Northern Uganda Child Rescue
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 Night Commuters The children in this photo live in Northern Uganda, a region afflicted with poverty, disease and war for the past 18 years. Each night thousands of children leave their villages and escape to nearby cities to sleep in the entryways and verandas of hospitals, police stations and other public buildings. These children, dubbed 'night commuters', are hoping to escape the terror of abduction by the rebel army, a practice that has become a daily reality for the children of Northern Uganda.
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 Indoor night commuters It has been estimated that more than 20,000 children, some as young as 5 years old, have been abducted by the LRA over the course of this bloody civil war.
The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) subjects those it abducts to nearly unimaginable brutality in an effort to psychologically indoctrinate them into their ranks fostering guilt and fear in the abductees in order to deter attempts at escape. Boys are forced into the role of soldier, while girls are used as sex slaves. Below are first hand testimonials from some of the victims of abduction who have managed to escape.
"Early on when we were captured, the LRA explained to us that all five brothers couldn't serve in the LRA because we would not perform well. So they tied up my two younger brothers and invited us to watch. Then they beat them with sticks until the two of them died. They told us it would give us strength to fight. My youngest brother was nine years old."
- Martin P, age thirteen , in an interview with Human Rights Watch, Gulu, Uganda, February 6, 2003)
"[A] group of children escaped. Two girls, aged fourteen, were [re]captured. They were given to the group of child abductees and we were told that we must kill them with clubs. Every one of the new recruits was made to participate. We were warned that if we ever tried to escape, we would be killed in the same manner"
- James K, in and interview with Human Rights Watch, Gulu Uganda, February 6, 2003
"Godfrey lies in pain in the dressing room of St. Joseph's Hospital, in Kitgum Mission. I can see the terror in his eyes. In the evening of May 30th [2003] the [LRA] rebels came to his home in Mucwini and subjected him to a most horrible mutilation which left him without ears, lips, and fingers. It is the fourth such incident I have seen over the last month. His torturers wrapped his ears in a letter and put it in his pocket. The blood-stained piece of paper gave a strong warning to whoever wants to join the local defense forces (LDU) 'We shall do to you what we have done to him'"
-Father Carlos Rodriguez, "War in Acholi: What Can We Do" Kitugm, Uganda, June 2003
Continued on Page 2 -> What we are doing to help
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