Feature - Horrors of LRA child captivity

Fifteen year-old Patrick Komakech lies on a bed, grateful for his freedom and more importantly for his life. He was brought to a rehabilitation centre in the northern Ugandan town of Kitgum after fleeing his captors, the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), two weeks after they abducted him from his school. He was among the lucky ones. Others in his group who had tried to escape, were recaptured and killed in front of their counterparts "as a lesson on what would happen to us if we tried to run away". Children are the main target of the 17-year LRA insurgency which has terrorised civilians in northern Uganda. The group, led by Joseph Kony, seeks to topple President Yoweri Museveni and replace his government with a regime governed by the Biblical Ten Commandments. The group routinely attacks Acholi villages, killing civilians and abducting children to be forced into its ranks and girls to be used as sex slaves for commanders. GRUESOME TALES Children who have managed to escape from LRA captivity tell horror stories about the extreme physical and psychological violence with which they were initiated into rebel ranks. Peter Ochan, 14, was abducted, when he was asleep and made to walk the whole night and the whole day, before he and other abducted children were allowed to rest. During his 10 months in captivity, the clubbing of children to death by rebel commanders became a daily ritual in the bush, he says. Ochan, now accommodated at the Gulu Support the Children Organisation (GUSCO), a rehabilitation centre set up to help children returning from captivity, explains how he and others were forced to carry the decomposing body of a boy killed for trying to escape. "We carried the body on our shoulders everywhere we went," he said. "It smelt very bad. We were told it was part of our training. The commander then told us to scoop out the brains from what was left of the body and show them around to others." Another escapee, Tony Ulanya, 16, says he has met LRA leader Joseph Kony several times and describes him as a "possessed man". “He would preach to us on Sundays for many hours," he told IRIN. "He always told us that he spoke with the angel who told him that he would one day be the president of Uganda, and the young people he has abducted and the children born in captivity will take over the country. Sometimes he leaves people and stays on his own for a long time.” FEAR OF ESCAPE Opportunities to escape from captivity are extremely rare for many of the abductees. Many do not dare to escape for fear of reprisals, either towards them or their families. Relishing his freedom at the Kitgum Concerned Women's Association (KICWA), Patrick recounts some of his gruesome memories. “Two boys tried to escape," he says. "They were beaten to death, with sticks. A child whose feet were too swollen to walk any further was tied up and left behind to die. He was left there and told to eat soil.” REHABILITATION Those who run the rehabilitation centres for returning abductees, such as GUSCO and KICWA, say most of the children who escape are often emaciated, weak from disease, and severely traumatised. "In the bush, good food, like chicken and goats was reserved for commanders, while children only ate sorghum or wild fruits," Patrick recalled. “In Sudan [where the LRA has its bases], we had to kill people, steal their animals and take stored grains in order to survive.” The rehabilitation centres are however just a temporary respite for returning abductees. Once their return to their families has been facilitated, the children remain under constant risk of re-abduction, which would mean certain execution by their captors. Mads Oyen, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) child protection officer in Uganda told IRIN that there had been at least 6,000 abductions since the beginning of this year, translating to 12,000 a year. “The abductions that have taken place since the period after June [2002] are the highest levels of abductions ever [since the insurgency began],” Oyen said. Christopher Arwai, who heads the KICWA centre, however believes that many more children have been abducted from northern Uganda throughout the insurgency, many of whom may never be accounted for. [See also Peace Process Crumbling in North]