STOP THE ABDUCTION AND
ENSLAVEMENT OF UGANDAN CHILDREN

UNICEF, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have reported on the abductions of Ugandan children by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), an armed rebel group seeking the overthrow of Ugandan President Yowerri Museveni. The recent Human Rights Watch Report, The Scars of Death, is available at: http://www.hrw.org/reports97/uganda/

Children as young as eight years old, boys and girls alike, have been stolen from their homes and schools in northern Uganda, and forced to become rebel soldiers. Recent UNICEF figures estimate that up to 10,000 children have been abducted. In a world where there is a disturbing growing reliance on children as soldiers, the LRA abductions stand out as a horrifying and extreme example of the deliberate targetting of children in war.

The LRA's abduction of children
Abducted children are forced to take part in combat, raid and loot villages, porter heavy loads, marching endless distances without food or water. Captive girls are given as "wives" to LRA commanders and live as sexual slaves. All abducted children live as virtual slaves in the rebel army -- their labor, their bodies and their lives are all at their commanders' disposal.

The children undergo a brutal initiation into rebel life: they are forced to participate in acts of extreme violence, often being compelled to help beat or hack to death fellow child captives who have attempted to escape.

One boy tried to escape, but he was caught. They made him eat a mouthful of red pepper, and five people were beating him. His hands were tied, and then they made us, the other new captives, kill him with a stick. I felt sick. I knew this boy from before. We were from the same village. I refused to kill him and they told me they would shoot me. They pointed a gun at me, so I had to do it.

The boy was asking me, "Why are you doing this?" I said I had no choice.

After we killed him, they made us smear his blood on our arms. I felt dizzy. There was another dead body nearby, and I could smell the body. I felt so sick. They said we had to do this so we would not fear death and so we would not try to escape.

I feel so bad about the things that I did . . . . It disturbs me so much that I inflicted death on other people . . . . When I go home I must do some traditional rites because I have killed. I must perform these rites and cleanse myself. I still dream about the boy from my village who I killed. I see him in my dreams, and he is talking to me and saying I killed him for nothing, and I am crying.

                                                                                           - Susan, sixteen

The rebels march their captives to neighboring southern Sudan, and many die of disease or starvation during the march. There the children undergo rudimentary military training, and are armed and made ready to fight. The children are forced to participate in hostilities in a number of ways. They are used as porters, messengers, guards, and scouts. They also perform hard labor, hauling water and gathering and preparing food for the rebel soldiers. Girls are forced into sexual slavery. Children are also made to participate directly in combat. They are used to raid and loot villages, to fight in the front lines against the Ugandan army, and to fight against the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in Sudan's own civil war.:

I was good at shooting. I went for several battles in Sudan. The soldiers on the other side would be squatting, but we would stand in a straight line. The commanders were behind us. They would tell us to run straight into gunfire. The commanders would stay behind and would beat those of us who would not run forward. You would just run forward shooting your gun. I don't know if I actually killed any people, because you really can't tell if you're shooting people or not. I might have killed people in the course of the fighting . . . .

I remember the first time I was in the front line. The other side started firing, and the commander ordered us to run towards the bullets. I panicked. I saw others falling down dead around me. The commanders were beating us for not running, for trying to crouch down. They said if we fall down, we would be shot and killed by the soldiers.

In Sudan we were fighting the Dinkas, and other Sudanese civilians. I don't know why we were fighting them. We were just ordered to fight.
                                                                                           - Timothy, fourteen

The role of the government of Sudan
While undoubtedly it is the LRA that is directly responsible for perpetrating these gross abuses against innocent children, the government of Sudan shares a large part in that responsibility. Human Rights Watch has found ample evidence of Sudan's complicity in the the LRA's atrocities against children. Ugandan children who had recently escaped from LRA captivity reported that they were brought across the Ugandan border to LRA base camps in government-controlled southern Sudan, often sited close to Sudanese army units. They witnessed Sudanese soldiers delivering food supplies, vehicles, ammunition and arms to the base camps. In return, the LRA, and the captive children who form the bulk of the LRA forces, join the Sudanese government in its own civil war against the SPLA.

The government of Sudan has attempted to focus world attention on the SPLA's use of child soldiers, claiming itself to be a champion children's rights. It is true that during the 1980s and early 1990s, in particular, the SPLA recruited children as young as eleven into its ranks, and although this practice has diminished in recent years, it has not completely died out. The Sudanese government, too, has drafted underage boys into its own army.

Human Rights Watch has continued to call on both the SPLA and the Sudan government to cease the recruitment of children under the age of eighteen.

Sudanese authorities also point out that the SPLA is backed by the Ugandan government. The Sudanese are right to say that the Ugandans should use their influence over the SPLA to help curb human rights abuses. However, this does not excuse Sudan's failure to act against the LRA's ongoing atrocities against children.

Human Rights Watch has called on the Sudanese government to use its influence with the LRA to end the LRA's practices of abducting, killing, torturing, and sexually abusing children; the Sudanese government should cease all military and other support of the LRA until these goals are met.

Whatever differences exist between the governments of Sudan and Uganda, and the armed groups enjoying their support, all parties should stand firm against human rights abuses against children.

The role of the government of Uganda
Human Rights Watch has also called upon the Ugandan government to meet its obligations to Ugandan children. While we recognize that it is the LRA that is responsible for the grave human rights abuses against these children, the Ugandan government nevertheless is obligated to ensure protection and care for children affected by the conflict. When confronting the LRA, the Ugandan army should take all possible steps to minimize child casualties, to prevent the injury and death of child captives. We are particularly disturbed by reports that captive children, at times bound together, have been injured or killed by Ugandan soldiers in attacks from the air and on the ground.

Thousands of children have also managed to escape from rebel captivity, but upon their return they find their families displaced, unlocatable, dead, or fearful of having the child return home. After spending a brief period in one of two NGO-run trauma centers, child returnees must move on and find their owns means of support and shelter. The future of former abducted children is desperately bleak without government leadership and long term support. Returnees urgently need appropriate medical and psycho-social care and counseling. Their families should be found and reunited with them where possible. Returning children should be provided with education or skills training, and a viable means of support and care, particularly where they remain separated from their families. The Ugandan government should be urged to design a comprehensive and integrated program for the recovery and reintegration into society of former child captives. The international community should provide support for the rehabilitation and reintegration of former child captives.

The role of the United Nations
The Secretary General of the United Nations should be called upon to intervene on behalf of abducted children, to halt their abduction, torture, killing and sexual abuse, to secure their release, and to promote their recovery and social reintegration.

Who to contact

Please write to the leadership of Sudan and Uganda, and to the Secretary General of the United Nations, to voice your concern over the plight of abducted Ugandan children.
 

President Omar Hassan al Bashir
c/o Permanent Mission of the Republic of Sudan to the United Nations
655 Third Avenue, 5th Floor
New York, N.Y. 10017
USA
Fax: 1 212 573 6160

President Yowerri Museveni
c/o Permanent Mission of Uganda to the United Nations
Uganda House
336 East 45th Street
New York, N.Y. 10017
USA
Fax: 1 212 687 4517

Secretary General Kofi Annan
U.N. Headquarters S-3800
New York, N.Y. 10017
USA
Fax: 1 212 963 4879