Local alternative approaches to transitional justice in northern Uganda

The critique of the relevance of international criminal justice is based on the understanding that the nature and dynamics of the conflict in northern Uganda require more localised and context-specific approaches. This chapter explores the nature and scope of local initiatives which were proposed as alternative responses to the incessant conflict in northern Uganda. A better–intentioned attempt as a form of transitional justice is associated with the rule of General Tito Okello. A notable legislative initiative undertaken some years before the situation in northern Uganda was referred to the International Criminal Court was the Amnesty Bill introduced in 1998 by the Ugandan parliament with regard to the Lord’s Resistance Army. The theory of the political economy of war in northern Uganda, the persistent insurgency in northern Uganda served the interests of both the Government and the rebels. M. Kustenbauder argues that the persistent war offered significant political, economic and military advantages to Yoweri Museveni’s Government.