Thousands of children have been recruited into a fearful army that claims inspiration from God, reports Anna Borzello in Gulu, Uganda
IN northern Uganda, villagers do their best to follow the 11 commandments of Joseph Kony, altar-boy turned born-again guerrilla whose Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is terrorising the countryside.
The first 10 are as given to Moses. The eleventh is now “Thou Shalt Not Ride a Bicycle”. The penalty: amputation.
Southern Uganda is a World Bank showcase, while the north is now an official humanitarian disaster area because of attacks by the Christian fundamentalist militia from over the border in Sudan.
Anthony Opio had the misfortune to be caught by the rebels as he rode his bike to market with his son and small daughter. “You know that it’s forbidden to ride bikes,” they screamed at him. They tied him up before cutting off his foot with a panga. Then they smashed his bicycle.
“Without my leg, it’s like I’m dead,” he told journalists from his hospital bed in Lachor, a missionary hospital just outside Gulu town, the regional capital of Gulu district and the centre of LRA activity.
The rebels attack villagers with bikes on the dubious grounds that they would otherwise escape quickly, cycle to town and warn the Ugandan Army when the LRA is around.
Kony’s ragtag army follows other strange practices. They used to slice the lips, ears or arms off their victims. Then they turned on anyone owning white chickens. Then it was the owners of white pigs who were killed. They also say villagers should not travel on the “holy days” of Friday and Sunday.
Last year the rebels progressed to buttock- slashing, although doctors say villagers are now just as likely to be injured by landmines.
Kony, their leader, is a 35-year-old former catechist who has been fighting for 10 years to overthrow the government of President Yoweri Museveni and put in its place an administration based on the 10 Commandments.
The group was born in 1988 out of the remnants of the Holy Spirit movement, led by Kony’s aunt, “priestess” Alice Lakwena. She believed that stones thrown by the faithful would explode like grenades and that shea-nut oil smeared on her hymn- singing fighters would deflect enemy bullets.
The LRA may not have a clear political agenda, but it has had a huge impact. The north-south divide was reflected in last year’s presidential election, which saw an overwhelming victory for Museveni nationwide, but a landslide success for his main opponent in the north.
Nearly all the region’s schools and health centres have been closed. Most roads are impassable because of the threat of ambushes and landmines. More than 130 000 people are displaced in Gulu district alone.
The rebels have successfully eluded the Ugandan Army and survived with little civilian support, instead terrorising the population into acquiescence. Most Acholi, the northern tribe affected by the insurgency, say they are caught between the LRA’s violence and the Ugandan military’s incompetence.
Only a minority of Acholi join the rebels freely. Most LRA recruits are kidnapped children. The United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that 3 000 have been taken in the past two years alone.
In 1996, the LRA led four major attacks on schools. Among those abducted were 109 girls from Aboke College, later rescued when an Italian nun followed the rebels and offered her life for the girls’ release. Thirty girls, however, were retained for their beauty and remain in captivity.
After training, recruits are either taken back to Uganda or made to fight the southern Sudanese rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, a task that former rebels say they undertake in exchange for arms from the Sudan government.
Some of the children grow used to the rebel life. Witnesses to LRA attacks say that the rebels aged between 12 and 14 are the most terrifying. But most are bound to the LRA through fear.
David (15) escaped after two years in captivity: “The commanders want to fight, but the rest are like me and would run away if they could. If you do escape and they capture you, the commanders beat you or kill you.”
Thousands, however, escape. Until recently former rebels were handed over to the army. When the numbers became overwhelming, the World Vision aid agency took over.
At Kirandongo Trauma Counselling Centre, about 120km south of Gulu town, former rebels kick a football around a huge pitch, while small groups study tailoring outside grass huts. The mood is amiable, although fights sometimes break out. “We had one intake who accused another group at the centre of abducting them,” said trauma counsellor Aldo Achen. “We try to teach them that they have all committed crimes and, but for the presidential amnesty, are all capable of being charged.”
World Vision has treated more than 1 300 former rebels. “Most have bad memories,” Achen said. “One girl had cut bodies into parts. She said it became automatic. Another girl beat the heads of captives until they were flat.”
Despite disruption to life in northern Uganda, the military say the situation is beginning to improve. However, the LRA, the bulk of which recently returned to Sudan, remains undefeated despite a huge deployment of government troops, an army reshuffle and Museveni’s October relocation to Gulu.
Many northerners believe the only hope lies in negotiation, either with the rebels or with Sudan. But Museveni refuses to talk to the LRA, while mediation efforts last September between Sudan and Uganda came to nothing after Sudan allegedly bombed a northern Ugandan town.