Child Soldiers

Northern Uganda

OVERVIEW • Population below poverty: 31 %

•Hosts refugees

•Agricultural – employs over 80% of workforce

•Coffee is the biggest export

•Substantial natural resources• Fertile soil, consistent

rainfall, deposits of copper and gold• Seeking economy

stability

• Currency reform

• Raising producer prices on export crops

• Increasing prices of petroleum products

• Improving civil service wages

• GOAL: dampen inflation and boosting production/export earnings

HISTORY OF COUNTRY Very distinct ethnic groups

Isolated from the outside world, ethnic groups functioned as separate kingdoms

David Livingston

Henry Morton Stanley

Berlin Conference

Independence 1962

Milton Obote (horrible, corrupt leader) 1962

Idi Amin 1971-1979 (comes to power because of military coup)

Milton Obote (via election) 1980 - 1985

Obote is deposed of in military coup and replaced by Tito Okello - 1985

National Resistance Army rebels take Kampala and install Yoweri Museveni 1986-present

HISTORY OF LRAOriginally know as the the Holy Spirit Movement

Evolved into LRA under the leadership of Joseph Kony

Active since1986 - One of Africa’s oldest, most violent, and persistent armed groups

Estimated that 66,000 children were abducted between 1986 and 2005 (www.state.gov)

At the height of the conflict more than 2 million people were displaced

CHILD SOLDIERSHeavy importance on recruitment of children (5 years and older)

Abducted from villages and forced to fight

90% of LRA recruits are children (Pham, P. N. & Stover, E. 2009)

Children are programmed (brain washed) to become “unfeeling, killing machines, a mere extension of the gun or machete” (Dunson, 2008).

Boys are told that their “guns are now their mothers, best friends, everything” (Dunson, 2008).

“In a very calculated way the rebels worked to destroy the human instincts of these young children in order to make them efficient” (Dunson, 2008).

Roles include: soldiers, cooks, spies, messengers, sexual slaves and mothers to out-of-wedlock children

LOCAL RESPONSE Uganda sign agreement aimed at containing Uganda rebel group,

LRA

Army evacuates 400,000 civilians to neighboring countries to escape from LRA

2004: Government & LRA rebels hold first face-to-face talk, but no breakthrough

2005: Warrants issued for LRA leaders (including Joseph Kony)

2006: Government & LRA sign a truce aimed at ending their conflict – troops reduced & moved to bordering countries

2007: LRA claims that lack of funds for travel will delay peace talks

2008 (February): LRA sign what is meant to be a permanent ceasefire in Sudan

2008 (November): Joseph Kony fails to show up at signing of a peace agreement

2009 (March): Ugandan army withdraws from the DR Congo, where it was pursuing LRA rebels

2012: Ugandan Army captures senior LRA commander Caesar Achellam (major breakthrough)

LRA TODAY

Mostly left Uganda after the Juba Peace Talks in 2006. Since 2008, they have carried their attacks in the border regions of Northeastern Congo, South Sundan, and Central African Republic

The LRA is composed of several bands of fighters

Due to increase awareness of the issue the size has gone from 1,000 in 2006, to 300 in 2012 (not counting women or children)

Despite the smaller size their “destruction continues to be disproportionately large (Invisible Children, 2013).

PERSONAL RESPONSE

Education (don’t believe everything you read)

Government pressure

Support

GO THERE

ReferencesAngucia, M. (2009). Children and war in Africa: The crisis continues in Northern Uganda. International Journal on World Peace, 26(3), 77-95.

"CIA: The World Factbook 2000: Uganda." CIA World Fact Book (2002):

Derluyn, I., Broekaert, E., Schuyten, G., & Temmerman, E. (2004). Post-traumatic stress in former Ugandan child soldiers. The Lancet, 363(9412), 861-863. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(04)15734-6

Doom, Ruddy & Vlassenroot, Koen (1999). Kony’s Message: A New Koine? The Lord’s Resistance Army in Northern Uganda. Africa Affairs, 98(390). 5-36.

Dunson, D. H. (2008). Child, victim, soldier. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books.

Hanson, H.B. & Twaddle, M. (1988). Uganda Now: between decay & development. London: J. Currrey.

"History." Uganda Country Review (2011): 6-8. Business Source Complete. EBSCO. 13 Oct. 2011.

J.B. (Oct 21, 2012). Can America make a difference? The economist. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/blogs/baobab/2011/10/ugandas-lords-resistance-army

Kaplan, J. (2009). The Lord’s Resistance Army: Millennialism, violence, and the timeless dream. Religious Studies And Theology, 28(1), 95-127. 

Pham, P. N., Vinck, P., & Stover, E. (2009). Returning home: Forced conscription, reintegration, and mental health status of former abductees of the Lord's Resistance Army in Northern Uganda. BMC Psychiatry,9doi:10.1186/1471-244X-9-23 

Tapper, J. (Oct 14, 2011). Obama sends 100 US troops to Uganda to help combat Lord Resistance Army. ABC News. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/10/obama-sends-100-us-troops-to-uganda-to-combat-lords-resistance-army/