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/