Here’s a link to an interesting interview on Foreign Exchange about peacemaking in Uganda. For more than a decade Betty Bigombe has been trying to broker a peace agreement between the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army, an insurgent group that has allegedly perpetrated a wide range of human rights abuses in its pursuit of power, including the forced recruitment of child soldiers and child sex slaves. LRA leader Joseph Kony, who believes he speaks directly to God and who has fathered more than 200 children during the war, is seeking to establish a theocratic regime in Uganda, one that literally enforces the Ten Commandments of the Christian Bible. (Here is another reminder that every great religion can be perverted into a compassionless creed of conquest and atrocity.)

Bigombe describes the tedious and morally uneasy process of peacemaking, especially when it involves a leader, such as Kony, with so much blood and suffering on his hands. While Bigombe saw him as a "monster" for his atrocities, she sought to understand what made him do what he did. She also began to appreciate how self-interest — at times more than ideology — drives peace negotiations, in that all rebel leaders want to protect themselves from punishment or vengeance once they put down their weapons.

Here’s what Bigombe has to say about the challenges of peacemaking: 

It takes a lot of patience. But it takes a lot of listening. Even the devil wants to be listened to. Because they totally believe they have reasons to fight. It also takes personal risks. My approach [is] … don’t put time limits to these issues and these problems …. Because when you are trying to get people who have been killing one another, to start looking at one another differently, and in some cases even coexist, it takes time. Because what is going on in their mind is "We’ve been enemies for so many years, can I start trusting so-and-so?" It’s also my perception, my conviction, because I’ve been at this for quite some time, that over a period of time, when people are given a chance, they can change, they can reform.

You can see the interview here. It starts at the 15-minute mark.

Victor Tan Chen Victor Tan Chen is In The Fray's editor in chief and the author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy. Site: victortanchen.com | Facebook | Twitter: @victortanchen