"There is no doubt that this Kony is a psychopath, an animal who has created one of the silent tragedies of the world," says Tony Hall, whose travels have taken him to trouble spots in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan



"There is no doubt that this Kony is a psychopath, an animal who has created one of the silent tragedies of the world," says Tony Hall, whose travels have taken him to trouble spots in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan

Ugandan children face unspeakable horrors in 'silent crisis'

by Vincent Mayanja

GULU, Uganda, March 23 (AFP) - Like nearly all the children at a camp for the war displaced here, 13-year-old Beatrice tells bloodcurdling stories of atrocities committed during Uganda's long-running civil conflict.

One of more than 20,000 children abducted by the notorious Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) to serve as fighters, porters or sex slaves, she describes in harrowing detail her two years of captivity at the hands of the rebels.

"We walked for long distances in the bush in Sudan," she says. "We were forced to batter to death those who couldn't carry on walking because their feet were swollen.

"I was forced to kill one girl who failed to walk," Beatrice says haltingly as she recounts her gruesome experiences to a delegation of visiting US and UN officials.

"Many children died of thirst," she continues. "Sometimes we used to drink our own urine to survive or someone would ask for your urine while thirsty and she could drop dead when you refused."

In a nearby bed at this rehabilitation center in northern Gulu district, the epicenter of the war being waged by the LRA against the Ugandan government, 14-year-old Akello has a different but equally disturbing tale to tell.

With a bandaged right arm, she sits holding her chin in her tiny left hand, pondering the events that brought her here: her abduction by the LRA and an army rescue operation last August that nearly killed her.

"I was shot in the leg during crossfire as the army attacked the group I was walking with," she says. "Many other children were killed but I was lucky to survive."

Beatrice and Akello are just two examples of the grim circumstances facing children in nothern Uganda, where tens of thousands of youngsters leave their home villages at night for the relative safety of nearby towns to avoid LRA kidnappers.

The LRA, which operates from bases in northern Uganda and southern Sudan, has been fighting President Yoweri Museveni's secular government since 1988, ostensibly to replace it with one based on the biblical Ten Commandments.

But it is best known for its ruthlessness against the people of northern Uganda and with peace efforts at a standstill, the LRA has stepped up attacks in Gulu and surrounding districts in recent weeks, killing and brutally maiming scores of people, including women and children, according to officials here.

With the surge in violence, rebel atrocities that many believed were a thing of the past have made a grisly comeback, they say.

In the past month alone, the rebels have disfigured more than a dozen females by cutting off their lips and, in a recent incident in nearby Kitgum district, chopped off the lips, ears and breasts of seven women.

The situation, little publicized outside east Africa, has become so bad that a deeply religious senior local politician has been moved to say that anyone who can end the conflict will be seen as "our second God."

"The people have suffered enough," says Gulu council chairman Walter Ochola, speaking passionately about the need to end the war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced 1.6 million others.

"We were a food basket, but now we line up for food day in and day out and this requires everybody to find a solution to this war," Ochola tells the visiting US ambassador to the UN's World Food Programme, Tony Hall.

Hall, moved by the stories and the squalid, impoverished conditions in camps for displaced that dot the region, calls the deteriorating security climate in northern Uganda "a silent tragedy" which he blames squarely on LRA leader Joseph Kony.

"There is no doubt that this Kony is a psychopath, an animal who has created one of the silent tragedies of the world," says Hall, whose travels have taken him to trouble spots in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.

"What I have seen here is something new," he says. "Always in conflict, children are left out, but this animal has decided to pick them up."

When this story was posted in March 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:


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Crisis Corps arrives in Thailand After the Tsunami in Southeast Asia last December, Peace Corps issued an appeal for Crisis Corps Volunteers and over 200 RPCVs responded. The first team of 8 Crisis Corps volunteers departed for Thailand on March 18 to join RPCVs who are already supporting relief efforts in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and India with other agencies and NGO's. 19 Mar 2005

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March's Feature Stories - only on PCOL Dream Come True - Revisiting India after 34 years The Coyne Column: Read Winning Vanity Fair PCV Essay Tomas Belsky's paintings inspired by service in Brazil RPCV reunites with friend after 40 years RPCV reviews "Los Heraldos Negros" by Cesar Vallejo Photo Essay: Taking it to the Streets

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March 19, 2005: RPCV Groups in the News New Jersey RPCVs host exhibit in Maplewood on April 2 20 Mar Maryland RPCVs eat crab cakes in Annapolis 17 Mar Illinois RPCVs present "Life on the Big Red Island" 13 Mar San Diego RPCVs host reception with Gaddi Vasquez on March 6 4 Mar Western North Carolina's RPCVs sponsor Africa Night on March 6 3 Mar Connecticut RPCVs held fundraiser on March 5 3 Mar RPCVs: Post your stories or press releases here for inclusion next week.

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March 19, 2005: This Week's Top Stories RPCV points out catalytic effect of Iraq 19 Mar PCVs set up Basketball pool in Ukraine 19 Mar Sam Farr introduces bill to monitor ocean fisheries 18 Mar Bridgeland does not rule out run for Congress 18 Mar Jim Doyle promotes Institute for Discovery 18 Mar Newspaper says Bangladesh is safe for PCVs 18 Mar Joan Ruddiman revisits Peter Hessler's "River World" 17 Mar Mark Schneider says Save Haiti from more violence 17 Mar Troy Johnson joins delegation to Indonesia 17 Mar Chris Shays says baseball not exempt from the law 17 Mar "Hurlyburly" benefits gypsy women in Romania 15 Mar Chris Matthews interviews Schwarzenegger 14 Mar Fred Burke dies in NJ, trained early PCVs 13 Mar Mike Honda introduces Student Privacy Protection Act 13 Mar FT details Cheney-McPherson relationship 13 Mar Tucker McCravy reports on Tsunami Reconstruction 10 Mar Dennis Braddock retires with record of accomplishment 9 Mar

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RPCVs in Congress ask colleagues to support PC RPCVs Sam Farr, Chris Shays, Thomas Petri, James Walsh, and Mike Honda have asked their colleagues in Congress to add their names to a letter they have written to the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee, asking for full funding of $345 M for the Peace Corps in 2006. As a follow-on to Peace Corps week, please read the letter and call your Representative in Congress and ask him or her to add their name to the letter.

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Add your info now to the RPCV Directory Call Harris Publishing at 800-414-4608 right away to add your name or make changes to your listing in the newest edition of the NPCA's Directory of Peace Corps Volunteers and Former Staff. Then read our story on how you can get access to the book after it is published. The deadline for inclusion is May 16 so call now.

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March 1: National Day of Action Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went.

Make a call for the Peace Corps PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week.

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