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

Alex (15) - beaten and left for dead for being tired

I have been here [St Joseph's Mission Hospital, Kitgum] for two weeks now. I was brought here by UPDF soldiers who found me in the bush. LRA rebels had hit me on the head with a hoe and split my skull. Then they left me to die. They had beaten me because I was too exhausted to walk any longer. For nearly a month, I had been walking barefoot through the bush with the rebels, carrying a heavy bag of maize flour on my head as they moved around northern Uganda abducting more children. They had also beaten me badly for trying to escape. They had caught up with me and given me 100 strokes of the cane on my back and buttocks.

Charles (25) amputee undergoing treatment at the AVSI rehabilitation centre, Gulu Hospital

Charles lost his arms after a severe beating by soldiers

I worked as a cook at a primary school. I lived in the school compound. Some UPDF soldiers guarded the school. One afternoon, I went back home from work and sat outside my house. Some soldiers came and surrounded me. They said I was a rebel and demanded that I show them the gun I was hiding. I told them I was a civilian and didn't have a gun. But they did not believe me. They insisted that I was a rebel. They tied my hands tightly behind me with a rubber strap and began beating me till I was unconscious. They only left me when they thought I was dead. I woke up in hospital some days later. The doctors told me they had been forced to amputate my arms to save my life. I have been trying to follow up the matter with the authorities through a human rights organisation, which sent a letter to the UPDF Fourth Division. There have been threats to prevent me from pressing the case. I still see all of the soldiers who attacked me. Nothing has been done to them.

This is a new life for me. I now have to depend on people to help me with everything. I cannot even dress or eat on my own. I am tired of this. The school only helped me meet my medical costs, but now I have no job. I cannot go back to my old job with both hands amputated. I have two children to feed. My wife left me when I returned home without my hands.

Francis, physiotherapist at the AVSI rehabilitation centre.

When Charles was brought here, the discoloration and gangrene process had started on both arms. After amputation, he was put on strong antibiotics until he recovered. He is not completely out of danger. AVSI is still monitoring the healing process, and will decide on the rehabilitation measures which will benefit him.

We receive many cases of people beaten by UPDF soldiers and their hands tied behind their backs, causing severe nerve injuries. We refer such cases to the Uganda Human Rights Commission, but there has been no response up to now.

We receive many other traumatic cases committed by both soldiers and rebels. When the army bombs rebels, civilians get caught up in it. Recently an eight-year-old child was brought in with a leg destroyed by a mortar bomb from a UPDF tank. I didn't know she would survive. But now she has adapted very well. We hope to fit her with an artificial leg soon.

Denis (15) owes his life to the women who found him

Denis was abducted on 8 August 2003 from his home just outside Gulu. He had managed to escape from the rebels, but collapsed in the bush after walking for three days. Some women found him and put him in a minibus, which took him to the CPU in Gulu town.

Denis said he had been severely beaten as part of his initiation into the rebel group. "We were made to walk. We slept late at night and woke up very early. We did not reach Sudan. We were just moving within [northern] Uganda. We went up to Pader. On the way, the rebels abducted more children," he said.

He was very weak from malnutrition and dehydration. His back was still aching from the beatings and he had acute stomach cramps since he had eaten nothing in days. He was unable to walk without assistance. He could speak only with extreme difficulty.

Many returning abductees arrived at the centre in a similar condition, according to the head of the CPU in Gulu. They are the lucky ones. "Normally some abductees, when they reach this condition, they are abandoned or killed," he said. "They take an axe and split your head with it. They don't waste their bullets on you. They only use their guns when fighting the army."

Santo (17) was on his way to the food-for-work project where he worked when he stepped on a landmine. That was in September 2000.

He had been using that route every day and was unaware that mines had been planted there. "I felt as if I had stepped into a hole, and the next thing I realised was that I was on the ground. My leg came off immediately. I fell unconscious. For a month, I did not realise where I was," he recalled.

Santo had been in and out of hospital for three years and was still undergoing treatment for his injuries. He had first been treated at the World Vision rehabilitation centre in Kitgum, before being taken to the AVSI orthopaedic workshop in Gulu to be fitted with a prosthetic leg.

Santo is an orphan. Rebels killed his parents when they attacked their IDP camp in Pabbo, Gulu. He now lives alone there with his 10-year-old brother. They only had each other to count on, he said: "If you're not able to work, it becomes a big problem. Relatives do not support us. We are not getting help from anyone. Now I can walk, I can get what I need."

AVSI had agreed to finance his schooling, but Santo did not think he had much of a future, given his disability and because he felt unsafe: the LRA had attacked the camp 17 times in 2003 alone. "I believe in education," he said. "But this is also a difficult question, because this sponsorship [AVSI's] will depend on the security situation."

Sarafina (38) from Kalongo IDP camp in Pader District stepped on a landmine in 1997. She has five children, including one who was abducted six years ago and has never returned.

I was coming back home from digging in the field in the afternoon. I was carrying my baby on my back and a basket of millet and cassava on my head. It had rained hard, so I could not notice anything. It was very muddy. I stopped to tie the baby properly on my back, then I realised I had stepped on something. When I removed my foot, it was blown off. I fell unconscious. I woke up in Kitgum Hospital on the next day. They told me my baby had died.

My leg was amputated above the knee. I spent many months in hospital, then I returned to the camp in Kalongo where my family lives. It's only in September [2003] that I was brought to AVSI [orthopaedic workshop] for an artificial leg. AVSI identified me during an assessment which was announced on radio. When they accepted me, I looked for the money and then came to Gulu to be fitted with the leg. Many people can't travel to Gulu for this kind of treatment, because the roads are not safe or because they do not get to hear about it.

Life is very hard, because I can't do all my housework as I used to. My husband has another wife. I left the children with her when I was coming here for treatment. I depend on WFP [World Food Programme] food and my children for support. When I ask people to help, they tell me that they are not the ones who sent me to step on a landmine. The language people use on me is not good. People tell me bitter things just because I can't work. Sometimes I want to kill myself.

My husband and his other wife treat me very harshly. They say I'm a burden to the family, because I eat but don't work. When he is drunk, my husband becomes very cruel. He abuses me and accuses me of not being a good example to the children. "What kind of children can you have if you cannot even move?" he asks me.

I don't see anything changing in the camp. The situation is so difficult. Sometimes I feel very bitter and lonely. I hope that with this new leg I'll be able to move around more. I also think it will help me earn a living, even if I will not be able to compete with everyone.

Cecilia (20) was abducted from a secondary school in Pader when she was 15 and spent five years in captivity. She spoke to IRIN at the CPA rehabilitation centre.

I was given to John Okech, one of [LRA leader Joseph] Kony's senior commanders. I was his fourth wife. He soon brought in four other young girls. They were to become his wives when they were slightly older. In the meantime, the girls were told to baby-sit for his other wives. When you are given a commander to be your husband, you are expected to produce food. You are also given a gun and expected to fight. Several times, I was picked to go out on patrols.

I became pregnant in early 2002, when Kony predicted an attack from the UPDF on our bases in Sudan. By June, our whole group sneaked back into Uganda and hid in the Imatong mountains. This was the most difficult time for captives. My husband was part of the attack on Anaka [a village in Gulu District]. He was shot in the chest by the UPDF. He died a few days later. I gave birth to a baby boy, but he died after a month.

I was released after the death of my husband. I only returned from the bush a few days ago. I am still haunted by frightful dreams. I dream often that I am still in the bush. I hear children crying. I dream that we are being attacked, or fighting, walking for days in the hot desert without food or water. I am happy to be back, but I have no hope of returning to school. I heard that my entire family has been displaced. They are now scattered in camps in the district.

[Ends]

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