{UAH} IDDI AMIN NEVER TARGETED LANGIs/ACHOLIs, THEY TARGETED HIM {---Series One-Hundred and fifty one}

Friends

 

Six of the women interviewed in the sub-sample described being abused by their husbands. (In the representative survey, 14% of married women reported being physically abused in the previous two months. There was no significant difference between abducted and non-abducted women (Annan et al., 2007)). Two out of six described having been so severely beaten that they had to be taken to the hospital. Janet, thirty years of age, reported, Like one day, he took alcohol, came back home and began to quarrel a lot up to a point where he got two pangas [machetes] and sat with them in front of the door. When I saw that, I went to his brother and the brother had to come and settle that problem.  Alcohol was stated as a problem in every case of intimate partner violence. In the full survey, 60% of women reported that their husbands drank alcohol and 30% reported that their husbands were frequently intoxicated. Jeannie Annan (a) & Moriah Brier (b) of  a International Rescue Committee, and FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health, 122 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10168, United States, b Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, United States, wen to  Uganda and wrote a  thesis under a heading The risk of return: Intimate partner violence in Northern Uganda's armed conflict. It was published  in Social Science & Medicine. journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/socscimed. We are going to post from page 155.

 

Ugandans we need to discuss Acholi violence candidly.

.

Alcohol use and intimate partner violence

 

Pervasive alcohol abuse exacerbates the tension caused by

scarce resources. Alcohol was often discussed as a cause of the

conflict between family members and those who returned from the

rebels, as Molly pointed out,

 

My parents welcomed me, but my elder brother disturbed me

a lot. If he was drunk, he could come and abuse me. He was

quarrelsome and he could fight me. He abused me that I am

a rebel, I am very stupid and I don't understand

 

Alcohol abuse seemed ubiquitous, with public drinking seen

early in the morning and public intoxication common. Among all

women on the survey who had some form of employment in the

region, 43% reported brewing alcohol as their main form of work,

indicating its widespread use. Alcohol was most often brewed and

sold near one's home, bringing potential risks for women particularly

if they were single and not protected by men in the home.

Akello explained,

 

Q. You said when you were at home, you were working very hard

in the garden, what else were you doing to help you generate

some income?

A. I was brewing alcohol

Q. ..Did you get any difficulty with men who come to drink from

you?

A. Yes at times they disturbed me. Particularly one tried to rape

me.

 

Akello described how her uncle tried to settle the case by having

Her marry this same man.When she refused, her uncle no longer paid

for her school fees and she had to seek help from a distant relative.

Distress, aggression and other behavior change

Social workers and relatives described the same problems with

reintegration as the women in interviews, including family member's

alcohol abuse or the scarcity of resources. They also described

problems with the returning women themselves, including high

levels of distress and some aggression. One aunt described the

reactions of her niece, Dorine,

 

When she left home she was different and when she returned, I

realized changes in her behavior because whenever I could ask

herquestion, she broke into tears.she could not say a word. I had

to leave her so that her mind should first get settled. At times if I

asked a question, she could break into loud crying and at times

she just kept quiet long. And in most cases I could fail to predict

what was wrong with her or the reason for her silence. So

knowing what exactly had happened to her was difficult. If she

was annoyed with her fellow children, she would just beat them.

So when we realized the changes in her, we all got scared of her.

Most females described extremely difficult situations during

their time with the rebels of going without food, walking long

distances, as well as witnessing, experiencing, and some even being

forced to perpetrate violence against strangers and peers. Nearly

everyone in the region experienced some war violence, but

abducted females experienced significantly higher levels: 13 types

of violence were reported in the full survey compared to eight by

non-abducted females (Annan et al., 2008).

 

Upon return, some of the respondents described nightmares

and wanting to isolate themselves from others. Akello described

her nightmares,

 

I dream of dead people. At times I could dream that am killing

some one. I can't sleep at night because of too much thinking. At

night I could find myself talking alone and sometimes my

friends could ask me if am normal because of the things I was

doing at night. I always go to one of the teachers for advice

because even if I try to read my books I don't understand what is

in the book. I always get thoughts of the things which were

happening to me when I was still in the bush.

 

Nightmares and flashbacks in this region are perceived as

manifestations of spirits haunting those who perpetrated or witnessed

killings (Harlacher, Okot, Obonyo, Balthazard, & Atkinson,

2005). Some women also attributed physical sicknessdtheir own

and their children'sdto spirits, leading them to seek rituals or

herbal treatment for healing in place of or together with clinical

services.

Relatives and social workers also described concern that some

women who returned from the LRA engaged in multiple sexual

relationships, which they saw as taboo. One of the social workers

said she felt women who returned from the LRA more easily

entered sexual relationships with men due to a lowered sense of

self-worth and insecurities about relationships. This is further

elaborated on below.

Family welcoming of children but pressure of immediate

material needs

Surprisingly, in the full survey, only 20% of those who returned

with children from the LRA described their children as creating

problems with family members. The majority did not describe the

rejection of or stigma toward their children that other research has

described (Nordstrom, 1991; Onyango et al., 2005; Sideris, 2003).

The qualitative interviews support this conclusion. Amito, awoman

who had spent six years in abduction, reported,

 

Q. How did your people treat your children when you returned

from the bush?

A. They welcomed my children and started treating them like

their children.

However, Alice, went on to describe, as did seven others in the

interviews, that the neighbors were not as welcoming of the

children,

Q. How did the community welcome your children when you

returned?

A. The people in our area especially the neighbors were not so

good to the children. They didn't love my children and they

were calling them names relating to the time they were in the

bush. They didn't want their children to play with my

children.

 

In the full survey, eleven percent of the women with children

reported that their neighbors did not allow their children to play

together and in interviews, several women emphasized that these

neighbors were not part of their family clan. Displacement camps

have caused social disruption in many ways, including forcing

people to live in close quarters with non-relatives. Before the mass

displacement in 2002, the majority of the population lived on

large farms where neighbors were often from the same family

network.

 

Rather than stigma, the most prominent issue that emerged

about returning with children from the LRA was the need to

provide for their care upon return. Though all mothers in these

camps and villagesdabducted or notdfaced the harsh challenges

of poverty, mothers who returned from the LRA lacked the father

and his family, a crucial part of the financial support system in this

region. Amito described her concerns,

 

When I had just returned from the bush with my children, I use

to have lots of thought [worries] on how I will look after the

children incase of sickness since their father is not there.

Many of the rebel fathers had been killed, and most still

alive were not in contact with their children or formerly

abducted ''wives''.

 

Not only did returning women face the

general challenges of reintegration, they had to immediately

assume the role of sole provider in a place with few economic

and educational opportunities. In the full survey, none of the

women who returned with children went back to school (Annan

et al., 2008).

Pressure toward marriage

Mounting pressuresd from protracted family conflicts, scarce

resources, alcohol use, relationship insecurities, psychological

distress, and single motherhooddpushed returning women to look

for a husband. Few other options existed for leaving difficult family

situations. Unfortunately, women often described new partner

relationships as compounding their problems rather than relieving

them. For example, Adule, abducted for five years, explained,

I was mistreated by aunt and so I decided to get a man because I

couldn't bear the conditions. If I didn't get married, no one could

help me or advise me. But then I got married and there is no

proper care like I thought. My husband allows me to stay with

my child from the LRA and gives me some money for feeding,

but he doesn't help at all with gardening. He helps his other

wife. When I ask him to help, he says that he has never been to

the bush [with the LRA] so he doesn't want someone from the

bush disturbing him.

The external pressures seemed to interact with distress and

insecurities around finding a husband and feeling unwanted. While

survey data shows that formerly abducted women (including those

given as forced ''wives'') are just as likely to get married as other

women in the community (Annan et al., 2008), social workers

explained that it seemed more likely for women who returned from

the LRA to become second wives, especially if they came back with

children. While polygamous marriages are common, women as

second wives are seen to have less power in households than

first wives.

One social worker observed that women's insecurities about

social status combined with economic pressures to push them into

relationships faster than their peersdsome entering negative

relationships, confirming their insecurities about having less value

than other women. Susan returned with a child and quickly became

involved with another man. She explained,

 

It is hard for women who return from the LRA to get a man

because sometimes you think 'if I accept this man with a wife,

it won't be a good situation because I may be abused'. Also

I think there is a way people look at [abducted women] from

the bush. Sometimes you feel like there is no choice. You think

that if you take long without a man, you want to get a man. If I

were to give advice to another abducted woman, I would say

first, study the man who comes to you. See if that man can

take good care of your child and you. Weigh the whole situation

to see.

 

Given that most females were abducted in pre- or early

adolescence, many likely had their first sexual experience as sexual

violence. As described, sexual violence and rape in the LRA was not

an isolated event but took place in the context of forced relationships

with the aim of producing children.

 

Stay in the forum for Series One hundred and fifty-two 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"