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

Friends

 

In her very well researched abstract, Terra Manca of University of Alberta goes after the violence that she saw in Acholi-land, under a heading "Innocent Murders? Abducted Children in Lord's Resistance Army". The abstract was printed in ICSA { International Cultic Studies Association" magazine. Because it is a well long abstract we will only post the last piece into it.

 

Ugandans we need to  discuss Acholi violence but candidly.

 

………Additionally, many children express fear of Joseph Kony's alleged supernatural powers and his ability to sense deviant thoughts. Charles, fifteen, believes that Kony 'reads minds': "'If a rebel who was a captive had ill feeling against Kony, Kony would be told by the spirits and would kill him. Spirits would also tell Kony who tried to escape'" (quoted in HRW 1997, 34). Many abductees fear that Kony will read their minds and punish them if they think of running away (Allen 2006, 19). As a result of the combination of supernatural claims, psychological abuse, and physical threat, the costs associated with exiting the LRA are extremely high.

The LRA also creates exit costs by forcing new recruits to conduct 'committed actions'—tasks that both hinder children's psychological return to their communities and promote group loyalty (Hundeide 2003, 119). In the LRA, children conduct committed actions before they reach base camp. The LRA often makes children kill abducted adults and family members to prove that there is no possibility of returning home. Killings during the trek to camp exemplify the necessity of obedience (there have been very few exceptions of children escaping death after they disobey or refuse to kill [Legget 2001, 30-32]).[14] Furthermore, many costs associated with committed actions are closely related to Acholi traditional religion and local taboos.

One example of a spiritual consequence that relates to Acholi traditional religion involves contamination with cen (dangerous polluting spirits of those killed by soldiers [Allen 2006, 34]). Some commanders tell abductees that if they refuse to kill, then the commanders will remove the head of the victim and force the children to carry it (escapee in Allen 2006, 69). Many Acholi believe that carrying the head of a victim transfers the cen of that victim onto the carrier (Allen, 2006:69). Therefore, many Acholi children kill in part to avoid cen (Allen 2006, 70).

Other examples include accounts that the LRA forces children to commit cannibalism, blood drinking, and blood smearing. These atrocities traumatize the youthful perpetrators and shock their former communities, making the potential return to normal life nearly impossible. When commanders force children to drink their victims' blood, they assure the children that if they try to escape the spirit of that victim will kill them (Judah 2004, 63). Nassan Opiyo tells of his initiation:

'After killing the boy I was ordered to let the blood come out and to drink it and I did it. I was told that if I did not do it I would be killed myself. The rebels caught the blood in a large leaf and other captives were also forced to drink it. They said, "If you try to escape, the spirit of the boy will follow you wherever you go and kill you"' (quoted in Judah 2004, 62).

Opiyo's testimony exemplifies how the LRA forces children to break cultural ties while it provokes a fear of the supernatural.

Furthermore, an escapee named Susan alleges that the LRA forced her to kill a boy who tried to escape, and then forced all the children in her faction to smear his blood on their bodies so that they would not fear death (HRW 1997, 1). Some children, such as J.O., even testify to eating human flesh. J.O. explains that, after killing two UPDF soldiers, his commander stated, "The new recruits can now feed themselves on these two soldiers" (quoted in Amnesty International 1997, 22). UPDF soldiers confirm allegations of cannibalism with a report from 2002 that they found rebels who had killed people, "chopped them up and stuffed them into a twenty liter cooking pot" (Wendo 2003, 1818).[15] As a result of having committed these atrocities, the death of their families, and their fear of supernatural reparations, many children in the LRA feel that any return to their old lives is impossible (Doom and Vlassenroot 1998, 25).[16]
Girls in the LRA

Girls face unique problems in the LRA. Unlike boys, girls in the LRA are assigned to commanders as 'wives' (i.e., sex slaves), despite the fact that Kony initially prohibited all sex in his movement (Behrend 1999a, 194). Kony gives out wives as chattel without marriage ceremonies (Amnesty International 1997, 18). Young girls often become wife assistants or train as LRA nurses until the LRA believes that they are old enough for marriage (HRW 1997, 26). After they become wives, girls remain at the LRA's permanent bases for longer durations than do boys, which hinder their escape opportunities.

The sexual abuse that girls face at the hands of their commanders has dire consequences for their lives. Most dramatically, girls' sexual victimization heightens their fears that their families and communities might never reaccept them if they escape, especially if they have had children in the group or have contracted STDs (90 percent of escapee girls contracted one or more STDS, usually HIV/AIDS [Cheney 2003, 43 n. 2; Doom and Vlassenroot 1998, 25-26; HRW 1997, 29). Lowering girls' self-esteem and sense of communal belonging is a way the LRA creates exit costs that apply only to females. As a result, girls are less likely to attempt escape than boys, and they have fewer opportunities to do so.

The LRA abducts girls based on alleged spiritual guidance from Kony's jogi, along with assessments of each girl's beauty, intelligence, and age. (Wives are usually in their teens or early twenties, although some are younger [Allen 2006, 63; Amnesty International 1997, 12].) LRA commanders beat rebels who bring shame to the others by capturing wives whom the leaders do not consider beautiful or intelligent enough (Amnesty International 1997, 12). Moreover, when Sister Rachel, who is a nun teaching at the Aboke School in northern Uganda, came to the rebels to plead for the return of the girls who the LRA abducted from that school, the rebels allowed her to take 109 of the 139 girls whom they had kidnapped. A commander explained to Sister Rachel that Kony's jogi requested that they retain 30 beautiful girls (Amnesty International 1997, 12). Despite the return of the girls in the Aboke incident, the LRA often kills abducted girls whom it does not consider pretty.

Girls whom the LRA considers worthy of abduction and who survive their trek to camp undergo a second ritual initiation to prepare them to serve as wives. During this ritual, the LRA forces girls to remove their shirts, bathe, and then stand in one of 32 squares on a heart-shaped grid drawn on the ground (de Temmerman 2001, 52; HRW 1997, 32). Then a commander dips an egg in powder and water and smears it on the girls' chests and backs in the shape of a heart as well as on their forehead and lips in the shape of a cross (HRW 1997, 32). If the egg breaks during this ritual, then the commander believes that evil jogi possess the girl and he kills her (de Temmerman 2001, 52). Commanders tell girls that this initiation ritual is from the Bible and will protect them. Afterward, the LRA forces the girls to remain bare-chested for three days (HRW 1997, 32).

Following their initiation into the LRA, Kony issues abducted girls to his commanders as wives. Commanders only take the girls whom Kony and senior commanders assigned to them because of their beliefs: "They [the LRA commanders] are superstitious that Kony knows everything they do. Kony doesn't want them to 'contaminate' women because Kony picks the women and then shares the rest among others" (HRW 2005, 22). The LRA punishes the rape of girls before they become commanders' wives, but after marriage the girls have no right to refuse sex. Occasionally, senior commanders limit the rights a commander has over his wives, forcing him to take some responsibility for his wives' well-being (Amnesty International 1997, 18). When, however, senior commanders apply these limits, they are very liberal. A Commander has the freedom to beat, rape, or kill their wives, especially any wife who fails to provide the sexual services that he demands (HRW 1997, 28). Most girls initially refuse their commanders and the commanders beat them until they submit. It is extremely rare for a girl to survive after she successfully refuses her commander.[17]

The higher a member of the LRA ascends, the more wives he receives. Kony has the most wives, totaling somewhere between thirty and eighty-eight (Behrend 1999a, 194). Kony's senior commanders each have eight wives, and other high ranks (some still children) receive four wives (Amnesty International 1997, 20). Upon death or leave of a commander, Kony may redistribute his wives amongst other commanders, or (rarely) release a widowed abductee (Amnesty International 1997, 19).[18] Because most LRA soldiers do not receive wives and the LRA considers boys to be stronger, about 70 percent of all abductees are male (Allen 2006, 64). Nevertheless, girls who are abducted face greater barriers to escape because they often are kept in the LRA's permanent bases or base camps during battles (most escapees leave the LRA during or shortly after battles). Also, they often have born children into the group and the physical presence of these children greatly complicates escape possibilities.
Spiritualism in Guerrilla Warfare

At some point, all children in the LRA experience the LRA's spiritually justified guerrilla tactics. Some children, however, experience more battles than others, depending on the tasks to which they were assigned. For instance, a child who is a wife, wife assistant, or hauler may experience fewer battles than a soldier because the LRA uses all children only in unplanned battles. In planned battles, the LRA prefers to use trained (albeit inadequately trained) soldiers, although it may also use some untrained soldiers on the front lines. Because many children do not know how to fight and do not wield weapons, the LRA uses its spiritual teachings to discipline soldiers and, to some extent, all children.

Before recruits become soldiers, the LRA conducts a spiritual initiation designed to give them more confidence in their ability to fight. Initiation for soldiers is similar to that of new recruits and girls. Prior to the ritual, Kony creates an environment that recruits often attribute to the powers of his jogi. To prepare new soldiers, Kony and his controllers (LRA members who assist with spiritual affairs) draw crosses on children's foreheads and chests with a mixture of shea butter and ochre, and then they arrange the children into the shape of a cross (Behrend 1999a, 183). Only after preparation can Kony's soldiers enter the yard (an area designated for divining and cleansing), where Kony begins the service (Behrend 1999a, 183). Next, Kony's controllers sprinkle the soldiers with holy water that Kony gathers from a rock near Awere (a town located in northern Uganda); this water allegedly cleanses them of witchcraft and sorcery, and loads them with malaika (spirit or angel [Behrend 1999b, 29; Doom, and Vlassenroot 1998, 23]). During this process, Kony wears a Kansu (the Muslim garment that he also wears during channeling sessions) and instructs his soldiers to give themselves to God in exchange for protection from the malaika (Behrend 1999a, 183). After the initiation, controllers draw white ashes into a cross on each soldier's body for protection from injury and disease (Behrend 1999a, 183). Finally, Kony prohibits his initiated soldiers from touching any uninitiated soldiers for three days at risk of losing the malaika's protection, thereby isolating purified and protected soldiers from other abductees (Behrend 1999a, 183). [19]

Before a planned battle, LRA commanders and soldiers respond to the jogi's commands, which change slightly from battle to battle, as voiced through Kony (Hovil and Lomo 2004, 30; HRW 1997, 34). Jogi's orders for commanders often differ from those imposed on soldiers. For example, an escapee named Lily says that Kony's jogi require that commanders do not sleep with their wives the night before fighting (HRW 1997, 34). Other pre-battle rules apply to all soldiers, commanders, and children, such as rules about which stones they are not to step on or to throw (HRW 1997, 34).

Some rules apply only to soldiers. For instance, Kony's jogi allegedly order child soldiers to fast for up to three days and brush their teeth on the day of battle to ensure that they are clean enough to receive the malaika's protection (Hovil and Lomo 2004, 31). James, a fourteen-year-old escapee, told HRW (1997, 35) about how the Holy Spirit instructed the child soldiers not to eat on the day of battle:

There were contradictions in what he [Kony when channeling a spirit] said, so I didn't believe it all ... [but] when Kony would order no eating —if you eat during the day you'll die in battle. I believe that, because I saw a boy who ate that day, and he later died in battle.

James believes Kony's rule about eating before battle, but also explains that he rejects many of Kony's other rules. Moreover, because food is scarce in the LRA, fasting likely distorts children's critical thinking and ability to plan escapes.

The LRA also practices rituals immediately before battle. Commanders again mark Christian crosses on children's foreheads, chests, each of their shoulders, and their guns, claiming that the markings prevent injury from bullets during battle (HRW 1997, 35). LRA doctrine suggests that the oil that commanders use to mark children carries the power of the Holy Spirit, the malaikas' protection, and the power of invisibility (Hovil and Lomo 2004, 31; HRW 1997, 35). Furthermore, commanders allegedly protect their soldiers with the peripheral jogi, as well as with living animals such as bees and snakes (Behrend 1999b, 31). The LRA assures soldiers that if they follow Kony's rules, called the Ten Safety Precautions (like Alice Auma's rules), and avoid sin, then malaika and jogi will protect them from bullets (Doom and Vlassenroot 1998, 26). Stephen, an escapee, argues, "Some young children believe it—and those who have been there so long, five, seven, ten years, they believe in it very much" (quoted in HRW 1997, 35). That is, many child soldiers believe that only if they offend the Holy Spirit, which guides Joseph Kony, will they lose the protection of that spirit and die in battle.

In addition, the LRA teaches child soldiers that if they are disobedient the jogi and malaika will actually harm them. Thomas explains how Kony's jogi allegedly harm disobedient children after commanders have ordered children to march, sing, and clap their hands in battle: "'If you fail to clap your hands while you sing, a bullet would hit your hand. If you fail to sing, a bullet would hit your mouth. If you fail to walk always forward, a bullet would hit your leg'" (quoted in HRW 1997, 38). Commanders teach unarmed child soldiers that they will die if they deviate from these instructions, which often prevent children from taking cover in battle and requires them to fearlessly walk into open gunfire (Van Acker 2004, 349). Samuel testifies that the malaika instructed children not to show any worry in battle:

'He [Kony] said the Holy Spirit knows the source of worry—the Holy Spirit says that if you worry or show signs of unhappiness, all your family members will be killed, or you will never be able to return to Uganda.' (quoted in HRW 1997, 35)

Children who do not believe that following the Holy Spirit's orders (voiced through Kony) will protect them often still believe that if they deviate from those rules then they will suffer.

Furthermore, Charles explains that, whether or not soldiers have guns, if the commanders tell them to go to the front line, then they must move forward (HRW 1997, 37). He explains that the commanders stay behind and use sticks to beat those who do not run to the front:

'If you had a gun, you had to be firing all the time or you would be killed. And you were not allowed to take cover. The order from the Holy Spirit was not to take cover. You must have no fear, and stand up and fire. This was because they [the rebels] said you would be protected by the Holy Spirit if you stood tall and had no fear. But if you took cover, the Holy Spirit would be angry and you would be shot dead with bullets.

So many, so many were killed.' (quoted in HRW 1997, 37)

Many children on the front lines die within their first few battles, while the commanders remain in the back where their enemies' bullets do not reach. Consequently, many children believe that their commanders have supernatural powers that prevent bullets from hitting them (Allen 2006, 69).

In addition, the LRA requires children who do not carry weapons to conduct spiritual tactics during battle. Samuel, an escapee, testifies about some of the tactics in which he partook:

'...you take a small stone, you sew it on a cloth and wear it around your wrist like a watch. That is to prevent the bullet that might come, because in battle it is acting as a mountain. So those people on the other side will look at you, but they will see only a mountain, and the bullets will hit the mountain and not hurt you.

You also have water: they [LRA commanders] call it "clean water," and they pour it into a small bottle. If you go to the front, you also have a small stick, and you dip it in the bottle and fling the water out. This is a river and it drowns the bullet that might come to you.

Finally you wear a cross on a chain. But in the fighting you wrap it around your wrist and hold it in your hand. Should you make a mistake and not wear it on your hand, you will be killed.' (quoted in HRW 1997, 35-36)

Samuel believes in the spiritual protection that the LRA claims to receive in battle. But he believes, like many Acholi, that this protection is not from Tipu Maleng but from an evil jok who instructs Kony to kill (HRW 1997, 36).

LRA battalions combat government forces with this combination of witchcraft and Western military strategies (Allen 2006, 39; Behrend 1999b, 29). LRA members also conduct certain rituals in an effort to use supernatural forces against their opponents. Kony's controllers claim to disable their enemies' weapons by placing wire models of them into a fire and then quickly cooling them; they also claim to harm their enemies by flooding rivers on maps and throwing rocks (Behrend 1999a, 184). Some children believe their commanders' assertions that all injury, illness, and death—civilian, government, and rebel—are punishment for sins and for breaking the commands that Tipu Maleng (roughly, the Holy Spirit) voices through Kony (Amnesty International 1997, 6; HRW 1997, 39).[20]

Kony's use of religion to justify violence is clear from his speech at the peace talks in Uganda in 1994:

'If you picked up an arrow against us and we ended up cutting off the hand you used, who is to blame? You report us with your mouth, and we cut off your lips. Who is to blame? It is you! The Bible says that if your hand, eye or mouth is at fault, it should be cut off.' (Joseph Kony quoted in Allen 2006, 42)

When LRA leaders accuse a civilian of breaking a rule, they use Kony's interpretation of religion to justify the amputation of the body part needed to perform the accused action (Doom and Vlassenroot 1998, 27). For example, the LRA amputates the legs of people caught using bicycles and removes or padlocks the lips of people who speak out or are thought to potentially speak out against the group (O'Loughlin 1997, 7). Kony also uses the ban on pork consumption from Orthodox Islam to justify slaughtering people who raise pigs (Doom and Vlassenroot 1998, 25). The LRA amputates an arm from civilians caught working on Fridays because of Kony's belief that Islam bans working on those days (Doom and Vlassenroot 1998, 25). (Ironically, enforcing this ban must require that members of the LRA work on Fridays to locate and mutilate offenders). Other mutilations include sewing eyes shut, raping, inflicting burns, and removing ears, hands, or heads (Vinci 2005, 370). Kony's soldiers—abducted children who appear to "have had little compunction in punishing what they see as [the civilians'] failure to obey the spirits"—inflict these punishments under the guidance of their commanders (Ward 2003, 216).
Life Inside the LRA

Many abductees realize that they need to ascend the hierarchy within the LRA to increase their survival chances (Behrend 1999a, 194; Doom and Vlassenroot 1998, 25). New recruits fight on the front lines where death rates are high and commanders are more generous to children who adhere to the LRA's ideals. Survival chances within the LRA depend on respect for religious beliefs, obedience to familial rules, and success in military actions (Hundeide 2003, 118). These three areas—religion, family, and militia—also represent the three hierarchies that exist within the LRA. Each hierarchy legitimates the privileges of certain members and the need to respect senior members. Kony—who is the spiritual leader, the Father, and the Major General—heads each of these dimensions with the help of his commanders and the alleged guidance of his jogi (Amnesty International 1997, 15).

Many escapee children use familial terms to describe their LRA units (Amnesty International 1997, 15). Joseph Kony is the head of all the extended families of the LRA: "'The rebels call Joseph Kony their father...'" (Christine, quoted in HRW 1997, 32), and senior commanders under Kony operate as heads of smaller families and teachers (Amnesty International 1997, 15-16). Kristen Cheney (2005, 33) argues that by filling the roles of fathers and teachers, commanders replace normative structures (such as schools and families) for the abducted children. Normative structures within the LRA serve to teach children how to behave in the 'pure' society that the LRA hopes to create (Cheney 2005, 33). For instance, the LRA regulates who has sex, determines with whom recruits eat, and requires respect for elders and commanders (Cheney 2005, 33). The rules within the LRA contradict many Acholi traditional values—such as the sanctity of life and the taboo against rape. In addition, the LRA punishes disobedience with severe beatings or death.

Senior commanders and their wives are the parents of all children within their units. Wives are subordinate parents ruled by their commanders and are responsible for bearing children and maintaining their families. Each commander and his wives are responsible for the children under the age of thirteen (called siblings) and new children (called recruits [Amnesty International 1997, 15; Behrend 1999a, 195]). A commander has the authority to teach, punish, and kill siblings and wives (Cheney 2005, 34).

Kony's commanders (some of whom were child soldiers) control military factions and subunits under the direction of brigadiers who head large divisions and advise Kony. Each unit has a midlevel religious officer who administers prayers, fasting, and other spiritual duties (Vinci 2005, 368). Field commanders, who usually are abductees who have proven their loyalty, head each subunit (Vinci 2005, 368). Subunits might further split down to groups of two or three during attacks, in which case the abductees usually supervise each other but occasionally escape together (Vinci 2005, 368). Each unit is self-sufficient, even when broken down to two members, although the units often are disorganized despite communication efforts using cell phones and radios (Vinci 2005, 368). This organization style makes escape attempts risky because children constantly supervise each other in both their families and military units. Some abductees who are trying to obey and advance in the LRA report those who try to escape to commanders and the commanders subsequently force the other children to murder those whose escape attempts have failed.

Some children ascend the LRA's hierarchy by internalizing or pretending to internalize the LRA's doctrine and behaviors. If soldiers ascend high in the LRA, then they may transfer to a specialty unit, such as the Kafun, which specializes in killing. A story from a child soldier who became a commander of the Kafun unit, Thomas Kopkulu, displays the torture that higher ranks inflict on civilians under Kony's direction:

He [Kopkulu] and his troops captured dozens of villagers, and Kony told them how the villagers should be treated. After nine of them were killed, other villagers were forced, at gunpoint, to chop them up into small pieces. These were then put in a big pot, salted, and boiled. After they [the villagers] finished eating, Kopkulu said "all those people were killed." (Judah 2004, 63)

The Kafun, according to Kopkulu, operate under the direction of Kony's jogi (Judah 2004, 63). Divisions such as the Kafun might create large numbers of (child) soldiers who are unwilling to surrender because of the extent and number of their atrocities.

Most children who ascend the hierarchy do not go to a specialty unit, but instead gain control over a small subunit of the LRA. Kony rewards these children for helping him manage his forces with special privileges over other members (Allen 2006, 65). Privileges that the LRA awards to new commanders include control over others (including underage wives), extra food and water, and fighting further back during battles, where mortality rates are lower than on the front line. These privileges create a sense of power and security for obedient soldiers, some of whom eventually internalize the group's behavior.

While in the LRA, however, even children who do not internalize the LRA's ideals must act against morals to survive. Guerrilla forces such as the LRA demand that children adhere to "new explanations of reality and a worldview that undermines their traditional values and conceptions of reality" (Hundeide 2003, 117). For instance, LRA commanders teach that expressing emotion (especially sensitivity to atrocities) is bad, whereas fearlessly fighting, mutilating, and murdering people is good. Children learn that their opinions do not matter and that their lives are worth less than the LRA's cause (or at least they behave as if they believe in the diminished value of their lives' worth).

To adhere to LRA ideals and morals, children imitate their commanders because the LRA is very secretive about its guiding doctrines. Children who imitate their commanders are mimicking men who have killed countless people, do not care for their captives, and dictate the death, abduction, and release of abducted children (Allen, 2006:64). Some abductees see their commanders as symbols of power, manhood, protection, and survival (Hundeide 2003, 116). Their commanders become a "guide to adulthood" for some of the younger children, who surround themselves with their aggressors and copy their behaviors (Cheney 2005, 34). Many children, however, perform the tasks assigned by commanders and imitate them without regarding them as positive role models (Cheney 2005, 34). Charles, a fifteen-year-old escapee, never wished to be like his commander, but he was aware that mimicking the man would increase his chances of survival and eventual escape. Consequently, he ingratiated himself to his commander and copied his behavior. Charles explains, "'You had to adapt yourself so quickly to that kind of life'" (quoted in HRW 1997, 20).

The LRA isolates children from all media sources, information, and outside people in an effort to ensure that they behave as told. The LRA's isolation tactics are evident from escapees' ignorance of the Amnesty Accord (Vinci 2005, 366-367) despite the fact that the government issued many amnesty appeals over the radio (Hovil and Lomo 2004, 64). In isolation, guerrilla movements usually teach children their groups' values through "direct indoctrination" (teaching new followers the group's core beliefs and motives [Hundeide 2003, 118]). In the LRA, however, direct indoctrination plays a small role in creating insiders when compared to the various forms of coercion and manipulation, participation in atrocities, and imitation of commanders' behaviors.

The LRA rarely teaches new recruits its main political and religious goals. It is impossible to know how many committed child soldiers in the LRA know the group's goals. Most escapee children know little more than the LRA's goal to capture the Ugandan capital, Kampala (HRW 1997, 30). Many escapees testify to their confusion regarding the LRA's complicated beliefs and its secrecy, despite the group's expectations for children to respect its rituals:

'They prayed a lot, but they didn't pray like normal Christians. Sometimes they would use rosaries, but sometimes they would bow down like Muslims. They said they had malaika [spirit, angel]. They said the malaika said there would be a terrible fight, and the government would be overthrown. After that, they said we would be released. Sometimes they would gather us and try to convince us to believe them.

They believed in their local gods, and they didn't want us to learn about their malaika. They discouraged us from asking questions about their beliefs. If you asked too many questions they would become cruel.' (Molly, seventeen-years old, in HRW 1997, 31)

Molly's testimony displays the LRA's secrecy regarding its beliefs, as well as her lack of understanding of the rituals that she witnessed.

Even without understanding the LRA's motives, some returnees internalize aspects of the LRA's violent lifestyle. Information about children who internalize the LRA's morals and choose to remain within the LRA is difficult to obtain, probably because these children are isolated from outsiders and often remain soldiers until they are killed. It is impossible to assume that all children within the LRA wish to escape as badly as those who try or succeed in leaving. It is possible, however, that many children who remain within the LRA are simply playing a role until they are confident they can escape. Nevertheless, some children who remain with the LRA appear to have a desire to kill and to remain in the group, which may result from their experience within the group and their wish to impress their commanders. A World Vision counselor (at the World Vision camp for escapees) related a story in which a man who was carjacked on the road to Kitgum overheard a child begging his commander to let him kill the man because he had not killed anybody yet (Cheney 2005, 44). Children, like the child in this example, have new goals and values that they approach in a unique emotional, cognitive, and motivational manner (Hundeide 2003, 119).

Some children, however, are aware of Kony's goal of annihilating and rebuilding the Acholi population:

'...we Acholi are very bad people, and we must all become better before we can rule in our land. This is what the Holy Spirit has ordered. This is why some people must be killed: we must become pure, and many Acholi do not follow the orders of the Holy Spirit anymore. Many of them are working with jok [spirits]. So they must be killed. This is what the rebels told me.' (George, fourteen, quoted in HRW 1997, 34)

With this doctrine, any atrocity against the Acholi is legitimized. Some children who know about the LRA's goals to prevent the apocalypse can justify their role in murdering civilians. Nevertheless, other children who learn of the LRA's goals often do not understand the contradictions between the group's plan to oust the government and its actions against northern Ugandan civilians, because most northern Ugandans do not support the government (Hovil and Lomo 2004, 25).
Discussion

Under the same regime, many children carry different attitudes regarding their involvement, even when they share similar behaviors. Karsten Hundeide (2003, 115-116) identifies that children under the same regime may fit into different psychological categories, and therefore, mass diagnosis—i.e., labeling children 'brainwashed,' sociopathic, symptomatic of 'post-traumatic stress,' or victims—is impossible. Moreover, mass diagnosis has major effects for current and escaped LRA abductees.[21] For example, the UPDF's controversial policy of shooting escaped children before they perform a violent act results from the UPDF's fear that all children in the LRA are brainwashed, vicious killers.

Many people believe that children in the LRA are ruthless and are easily brainwashed: "'The rebels ... target the children, because they are brainwashed very fast ... and when they do something they don't really reason: "What I am doing is bad"...'" (an escapee quoted in Allen 2006, 42). Most abducted children, however, do not become as violent or obedient as the LRA hopes. Escapees from the LRA often express that they always knew violence was wrong, but they were frightened of what would happen if they disobeyed. The consequences of disobedience are severe—physical abuse, death, or escape into an ambivalent (often hostile) society. The majority of escapees, however, are children who committed atrocities but did not internalize their experience in the LRA as a desirable or permanent part of their identities. These children, therefore, cannot speak for all children who remain in the movement.

Nevertheless, many escapees find that their history with the LRA makes it difficult to suppress their violent tendencies after they enter a rehabilitation center or return home. Anthony Vinci (2005, 37) mentions that there are some instances of "sociopathic returnees killing siblings because they 'would not be quiet'" (Vinci 2005, 37). Moreover, a girl who spoke to the Sunday Vision (2007) informed journalists that she attempted to murder her sister despite her guilt regarding her former involvement with the LRA. These returnees' violent compulsions reflect the strict obedience and severe punishment that they experienced within the LRA.

Even with the terror that the LRA inflicts, northern Ugandans and their children suffer the most from fear and instability as people abandon their way of life to seek refuge from violent terrorism to find only unsafe living conditions within internally displaced persons' camps. This article has focused specifically on the role of children within the LRA because without children—most of whom are unwilling participants—the LRA could not maintain its power. The LRA forces children to attack and mutilate their own communities, while it isolates them in extremely harsh conditions. The LRA's use of religious jargon, psychological manipulation, and physical abuse makes both escape and disobedience to its rules seem impossible for many children. Most children abducted by the LRA die from the environment and the violence that direct the lives of LRA soldiers. Children who survive the environment, however, must either fulfill the roles that the LRA forces upon them while they are awaiting escape, or internalize the LRA's violent lifestyle. As a result, many LRA members appear to be ruthless soldiers, and many escapees appear to be helpless victims. In reality, however, it is impossible to tell which children are pretending to internalize their roles in the LRA and which cannot successfully leave the group.

Stay in the forum for Series ninety-six 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"