{UAH} IDDI AMIN NEVER TARGETED LANGIs/ACHOLIs, THEY TARGETED HIM {---Series One-Hundred and twenty-nine} ~ Ugandans At Heart (UAH)

Friends

In one incident 66 children were reportedly crushed by armored vehicles or trampled to death by stampeding animals following shooting during a February 2007 raid by UPDF troops. The LRA was responsible for the killing, torture, rape, mutilation and abduction of thousands of adults and children, which continued to be carried out until late 2005. "Child soldiers global report 2008"

Friends we need to discuss Acholi violence candidly.

Lord's Resistance Army

About 25,000 children were abducted by the

LRA from the beginning of the conflict in the late

1980s. Abductions peaked after 2002, with an

estimated 10,000 children abducted between

May 2002 and May 2003 alone.22 Throughout

2003 and 2004 more than 20,000 child "night

commuters" sought safety each night in Gulu,

Kitgum and Pader towns, to reduce the risk

of their abduction.23 During active hostilities

children in the LRA were forced to participate

in combat and to carry out raids, kill and

mutilate other child soldiers and civilians and

loot and burn houses. Children were forced to

kill relatives, including their younger siblings,

often to "initiate" them into the LRA. They were

trampled to death, beaten or mutilated either as

punishment or if physically unable to keep up

with their unit. Girls were routinely raped and

many bore children while in the ranks. While

thousands of children managed to escape or

were captured by government troops, large

numbers of those abducted, and their children,

remained unaccounted for. Many were believed

to have died in battle, to have been killed by their

abductors or to have died from injury or illness.24

In some regions an estimated 24 per cent of

LRA child soldiers were girls.25 Girls as young as

12 were used in combat and for other military

purposes, as well as for sexual slavery.

Many bore children as a result of rape. On average

girls spent longer with the LRA than boys, since

they were defined as "wives" of commanders

and left in rear camps with their babies. 26 The

girls, especially those with babies, found it more

difficult to return to their communities, where

they were stigmatized and rejected.27

Abductions decreased from 2005, with just

over 200 reported for the first six months of

2006.28 Some Sudanese and Ugandan children

were forcibly recruited by LRA fighters based in

camps in southern Sudan during 2006 and early

2007.29 About 70 children, including about ten

girls, were returned from the LRA after escape

or capture in Sudan in 2007. The LRA had yet to

release any women or children from its ranks,

claiming that those remaining were their wives

and children. They maintained this stance despite

repeated pleas, including a request by the UN

Secretary-General. While the total number of

remaining LRA fighters in the bush remained

unknown, up to 2,000 women and children were

believed to remain in LRA camps in the eastern

DRC and southern Sudan.30