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IRIN Web Special on the crisis in Northern Uganda
LRA Human Rights Abuses
Child abductees often suffer brutal treatment at the hands of LRA commanders.
Credit: Sven Torfinn (2002)
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Children in the firing line
The list of LRA atrocities against the children of northern Uganda is endless. Since war broke out in 1986 the rebel group has routinely abducted children as young as seven, training them in southern Sudan and forcing them to fight on the front lines.
The LRA has targeted schools, churches and villages to abduct boys, whom it uses as soldiers, and girls, who are often used as sex slaves for LRA commanders. Over the years, as many as 25,000 northern Ugandan children are believed to have been abducted by the rebel group.
Abduction, torture, and murder
Some child abductees have managed to escape their captors and tell of the extreme hardships they endured in the bush. They tell horrendous tales of suffering and extreme cruelty at the hands of their abductors.
As part of initiation into the rebel movement, abducted children are forced into committing inhuman acts, including ritual killings and mutilations. They tell of how they were forced to club to death other children who were not 'properly cooperating' with the orders of rebel commanders.
Stella, a 10-year-old girl currently under rehabilitation and treatment at the Gulu Support the Children Organisation (GUSCO), is one example. After being abducted, she was forced to walk to the LRA rear base in southern Sudan. However, after falling behind the main group of abductees, part of her foot was cut off by a rebel commander to "teach her to walk properly." Luckily, she was found and rescued by the army.
"Some of the worst atrocities being committed against children are taking place in Uganda, and the international community is nowhere to be seen," a frustrated Baker Ochola, retired Bishop of Kitgum, told IRIN.
Abducted children also speak of a harsh and exhausting journey to Sudan, during which many die from hunger and exhaustion. Those who survive face even more inhuman conditions in training camps in Sudan, where many more die from starvation, disease, or injuries suffered in battle.
Thirteen-year-old Alfred Onen says he decided to escape after his two sisters and one brother, who were abducted with him on the same day, were killed in a heavy battle with Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) soldiers. "I have gone to battle many times. Initially, they put me on one of the lower brigades and then transferred me to 'control' - the same command where Kony is," Onen says.
"There was a time when the government was organising peace talks. So we organised, me and 11 others, to surrender. I had thought about leaving earlier, but Sudan was too far. When we came back to Uganda, we managed to escape," he explains.
Although some children like Onen have returned, many are still missing, feared dead. Gladys Acan, who was abducted in 2000 when she was only 11, tells of how she watched many children abducted with her die on the way to Sudan.
"On the way, some people were stabbed, others shot, but most were clubbed to death. They beat me constantly even without reason," she says. "One day there was a fierce fight between us and the UPDF. Only 15 of us were not injured. About 150 were injured and the rest were killed," Acan, who is currently under rehabilitation at GUSCO told IRIN.
Acan escaped after spending close to three years in captivity. She has no idea where her parents are or whether they are still alive, but hopes to find them and go back to school.
The string of LRA atrocities in northern Uganda does not, however, end with the children. Their parents, other relatives and the whole community are equally affected.
As recently as May 2001, there were reports of the LRA attacking homes and mutilating people, cutting off their fingers, lips, and ears as "punishment" for cooperating with the government.
Geoffrey, a 17-year-old secondary school student who had joined the Local Defence Unit (LDU), a pro-government militia group recruited to fight the LRA, is one example. His ears were cut off and wrapped in a letter found in his pocket as a warning to others. It read: "We shall do to you what we have done to him."
Due to fear of abductions, parents in affected areas are forced to send their children to the relative safety of the towns, where they stay overnight in hospitals, church compounds and even on shop verandahs.
But there is a price to pay for this. Parents are often beaten cruelly, and in some cases brutally murdered, when rebels fail to find children in their homes.
Continued?
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