Children in Sudan
Children of SudanChildren who escape from rebel captivity are in poor shape: they are usually in lice-ridden rags, covered with sores, scarred from beatings and bullet wounds. According to World Vision's Robby Muhumuza, the children arrive at trauma counseling centers "sick, malnourished, with low appetite. They have guilt feelings, are depressed and with low self-esteem . . . . They have swollen feet, rough skin, chest infections . . . they tend to be aloof . . . with little confidence in themselves or others. They tend to lapse into absentmindedness as well as swift mood changes."Many of the children--especially the girls, who are routinely given to rebel leaders as "wives"--also have sexually transmitted diseases: "They arrive with gonorrhea, syphilis or sores, skin rash and complaints of abdominal pain and backache." At World Vision in Gulu, 70 to 80 percent of the children newly arriving at the center test positive for at least one sexually transmitted disease. Some of the girls are pregnant, while others, who tested negative for pregnancy, have stopped having their menstrual periods because of malnutrition and stress. The trauma counseling centers do not test the children for HIV, reasoning tha
None of these leaders lasted for very long, and in May 1980, Milton Obote returned to the presidency. "Sometimes by the time they reach us, they've been with the UPDF for weeks without seeing a doctor. " CNN calls them "a Christian cult . The Acholis blamed themselves, and felt that they were sinful. The government claims that the rebels were not serious about peace, while government critics claim that the government lured rebel leaders to peace talks and then staged an ambush, killing several rebel commanders. As a healer, she attracted a great deal of support among the Acholi. The power of a jok used for personal gain in private and for destruction constituted witchcraft, while the same power used in public for legitimate ends belonged to the chief and the priest. A rebel alliance was formed, calling itself the Uganda People's Defense Army (UPDA--not to be confused with the UPDF, the current name of the Ugandan government army). have been notorious for murder, raping, looting, etc. Most pertinently, however, the LRA's actions violate the provisions of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, which lays out the minimum humanitarian rules applicable to internal armed conflicts:In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each Party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:(1) Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria. "They don't always give them treatment right away," says Richard Oneka, a counselor. Inspired by Alice, the soldiers of the Holy Spirit Movement inflicted a number of embarrassing defeats on the National Resistance Army, who were at first nonplussed by the sight of thousands of poorly armed soldiers streaming forward, making no attempt to take cover. In January 1987, the Holy Spirit Movement's soldiers made it as far south as Jinja, only sixty miles from Kampala. "Alice united people," says Alphonse Owiny-Dollo, the Minister of State for the North.
Common topics in this essay:
Resistance Army,
Gulu Kitgum,
Army Alice,
Defense Force,
Aboke Apac,
Jok Rubanga,
Holy Spirit,
Management Committee,
Parties Party,
Robby Muhumuza,
resistance army,
lord's resistance,
lord's resistance army,
holy spirit,
national resistance,
national resistance army,
gulu kitgum,
human rights,
people's defense,
spirit movement,
holy spirit movement,
defense force,
people's defense force,
uganda people's defense,
uganda people's,
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Acceptance Essays
