A Child's Story

"Poyo too pe rweny. " This is a common saying among the Acholi people of Uganda that translates to mean, "Death is a scar that never heals. " No culture is unfamiliar with the concept of death. Almost all people have experience the death of a parent, grandparent, sibling, child, friend, relative, even perhaps a pet. The idea and image of death changes when you yourself are committing the crime against your will. When people speak of an incident that they are uncomfortable with, they often try to dissociate themselves from the experience either by forgetting it or showing no emotional connection.
One girl, Sharon, 13 at the time, retells her experience of being abducted by the rebel army. “I was abducted while my mother and I were going to the field . . . . One of the other abducted girls tried to escape but she was caught. The rebels told us that she had tried to escape and must be killed. They made the new children kill her. They told us that if we escaped, they would kill our families. They made us walk for a week . . . . Some of the smaller children could not keep up, as we were walking so far without resting, and they were killed . . . . Some of the children died of hunger. I felt lifeless seeing so many children dying and being killed. I thought I would be killed.”
Children who are fighting in the armies and committing crimes unwillingly are facing tragedy day after day and thus when they retell stories about what they have experienced as soldiers, they often appear numb to the trauma. After experiencing such fear and tragedy, reality becomes blurred and distorted.

http://www.hrw.org/reports97/uganda/

Effects of war on children

Imagine a life where you are accustomed to seeing tragedy at any moment of the day. Children who are exposed to war are becoming desensitized to massacres and deaths. This lack of emotion makes the children more vulnerable to being influenced into carrying out the goals of the rebel armies. Many times children are forced to commit violence on their own countrymen or families. Thus, children become stigmatized to witnessing and committing violence. When children are abducted or forced into serving the rebel armies they are often made to act as spies, serve in the front lines, partake in suicide attacks, or hold equipment. Many armies are even obtaining lighter tools so they are easier for children to carry. In Uganda, a third or more of the child soldiers are young girls. Girls are not only forced to fight in the army but they are also raped, forced to become sex slaves and the wives of the military commanders. The impact that war has on children is life altering and will remain with them forever. Aside from the fact that these children are extremely young, they are ultimately denied a childhood. During war, societies decline and weaken, thus children are left with no schooling, sometimes no families and therefore their only source of mentors or an education is through the army. The only lessons they learn concern mass murders of their families and friends and the neccessity of killing others in order to save themselves from their own deaths. War does not only have an emotional impact on children but it also affects their health and wellbeing. Exposured to the army and the poor living conditions leads to severe wounds, physical, emotional and sexual abuse, and drug addictions. The most crucial recommendations to help children recover from the effects of the war and violence are education, health care, rehabilitation, and government interference.

http://www.worldvision.org/worldvision/wvususfo.nsf/stable/globalissues_childprotection_conflict?open&lid=childsoldiers&lpos=day:txt:soldiers_feature_title

Who are the targets?

Why do some cultures see their children as expendable? In over twenty countries around the world, over 250,000 children are part of the fighting machine. The difference between the war in Uganda and the Iraq war is that the crisis in Uganda is being fought with innocent children. Children, even as young as five, make up 80 percent of the LRA army. This rebel group is responsible for kidnapping, enslaving, raping, tormenting, and assassinating their children. Not only is the concept of forcing innocent children to kill others outrageous, but the idea is also alien to us when we live in a country where the age to enter the army is 18. We also have institutions for people who want to volunteer their serves like the army reserves. Child soldiers usually are not given the option to refuse fight. They are recruited, abducted, or forced into armies by fear of death unto themselves or their families. While many children find themselves following orders to fight under the threat of death, many other children join the army because it appears to be the only chance for survival. Because war separated families and often displaces groups from their homes, children can be left without parents and living on the streets. Thus, joining these rebel groups appears to offer children a group that they can be apart of when they have lost every other support and security system. The emotional and physical effects of living in a war zone and being subjected to violence and hate make children more vulnerable and easier to influence and control. Jan Egeland runs the United Nations disaster relief. He has experienced every violation of civil rights but what he saw what was happening to children in Uganda, it concerned him the most. He describes the effects of Kony’s violent methods for abducting children into his army, “He knows how to instill utter fear, but he also knows how to make them believe that he has some kind of a mission.” Patrick is an escapee of the army and also a night commuter. The lesson instilled in him, as a child soldier was “kill or be killed.” He states that many children kill “for fear, you must kill. If you refuse, you are going to be killed.” It is difficult to imagine the tragedy that these children endure and, unfortunately, create onto others. But, because of the forceful tactics used to bring these children into the army and their innocent and vulnerable state, the killing of others becomes an everyday practice for these children that they must become desensitized to.


http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/sudan98/testim/house-07.htm#TopOfPage
http://www.worldvision.org/worldvision/wvususfo.nsf/stable/globalissues_childprotection_conflict?open&lid=childsoldiers&lpos=day:txt:soldiers_feature_title
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9006024/

The Civil War in Uganda

Northern Uganda has been in a civil war for the past twenty years. The country has been under the power of the Museveni government since 1986. President Yoweri Museveni protects the country through a group known as the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) against one of the most threatening rebel groups, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). This rebel group has been resisting the Ugandan government from its inception, making the country a war zone. The leader of the LRA is Joseph Kony, who believes he is the re-embodiment of Jesus Christ. His goal is to set up a government in Uganda based on the Bible and the Ten Commandments. Kony’s greatest crime has been abducting innocent children to fight in his army. The LRA has abducted over 30,000 helpless children. The most affected part of Uganda is Gulu and Kitgum. Ever since the LRA movement has been resisting, the government of Uganda has been persuading people who live in these highly affected areas to move into camps that will protect them. Currently, however, after peace agreements have been made between the Government of Uganda and the LRA, families were told that they are able to move into camps closer to their homes. The most affected victims of the LRA are the Acholi people. Notwithstanding the supposed peace agreement, village people continue to be terrorized by the LRA. Not only do the people of Northern Uganda suffer from the attacks, especially the children, but the environment and economy are disadvantaged as well. The government expends millions of dollars on the military which could be used to provide basic human services and when families leave their homes and move to the protected camps, they are forced to leave behind their work and crops. This dislocation results in widespread famine. Uganda is not as economically prosperous as the United States, however, both countries are involved in a war. Why is it that in certain societies in times of war, the institutions of government are more stable and in other places they completely fall apart resulting in economic instability, famine, dislocation of a population and using children as resources in a time when they are not yet adults?
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/uganda.htm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9006024/
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/sudan98/testim/house-02.htm

Why study a culture of war?

With the Iraq war currently going on, our American culture has been exposed to and experienced the effects of war for the last four years. I personally do not know anyone fighting in Iraq, nor have I witnessed the consequences of war on my own friends or family. Even though I hear about the war from reading newspapers and watching the news, I find myself unaware and unaffected by the actual realities of warfare. I am interested in studying the effects of war on society but more specifically the effects that war has on children. A year ago I had seen a preview for a film called War Dance, which documented the lives of three children from Uganda who were forced into becoming child soldiers. For the last twenty years, Uganda has been involved in a war against a rebel force known as the Lord’s Resistance Army. The movie shows children being abducted from their homes and families, subjected to violence and often forced under the threat of death to fight against their own country and even their family. When I compare the treatment of children in countries like Uganda to those in the United States and Western Europe, I am shocked to learn the difference in value that diverse societies have of children. I hope to better understand how a culture of war effects the local environment, how the war in Uganda came about and how and why children are forced into becoming child soldiers. Hopefully, through this cultural encounter, I can better understand why different cultures value war and the lives involved in fighting those battles so differently.