Uganda
The residents of Uganda are still waiting for their children to return home. A truce signed last August between the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) stated that the LRA was required to free all of the child soldiers and sex slaves the army has been holding for for years. The LRA has yet to comply to this part of the truce. Commandors have stated that the women and children that were stripped from their homes and forced into a life of torture and combat are now “part of their families”.
The fortunate few that have managed to escape the LRA remember the days they encountered as “part of their families”. These days include: farming, child rearing, and combat. This included heavy labor and continuous training to ensure perfection. These children in the LRA go through many of the same horrors of typical child soldiers: brainwashing, torture, abuse, and being forced to shoot from the combat lines. One of those children fortunate enough to escape have claimed he “doesn’t know – and doesn’t want to know – whether the bullets he blindly fired ever killed anyone”.
The date that had been agreed upon as the deadline for the return of those children held until the LRA has passed, and many are worried if the officials in the army have any plans of releasing these children in the future. Even the United Nations Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs has travled to Uganda to try to persuade LRA officials to realse the children with no success.
Internviews of children who have managed to escape this imprisonment can be found at the following link: http://peacejournalism.com/ReadArticle.asp?ArticleID=18677
