NP:Children in Sudan

[James Bridel]

This is rather off topic to MD et al. but something I thought should be
brought to mind here...  these are horrors that are almost incomprehensible
to most of us and put everything else great and small into perspective... to
me this defies political discourse



Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children
122 East 42nd Street · New York · NY 10168-1289
Tel: (212) 551.3111/3088 · Fax: (212) 551.3180 www.womenscommission.org

For Immediate Release    Contact: Diana Quick 212.551.3087

Thousands of Ugandan Children Abducted by Lord’s Resistance Army
“Lost” in Southern Sudan

Refugee Experts Available for Comment.
New York, NY, June 13, 2002— Thousands of parents in northern Uganda are
desperately trying to find out what has happened to their children who have
been abducted by the rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and taken
into southern Sudan. Ten weeks into a Ugandan military operation in southern
Sudan to root out the LRA, “Operation Iron Fist” has yielded no results.
“Parents are concerned that their children have been sacrificed in a war
that does not distinguish between hostage and fighter,” said Allison A.
Pillsbury, program manager of the Children and Adolescents Project of the
Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children.
The children are among over 12,000 children who have been abducted by the
LRA and taken to bases across the border in Sudan during the past 14 years.
While more than 5,000 have managed to escape, the majority remain
essentially slaves, forced to become child soldiers, sexual slaves and
laborers.
The Ugandan military has committed a full division of 10,000 soldiers to the
offensive, in which the Sudanese government has allowed Ugandan military
forces into Sudan to pursue LRA forces. The LRA has scattered into small
bands and fled into the mountainous terrain, leaving violence and
destruction in their wake. United Nations agencies, international relief
organizations and independent media have been denied access to the area to
monitor the situation. Nothing concrete is known about the fate of the
children, though recent reports allege that thousands have been abandoned by
the LRA, left on their own to face starvation, disease and other dangers in
hostile terrain.
In March 2002, the governments of Uganda and Sudan declared, in a joint
statement to the United Nations Security Council, that they would ensure the
safety of innocent civilians, as well as the safe repatriation of abducted
children. But as the conflict dragged on, Uganda admitted its forces are
unable to protect civilians in southern Sudan and that children have been
killed rather than rescued during Ugandan military attacks on the LRA. In
response to international criticism, instead of committing to minimizing
child casualties, a Ugandan military spokesman said that the children had
been militarized, indoctrinated and trained to resist. Such statements serve
to sensitize the general public and other governments to accept a massacre
of the captive children.
Currently, there are no signs of LRA-abducted children emerging, even as
prisoners of war with the Ugandan troops.
“The tragedy unfolding in southern Sudan is a manifestation of the horrors
that child soldiers face,” said Ms. Pillsbury. “Thousands of abducted
children have been forced to participate in atrocities and military combat
outside their control and making. Although children, they are also
considered soldiers or even terrorists, and thus are viewed as legitimate
military targets, while in reality they are being used as human shields.
Their situation is doubly precarious: they are forced to fight and are
attacked for fighting, rather than rescued and protected.”
The Women’s Commission is calling on the international community to send an
international team to monitor and report on the situation. It is appealing
to the United States to pressure the government of Sudan to allow UN
agencies and international relief organizations access to children affected
by the conflict, including those used as soldiers.


Women’s Commission Experts available for interviews:
Jane D. Lowicki, Senior Coordinator Children and Adolescent’s Project,
212-551-3107
Allison Anderson Pillsbury, project Manager Children and Adolescent’s
Project, 212-551-3107


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