As the light in the sky in northern Uganda gradually dimmed, the children got out of the mud shed at home and began to walk along the dirt road to the nearest Gulu town. The child with wide eyes holds the hand of the older child. Skinny boys and girls on the edge of adolescence carefully stared at the shadows on the roadside. Some people walked seven miles. They moved because it is true that they live in a place that children are most afraid of. In this world, armed men really steal children in the dark, and their daily trip to safety has become a routine. People have given them a name: "Silent at night".
Michael, a thin 1-year-old child, wrapped in a patched blanket, talks about the boys and girls in the village who were kidnapped by armed men. "I can't sleep at home because I'm afraid they will catch me," he said.
About last November, when I traveled to northern Uganda, about 21, people who were mute at night trudged into Gulu at dusk, and another 2, rescuers said that they poured into the town of Kitgum about 6 miles away. Children usually lie on the woven mats they bring and stuff themselves into tents, schools, hospitals and other public buildings as temporary shelters, which are funded by foreign * * * and charities and guarded by Ugandan army soldiers.
Children fled the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a murderous cult that fought Uganda and terrorized civilians for nearly 2 years. United Nations officials say that under the leadership of Joseph Kony, LRA captured and enslaved more than 2, children, most of whom were under the age of 13. Kony and his infantry killed many girls. Kony said that he was trying to build a "pure" tribal country and cruelly forced boys to be guerrilla soldiers. Aid workers documented cases in which LRA forced abducted children to hack to death or beat their parents. LRA also killed or tortured children who tried to escape.
LRA rebels wandered in rural detachments in northern Uganda, unexpectedly appeared in Huoju village, killed and kidnapped children and then returned to the forest. The terrorist tactics of the Lord's Resistance Army and the bloody conflict between the rebels and the army have caused 1.6 million people (about 9% of the population in northern Uganda) to flee their homes and become bee refugees in their country. These "internally displaced" Ugandans were ordered to settle in dirty camps, where malnutrition, disease, crime and violence were frequent. Doctors With Borders, an international medical aid organization, recently said that there were too many deaths in the * * * camp in northern Uganda, and the problem was "beyond the scope of emergency".
This tragic word surfaced from time to time in western news media and international institutions. U. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for an end to the violence in northern Uganda, and the United Nations also coordinated food donation and relief work in Uganda. A booklet of the United Nations Food Program in 24 said: "The atrocities of the Lord's Resistance Army are unparalleled anywhere in the world." . However, the crisis in Uganda was largely concealed by the genocide in neighboring Sudan. Since the beginning of 23, the militia supported by * * * has attacked blacks in Darfur, killing nearly 7, people. In the past year, the United States provided Uganda with more than 14 million US dollars. Most of it is used for economic development, but it includes $55 million for food and $16 million for other forms of assistance, such as AIDS education and support for former child soldiers and former abductees. In May 24, Congress passed the Northern Uganda Crisis Response Act, which President Bush signed in August. It does not provide funds, but urges Uganda to resolve the conflict peacefully, and calls on the State Council to report this issue to the National Assembly this month, and mourn Achoulis less than 5 miles from Kampala before being defeated by the regular army. A year later, it was reported that Joseph Kony's cousin formed an army called "Lord's Resistance Army" and vowed to overthrow Museveni. Since then, thousands of people have lost their lives in the conflict, and no exact casualties have been reported, which has cost the poor country at least $1.3 billion.
It takes 4 hours, including the waters covered by the rolling Nile River from Kampala to Gulu. Near the city, villages began to disappear, replaced by huge and boring * * * camps. Gulu, a garrison town, is the seat of the Fourth Division of the Ugandan Army. Soldiers strolled along the bumpy sidewalk with assault rifles or drove by in pickup trucks. The dilapidated shops built of concrete lined up along the main road. The day before I arrived, LRA fighters cut off the lips, ears and fingers of a camp resident in a landmark dismemberment two miles from the city center. His obvious crime is wearing rubber boots that soldiers like, which aroused the suspicion of LRA. He may be such a person himself. Rob Hanawalt, head of UNICEF operations in Uganda, said that LRA then attacked a refugee camp along
Kampala Road
15 miles away and kidnapped several children. Over the years, about 15, children abducted by LRA have successfully escaped or been rescued by Ugandan troops. Many people who were kidnapped before were taken to Gulu, where aid organizations assessed them and prepared for their return home.
Children in the War Rehabilitation Center run by World Vision, an international Christian charity, are hidden behind high shutter doors, and the walls are inlaid with broken glass. Inside, one-story buildings and tents filled this small pound. At the time of my visit, there were 458 children waiting to be relocated. Some play football, some jump rope and some perform traditional dances. I saw about 2 children hobbling along on crutches without a leg. People can distinguish the recent arrivals by their dark silence, bow their heads, furtive gaze and bony bodies disfigured by ulcers. Some people were captured or rescued a few days ago, when Ugandan army helicopter gunships attacked rebel forces holding them. Jacqueline Akongo, a consultant at the center, said that the children with the deepest scars were the children who Kony ordered the execution of other children. But in fact, all the children were traumatized. "Other people who don't kill themselves see someone killed, which makes them very uneasy," Akongo told me.
One night in Gulu, I met 14-year-old George, who said that he had been with the rebels for three years. He said that one night, when the rebels were about to break through the camp, a pair of five-year-old boys complained that they were too tired to walk. George said, "Mandel found another little boy with a machete to kill them." . George went on to say that on another occasion, he was forced to collect the blood of a murdered child and heat it in a pan on the fire. He was told to drink or be killed. "It can strengthen the heart," George recalled what Mander had said to him. "When you see someone die, you won't be afraid of blood."
In Gulu, I met other people who had been kidnapped before, and they told the same terrible stories. Although their experiences seemed incredible, social workers and others who worked in northern Uganda insisted that the worst part of the children's report was in fact true. Nelson, a young man of about 18 years old, stared at the ground and described that he helped to kill another boy with wood because the boy tried to escape. Robert, 14, from Kitgum, said that he and some other children were forced to cut the body of a child they killed into small pieces. He said: "We did as we were told. Margaret Ente, a 2-year-old mother I met in the rehabilitation center, said in Gulu that she was kidnapped by the LRA at the age of 12 and repeatedly * * *. She said Kony has 52 wives, and 25 kidnapped girls will become his slaves once they reach puberty. Margaret is a tall, soft-voiced and far-sighted woman. She held her 4-year-old son in her lap that day. She said that she was the eighth wife of a senior LRA officer who was killed in a battle last year. Sixteen-year-old Beatrice held her one-year-old baby and recalled her forced "marriage" with an LRA officer. "I don't want to," she told me, "but he pointed a gun at my head."
people describe Kony's behavior as arrogance. Archbishop John Baptist Odama, a Roman Catholic priest in Gulu and head of Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative, a Christian and * * * organization, said: "Kony made the children kill each other, which made them feel so ashamed and guilty that they thought they would never return to their homes and be trapped by LRA." Trying to mediate an end to hostilities.
The highest-ranking LRA member detained in * * * is Kenneth Banya, and the third rebel group is in Mande. In July this year, he was captured in a fierce battle near Gulu. His wife and a 4-year-old son were killed by helicopter fire, but most of his 135 soldiers escaped. Today, Benya and other officers captured by LRA are being held in the military camp of the * * * Army in Gulu. The army used him for propaganda and made him speak on Gulu Radio, urging his former LRA colleagues to surrender.
Bania is over 5 years old. When I met him in the military camp, he said that he had received civilian helicopter training in Dallas, Texas and military training in Moscow. He claimed that he was kidnapped by LRA fighters in 1987. He said that his advice to Kony not to kidnap children was ignored. He denied ordering the killing of children or girls. Banya said that when he arrived at the first camp of the Lord's Resistance Army, water was sprinkled on his trunk, and the rebels marked him with a white clay cross mixed with nut oil. He recalled his teachings and said, "This will eliminate your sins. You are a new person now, and the Holy Spirit will take care of you." When I conveyed Benya's last words to Lieutenant Paddy Ankunda, spokesman of the Northern Army Command, he smiled and said, < P >. He said that Banja went to Kony out of his own will. A handout released when Benya was arrested called him the "heart and spirit" of the Lord's Resistance Army. Without the support of the radical Sudan, the terrorist forces led by the doomsday Christian Kony < P > could not flourish. In the eight years since 1994, Sudan has been providing refuge to the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in retaliation for Museveni's support for the Sudanese Christian rebel group, the Sudanese people, who are fighting for independence in southern Sudan. Khartoum gave Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army weapons, food and a shelter near Juba, a city in southern Sudan. There, far from the Ugandan army, Kony's rebels launched an attack in Uganda, where they gave birth to children, brainwashed and trained new abductees, planted crops and regrouped. Banya told me: "At that time, we had 7, soldiers there. In March 22, Sudan signed a military agreement with Uganda under the pressure of the United States, allowing Ugandan troops to fight against the Lord's Resistance Army in southern Sudan. Ugandan troops quickly destroyed the main LRA camp in Sudan. Kony then stepped up his raids and kidnappings in northern Uganda; According to World Vision, LRA captured more than 1, children in Uganda between June 22 and December 23.
At that time, Museveni ordered Acholi people to enter the relatively safe camp. KenDavies, director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Uganda, said: "In April 22, 465, people were displaced in the refugee camps because of LRA. "By the end of 23, there were 1.6 million people in the refugee camps." Last count, there are 135 refugee camps. In the thirty years that I have covered wars, famines and refugees, I have never said, * * * and the murder of civilians. Ochola advocated granting amnesty to members of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), although he said that a LRA mine killed his wife and the LRA rebels killed his daughter, who later killed herself.
Many rescuers advocate a peaceful solution. Last autumn, Egeland of the United Nations wrote: "There is no military solution to the violence and rebellion in the north. Critics say that one disadvantage of military means is the high casualty rate of LRA prisoners. Rescuers accused the army of using helicopter gunships to attack LRA forces, because women and children were killed with rebel soldiers. The Ugandan army defended this practice. "LRA trains their women and children to use rifles and even rocket-propelled grenades, so we shoot before they shoot," Major Shaban banta Riza, a military spokesman, told me. In November this year, Museveni announced that * * * and LRA would establish a limited ceasefire zone in northern Uganda. In late December, Interior Minister Ruhakana Rugunda and former Minister Betty Bigombe led a team, including Odama and United Nations representatives, to meet LRA leaders near the Sudanese border to discuss the signing of a peace agreement before the end of the year. However, the talks broke down at the last minute, after reportedly rejecting LRA's request for an extension of time. President Museveni said at a peace concert in Gulu on New Year's Day that the ceasefire agreement had expired and vowed that the army would "hunt down the leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army, especially Joseph Kony. "We have made slow progress in ending this protracted war," he added, however, that since August 23, 4, children have been rescued.
Ten young mothers and their children are preparing to go home in a reception center run by a Catholic relief organization in Pade town, northern Uganda. They flew there from Gulu by UNICEF charter flight. Among the young women was Beatrice. As soon as she entered the building, a teenage girl rushed to her. "You are still alive! Beatrice said to me, "that girl screamed and was as excited as Beatrice." We are the best friends in the jungle. " . "She thought I was killed by a gunboat."
Such gatherings are usually pleasant, but the children who were kidnapped before face a grim future. "They need counseling for many years," Kong Ge said, adding that they have little or no chance to get any counseling.
One day, at the Children's Rehabilitation Center in Gulu, I saw Iacobo Ogwan running to his 13-year-old daughter, Steller, throwing her hands into the air with ecstasy, and seeing her for the first time since the LRA kidnapped her two years ago. "I thought she was dead," he said trembling. "I haven't slept since we learned that she came back." The girl's mother Jay