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UGANDA-PEACE Oct-12-2006 (660 words) With photos posted Oct. 10. xxxi
Former teen soldier asks U.S. to help work for peace in Uganda
By Agostino Bono
Catholic News Service
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.
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.
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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