{UAH} IDDI AMIN NEVER TARGETED LANGIs/ACHOLIs, THEY TARGETED HIM {---Series Seventy-seven}

Friends

 

Coalition to stop the use of Children Soldiers a United Kingdom organization, made a study in Teso about the Acholi violence and how it directly affected the children in Eastern Uganda. They wrote a paper " Returning Home Children's perspectives of Reintegration A case study of children abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army in Teso, Eastern Uganda" The report was authored by Vera Chrobok and Andrew S. Akutu, edited by Dr. Linda Dowdney, Editor, Psychosocial Webpage. Because this entire report makes the tears drop from every intelligent parent, what we have decided is only to post the direct quotes from these Iteso children.  Friends these are children that God hands us to up bring as our future. This is what we have turned them out to be. Now these are children that have been saved for international organizations cared but worried about the violence that they went through. There are tens of thousands of children that are still out there and have not been saved to today, that is the future Acholi violence has created for all of us. Read these quotes but look at their age, and what they went through, and we have not posted all of them for they keep on going on, and on. We are posting from all over the study.

 

Friends we need to start discussing Acholi violence but candidly.

 

 

"I was raped twice in the bush by our commander and his bodyguard, in Pader, and I felt so bad because I was still young then and not ready for sex; worse, I am not sure to date if they were free from HIV/AIDS." (Girl, 17)

 

"Sometimes in the bush, the rebels would beat us without mercy whether you made a mistake or not. We would also be made to carry heavy loads on our heads for long distances and made to assemble out in the cold each day as early as 5 a.m." (Boy, 15)

 

"When I was abducted in 2003, we had no food for three days, we lived only on water. Then the rebels made us move and when we reached Asamuk the rebels decided that we should prepare some food. They told us to decide among ourselves who should be eaten. At first, we thought it was a joke until they decided themselves on a certain girl whom they slaughtered and cut into pieces. Then they told us to cook the pieces. When it was ready, the rebels forced us to eat the cooked girl. After that we were told to kill an old man who was helpless. After a week, the rebels brought us to Amaseniko camp [Amuria] where we had been abducted and told us to burn houses. I was told to kill my grandfather. When I tried to refuse, the rebels beat me hard until I accepted to kill him using heavy stones. Then we went ahead to kill two more people we came across." (Girl, 13)

 

"The rebels forced me to cut off a child's leg, but I didn't manage completely, just the foot, so the rebels beat me and told me I would be killed next." (Girl, 16)

 

"The rebels cut our necks and put herbs inside to confuse our heads. This made me wanting to stay with the group. It makes you feel that you don't want to go home. They also performed some rituals on us, every evening they smoked us with some herbs that make you go and kill somebody." (Boy, 17)

 

"I was helped to escape by some boys who were also abducted. Immediately after we escaped, the rebels made a follow-up, they almost got me again but I hid in the bush near the road and the rebels passed." (Boy, 15)

 

"I travelled on foot for about ten days in the bushes, with no food apart from raw tomatoes, until I arrived in Lira town." (Girl, 16)

 

"I was happy to be freed from the problems we had to go through in the bush and I was happy because I got rid of death." (Girl, 14)

 

"I felt bad because when I came back I saw the tree where I was beaten and abducted." (Girl, 14)

 

"My mother was killed, so I felt it was better to go back to the bush, this way you don't find anybody dead at home." (Boy, 16)

 

"You cannot be completely happy with all these wounds – both in your body and in your mind." (Boy, 15)

 

"My parents ran away when they saw me, I had to follow them, they thought I would abduct them." (Girl, 15)

 

"My old mother got shocked, she got a heart failure. I was then taken back to AACAN for three days. When I came back home, I couldn't enter the house because everybody was fearing me. So I sat by the church, some people brought water for me until finally my mother greeted me and expressed happiness that I returned." (Male, 18)

 

"My head was cut by the rebels and I have a big scar on my forehead; children and elderly people always insult me." (Girl, 14)

 

"I was so aggressive, anybody who insulted me I felt like I wanted to kill them. I also felt like going back to the bush, because I didn't feel welcome at home." (Boy, 17)

 

"Some were not happy because their own children had not returned. They tell us it is us who caused them not to come back and that we took their children." (Boy, 16)

 

"They still call us rebels, even this morning when we came to the meeting. This is done by both adults and children." (Boy, 16)

 

"You have to be very careful. People say that we can easily kill them and sometimes children stay with us only for a short while and then disappear." (Boy, 15)

 

"We feel different because of the way other children look at us; it seems as if we are not children born from this land. They view us as though we come from a different place." (Boy, 17)

 

"I feel easy with other formerly abducted, nobody insults me and we have all gone through the same trouble." (Girl, 17)

 

"Other children insult me and when I try to fight them they run to the teacher's office. The teacher says 'If your head is confused because you were abducted, don't come and disturb others'. Then the teacher beat me up. I went back with my parents and now it's a bit better." (Boy, 14)

 

"They always break my suitcase and take things from me, and then they tell me I shouldn't complain because I get all my things for free from agencies." (Girl, 16)

 

"There is a big difference to the time before I was abducted, especially regarding my health. I used to be able to work hard in the garden but now I'm no longer strong and work looks so heavy for me. I can't perform better yet I have to work hard to earn a living. I really feel weak and sickly, especially in my back and chest." (Male, 18)

 

"When I try to study, my health affects me and I have to stop. I cannot go to school every day because my body pains." (Girl, 15)

 

"Someone comes with a big stick and beats me. This happens when I am awake and when I'm sleeping." (Boy, 17)

 

"I had dreams about being caught by the rebels who cut off my head with a panga."32 (Girl, 15)

 

"I had imaginations like still hearing gunshots. The noise I heard was like an airplane in my head." (Boy, 14)

 

"I didn't want anybody strange in the house, whenever someone came I was hiding in the house and I felt like hitting them." (Girl, 15)

 

"When I came back I wanted to kill myself because I thought death is the best option. I felt so stressed." (Girl, 17)

 

"I was very aggressive, I felt like cutting any child." (Girl, 16)

 

"Yesterday, my sister who is 15 called me a rebel, so I beat her with a stick and I felt like killing her." (Boy, 17)

 

"I feel pain from the rape, as if I have wounds inside, and I am afraid to have a disease. I would like to get tested but there is nobody to help me. I was tested in the reception centre in Gulu, but I was never told the result. The doctor said that it is better not to know the result." (Girl, 17)

 

"When somebody tells me about boy–girl relationships I get so annoyed and aggressive, I just want to fight them, because I cannot think about boys or even look at them." (Girl, 17)

 

"My parents were the only ones who welcomed me with the baby. The community told me to take my child back because it is a rebel product. I felt so bad. When staff from an NGO visited, they gathered the community and told them not to insult me and to accept the baby as their own. They encouraged me to stay at home. It helped me a bit but whenever I hear anything about rebels or insults, I start crying. I still cry all the time." (Girl, 17)

 

"The majority of people think this child will adopt the character of the rebels. They insult the child, they tell him he is a rebel and when he grows up he will also become a rebel." (Female, 18)

 

 

Stay in the forum for Series seventy eight on the way   ------>

EM

On the 49^th Parallel          

                 Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
                    Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika machafuko"