Paper long abstract:

In September-October 2005 the Uganda Peoples Defence Force, on behalf of the international drive against terror, raised their operations among the pastoralist Karamojong. On the one hand they continued a longstanding disarmament programme by the charade of inducing some warriors to hand in their guns for new ones lent by the army. On the other hand their camps situated in many locations of the region have again put the soldiers in the position of being a player in the game of cattle-raiding. Increased use of armed personnel carriers has given soldiers a sense of cavalier superiority that led one to transgress on to a sacred grove in Kotido, the district headquarters. This became the ritual focus for protest by local elders, while military conflict broke out up and down Karamoja which has been veiled from public notice by all concerned.