Rebecca Harrelson
9/11/10
7:00
When a child in the United States goes missing, the police are notified and they issue what in America we call an Amber Alert, the police move out in force, with planes and helicopters. In another part of the world, on the other side of the globe, in the northern districts of Uganda, 30,000 children have been abducted in the past 20 some years.
Uganda's war has been called the most neglected humanitarian emergency in the world today. For the past 23 years the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) and the government of Uganda (GoU) have been waging a war that has left nearly two million innocent civilians caught in the middle. The attempts to protect its citizens has largely failed, resulting in an entire generation of youth that has never know peace. It is estimated that more than 90% of the LRA's troops were abducted as children.
The LRA is lead by Joseph Kony, a former altar boy, self-styled mystic, ruthless leader who has lead Northern Uganda to a virtual standstill. In the west, the news reports speak of 30,000 children that were abducted by Kony. In Africa, the reports are the same. Non-governmental Aid Agencies both in Uganda estimate that 20,000 to 30,000 children were abducted. Some put it as high as 66,000 abducted children.
With this abundance of children being forced into killing machines what could be a solution? Prosecuting the perpetrators who recruit, force, and abduct children into this army. The indictment by the International Criminal Court has prolonged the war, Joseph Kony did not want to deal with the International Criminal Court and simply refused to sign the peace agreement without the ICC criminal indictments being lifted.
What else can be done? A former child soldier said, "Tell them also to pray for us," "Tell them to pray for peace to come to Uganda forever."
http://kabiza.com/Childsoldiers.htm
3 comments:
This truly is a saddenning post and honestly I don't know what could be done. Those numbers 30000 kids thats enormous and down right ridiculous. I would be a hypocrite if I said I think the US should get involved in Uganda's problem but I think some measures should be taken to show them the differences in style, prevention and capturing of kidnapped children in the US. It's obvious we're doing something they are not.
It's so shocking to hear that so many children are being abducted and used for war mainly because thats something that would never happen here. We have never had to worry about an issue like that. I feel horrible for the people of Uganda because there is generally nothing that they can do. Any say that they have has been taken from them along with there children. Its still eye opening to me to know that there are places all around the world where human rights don't exactly exist.
I recently read a book about this, and it tears my heart up. To take an innocent child and turn him or her into a calloused assassin is horrible. I wish I could save all of these children...
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