CONSTRUCTIVELY ENGAGING NON-STATE ARMED GROUPS
IN ASIA: MINDING THE GAPS, HARNESSING SOUTHERN PERSPECTIVES

By SOLIMAN M. SANTOS, JR.

This extended essay synthesizes my own private studying and reflections on the work of constructively engaging non-state armed groups (NSAGs), and the relevant insights and fresh perspectives from research, including from exchanging notes with other scholars, practitioners and policy researchers who are in related fields. This essay calls attention to and shares this relatively new or novel area of needed work; consolidates the case or arguments for it; places it in the bigger historical and global picture, especially in Asia; reviews the relatively well-developed work in three main fields; points out the gaps in terms of underdeveloped fields and of perspectives; presents the motive forces and key arenas for promoting and further developing this work; and proposes what is to be done to move forward with this work in Asia.

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Harnessing Southern Perspectives for Peace and Human Development

South-South Network (SSN) for Non-State Armed Group Engagement is a newArmed Groups and Human Security Efforts in the Philippines region-anchored initiative from the global South (Asia, Africa and Latin America) which seeks to develop more effective approaches, instruments and intellectual resources for the constructive engagement of non-state armed groups (NSAGs).

SSN adopts a Southern perspective in its approach to NSAG engagement as well as in its organizational configuration and organizational culture as a loose but dynamic inter-regional and intra-regional network of mainly people’s and non-governmental organizations and field practitioners as well as academic, research and policy institutions and workers.




DISENGAGING NON-STATE ARMED GROUPS (NSAGs) IN CONFLICT RESOLUTION: CASE STUDY OF THE LORD'S RESISTANCE ARMY (LRA) IN NORTHERN UGANDA

By LARE OKUNGU

Meaning:
States can flex their muscles publicly regarding international conventions and agreements that have been adopted by the states, but these gestures may not necessarily touch the conscience of NSAGs, who might go about their daily operations totally inured to the threats. Hence, a more innovative approach may be needed to engage the NSAGs to induce them into accepting the international norms and agreements. Universalization must mean exactly what the word denotes, which implies an all-inclusive engagement process involving NSAGs.

The LRA
A recent communiqué from Northern Uganda Advocacy Partnership for Peace (NUAPP) - this comprises Conciliation Resources, Christian Aid, and World Vision- made interesting reading. The opening paragraph went thus:

" 'Operation Lighting thunder' was yet to yield evidence that the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has been disrupted or destroyed as a movement. On the contrary the situation has moved from a stalled peace process to a very hot war, and as in most conflicts, it is civilians who have paid (and are continuing to pay) the price for the calculated risks taken by leaders in the region..."

Four things emerge from a close look at this excerpt:

First, it is discerned that a hitherto purely Acholi/Langi dominated ragtag Ugandan rebel group has transformed itself into a runaway movement straddling international borders (of Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan).  NUAPP claims that the LRA's face is now a composite of ' abducted, either from past campaigns in Northern Uganda or from recent activity in Sudan and DRC.' - i.e. the LRA's combatants are made up of Ugandan, Sudanese and Congolese nationals.  There is hence likelihood that purely Ugandan interests do not motivate LRA.

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