"They take an axe and split your head with it. They don't waste any bullets on you."
15-year-old former abductee.
The rebels' arrival in a village or camp marks the start of a series of traumatic experiences for its inhabitants. Parents are beaten, humiliated and shot, speared or bludgeoned to death in front of their offspring. Children, especially those between the ages of eight and 16, are rounded up; some adults, too. Then, loaded on their backs with loot taken from their own families and communities, they are force-marched across northern Uganda and into southern Sudan. Former abductees all tell of journeys lasting days, weeks or even months. Along the way, they witness more abductions, whose victims are added to the unhappy band of involuntary travellers. The abuses continue, too. Some pay the ultimate price for lagging behind or faltering under their burdens: they are murdered and their corpses left to rot where they fell or thrown into the surrounding bushes.
The captives and their captors finally arrive in the rebel camps, where the former undergo a strict regime of forced labour, deprivation and punishment. Girls are raped or forced to become the "wives" of rebel commanders. Even those not yet in their teens are not spared. Any unsuccessful attempts to escape are brutally punished. Some succeed, but many never reach home.
More than 20,000 children have been abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda since 1990. The kidnappings subsided in 2001, when hopes were high that the conflict was slowly dying out, but after the Ugandan armed forces launched a military offensive in early 2002, the abductions escalated, spreading - along with the conflict - to previously unaffected areas.
Those who manage to escape the LRA are first taken to child protection units (CPUs) run by the military, where they are questioned before being transferred to rehabilitation centres. In Gulu, for example, children are then taken to a centre run by the Gulu Support the Children Organisation, while adults are transferred to a rehabilitation centre run by World Vision, an international Christian relief and development NGO. After that, they are taken to camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) or to their homes.
According to human rights groups, the former abductees are usually scarred for life, constantly reliving their maltreatment, living permanently with the knowledge that they had been forced to beat, maim or kill others, even their own parents and relatives, so as not to be beaten, maimed or killed themselves. Some of the girls face the additional burden of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. As a result of the unhygienic conditions in the bush, many children come back with severe skin infections. They are also restless at night, can hardly sleep, and wake up very early
Denis was found by some women three days after escaping from the rebels, and taken to the CPU in Gulu. He was weak from malnutrition, dehydration and beatings received during captivity | Many people have to live with visible reminders of their ordeals. These include people who lost limbs as a result of torture or landmines, whose use by the LRA has increased since the intensification of fighting between government and rebel forces early last year, according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Organisations such as AVSI, an Italian NGO, have been providing some of the amputees with therapy and prostheses. However, the list of those yet to be fitted with the artificial limbs they need to live something resembling normal lives is said to be long.
The accounts and photographs which follow depict the suffering of a handful of the multitude whose bodies and minds bear the marks of northern Uganda's 17-year nightmare.
O.R. (14) was abducted from his home in Kitgum in February 2003. He spent four months in captivity before escaping in June. Here he recounts some of his experiences while in captivity.
On the way to Sudan, they forced us to kill many people. One morning, a young boy was brought to us. We were told he had tried to escape. His body was swollen and had cuts from many beatings. They killed him. We were told to chop the body into smaller pieces. Boys were given the heart and liver to eat. Girls were told to cook and eat the rest of the body parts. We did as we were told.
A few days later, a commander called me and said he had a special task for me to carry out. He was carrying a newborn baby. He placed the baby in a large wooden mortar, the one we were using for pounding grain. He gave me a heavy wooden pestle and ordered me to start pounding. I was afraid to do it, but I did as I was told. I knew I would be killed if I didn't. All the boys in the group had been forced to do something similar. I knew the baby's mother. She was one of the captives. She screamed when she saw what I was doing. The commanders beat her up so much, and told her to shut up. But they did not kill her. They told me to continue pounding until they were satisfied the baby was dead.
Former abductees being interviewed by a UDPF soldier at the CPU in Gulu | After some weeks, they started to trust me a little, because I always obeyed their orders. They were no longer restricting my movements very much. They gave me a gun and taught me how to use it. But we were still being watched. I decided one day to escape. I slipped into the bush and walked for many hours, avoiding open places. I didn't know in which direction I was going, but I kept on walking. When it became too dark, I crept into a thick bush and slept. I found a UPDF [Uganda People's Defence Forces] military detachment in Kitgum the following day. I reported there. I was told I was in Kitgum District. A few days later, I was brought to this centre [a rehabilitation centre for abducted children run by World Vision in Kitgum]. They have been very good to me.
But I am constantly disturbed by what I did in the bush. I dream about it all the time. Sometimes I hear voices saying things to me. "There is work waiting for you in the bush," the voices keep telling me. "Pound faster... faster...harder," other voices keep saying. In the night I dream of the same things. I fear to go to sleep because of nightmares. I want these dreams to stop tormenting me.
David (17), abducted on 21 June 1996 just outside Acholibur IDP camp in Kitgum District, is haunted by the memories of the abuses he witnessed during captivity.
What I cannot forget is how they murdered my uncle. There was no food, and he had become very thin. They made him carry a very heavy load. He could not walk any more. He was very weak. So they killed him. They struck him on the back of his head with a hoe and left him there.
I managed to escape in August this year when we went to raid an IDP camp in Pader. We went to attack the camp at night. I threw away my gun and hid in the bush. I spent the night there. In the morning, I went to report to the soldiers who were guarding the camp. They brought me here. I can't remember where my parents are. I was abducted a long time ago. I can only hope that the people at this centre will be able to trace them. I am trying to forget everything. I hope I will be able to go back to school. I know my future is nothing without education.
Michael had been beaten and left for dead by rebels. By the time he was found, termites had begun eating him and building a nest on his body | Michael (25), a former abductee, had been in hospital for four weeks. He was beaten by his captors, because he could no longer carry their loot.
I was too exhausted. We [the abductees] had been walking in the bush for weeks, carrying heavy loads, with hardly any food or water. I couldn't carry their [the rebels'] things any more, because I was too exhausted, so they beat me on the back of my head with gun butts. They said they didn't want to waste any bullets on me. Then they left me. They thought I was dead. UPDF soldiers found me a week later. Termites had started eating me alive. They had begun building an ant hill on my body.
The rebels had split Alex’s head with a hoe because he was too weak to carry their loot | Alex (15) - beaten and left for dead for being tired
I have been here [St Joseph's Mission Hospital, Kitgum] for two weeks now. I was brought here by UPDF soldiers who found me in the bush. LRA rebels had hit me on the head with a hoe and split my skull. Then they left me to die. They had beaten me because I was too exhausted to walk any longer. For nearly a month, I had been walking barefoot through the bush with the rebels, carrying a heavy bag of maize flour on my head as they moved around northern Uganda abducting more children. They had also beaten me badly for trying to escape. They had caught up with me and given me 100 strokes of the cane on my back and buttocks.
Charles (25) amputee undergoing treatment at the AVSI rehabilitation centre, Gulu Hospital
Charles lost his arms after a severe beating by soldiers | I worked as a cook at a primary school. I lived in the school compound. Some UPDF soldiers guarded the school. One afternoon, I went back home from work and sat outside my house. Some soldiers came and surrounded me. They said I was a rebel and demanded that I show them the gun I was hiding. I told them I was a civilian and didn't have a gun. But they did not believe me. They insisted that I was a rebel. They tied my hands tightly behind me with a rubber strap and began beating me till I was unconscious. They only left me when they thought I was dead. I woke up in hospital some days later. The doctors told me they had been forced to amputate my arms to save my life. I have been trying to follow up the matter with the authorities through a human rights organisation, which sent a letter to the UPDF Fourth Division. There have been threats to prevent me from pressing the case. I still see all of the soldiers who attacked me. Nothing has been done to them.
This is a new life for me. I now have to depend on people to help me with everything. I cannot even dress or eat on my own. I am tired of this. The school only helped me meet my medical costs, but now I have no job. I cannot go back to my old job with both hands amputated. I have two children to feed. My wife left me when I returned home without my hands.
Francis, physiotherapist at the AVSI rehabilitation centre.
When Charles was brought here, the discoloration and gangrene process had started on both arms. After amputation, he was put on strong antibiotics until he recovered. He is not completely out of danger. AVSI is still monitoring the healing process, and will decide on the rehabilitation measures which will benefit him.
We receive many cases of people beaten by UPDF soldiers and their hands tied behind their backs, causing severe nerve injuries. We refer such cases to the Uganda Human Rights Commission, but there has been no response up to now.
We receive many other traumatic cases committed by both soldiers and rebels. When the army bombs rebels, civilians get caught up in it. Recently an eight-year-old child was brought in with a leg destroyed by a mortar bomb from a UPDF tank. I didn't know she would survive. But now she has adapted very well. We hope to fit her with an artificial leg soon.
Denis (15) owes his life to the women who found him
Denis was abducted on 8 August 2003 from his home just outside Gulu. He had managed to escape from the rebels, but collapsed in the bush after walking for three days. Some women found him and put him in a minibus, which took him to the CPU in Gulu town.
Denis said he had been severely beaten as part of his initiation into the rebel group. "We were made to walk. We slept late at night and woke up very early. We did not reach Sudan. We were just moving within [northern] Uganda. We went up to Pader. On the way, the rebels abducted more children," he said.
He was very weak from malnutrition and dehydration. His back was still aching from the beatings and he had acute stomach cramps since he had eaten nothing in days. He was unable to walk without assistance. He could speak only with extreme difficulty.
Many returning abductees arrived at the centre in a similar condition, according to the head of the CPU in Gulu. They are the lucky ones. "Normally some abductees, when they reach this condition, they are abandoned or killed," he said. "They take an axe and split your head with it. They don't waste their bullets on you. They only use their guns when fighting the army."
Santo (17) was on his way to the food-for-work project where he worked when he stepped on a landmine. That was in September 2000.
Whether or not Santo will be able to go back to school will depend on the security situation, he says | He had been using that route every day and was unaware that mines had been planted there. "I felt as if I had stepped into a hole, and the next thing I realised was that I was on the ground. My leg came off immediately. I fell unconscious. For a month, I did not realise where I was," he recalled.
Santo had been in and out of hospital for three years and was still undergoing treatment for his injuries. He had first been treated at the World Vision rehabilitation centre in Kitgum, before being taken to the AVSI orthopaedic workshop in Gulu to be fitted with a prosthetic leg.
Santo is an orphan. Rebels killed his parents when they attacked their IDP camp in Pabbo, Gulu. He now lives alone there with his 10-year-old brother. They only had each other to count on, he said: "If you're not able to work, it becomes a big problem. Relatives do not support us. We are not getting help from anyone. Now I can walk, I can get what I need."
AVSI had agreed to finance his schooling, but Santo did not think he had much of a future, given his disability and because he felt unsafe: the LRA had attacked the camp 17 times in 2003 alone. "I believe in education," he said. "But this is also a difficult question, because this sponsorship [AVSI's] will depend on the security situation."
Sarafina (38) from Kalongo IDP camp in Pader District stepped on a landmine in 1997. She has five children, including one who was abducted six years ago and has never returned.
Sarafina was fitted with a prosthesis six years after her leg was blown off by a landmine | I was coming back home from digging in the field in the afternoon. I was carrying my baby on my back and a basket of millet and cassava on my head. It had rained hard, so I could not notice anything. It was very muddy. I stopped to tie the baby properly on my back, then I realised I had stepped on something. When I removed my foot, it was blown off. I fell unconscious. I woke up in Kitgum Hospital on the next day. They told me my baby had died.
My leg was amputated above the knee. I spent many months in hospital, then I returned to the camp in Kalongo where my family lives. It's only in September [2003] that I was brought to AVSI [orthopaedic workshop] for an artificial leg. AVSI identified me during an assessment which was announced on radio. When they accepted me, I looked for the money and then came to Gulu to be fitted with the leg. Many people can't travel to Gulu for this kind of treatment, because the roads are not safe or because they do not get to hear about it.
Life is very hard, because I can't do all my housework as I used to. My husband has another wife. I left the children with her when I was coming here for treatment. I depend on WFP [World Food Programme] food and my children for support. When I ask people to help, they tell me that they are not the ones who sent me to step on a landmine. The language people use on me is not good. People tell me bitter things just because I can't work. Sometimes I want to kill myself.
My husband and his other wife treat me very harshly. They say I'm a burden to the family, because I eat but don't work. When he is drunk, my husband becomes very cruel. He abuses me and accuses me of not being a good example to the children. "What kind of children can you have if you cannot even move?" he asks me.
I don't see anything changing in the camp. The situation is so difficult. Sometimes I feel very bitter and lonely. I hope that with this new leg I'll be able to move around more. I also think it will help me earn a living, even if I will not be able to compete with everyone.
Cecilia (20) was abducted from a secondary school in Pader when she was 15 and spent five years in captivity. She spoke to IRIN at the CPA rehabilitation centre.
I was given to John Okech, one of [LRA leader Joseph] Kony's senior commanders. I was his fourth wife. He soon brought in four other young girls. They were to become his wives when they were slightly older. In the meantime, the girls were told to baby-sit for his other wives. When you are given a commander to be your husband, you are expected to produce food. You are also given a gun and expected to fight. Several times, I was picked to go out on patrols.
Young girls such as these former abductees at the GUSCO rehabilitation centre in Gulu are made to work for the “wives” of rebel commanders until they, in turn, are forced to become “wives” | I became pregnant in early 2002, when Kony predicted an attack from the UPDF on our bases in Sudan. By June, our whole group sneaked back into Uganda and hid in the Imatong mountains. This was the most difficult time for captives. My husband was part of the attack on Anaka [a village in Gulu District]. He was shot in the chest by the UPDF. He died a few days later. I gave birth to a baby boy, but he died after a month.
I was released after the death of my husband. I only returned from the bush a few days ago. I am still haunted by frightful dreams. I dream often that I am still in the bush. I hear children crying. I dream that we are being attacked, or fighting, walking for days in the hot desert without food or water. I am happy to be back, but I have no hope of returning to school. I heard that my entire family has been displaced. They are now scattered in camps in the district.
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