IRIN Web Special on Life in northern Uganda
"when the sun sets, we start to worry..."

"They take an axe and split your head with it. They don't waste any bullets on you."
15-year-old former abductee.

The rebels' arrival in a village or camp marks the start of a series of traumatic experiences for its inhabitants. Parents are beaten, humiliated and shot, speared or bludgeoned to death in front of their offspring. Children, especially those between the ages of eight and 16, are rounded up; some adults, too. Then, loaded on their backs with loot taken from their own families and communities, they are force-marched across northern Uganda and into southern Sudan. Former abductees all tell of journeys lasting days, weeks or even months. Along the way, they witness more abductions, whose victims are added to the unhappy band of involuntary travellers. The abuses continue, too. Some pay the ultimate price for lagging behind or faltering under their burdens: they are murdered and their corpses left to rot where they fell or thrown into the surrounding bushes.

The captives and their captors finally arrive in the rebel camps, where the former undergo a strict regime of forced labour, deprivation and punishment. Girls are raped or forced to become the "wives" of rebel commanders. Even those not yet in their teens are not spared. Any unsuccessful attempts to escape are brutally punished. Some succeed, but many never reach home.

More than 20,000 children have been abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda since 1990. The kidnappings subsided in 2001, when hopes were high that the conflict was slowly dying out, but after the Ugandan armed forces launched a military offensive in early 2002, the abductions escalated, spreading - along with the conflict - to previously unaffected areas.

Those who manage to escape the LRA are first taken to child protection units (CPUs) run by the military, where they are questioned before being transferred to rehabilitation centres. In Gulu, for example, children are then taken to a centre run by the Gulu Support the Children Organisation, while adults are transferred to a rehabilitation centre run by World Vision, an international Christian relief and development NGO. After that, they are taken to camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) or to their homes.

According to human rights groups, the former abductees are usually scarred for life, constantly reliving their maltreatment, living permanently with the knowledge that they had been forced to beat, maim or kill others, even their own parents and relatives, so as not to be beaten, maimed or killed themselves. Some of the girls face the additional burden of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. As a result of the unhygienic conditions in the bush, many children come back with severe skin infections. They are also restless at night, can hardly sleep, and wake up very early.

Denis was found by some women three days after escaping from the rebels, and taken to the CPU in Gulu. He was weak from malnutrition, dehydration and beatings received during captivity

Many people have to live with visible reminders of their ordeals. These include people who lost limbs as a result of torture or landmines, whose use by the LRA has increased since the intensification of fighting between government and rebel forces early last year, according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Organisations such as AVSI, an Italian NGO, have been providing some of the amputees with therapy and prostheses. However, the list of those yet to be fitted with the artificial limbs they need to live something resembling normal lives is said to be long.

The accounts and photographs which follow depict the suffering of a handful of the multitude whose bodies and minds bear the marks of northern Uganda's 17-year nightmare.

O.R. (14) was abducted from his home in Kitgum in February 2003. He spent four months in captivity before escaping in June. Here he recounts some of his experiences while in captivity.

On the way to Sudan, they forced us to kill many people. One morning, a young boy was brought to us. We were told he had tried to escape. His body was swollen and had cuts from many beatings. They killed him. We were told to chop the body into smaller pieces. Boys were given the heart and liver to eat. Girls were told to cook and eat the rest of the body parts. We did as we were told.

A few days later, a commander called me and said he had a special task for me to carry out. He was carrying a newborn baby. He placed the baby in a large wooden mortar, the one we were using for pounding grain. He gave me a heavy wooden pestle and ordered me to start pounding. I was afraid to do it, but I did as I was told. I knew I would be killed if I didn't. All the boys in the group had been forced to do something similar. I knew the baby's mother. She was one of the captives. She screamed when she saw what I was doing. The commanders beat her up so much, and told her to shut up. But they did not kill her. They told me to continue pounding until they were satisfied the baby was dead.

Former abductees being interviewed by a UDPF soldier at the CPU in Gulu

After some weeks, they started to trust me a little, because I always obeyed their orders. They were no longer restricting my movements very much. They gave me a gun and taught me how to use it. But we were still being watched. I decided one day to escape. I slipped into the bush and walked for many hours, avoiding open places. I didn't know in which direction I was going, but I kept on walking. When it became too dark, I crept into a thick bush and slept. I found a UPDF [Uganda People's Defence Forces] military detachment in Kitgum the following day. I reported there. I was told I was in Kitgum District. A few days later, I was brought to this centre [a rehabilitation centre for abducted children run by World Vision in Kitgum]. They have been very good to me.

But I am constantly disturbed by what I did in the bush. I dream about it all the time. Sometimes I hear voices saying things to me. "There is work waiting for you in the bush," the voices keep telling me. "Pound faster... faster...harder," other voices keep saying. In the night I dream of the same things. I fear to go to sleep because of nightmares. I want these dreams to stop tormenting me.

David (17), abducted on 21 June 1996 just outside Acholibur IDP camp in Kitgum District, is haunted by the memories of the abuses he witnessed during captivity.

What I cannot forget is how they murdered my uncle. There was no food, and he had become very thin. They made him carry a very heavy load. He could not walk any more. He was very weak. So they killed him. They struck him on the back of his head with a hoe and left him there.

I managed to escape in August this year when we went to raid an IDP camp in Pader. We went to attack the camp at night. I threw away my gun and hid in the bush. I spent the night there. In the morning, I went to report to the soldiers who were guarding the camp. They brought me here. I can't remember where my parents are. I was abducted a long time ago. I can only hope that the people at this centre will be able to trace them. I am trying to forget everything. I hope I will be able to go back to school. I know my future is nothing without education.

Michael (25), a former abductee, had been in hospital for four weeks. He was beaten by his captors, because he could no longer carry their loot.

I was too exhausted. We [the abductees] had been walking in the bush for weeks, carrying heavy loads, with hardly any food or water. I couldn't carry their [the rebels'] things any more, because I was too exhausted, so they beat me on the back of my head with gun butts. They said they didn't want to waste any bullets on me. Then they left me. They thought I was dead. UPDF soldiers found me a week later. Termites had started eating me alive. They had begun building an ant hill on my body.

Continued 

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