Who And Where To Punish In A Criminally Loaded Conflict Of Northern Uganda: A Dilemmatic Juxtaposition Of Forms Of Justice In The Northern Uganda Conflict

Abstract

Much has been said about the conflict in northern Uganda, a civil conflict that has caused untold suffering in Uganda and the general Great Lakes region of Africa. However, little is made concrete and precisely analysed about how applicable or whether different forms of justice can be used to construct and reconstruct social order in the region. In this article, some of the varied literature is contextualized within victims perceptions in northern Uganda. It links such perceptions to the choice of forms and approaches to justice and the implications and/or potential for outbreak of latent conflicts. Using inferences from field notes in northern Uganda, the article brings to bear the dilemma faced by justice administrators caused by the complexities of the actors involved in the conflict. Restorative justice is thus suggested as a hybrid to use in the interplay of traditional forms and modern justice to forge a common front.