Statement of Angelina Acheng Atyam

Ms. Atyam is co-founder of the Ugandan Concerned Parents Association, an organization of concerned individuals who advocate for the release of all children held captive by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a halt to the LRA's abduction of children, and lasting peace for all Ugandans. She lives in Lira, Uganda. Her daughter Charlotte was fourteen when she was abducted from her school in October 1996. Charlotte remains in captivity today.

Uganda is a country held up to the world as a great success in East Africa. But in the northern and western regions of my country, we are a nation of shattered families. During its twelve-year-long war with the Ugandan government, the rebel Lord's Resistance Army has kidnaped and enslaved an estimated 10,000 children, some as young as four years old. The children are marched to rebel camps in southern Sudan and forced to become soldiers. My daughter is one of them.

It has been 18 months since Charlotte was abducted from her school dormitory. She was 14 years old and went to school in a town we thought was safely south of the war zone. We knew there were troubles in the north, but it all seemed so far away. In my country, it is too easy to see only the cream that rises to the top. But beneath the surface, there is a graveyard of tortured souls.

The rebels arrived at St. Mary's School at about two that fateful October morning -- and abducted all 139 students at gunpoint. I was woken up the following day with the news. A neighbor came to console me, but I was so distraught that I did not understand a word she said.

I traveled to the school and joined dozens of grieving parents in the courtyard, waiting for news about our daughters. Every window was broken. The girls' clothes were scattered everywhere. The only clue to their whereabouts was a single file of footprints leading away from the school into the bush.

The principal, Sister Rachele, followed their trail and, miraculously, convinced the rebels to release all but 30 of the girls. But my daughter was not among the rescued. The next day, the mothers and fathers who remained at the school formed the Concerned Parents Association.

Since the founding of our group, more than a thousand parents of abducted children have joined. Our goals are simple. We want the immediate release of all children abducted in this conflict. We want the government of Uganda to protect our children from abductions. For children lucky enough to escape from the LRA, we want trauma counseling and rehabilitation services. I think we ourselves need some kind of counseling, to deal with our loss and frustration and anger and sorrow over what is happening to our children and our families.

Finally, we want peace. For a decade, the Ugandan government has pursued a military strategy that has not worked. We know the LRA forces children--our children--to the front lines in battles with the Ugandan army, beating them to make them run forward into gunfire. We know the children are made to carry guns. There is no way government soldiers and their bullets can tell the difference between an abducted child and a rebel who joined the LRA voluntarily. When we hear reports from the government and in the newspapers and on the radio that ten rebels were killed in an attack, we worry and think -- are our children those rebels?

In early December, Secretary of State Madeline Albright on her trip to Uganda went out of her way to visit one of the few rehabilitation centers for the returnees. She told the children that they are the "future of Africa." Her visit was an important recognition of the pain we feel every day.

President Clinton can take the next step. He can urge the Ugandan government to devote more resources to bringing our children home and to ending this war. With President Clinton's help, the United Nations and our neighboring countries can work with the Ugandan government, the Lord's Resistance Army and Sudan to make peace. We the people are tired of war.

Until peace comes, the kidnapings will continue. My daughter Charlotte turned 15 in Sudan. Like other parents in the Concerned Parents Association, my husband and I can only rely on those few children who manage to escape from captivity for news of our daughter. Two weeks ago, I spoke with a girl who had just escaped. She said the rebels are now intentionally impregnating the girls, to make them too ashamed to go back to their parents. She mentioned that one of the pregnant girls is a St. Mary's student named Charlotte.

I pray that one day my daughter will come home, and my family can become whole again. Uganda's future depends on how the government acts to end this tragedy and how quickly society reintegrates the children. No nation can have a valid strategic interest in prolonging the captivity and abuse of children.