writer: adam hanson
photographers: anna kari, thomas lee
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united nations |
For over 20 years, a civil war has ravaged northern
Uganda. The majority of the northern population belong
to the Acholi tribe. In the late 1980s, a group claiming
to support the Acholi tribe, began calling themselves
the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). They started a war to
overthrow the Ugandan government, which is dominated
by the Buganda tribe in the south. No permanent peace
agreement has been reached to date; however, a truce was
signed between the two groups in August of 2006. The
LRA has long made it a practice to raid Acholi villages
and abduct children. They force these children to fight
as soldiers in their army, all-the-while brainwashing,
starving and torturing them. Many of the girls abducted
are given as “wives” to high ranking LRA officers. The
LRA routinely abducts children at night, and to keep
from being taken during times of great tension, thousands
of children walk into protected big cities to sleep and
then walk home in the morning. These children are
known as “night commuters.” Due to the attacks on
Acholi villages, nearly 1.5 million Ugandans have fled
their homes into internally displaced person (IDP) camps,
marginally protected by Uganda’s military, the Ugandan
People’s Defense Force (UPDF). |
photo | courtesy of Anna Kari/Save the Children
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“When it rained, it was a rule that we would be tied together.
They would gather us, tie our arms [behind our backs], and
then tie us all together in a long row with a rope through our
trousers. Then they ordered us to lie down in a ditch – just
where the water would run. Sometimes, after the rebels
went to sleep, I could move my arms and roll onto my side. It
was very difficult to sleep in that position; I would shake all
night, and when I woke up, I would still be shivering. I would
try and sit in the sun during the day to warm up, but I often
got ill with a headache and fever,” says twelve-year-old Peter
who was abducted from his home by the LRA and forced to
fight as a soldier in Uganda’s civil war. “It was very bad and
inhumane to do to another person what I went through. They
never explained why we had to sleep in the ditch; till this day
I don’t know.”
Peter escaped after almost two years with the rebel army.
He was wounded during a helicopter attack and left for dead
by the LRA. He was picked up and sent to the Gulu Support
the Children Organization (GUSCO) rehabilitation center,
supported by Save the Children. At the center, his wounds
were treated, and he received counseling for his mental and
spiritual trauma. He now walks with the aid of a stick and
cries when he thinks about leaving the center. “I found out
that my father died. My family won’t tell me how he died,
but I think either the rebels or the government soldiers killed
him. My father was the one who paid for me to go to school,
who taught me farming and how to keep a home. Now, I am
all alone. I will have to live with my stepmother, but she is
too old to take care of me. It will be me who takes care of her,
and I am only 14. If only I could go to school again and get an
education; then I would have the chance of getting a job, but
there is no money for me to go to school.”
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photo | courtesy of Anna Kari/Save the Children |
“The first time I experienced a helicopter attack, I shook so
much I could hardly move. I was paralyzed with fear. The only
thing I could think of was my parents and everyone at home.”
18-year-old Anthony, who was abducted when he was 10, fought
for the LRA for eight years and six months. “Only after a few
minutes did I manage to hide properly. Around me, my friends
were shot to death by the helicopter’s bullets and bombs. They
cried helplessly and bled very badly while they screamed for us
to come and save them, but everyone stayed in hiding without
doing anything. After a while, [they] stopped screaming ...
and after a while they stopped moving. Then, the helicopter
came back and shot at us again.” Years in the shadow of death
change a boy, causing trauma to pile upon hopelessness. “From
the first time I shot a pistol, I liked it. When you have a gun in
your hand, a spirit comes over you, and you suddenly become
strong. I felt very big when I had a weapon. When I was ill, I
became healthy again when I shot my machine gun – that’s
how powerful it is.”
The communities where the child soldiers were born often
shun them when they return because the residents are not
comfortable with former rebels returning to their society.
They believe that those coming from war may harbor bad
spirits. Since many of these children only know war and
are often too old for a traditional education, they join the
UPDF once they escape. Anthony is at a rehabilitation center
awaiting his community’s response to his return. “I would like
to go back to school, but if any evil spirits come and get me,
then I will join the UPDF. Now, I have nightmares, and I see
things even when I am awake. If this continues, I will have no
choice but to join the military. I pray that the evil spirits do
not take me over and start controlling me.” |
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photo | courtesy of Anna Kari/Save the Children |
Florence was abducted by the LRA when she was 11. After four
years of service, Florence was approached by an officer in his
late thirties. "He asked me if I would be his wife. He had a
gun, and it was impossible for me to say no. If I had not said
yes, he would have killed me. I was too young to be anybody's
wife, but I had to do it; I was just 15." The officer had other
wives that became jealous and cruel to his "new wife." The
other wives would make up lies about Florence so that
they would be ordered to beat her with the blunt end of a
machete. "I had to lie on my belly and take my shirt off. Then,
they would hit me on my back so that it created a pattern of
a cross. At the same time, I had to dig a hole with one of
my fingers, and only when half the finger was in the sand
would they stop."
Florence and her young daughter from her LRA "marriage"
escaped after seven years. She dreams of opening a
little shop and finding a man who will accept her and
her daughter. "I hope I can, one day, find a man who will
understand what I have been through. But I may have to
leave my daughter [with my mother because] some men
would [not accept her since she is not their own]." |
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