April 1998
In the Ugandan civil war, most of the victims and perpetrators of violence are children. North Uganda has been devastated by the LRA, the Lord's Resistance Army. The LRA's standard initiation involves recruiting children, after torturing and executing their parents, and then training them to become killers. Thousands of children have been turned into soldiers or sex slaves. The LRA wants to gain control over all of Uganda and then implement a government ruled by the Ten Commandments. For the moment their commandments are rather more hellish. One of their most recent and esoteric edicts has been against the riding of bicycles - anyone caught doing so has both their feet cut off on the spot. One missionary school fell prey to the LRA in the dead of night. Working all night, the rebels chiselled right through the dormitory walls. They abducted the 130 girls inside. A brave nun chased them through the night and begged the LRA Commander to give back the girls. He gave most back, but kept 30. Today their beds are empty, and their parents beg Musseveni to negotiate with the LRA for their return from camps in neighbouring Sudan. But Musseveni tells us his army will defeat the LRA in war, then the abductions will stop. Those who do escape the LRA's clutches are encouraged to dance or act their horror out. 10 year old Francis was asked to stab a woman as others beat her up, or be shot himself. "We left her dead, holding her baby." One of those who was forced to abduct children into the LRA says he himself killed 120 people.
