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October
23, 2006
VOL.
44, NO. 18Oakland,
CA
Student describes abduction into guerrilla army
WASHINGTON
(CNS) -- Grace Akallo’s voice was barely audible above the soft
outdoor breeze as she described being forced to kill after being kidnapped
as a teenager into a Ugandan guerrilla army.
“I was used and abused” for seven months by the Lord’s
Resistance Army, she said at an outdoor news conference Oct. 10 in Washington’s
Russell Park on Capitol Hill.
In a calm, steady voice belying the gruesomeness of the events she described,
Akallo told how she was given weapons training and used for sex by the
guerrilla group based in northern Uganda.
“Ten years ago last night, I was abducted by the Lord’s Resistance
Army,” she said.
Akallo was one of 139 girls kidnapped Oct. 9, 1996, from her dormitory
at St. Mary’s boarding school in Aboke, Uganda, by the LRA, as the
guerrilla group is known. She was 15 years old then and was given as a
concubine to a senior guerrilla commander.
Akallo said she was forced to commit atrocities against civilians and
some of her fellow captives. After seven months, she escaped during a
firefight between Ugandan troops and the guerrillas.
More than 25,000 children have been kidnapped by the Lord’s Resistance
Army in the 20 years of fighting in northern Uganda, she said.
“I was once one of the children who are still enslaved by the LRA,”
said Akallo. “I have a responsibility to speak out for the children
who are still in the hell that I escaped.”
The news conference was part of a two-day lobbying effort organized by
religious, peace, humanitarian, civic and public policy groups to get
the U.S. government to take a more active role in supporting peace talks.
Among the organizers of the Washington lobbying effort was the Africa
Faith and Justice Network, a coalition of Catholic religious orders with
missions in Africa.
Grace Akallo was kidnapped by the Lord’s Resistance
Army when she was 15. More than 25,000 children have been kidnapped and
forced to become child soldiers.
CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING
Former Ugandan child soldiers Kassim Ouma, 28, and a young woman identified
only as Evaline, 15, stand during a press conference in Washington D.C.
Evaline covers her face with a cloth to prevent people from seeing severe
damage to her face from a bomb explosion.
CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING
The
Lord’s Resistance Army and the Ugandan government signed a cease-fire
in August, but there has been little follow-up to get a peace treaty.
During the 20 years of fighting in northern Uganda, 200,000 people have
been killed and more than 1.7 million people have been displaced, with
many forced to live in makeshift camps. The war also has spilled into
southern Sudan and the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In October 2005 the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands,
issued arrest warrants for LRA leader Joseph Kony and four of his top
commanders. Charges included the mutilation of civilians, forced abduction
and the sexual abuse of minors.
Akallo and other speakers at the news conference said that U.S. support
was crucial to getting a peace deal signed.
The United States is dealing with the symptoms of the war by providing
humanitarian aid to northern Uganda, “but is not dealing with the
problem of ending the war,” said Betty Bigombe, former chief negotiator
for the Ugandan government in talks with the guerrillas.
Currently, government officials in southern Sudan are taking the lead
to spur peace talks, but Sudan lacks the resources to monitor a peace
agreement, said Bigombe.
Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., said Congress and the Bush administration
support the peace process, but the administration has not said so publicly.
Smith pledged to be more active in getting the administration to break
its silence and become more visible in promoting peace talks.
He noted that Akallo testified before the House in April and called her
“the face of the liberated child soldier.”
Akallo, 25, currently is a student at Gordon College, a nondenominational
Christian school in Wenham, Mass.
The prevalence of child kidnapping has given rise to a group of Ugandan
children called the “night commuters” because they leave their
rural homes at night to march to safer urban places to avoid being kidnapped.
According to background information provided by organizers of the news
conference, in 2005 about 35,000 children left their homes each night.
