordrsquos Resistance Armyrsquo Journal of Peace and SecurityStudies 2(1) (2016) 20ndash32

13 Dara Kay Cohen lsquoFemale Combatants and the Perpetration of Violence Wartime Rape in the SierraLeone Civil Warrsquo World Politics 65(3) (2013) 383ndash415

14 See Sandesh Sivakumaran lsquoSexual Violence against Men in Armed Conflictrsquo European Journal ofInternational Law 18(2) (2007) 253ndash276 R Charli Carpenter lsquoRecognizing Gender-Based Violenceagainst Civilian Men and Boys in Conflict Situationsrsquo Security Dialogue 37(1) (2006) 83ndash103 HeleenTouquet and Ellen Gorris lsquoOut of the Shadows The Inclusion of Men and Boys in Conceptualisationsof Wartime Sexual Violencersquo Reproductive Health Matters 24(47) (2016) 36ndash46

Relationality Culpability and Consent in Wartime 3

These omissions are characteristic of rights-based approaches to forced marriagewhich decontextualize social experience to render visible rigid lines of accountabilitybetween victims and perpetrators15 Considerations of how victims can also becomecomplicit in abet or carry out acts of violence in settings of coercion ndash acts that blurlines of consent and culpability ndash remain outside their purview It is to this gap thatwe draw attention exploring the experiences of men in relation to other men towomen and to their children We first explore the literature before articulating a rela-tional approach to the study of forced marriage We then explore the data throughthis lens to arrive at a considered understanding of culpability and consent in forcedmarriage and what insights this generates for transitional justice (TJ) beyond thelimitations of rights-based approaches

F O R C E D M A R R I A G E A G E N C Y A N D A R M E D G R O U P SScholarship on forced marriage in wartime also referred to as conjugal slavery sexualslavery or the phenomenon of lsquobush wivesrsquo16 is based on the experiences of womenrsquosand girlsrsquo coercion into armed groups for the purposes of sexual reproductive do-mestic and productive labour17 This involves rape and ongoing conjugal relationspredicated on multiple forms of harm including threat cruelty and coercion andmay involve sexual violence such as degrading sexual conduct forced pregnancy orabortion18 Domestic labour in such settings may involve mundane tasks that are in-tegral to the success of armed groups such as fetching water cleaning and cooking19

Other forms of productive labour may include tending to gardens carrying goodsmanaging supplies and providing fighting support20 Forced marriage may serve thepurpose of punishing or humiliating an enemy populating and reproducing theimagining of a nation21 and drawing on and using a personrsquos labour for strategic orfunctional advantages22

15 Kamari M Clarke lsquoRethinking Africa through Its Exclusions The Politics of Naming CriminalResponsibilityrsquo Anthropological Quarterly 83(3) (2010) 625ndash651

16 Annie Bunting lsquoldquoForced Marriagerdquo in Conflict Situations Researching and Prosecuting Old Harms andNew Crimesrsquo Canadian Journal of Human Rights 1(1) (2012) 165ndash185

17 Annie Bunting Benjamin N Lawrence and Richard L Roberts eds Marriage by Force Contestation overConsent and Coercion in Africa (Athens OH Ohio University Press 2016)

18 Augustine SJ Park lsquoldquoOther Inhumane Actsrdquo Forced Marriage Girl Soldiers and the Special Court forSierra Leonersquo Social and Legal Studies 15(3) (2006) 315ndash337

19 See Dyan E Mazurana Susan A McKay Khristopher C Carlson and Janel C Kasper lsquoGirls in FightingForces and Groups Their Recruitment Participation Demobilization and Reintegrationrsquo Peace andConflict Journal of Peace Psychology 8(2) (2002) 97ndash123

20 These roles are not always contingent on gender For example boys and some men considered untrust-worthy or unfit for battle may also perform these roles and girls and young women fight in addition totheir domestic and productive duties See Myriam Denov and Richard Maclure lsquoTurnings andEpiphanies Militarization Life Histories and the Making and Unmaking of Two Child Soldiers in SierraLeonersquo Journal of Youth Studies 10(2) (2007) 243ndash261

21 Erin Baines lsquoForced Marriage as a Political Project Sexual Rules and Relations in the Lordrsquos ResistanceArmyrsquo Journal of Peace Research 51(3) (2014) 405ndash417

22 Yoshiaki Yoshimi Comfort Women Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military during World War II transSuzanne OrsquoBrien (New York Columbia University Press 2000) C Sarah Soh The Comfort Women SexualViolence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan (Chicago IL University of Chicago Press 2008)

Several studies highlight the parameters of womenrsquos agency in wartime23 focusing onhow they resist refuse and subvert the minefield of relationships in armed groups24

They provide rich ethnographic detail indicating the necessity to deepen our under-standing of consent in settings of coercion and pay closer attention to the contextual fac-tors that condition it In contrast a rights-based approach to forced marriage25 reducesthese experiences to discrete forms of harm endured at the hands of men26 Theseapproaches overstate the victimndashperpetrator binary to emphasize the culpability of per-sons who inflict harm For example the chief prosecutor of the International CriminalCourt Fatou Bensouda stated of the LRA lsquo[Girls] were treated as spoils of warawarded as prizes without any more say in the matter than if they had been inanimateobjectsrsquo27 The gendered categorization of victimndashperpetrator and subsequent minimiza-tion of womenrsquos agencies and decision making are central to supporting projects of culp-ability and legal redress Such constructions further lsquofictions of justicersquo28 and silencequestions on the possibilities and dynamics of consent We argue that sexual violencedoes not unfold as discrete events and moments in time (referred to by Kamari Clarkeas legal time) but constitutes and is constitutive of relations of power29

F O R C E D M A R R I A G E A N D R E L A T I O N A L I T YAnthropologist Holly Porter argues that we cannot understand sexual violence with-out understanding its contextual systems of power social accountabilities and rela-tionalities30 She writes

lsquoRapersquo often evokes a particular moral response conjuring up an image of a rap-ist as someone who perceives a woman merely as an object and a target and the

23 Myriam Denov and Christine Gervais lsquoNegotiating (In)Security Agency Resistance and Resourcefulnessamong Girls Formerly Associated with Sierra Leonersquos Revolutionary United Frontrsquo Signs Journal of Womenin Culture and Society 32(4) (2007) 885ndash910 Mats Utas lsquoVictimcy Girlfriending Soldiering TacticAgency in a Young Womanrsquos Social Navigation of the Liberian War Zonersquo Anthropological Quarterly 78(2)(2005) 403ndash430 Chris Coulter Bush Wives and Girl Soldiers Womenrsquos Lives through War and Peace inSierra Leone (New York Cornell University Press 2015) Kimberly Theidon lsquoGender in TransitionCommon Sense Women and Warrsquo Journal of Human Rights 6(4) (2007) 453ndash478

24 Baines supra n 2 See also Evelyn Amony I am Evelyn Amony Reclaiming My Life from the LordrsquosResistance Army ed Erin Baines (Madison WI University of Wisconsin Press 2015)

25 By a rights-based approach we refer to legal precedents and interpretations and documentation byhuman rights advocacy groups and scholars who seek to draw attention to the practice of forced marriageand its consequent harm or injury Such an approach conceptualizes forced marriage as discrete eventsfocused on ending the impunity of those deemed most responsible through legal measures such as trialsand reparations

26 Chiseche Salome Mibenge Sex and International Tribunals The Erasure of Gender from the War Narrative(Philadelphia PA University of Pennsylvania Press 2013)

27 lsquoStatement of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Fatou Bensouda at the Opening ofTrial in the Case against Dominic Ongwenrsquo 6 December 2016 httpswwwicc-cpiintlegalAidConsultationsnamefrac142016-12-06-otp-stat-ongwen (accessed 31 July 2017)

28 Kamari M Clarke Fictions of Justice The International Criminal Court and the Challenge of Legal Pluralismin Sub-Saharan Africa (Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2009)

29 Kamari M Clarke lsquoRefiguring the Perpetrator Culpability History and International Criminal LawrsquosImpunity Gaprsquo International Journal of Human Rights 19(5) (2015) 592ndash614

30 Holly Porter After Rape Violence Justice and Social Harmony in Uganda (Cambridge CambridgeUniversity Press 2016)

act of rape as having nothing to do with relationship provision social responsi-bility or even love Instead rape is imagined as the opposite of and outside theboundaries of all these things The popular image of rape is typically predicatedon some very limited explanatory axioms But what separates sex that is rapefrom sex that is not is the choice of a woman This is what needs re-imagining31

We build on Porterrsquos work and argue that like rape forced marriage in wartimealso cannot be understood without considering the wider ambit of relationships inwhich it is situated Most male recruits in the LRA spent most of their time withother men segregated from women As soldiers who were continuously mobile(fighting looting going on missions) they rarely saw their wives and childrenDuring fieldwork we noticed that men only spoke fleetingly of their wives but exten-sively about their male peers (commanders and subordinates) and the precarious yetintimate relationships with them Men described the battles they fought together theinjuries they sustained the co-dependencies they developed and the comfort andconsolation they provided for each other Simultaneously they also spoke of the be-trayal distrust harm and grief embedded in relationships with their male peers andcommanding officers We believe these narrations suggest that ambivalent relation-ships with other men (as sources of harm but also protection and comradeship)were instrumental not only in creating socialities that sustained the men and theLRA but also the practice of forced marriage and in turn menrsquos relations to womenand children In fact forced marriage is shaped by but also shapes menrsquos relation-ships with other men in armed groups (as commanders peers subordinates) withwomen (as helpers subordinates wives commanding officers) and with children(lsquoadoptedrsquo or biological) The converse is also true forced marriage is shaped by andshapes womenrsquos relations to men other women and their children

We explore our data through a relational lens We understand power as sociallyconstitutive and diffuse A relational lens draws attention to the wider web of socialentanglements through which power circulates and is contested disrupting the prob-lematic framework of men-as-perpetrators (and thus all-powerful and in need of re-straint) and women-as-victims (and thus without agency and in need of rescue)Attending to relationships of power in settings of coercion reveals the various wayssuch relationships impinge or place demands upon each other In fact a relationallens contrasts the reductionism of rights-based approaches to forced marriage whichindividualize and isolate subjects from their wider social entanglements It is not suf-ficient to understand forced marriage by only looking at the relationships betweenmen and women ndash wider webs of relationalities also need to be considered

These considerations raise the question of agency and how to understand choicesin coercive settings The works of Saba Mahmood are useful here32 Mahmoodargues that agency should not simply be understood as lsquoa synonym for resistance torelations of domination but as a capacity for action that historically specific relations

31 Holly E Porter lsquoAfter Rape Comparing Civilian and Combatant Perpetrated Crime in NorthernUgandarsquo Womenrsquos Studies International Forum 51 (2015) 90

32 Saba Mahmood Politics of Piety The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject (Princeton NJ PrincetonUniversity Press 2005)

of subordination create and enablersquo33 Therefore agentive capacity can be under-stood not only as actions that lsquoresult in (progressive) change but also those that aimtoward continuity stasis and stabilityrsquo34 Rather than lsquochoiceless decisionsrsquo we con-sider how the lsquocapacity for actionrsquo articulated by Mahmood advances an understand-ing of consent and culpability as embedded within a wider web of socialinterdependencies

M E T H O D SWith the assistance of three Acholi researchers we conducted this research between2015 and 2017 Data were collected through focus group discussions and individualinterviews with formerly abducted men who were part of the LRA for between oneand 17 years Most of this research took place in Gulu District northern Uganda butparticipants were also interviewed in adjacent districts of the Acholi subregionParticipants fought and lived in South Sudan northern Uganda the DemocraticRepublic of Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic All but one held lowor mid-level ranks in the LRA ranging from a private a second or first lieutenant tocaptain One held the rank of brigadier

A grassroots survivor-led organization assisted in identifying participants for thisstudy We first conducted informal discussions with nine men working in GuluTown about their experiences within the LRA and whether or not they had encoun-tered instances of forced marriage or sexual violence Participants were also asked toshare their experiences of returning home after escape or release from the LRA Thiswas followed by three additional focus group discussions Data collected from focusgroup discussions were supplemented with 12 individual interviews conducted bythe Acholi researchers This assisted in triangulating the research findings In total40 demobilized male soldiers were interviewed or participated in focus group discus-sions The interviews were conducted in Luo-Acholi and Luo-English-speaking per-sons provided the translation Depending on the comfort of participants someinterviews and focus group discussions were digitally recorded (and later transcribedand translated into English) while others were simultaneously translated intoEnglish and the second author took notes

Data were analyzed via an inductive process35 We reviewed and discussed thetranscripts to identify emergent themes A set of codes was then developed whichwere refined through continuous discussions and further reviews of the transcriptsData were then coded accordingly Analytic memos36 were also maintained to recordideas and observations not captured in the coding process helping us to revise ourresearch questions analytical framework and central arguments

Numerous challenges were encountered in conducting discussions on such sociallytaboo topics Several male participants expressed stress at assembling in numbersgreater than two in public given past accusations that they were seeking to rearm but

33 Saba Mahmood lsquoFeminist Theory Embodiment and the Docile Agent Some Reflections on theEgyptian Islamic Revivalrsquo Cultural Anthropology 16(2) (2001) 210

34 Ibid 21235 Sally Thorne lsquoData Analysis in Qualitative Researchrsquo Evidence-Based Nursing 3(3) (2000) 68ndash7036 Melanie Birks Ysanne Chapman and Karen Francis lsquoMemoing in Qualitative Research Probing Data

and Processesrsquo Journal of Research in Nursing 13(1) (2008) 68ndash75

also we assume given the pervasive fear amongst former LRA fighters that they couldbe accused and forced to stand trial for crimes they committed in wartime37 Acholi re-search assistants thus conducted individual interviews Two of the research assistantswere formerly abducted persons and could thus build trust and a level of comfort

Our initial theoretical impulse was to focus primarily on menrsquos experiences of sex-ual violence and earlier drafts of this article emphasized this However on revisitingour data we realized that by insisting on men as victims of wartime sexual violencewe inadvertently reified the very same victimndashperpetrator duality we wanted to dis-mantle Gradually we learned to pay attention to the various silences contained inour interviews and discussions Attention to both what was said and what remainedunspoken assisted us in arriving at a more holistic understanding of participantsrsquoexperiences outside of our expectations of them We worked closely with the Acholiresearchers and in collaboration with them constantly reviewed and adjusted thedata-collection process Reflections generated from our discussions with the field re-searchers further enriched our analysis and reading of the data All interviewee namesare pseudonyms to protect the identities of participants who were promised ano-nymity and confidentiality The need to protect participant identity is as necessary insettings of peacetime as it is in settings of instability

H I S T O R I C A L C O N T E X TThe war in northern Uganda began following a bitter civil war between the NationalResistance Army (NRA) and the Ugandan state resulting in the violent overthrowof President Tito Lutwa Okello and the defeat of the United National LiberationArmy (UNLA)38 Assuming the head of state and army NRA leader YoweriMuseveni dispatched cadres to pursue deposed UNLA soldiers who had retreatedhome to northern Uganda Inciting fear of NRA retaliation in the local populationformer UNLA soldiers rearmed and mobilized civilians who experienced illegal de-tainment displacement extrajudicial killings rape and looting39 Initially spiritualleader Alice Lakwena emerged to briefly organize civilians and ex-combatants intothe Holy Spirit Mobile Forces with the vision of cleansing the region of maleficentcurses and avenging spirits engendered by the war Despite a series of victorious bat-tles Lakwena was ultimately defeated and fled to Kenya

Joseph Kony a spirit medium and reported cousin to Lakwena eventuallyemerged as the next significant leader He attracted different groups of rebels and fol-lowers to form the LRA The government and LRA entered into peace talks with therebels in 1993 brokered by then minister of the north Betty Bigombe When thetalks failed Kony moved his entire army to bases in the south of what was thenSudan where he received military support and aid from the president of Sudan

37 This was not conveyed by any of the participants all of whom consented to the interviews and focusgroups following BREB policies (H16-01382) However it is somewhat of a lsquopublic secretrsquo that all formermale LRA are pressured to join the Ugandan military forces to help in the current fight against the LRAand that some are threatened

38 For a history of the war see Sverker Finnstrom Living with Bad Surroundings War History and EverydayMoments in Northern Uganda (Durham NC Duke University Press 2008)

39 Chris Dolan lsquoldquoWhat Do You Rememberrdquo A Rough Guide to the War in Northern Uganda 1986ndash2000rsquoCOPE Working Paper No 33 (April 2000)

Omar al-Bashir In return he assisted the Sudanese Armed Forces in fighting the civilwar in that country Kony built expansive bases in what is now South Sudan sendingforces to loot abduct and retaliate against civilians who had been forcibly movedinto displacement camps by the government of Uganda reaching 17 million at thewarrsquos zenith between 2002 and 200640

In 2002 the Ugandan military launched Operation Iron Fist (OIF) pushing theLRA out of Sudan and back into Uganda The LRA escalated attacks on the civilianpopulation in the north and east of the country committing gross atrocities but alsosuffering high losses hunger and exhaustion By early 2006 a number of LRA com-manders withdrew from Uganda and southern Sudan into the DRC agreeing to aceasefire and peace talks known as the Juba peace talks With Konyrsquos failure to signthe final peace agreements in 2008 an international military operation led by theUgandan military resumed Today the LRA continues to operate in the CentralAfrican Republic the DRC and South Sudan

R E G U L A T I N G R E L A T I O N S H I P S I N T H E L R AIn Acholi as elsewhere marriage can offer important strategic benefits and social ad-vantages Therefore marriage is understood as a union of not only two individuals butalso of their clanskinship networks41 Many customary marriage practices begin witha long process of cuna (courtship) under supervision of both clans and solidified bythe birth of a couplersquos first child42 Other customary laws include the payment of oneor many monetary sums to the womanrsquos family as part of her initiation into her hus-bandrsquos clan and household43 After the birth of a child the husbandrsquos family typicallymakes additional payments (luk) to the wifersquos family Due to its social significance eld-ers and extended family often remain intimately involved in the governance of mar-riage and supporting laws and regulations set expectations of child custody divorcewidowhood and resolutions for marital dispute Recognizing that the governance andexpectations of marriage can differ across households and across the ruralndashurban div-ide the family unit is the central governance structure in Acholi sociality and kin re-sponsibility extends outwards toward subclan clan and chieftainship44

In contrast sexual and gender relations in the LRA were governed by strict rulesand regulations It was only at the discretion of a senior commander that a man orwoman was deemed ready to marry and that such arrangements were madeThe marriage was governed under the command of the military unit and any childrenresulting from marriages belonged to the LRA not the parents Consequently it wasthe militaryndashfamilial unit that was responsible for the welfare of the child

40 Chris Dolan Social Torture The Case of Northern Uganda 1986ndash2006 (New York Berghahn Books2013)

41 Porter supra n 3042 lsquoYoung Mothers Marriage and Reintegration in Northern Uganda Considerations for the Juba Peace

Talksrsquo Justice and Reconciliation Project Field Notes 2 September 2006 httpliuxplorexcomsitesliufilesPublications23Oct2006_YoungMothers_JRPpdf (accessed 31 July 2017)

43 Susan Reynolds Whyte Sulayman Mpisi Babiiha Rebecca Mukyala and Lotte Meinert lsquoRemainingInternally Displaced Missing Links to Security in Northern Ugandarsquo Journal of Refugee Studies 26(2)(2013) 283ndash301

44 Erin Baines and Lara Rosenoff Gauvin lsquoMotherhood and Social Repair after War and Displacement inNorthern Ugandarsquo Journal of Refugee Studies 27(2) (2014) 282ndash300

Sexual relations were strictly regulated according to the spiritual dictates of theLRA45 Participants emphasized both the normality of rules dictating behaviour butalso the gross ramifications of failing to obey them For instance sex was only per-mitted between men and women within a marriage sanctioned by senior com-manders at a time of their determination and between two persons they selected forit Rape was forbidden as were extramarital affairs46 Should any person transgressthese rules they could be arrested and detained publicly beaten and humiliated oreven executed47 As one participant remembers

In Congo an escort to Kony slept with one of Konyrsquos wives The sex resulted in apregnancy Kony asked [his wife] how she became pregnant because they had nothad sex for more than six months so where did she get [pregnant] The womanadmitted that she slept with the escort The wife and escort were both shot48

Many participants spoke of their fear of breaking the rules and how they self-regulated who they interacted with for even suspicion could be enough to solicit in-terrogation and punishment49 Others stated they feared the spiritual ramifications ofbreaking rules as it was believed ndash and many witnessed it to be true ndash that the spiritsguided bullets to those who broke the rules50 Through a series of violent processesand rites of initiation they were instructed to forget about home and think of onlythe LRA as family51 Relatives of new recruits were identified separated and forbid-den to speak to one another partly so they could not conspire to plan an escape orturn on their captives but also to break the bonds of kinship and any longing forhome52 In sum the LRA replaced familial relations with military ones strictly regu-lating marriage outlawing courtship and taking possession of children born of forcedunions This way the LRA both drew on and transgressed the customary sociocul-tural practices of the Acholi people53

H O M O S O C I A L R E L A T I O N S I N T H E L R AThe LRA blended violence exhaustion and deprivation with protection reprieve andprovision of essential foods to break down any previous loyalties and to bond newrecruits to their commanders Indoctrination in the form of lectures and religious orspiritual teachings led many to believe the Ugandan military was committing

45 Dolan supra n 4046 Baines supra n 2147 Ibid48 Personal interview TM Pader Uganda 25 June 2015 TM was abducted at the age of seven or eight and

spent 17 years in the LRA He returned with his wife and children with whom he remained united at thetime of the interview

49 Focus group discussion with nine former LRA all abducted between ages 10 and 15 years for betweenthree and 11 years mid-level rank Gulu District 10 July 2014

50 Kristof Titeca lsquoThe Spiritual Order of the LRArsquo in The Lordrsquos Resistance Army Myth and Reality ed TimAllen and Koen Vlassenroot (London Zed Books 2010)

51 Opiyo Oloya Child to Soldier Stories from Joseph Konyrsquos Lordrsquos Resistance Army (Toronto University ofToronto Press 2013)

52 Baines supra n 2153 Oloya supra n 51

genocide against the Acholi people and that the recruits were fighting a war to takeover the state where they would assume government positions Following abductionmost male youth were placed under the command of a senior-ranking person theyreferred to as lapwony (teacher) or baba (father) Several participants described therelationships with their commanders as being like that of a father and a son54

Participants credited their commanders with teaching them how to be in this worldto take care of each other and to look after their wives and children55

Participantsrsquo accounts of their commanders indicate a closeness and tendernessdespite the power relations OG describes how defeated he felt when he learned thatboth his cousin-brother and father had died To comfort him his commander

began to tell me his stories and how he lost his own father He said he willfight until death from the bush because of his fatherrsquos death I got sad for him[and realized that] I was not alone anger overcame my powerlessness andI thought I too will fight to the death here56

In the end many would willingly give their life to protect their commanderParadoxically they were also aware that the same commander they had grown to de-pend on could take their life or punish them for any real or perceived infraction ofLRA rules CO who fought alongside the LRA for 17 years and also served as an es-cort to Kony reflects on his relationship with him

Much as you protected Kony in case of any offence he will order to killyou There was something he said that I cannot forget He said all you peo-ple who are here you are all my children I am the one who controls you if Ihave summoned you to be beaten come and I beat you if I summoned you tobe killed come and I kill you because you are all mine I saw that it wasnot right But he loved me57

The LRA created an environment of intense competition where individuals be-trayed one another to take over their command and any benefits that accrued tothem Stories of betrayal punctuated the menrsquos narratives demonstrating a precariousintimacy AR described the jealousy of his peers and the dangers it posed for him58

He explained how his amicable relationship with his commander which elevated his

54 Personal interview OM Gulu Town Uganda 13 March 2017 OM was abducted from secondary schooland worked for three years as a labourer in Sudan before becoming a fighter He had two wives with chil-dren (wives deceased children not reunited)

55 Personal interview OG Koro Uganda 16 March 2017 OG was abducted when he was 15 and spentnine years in the LRA He was married to two wives one of whom was pregnant at the time he releasedher They are presently reunited in Koro

56 Ibid57 Personal interview CO Gulu Town Uganda 25 August 2016 CO was forcibly conscripted at the age of

20 from a rural area close to the border of Sudan spent 17 years in the LRA and had two wives in theLRA with three children all deceased

58 Personal interview AR Layibi Uganda 23 January 2017 AR was forcibly conscripted from secondaryschool spent seven years in the LRA and is now settled with a wife who was abducted and forcibly mar-ried to ARrsquos commander (now deceased)

status in rank and therefore provisions simultaneously made him more vulnerable tohis subordinates who tried to harm him for a variety of reasons including the desireto take over his position and the perception that he was unfairly given rank on thebasis of patronage For example after AR was promoted his erstwhile peers nowsubordinates concocted lies to jeopardize his relationship with their commanding of-ficer They accused him falsely of actions he did not do lsquoThey wanted to kill mersquoAR had to then carefully plan his actions to avoid any further accusations

JL was put in a similar situation when a group of soldiers under his commandwere caught trying to escape and falsely identified him as having orchestrated thefailed plot59 JL was imprisoned but after interrogation his accusers were put todeath and he was let free OG describes a time when his commander accused him ofcoveting his wife60 OG was arrested and his gun and basic provisions taken awayFearing a beating he at first attempted to reason with his commander to no availHe grew angry as he was beaten and challenged his commander lsquoI didnrsquot care any-more and in that moment I wanted to die I got angry with my commander andfelt like killing himrsquo It was only after other commanders intervened to prevent thesituation from escalating that OG was acquitted and taken away by soldiers whonursed him back to health Despite the frustration with his commander two yearslater after learning the news of his commanderrsquos death OG reflects lsquoI felt so sadabout his death because I loved him as a personrsquo

Participants shared stories of being seriously injured on the battlefield but thenbeing unexpectedly rescued by peers and taken to lsquosick baysrsquo scattered throughoutthe forests in northern Uganda

I was shot on the chest and people that we were with ran away and left [methere] because we were separated by the battle [When the battle was over]they came and carried me away61

Participants also spoke of how their knowledge of treating bullet wounds impro-vising stretchers out of clothing and branches to carry a fallen soldier and knowledgeof disinfecting wounds kept them alive in the battlefield These survival skills circu-lated among soldiers made them co-dependent and helped forge a brotherhood andan ethics of mutual care Men typically spent long uneventful and dull hours witheach other doing banal forms of labour (such as fetching water and firewood) walk-ing for long hours and waiting in position AR described the relationships that de-veloped during and outside times of stress as not only being necessary for ensuringeach otherrsquos survival but also as some of the most important bonds he formed dur-ing his time in the LRA62

In summary despite the sensitive and ambivalent nature of their relationshipsmediated by unquestionable loyalty to their commanders as opposed to their peers

59 Personal interview JL Palabek Kal Uganda 13 March 2017 JL was a commander in the LRA and stateshe was abducted at the age of 20 or more He had five wives in the LRA and is currently living with hismost senior wife and their children

60 Personal interview OG Koro Uganda 16 March 201761 Personal interview CO Gulu Town Uganda 25 August 201662 Personal interview AR Layibi Uganda 23 January 2017

men shared experiences celebrated victories mourned loss made memories and de-veloped an affinity for one another Participants described their commanders and fel-low soldiers as persons they came to both love and loathe This meant each soldierhad to carefully navigate the fraught inconsistent and contradictory setting that waslife in the bush A participant shared how his fellow soldiers would often say lsquoI wishan officer would escape so that I can shoot him and take over his rankrsquo63 Anotherparticipant reminded us that every soldier was dependent on other soldiers for sur-vival and this realization translated into how soldiers related to one another lsquoYoucannot quarrel with anyone there [in the LRA] because if you quarrel with someoneand end up being injured in battles who will carry yoursquo64

The LRArsquos rules and regulations not only governed how men related to womenin the LRA but also how men related to each other By paying attention to homoso-cial relations we bring to the forefront how these were shaped by conditions of warand reveal possibilities of interdependence comradeship comfort betrayal and dis-trust in relations of power In the following sections we consider how menrsquos rela-tions with each other shaped their experiences of marriage and fatherhood within thefamilial unit imagined by the LRA leadership

M E N rsquo S A N D W O M E N rsquo S R E L A T I O N S I N T H E L R AStudies of forced marriage in the LRA have documented the process through whichyoung girls and women were abducted and forced into marriage by the senior com-mand65 This included capture and following ritual cleansing being chosen by ordistributed to a senior commanderrsquos home If the girl was young she might be trainedas a soldier or work as a ting ting a helper to the commanderrsquos wives A young girlmight also be raped and forced into lsquomarriagersquo and motherhood immediately or fol-lowing a period of time after which she was determined to have reached maturationand was therefore lsquoreadyrsquo Women describe the humiliating processes of being dis-tributed to commanders and the violent pressures they endured to sleep in a com-manderrsquos home66 Here they would be raped and then told from that day forward toact as a lsquowifersquo At times this happened to children as young as seven or eight yearsold at other times commanders waited until first menstruation We do not wish todiminish the suffering endured by women and girls who experienced rape and do-mestic servitude Instead we want to broaden the conversation by considering howforced marriages were situated within wider webs of complex and ever-changinghomosocial relationships and to move beyond the signifier of force as revealed bymenrsquos experiences

63 Ibid64 Personal interview OG Koro Uganda 16 March 201765 Jeannie Annan Christopher Blattman Dyan Mazurana and Khristopher Carlson lsquoCivil War

Reintegration and Gender in Northern Ugandarsquo Journal of Conflict Resolution 55(6) (2011) 877ndash908Sophie Kramer lsquoForced Marriage and the Absence of Gang Rape Explaining Sexual Violence by theLordrsquos Resistance Army in Northern Ugandarsquo Journal of Politics and Society 23(1) (2012) 11ndash49 Seealso Grace Akello lsquoExperiences of Forced Mothers in Northern Uganda The Legacy of WarrsquoIntervention 11(2) (2013) 149ndash156

66 Baines supra n 2

Participants spoke of a variety of other ways a man could partner with a womanin the LRA beyond those described above OG recalled how after his injury Kony as-signed him a woman to nurse him back to health lsquoLilly was given to me after I wasshot so she can take care of me in the [sick] bayrsquo67 Their time together eventuallyled to marriage Several participants described this as a common enough way tomarry a wife In this way Konyrsquos regard for his soldierrsquos life ndash be it love or self-interest ndash set the conditions for the formation of the relationship between OG andLilly At least from OGrsquos perspective their relationship was mutually desired andtherefore outside of what is typically understood in current studies of forced marriagein the LRA

Other participants also challenged common perceptions They recalled approach-ing their commander when they felt they were ready for marriage and appealing tohim for a wife68 However only those who demonstrated loyalty and compliance tothe movement and possessed an excellent work ethic were given the right to take awife and this was only at the commanderrsquos discretion Participants argued that somemen lsquoreceivedrsquo wives through persuasion some lsquowould apply pressurersquo to a com-mander until his request was fulfilled others lsquowere jolly and liked by the big menand that is why they were given a wife because they favoured their behaviourrsquo69

And lsquoat times it was like home depending on status and who you were you werefree to bring out your mind and it was respectedrsquo70 JL spoke of how he lsquocourtedrsquo awoman in the bush who later became his wife lsquoThere were no women who were justgiven to me The woman who was my wife in the bush was a woman I courtedrsquo71

Men sometimes had the choice of negotiating their choice of wife with theircommanders

If you donrsquot want that woman and there is another you want if you explain itwell to commander they will release [you from that woman] If you want theother one and she is fit for a specific commander then they will remind youthat she is for someone for a big commander They will tell you that lsquonexttime we will abduct another group and give you anotherrsquo or lsquonext time in thefield you can recruit a girl you like to keep as your wifersquo72

Most men however did not have a choice about who would be their wife as se-nior commanders were the ones to ultimately decide both when and whom a subor-dinate could marry

Despite the LRArsquos desire to strip down all preexisting familial relationships bothmen and women often continued to make decisions to protect their kin This alsoimpacted the practice of forced marriage AR described how he refused a wife be-cause she was related to him and he feared if he escaped his kin might accuse him of

67 Personal interview OG Koro Uganda 16 March 201768 Focus group discussion Gulu Town Uganda 10 July 201469 Ibid70 Ibid71 Personal interview JL Palabek Kal Uganda 13 March 201772 Personal interview TM Pader Uganda 25 June 2015

abducting his own relative73 CO was forced to marry a woman he regarded as disres-pectful and repugnant He stayed with her until he could approach his commandersand successfully make a case for her removal and placement in another homeAccording to participants some women also negotiated to choose their own part-nershusbands AR described how one woman rejected all potential matches andpurposely sought him out because he had demonstrated kindness and empathy to-ward her shortly after her abduction74 Initially reluctant AR eventually agreed tobring her into his home because she would be killed if he did not In this instance asense of responsibility governed the marriage

Participants described that their ability to court refuse or lsquodivorcersquo a wife was con-tingent on their relationships to senior commanders For example commanderscould force their male subordinates to provide for women under their care so theydid not have to or ensure she did not escape leaving the soldier responsible for herwell-being

We used to abduct girls from an area and move with them to the position [atemporary base in the bush] I was given a woman without being asked I wasjust ordered to do it without any choice of who I see that as being forced tomarry Our commander just distributed women to his men and told you tostay with her whether you wanted to or not I was given to a very young girlto stay with as my wife75

While male soldiers often had more negotiating power than women their com-manders nevertheless maintained the power to remove their wives and children alto-gether or force them to be with someone they did not desire Sometimes menwould also enter into a marriage to ensure personal safety For example RAdescribed how he married a woman he did not desire just to dispel the suspicion thathe was interested in a commanderrsquos prospective wife76

Despite these circumstances participants described how over time they developedcloseness with their wives AR spoke of the pain he felt when his first wife committedsuicide while pregnant and how he then tried to commit suicide only to be saved byhis peers and commanding officer77 OG spoke of his desire to protect his wife Lillywhom he grew to love and the children they had together78 The security of his fam-ily informed his decision to arrange for their escape In contrast other participantsdescribed their relationships with their wives as fleeting and temporary arrangementsin a time of great insecurity There was no guaranteed permanence to these mar-riages which could be quickly dismantled by insecurity or the whims of the

73 Personal interview AR Layibi Uganda 23 January 201774 Ibid75 Focus group discussion with four former LRA soldiers all abducted at unknown ages for an unknown

timeframe and whose rank was undisclosed Pader District 26 June 201576 Personal interview RA Gulu Town Uganda 9 July 2014 RA was forcibly conscripted in his early 20s

and rose through the ranks to the level of brigadier with eight wives and an estimated 10 children Heescaped alone and reunited with his senior wife and their children on return

77 Personal interview AR Layibi Uganda 23 January 201778 Personal interview OG Koro Uganda 16 March 2017

commander Some men were separated from their wives shortly after being re-deployed to a new area only to learn their new wife had died or escaped or was sentto a new unit79 However it seems that men and women developed co-dependencies and once fixed into a husbandndashwife arrangement were dependent oneach other for survival lsquoour lives were onersquo80 and lsquoyou work together you unite toensure your well-being and the well-being of things in your hands like childrenrsquo81

Just as between men the uncertainty of war forged bonds between husband andwife based on an ethics of care and a desire to survive Relationships within the famil-ial unit changed over time and were enmeshed within wider webs of power thatwere tested negotiated and refused in the LRA Violence vengeance codependenceresponsibility and love could all exist within the same relationship In sum a manrsquosrelationship with his wife or wives was largely determined by the nature of the rela-tionship with his commander and his subordinates and the context they found them-selves in The nature of the affiliation between men and women in a familial unitoften changed if they had children together as did their relationship to the LRAitself

F A T H E R ndash C H I L D R E L A T I O N S H I P SOur fieldwork reveals that men draw meaning rootedness identity and ontologicalstability from their children Children linked them to their ancestors ndash lsquoI named mydaughter Aciro after my motherrsquo82 ndash and helped them navigate uncertain futureslsquoI brought my son home [to raise] because the future is unpredictable who knowshe could be my only childrsquo83 One participant stated that having children gave himrenewed strength to carry on fighting since he aspired to overthrow the governmentand start a better life for his children He had hoped his children would quickly reachan age where they could help in the fighting lsquoThey are our futurersquo84

For some participants having children made them more empathetic in the battle-field For instance lsquo[after having a child] you begin to feel the pain of other peoplersquoand lsquoIf men did not have children they would become mad peoplersquo and lsquoyou get thefeeling that your own child is among other peoplersquos childrenrsquo85 After becoming afather OM stated that he started valuing other peoplersquos lives For example instead ofkilling a large group of civilians who were suspected of cooperating with UgandaPeoplersquos Defence Force (UPDF) soldiers he set them free after a warning lsquoThoseare the kinds of lives that I started seeing as a father How you should work withothers live with mercy see into the futurersquo86

79 Personal interview OM Gulu Town Uganda 13 March 201780 Personal interview OG Koro Uganda 16 March 201781 Personal interview OM Gulu Town Uganda 13 March 201782 Ibid83 Personal interview WO Gulu Town Uganda 20 August 2016 WO was abducted as a minor and forcibly

conscripted as a fighter He escaped with a group of boys under his command to care for his young childfollowing her motherrsquos death

84 Personal interview OM Gulu Town Uganda 13 March 201785 Ibid86 Ibid

OG encouraged his wife to escape with his child from the LRA for their protec-tion and safety

When I got a child that is when I found it challenging [to continue fightingin the LRA] because that was a time of serious war and sometimes when weare close to our enemies you do not want the child to cry so looking at thecondition my child was going through that gave me the heart [feeling] thatlsquowhy are my suffering and my child is also sufferingrsquo I said to myself whydonrsquot I take them and they rather die from home That is what came into mymind because it became painful seeing my wife and child suffer That is whyI sacrificed my life and decided to send my wife home I just told her onething lsquogo back home this war is unbearablersquo If God accepts then we shall seeeach other87

Ensuring the safety and security of their children was an important reason for sol-diers to escape and demobilize from the LRA During OIF soldiers were forced tomove with women and children diminishing their capacity to evade and fight theUPDF This demoralized soldiers who saw no future in the LRA when it jeopardizedthe lives of their children lsquoMany men escaped to protect their wives and childrenrsquo88

And lsquoif someone learned their child had been captured they would begin to think itwas useless to stay in the bushrsquo89 WO decided to escape the LRA following thedeath of his wife and the capture of his young child

I realized my child is there and if I continue staying in the bush I may not sur-vive and my child will perish because nobody from our home or her motherrsquos[home] is aware that their daughter gave birth so I should come back home90

WO arranged his escape and after spending time in a rehabilitation centre in Guluhe was able to eventually reunite with his son to assume parental responsibilities

Children born and socialized into the LRA were important to the movementwhich viewed them as necessary to fulfil the vision of the lsquonewrsquo Acholi nation andas potential soldiers91 They were also considered future implementers of theLRArsquos constitution should the Ugandan government be overthrown since theywere lsquoin the systemrsquo92 They were also important for the men who fought in theLRA

I had twins they were already able to speak Following an attack by the UPDFthey each died in my arms The mother decided to escape with the two re-maining children They were a boy and a girl We had become separated

87 Personal interview OG Koro Uganda 16 March 201788 Focus group discussion Gulu Town Uganda 10 July 201489 Ibid90 Personal interview WO Gulu Town Uganda 20 August 201691 Personal interview OM Gulu Town Uganda 13 March 201792 Ibid

during a battle I had sustained an injury a bullet wound I tried my levelbest to protect my children93

And AR following his pregnant wifersquos suicide

I was bereaved and I wanted to die I was waiting for my wife [to give birth] tosee [if it was a boy or a girl] I was wondering if God would allow us to returnhome together with the child I took good care of my wife I providedeverything she needed94

As noted children born into the LRA belonged to the movement This sometimesinterfered with a soldierrsquos desire and ability to provide for his children highlightingthe interdependence in the LRA for survival

But there was mostly nothing that you would find as a person and give to yourchildren They were mostly things from the group that would be given appro-priately to children There was no way you could do things for yourself and foryour children alone95

Fatherhood was redefined under these circumstances its parameters broadenedto fit the context of the LRA AR shared that lsquobeing a father means being someonewho does things that touches the lives of his childrenrsquo96 For AR fatherhood is notlimited to having biological children lsquoI became a true father when I was given a rankbecause there were so many children who were just abducted to become soldiersThis was how I first became a fatherrsquo97 Several participants described arranging notonly for their wives and children to escape but also the child soldiers under theircommand

According to OM the LRArsquos decision to abduct women and force them to be-come wives and mothers proved counterproductive in the long run in that it madeLRA fighters more vulnerable as their primary goal shifted from fighting for theLRA to protecting their children98 Having children also diminished some soldiersrsquocapacity to commit atrocities and massacres99 Ironically for a movement that ab-ducted children to indoctrinate and help fight and win a war against the Ugandangovernment it was some men and womenrsquos love for their children or for some thechildren under their care that made them question the very purpose of the war andabandon it In this regard children were the social tie that transcended others lsquoWefought a lot of battles to protect the women and childrenrsquo100 Soldiersrsquo love for theirchildren could and did overrule their loyalty to the high command

93 Ibid94 Personal interview AR Layibi Uganda 23 January 201795 Personal interview JL Palabek Kal Uganda 13 March 201796 Personal interview AR Layibi Uganda 23 January 201797 Ibid98 Personal interview OM Gulu Town Uganda 13 March 201799 Ibid

100 Personal interview AR Layibi Uganda 23 January 2017

C O N C L U S I O NLet us do things that bring good relationships among us101

In this chapter we have attempted to understand how social accountabilitieswere contested and negotiated in the LRA and what bearing this has on currentunderstandings of forced marriage and the field of TJ First we argue that forcedmarriage in wartime cannot be understood without adequately examining the mul-tiple relationalities on which it is contingent Menrsquos relationships with one anothernot only shaped their survival as soldiers but also the dynamics and possibilities ofbeing husbands or fathers Our data suggest that the conditions of war and extremecompetition within the LRA instituted ambivalent interdependencies among menwhere betrayal fear and anger coexisted with care love and comradeship Despiterigid rules for regulating sex and gender interactions in the LRA both men andwomen strove to negotiate their social positions and impose demands on each otherFor example in some instances men could refuse a wife or divorce her in others theywere given ndash or forced to care for ndash wives they did not choose or want Men andwomen forced into a union sometimes formed genuine bonds which if they resultedin children changed the way they understood themselves and the war

Our attention to relationships helps to account for the unexpected affiliations thatformed in postconflict Uganda including some men and women formalizing theunions forged in the armed group to assume familial responsibilities following theirescape surrender or capture A relational approach provides some insight as to whymen released women and children and at times followed them later by desertingthe LRA to lsquobe a good fatherrsquo It also reveals the nature of power how it circulatesand is enacted through social webs in an armed group or any grouping for that mat-ter Regardless of the uneven often violent nature of relationships in the LRA inter-dependent social accountabilities shaped the choices one took ndash to marry to refuseto help to risk escape While this study is concerned with menrsquos experiences a rela-tional approach should include menrsquos experiences in relation to womenrsquos and assuch our analysis addresses a gap but is incomplete Future studies should bringmenrsquos and womenrsquos experiences into conversation

Second the study provides initial insights into consent and culpability centralconcepts in legal discussions of responsibility in the TJ field The reiteration ofvictimndashperpetrator binaries may be central to legal projects of determining culp-ability or the lack of consent Yet as we have argued this framework obscures thediversity of relations that form and change over time and the capacity of personsto act in relation to another We argue that both consent and culpability must beunderstood as embedded within a broader social matrix which is not dependenton the presence or absence of absolute freedoms but that is negotiated in rela-tionship to others In other words the choices one makes or the actions one takesneed not only be interpreted through the lens of liberal autonomy or understoodas holding the same meaning to those who exercise them Both consent and culp-ability as understood here are exercised in relation to others in a sociality thatguides all relationships and responsibilities A relational lens challenges notions of

101 Ibid

legal time102 and individualized responsibility103 to reveal the continuous and dif-fuse webs of responsibility104

TJ scholars increasingly trouble the victimndashperpetrator binary in the field105

making the case for inclusion of complex victims and perpetrators in mechanismssuch as truth commissions trials and reparations106 Nneoma Nwogu calls for theinclusion of perpetrator narratives to understand the roots of violence and to worktoward reconciliation against current victim-centred approaches107 Mark Drumblcalls for the development of a typology of perpetrators in TJ recognizing differentdegrees of responsibility108 Luke Moffett argues that through a reimagining of rigidframeworks for inclusion in victim-centred TJ mechanisms complex victims can beaccommodated and future violence averted109 In her study of the ExtraordinaryChambers in the Courts of Cambodia Julie Bernath recognizes the promise andperil of including complex victims (persons complicit in the organization of vio-lence but who are also victims of it) in legal processes110 She calls for scholars andpractitioners alike to consider the necessity of addressing complex victims and per-petrators in processes of reconciliation lsquowithout hurting those who were notinvolved in perpetrating political violence and mass atrocityrsquo and asks lsquoHow canTJ processes differentiate experiences of victimization and perpetration withoutintroducing either an exclusive understanding of victims or a hierarchy ofvictimsrsquo111

While these studies and suggestions are important contributions in addressing thefalse delineation of victims and perpetrators in TJ mechanisms they remain the im-perative of categorical thinking In other words the very process of distinguishingand being mindful of different types of victims and perpetrators also reifies theseroles only now with differing degrees of responsibility and suffering Persons are re-sponsible to different degrees for particular and discrete harms (a cadre a bureaucrata cowardly leader) assuming a relationship in which one party has power over an-other Each assumes an individualist approach to responsibility A relational lens in-sists we attend to wider social entanglements

102 Clarke supra n 29103 Clarke supra n 15104 Erin Baines lsquoldquoToday I Want to Speak Out the Truthrdquo Victim Agency Responsibility and Transitional

Justicersquo International Political Sociology 9(4) (2015) 316ndash332105 Bronwyn Leebaw Judging State-Sponsored Violence Imagining Political Change (New York Cambridge

University Press 2011) Kieran McEvoy and Kirsten McConnachie lsquoVictimology in TransitionalJustice Victimhood Innocence and Hierarchyrsquo European Journal of Criminology 9(5) (2012) 527ndash538

106 Tristan Anne Borer lsquoA Taxonomy of Victims and Perpetrators Human Rights and Reconciliation inSouth Africarsquo Human Rights Quarterly 25(4) (2003) 1088ndash1116

107 Nneoma V Nwogu lsquoWhen and Why It Started Deconstructing Victim-Centered Truth Commissionsin the Context of Ethnicity-Based Conflictrsquo International Journal of Transitional Justice 4(2) (2010)275ndash289

108 Mark A Drumbl lsquoVictims Who Victimize Transcending International Criminal Lawrsquos BinariesrsquoWashington and Lee Legal Studies Paper No 2016-2 (2016)

109 Luke Moffett lsquoReparations for ldquoGuilty Victimsrdquo Navigating Complex Identities of VictimndashPerpetratorsin Reparation Mechanismsrsquo International Journal of Transitional Justice 10(1) (2016) 146ndash167

110 Julie Bernath lsquoldquoComplex Political Victimsrdquo in the Aftermath of Mass Atrocity Reflections on the KhmerRouge Tribunal in Cambodiarsquo International Journal of Transitional Justice 10(1) (2016) 46ndash66

111 Ibid 66

The men interviewed for our study place their actions within wider webs of rela-tions implying that responsibility is shared in a sociality which implicates them aswell as others We do not want to state that violence is relative Rather we illuminatethat onersquos capacity to act in coercive settings is not only a product of lsquochoiceless deci-sionsrsquo but also astute understandings of social entanglements and their bearing ononersquos life Understanding power and domination through the rubric of patriarchyalone obscures the possibilities of thinking about power beyond that exercised by anautonomous individual against another Our intention is to respond to Porterrsquos callto lsquoreimaginersquo sexual violence by placing it in social context This is more than to de-liberate the ways persons resist or develop survival strategies in coercive settings It isto recognize that singular acts of violence (rape forced marriage forced labour) existin relation to wider social accountabilities A focus on the individual accountability ofperpetrators for specific acts a hallmark of legal time obscures the negotiation ofthese social accountabilities meanings of responsibility and the capacity to hold an-other to account

A relational approach opens possibilities for thinking about culpability and con-sent as negotiated in webs of relations and understanding responsibility as sociallyheld As such it moves beyond binaries of menwomen victimperpetrator and con-sentcoercion to more dynamic ways in which human relations unfold and are imbri-cated in one another AR concluded his interview by reflecting on the peculiarconstellations of power and responsibilities in all human relations lsquoToday this personhas [power] tomorrow it is with someone else Let us do things that bring goodrelationships among us If we are divided we shall be defeatedrsquo With this AR revealsthe possibilities of TJ mechanisms to open spaces for consideration of the webs of re-lationships that shape choice consent and perceptions of culpability

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