The Crisis in Northern Uganda: What You Can Do: Sample Letter to President Yoweri Museveni

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President Yoweri Museveni
President's Office
Parliament Building
P. O. Box 7168
Kampala, Uganda

Your Excellency:

I am deeply concerned about continuing conflict in northern Uganda, and its devastating impact on children. Since 1986, some 30,000 children have been abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army for use as soldiers, laborers and sex slaves. The threat of abduction remains so great that each night as many as 40,000 children leave their homes in the countryside, often walking long distances to sleep in the relative safety of towns.

I urge your government to take all possible steps to protect children and other civilians in northern Uganda from abduction and LRA attacks. Because children in LRA captivity are exposed to fighting between the LRA and the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF), I also urge you to instruct members of your military to take all feasible steps to minimize child casualties during armed conflict, and to ensure that children who surrender, escape, or are captured are delivered as rapidly as possible to rehabilitation centers that can provide them with appropriate assistance.

Finally, I am concerned at reports that children under the age of eighteen are also recruited into local defense units and are used as soldiers by the Ugandan army. Human rights groups have also documented the recruitment by the UPDF of children who have escaped the Lord's Resistance Army by the UPDF. I urge you to ensure that all such recruitment of children stops immediately, and that your government takes steps to bring those responsible to justice.
Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely yours,

	The Crisis in Northern Uganda: What You Can Do
	Mother, Daughter Reunited By Angelina Atyam. First published in The Chicago Tribune, Aug. 3, 2004. Reprinted with permission Sept. 15, 2004.
	Uganda: Child Abductions Skyrocket in North Press Release, March 28, 2003
	"Stolen Children: Abduction and Recruitment in Northern Uganda" Human Rights Watch Report, March 2003
	Testimonies from "Stolen Children: Abduction and Recruitment in Northern Uganda"

	More on Human Rights in Uganda
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