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

The Lord's Resistance Army's

Forced Wife System

 

Watye Ki Gen & CAP International

 

 

"They gathered the newly abducted together. They ordered girls over 15 years to go off to the side. They said, "If you are that age, you can leave, because we know that you have an infection so we don't want you. The ones that are 14 or less, they must stay."

 

"One of the first things they did was to check to see if you had already had sex. The method was to look at the backs of the girls' heads. If it was flat or there was no hair, this meant that you had been lying on your back, having sex. So you were sent back."

 

"They wanted younger females who are fresh. They said that they could see from your face – that you could not hide your true character. They believed that if you are 11, you should be having your period. So you are old enough then to be given to a commander."

"About the breasts and the breasts sticking out straight – yes that is true, but it is partly also because this is the way that the younger ones are, and they always want the young ones. The breasts are supposed to be straight. So they would make you take off your blouse and then they would sprinkle water on you, to see if they stick out straight, they were examining your breasts to see if you were truly fresh."

 

I remember…

It was in the morning hour, around 9 am. I was coming from Kitgum where I was studying. We were in a pickup truck and we were ambushed. I was the only one who survived: all the others were killed. There were 15 of them: two students, the rest were businessmen and women.

There were about 30 rebels – both boys and girls. They were in uniform and were different ages: some were young, about 13; others were about 17 and then some who were old, around 20. There were more boys, only 5 girls. Both the boys and the girls were shooting.

Because I was young the driver had put me in the front with him. The rebels shot the man next to me – I had ducked down so he fell on top of me. My plan was to stay there, under the body, until they had finished looting the truck. I didn't know that they were going to burn it.

The man who fell on top of me was a very heavy, so it was a big weight on me. I tried to move him a little and the rebels saw me. They screamed, "There is someone in there." A rebel came to spear me with a bayonet. But another said, "No, let's look at her first." They asked me if I was wounded and I told them I wasn't. They checked me and told me to come outside.

I was just stood there - I wasn't even scared. I had feared the rebels but at that moment, I was just hopeless. I just watched them - they were shooting the passengers. The driver had been shot in the head but he hadn't died. They ordered him to take the accelerator out of the truck. After he did that they killed him and set the truck on fire. It exploded.

They came over to me. They took my transport money (it was in an envelope and I had been told to hold it in my hand). They took my shoes. They found a white cock and told me to hold it. They said that if I let it go they would kill me. Then they went back to shooting the ones who were still alive. When they were finished they turned to me and said, "Let's go now."

 

When the abductees arrived at the position they were assigned to commanders whose job it was to supervise their journey back to the headquarters. This was a difficult and emotional time. Arrival at the position symbolized a transition point between their home villages and future life in the bush:

"For many this was a hard moment. But it was important not to show your feelings.

You could not even cry. If they saw that you were sad they would be focusing on you so much, because they knew that your mind was at home. They would be guarding you seriously. It was better that you appeared relaxed, that you talked freely and did not show them that you were worried about home. If you did that, they would think, "Oh, she is now used to our condition, she will stay." "

The trip to southern Sudan was tough. There were the physical demands of the bush, of being constantly on the move. The leaders were always forcing them to go quickly – a difficult thing for these children accustomed to village life:

"Walking barefooted is hard. You would be stepping on so many things such as thorns and stones.

Your legs would swell. But you had to be very careful. If they saw that your leg was swollen, they would say, "Oh, you can now rest here." Then they just killed you. This killing was always done with the people who had asked to rest. Everyone knew they did this."

"We would move until around mid-day, and then we washed. Then after eating we moved again. In the evening we moved again. So we stopped at three different positions.

They were not mistreating anyone during the day. But on the first night they caned some boys who had tried to escape. There was one person who ran and he was successful. His friends who remained were punished."

Girls and boys were kept separate and treated differently. Male abductees were hit and caned by the originals as they moved through the bush. If a boy was moving too slowly, he could be killed, with the originals explaining that, "He was delaying us." This rarely happened to the girls. Girls were given better food than the boys and were expected to be grateful for these favours:

 

Sexual Violence While On The Move

It is often debated whether girls were raped when they were abducted or during the travel back to the LRA headquarters. The truth is both yes and no. The LRA Command forbid this:

"I was often sent into Uganda and I helped abduct many girls. When we would arrive back they would always ask the girls if anyone had interfered with them. And if one of the girls said yes then that boy or man would be severely punished or killed.

They felt this was a big break with morality and that morality was very important to maintain. They feared that if the younger soldiers went and got their own wives that it would undermine the discipline. It was only the commanders who were supposed to control the girls."

But these rules could be ignored. According to returnees, the senior original boys would rape female abductees if they got the chance. These men would grab girls and take them into the bush during the march to the positions.

As non-ranking soldiers, originals were normally not eligible to have wives. But they had more latitude than newer recruits, because of their long time in the bush and for their reputation as strong fighters. Within certain bounds, the original boys were a law unto themselves. They were known for their arrogance and assumption that the rules should not apply to them. While they would never openly challenge LRA commanders, they were unofficially known for violating new female abductees. Of course, victims were warned that if they said anything, they would kill them and their friends. This would have been easy to arrange on the trip to the Sudan border.

 

 

Stay in the forum for Series One hundred and ninety-four 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"