Uganda, the LRA, night commuters and child soldiers
I stumbled across a 55 minute
documentary about the ongoing civil war in Uganda called Invisible Children recently. While the documentary
has quite a few problems as a film – it's obviously shot and edited by (well-intentioned) amateurs, unevenly paced,
odd (and occasionally distracting) musical scoring choices etc – its message is both shocking and haunting. What’s
more remarkable is that the filmmakers now devote themselves full time to a very successful aid organization that they created
because of their experience making this documentary.
Here’s the basic situation in
Uganda as I've been able to glean (from this film and other sources, see the end of this note): A rebel group called
the Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA, has been trying to overthrow the government for over 23 years. The LRA is
led by Joseph Kony, who believes that God has chosen him to create a theocratic government based on the ten commandments.
What is more remarkable, and utterly horrifying, is that the LRA has abducted approximately 30,000 children since 1987, forcing
most of them to become child soldiers. These children are trained to kill, maim, rape, and torture. The girls
who are abducted are forced to become child ‘brides’ to officers. Joseph Kony himself is believed to have
dozens of child ‘brides’.
Death is the sentence for children who try to
escape, who refuse to kill, sometimes even for those who cry.
Every night, even now, thousands
of child leave their villages and walk to the nearest urban area to sleep in parking garages, basements of hospitals, etc
to avoid being abducted by the LRA, who routinely take children from their huts under cover of darkness. The children
who make these trips to relative safety are referred to as ‘night commuters’.
Invisible Children is a very good starting point (despite the problems listed above) if like me, you are ignorant
of the Ugandan crisis. And from what I can see, the non-profit organization (invisiblechildren.com) that sprang from
the film is an excellent one. There has been significant pull back of the LRA in the much of Northern Uganda.
But the more I read up on this situation, the more I saw how complicated it is. The LRA has started to
spread into bordering countries. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has indicted Joseph Kony and many of his ‘generals’
for multiple crimes against humanity. This has been, understandably, seen as a triumph, and helps bring international
attention to the LRA’s atrocities. And there has been increased talk of international military action to
wipe out the LRA. As recently as December, after another LRA. massacre of civilians, armed military from several countries
attempted to raid LRA. strongholds.
Here’s a problem: now that Kony has
been indicted by the ICC, he is no longer willing to show up for any peace talks for fear of being arrested. And Ugandans
desperately want peace. They have gone so far as to extend amnesty to LRA members, even those who have committed horrible
crimes. But many Ugandans, both governmental and civilian, see the ICC’s indictments as throwing a wrench
in the peace negotiations, and potentially harming the amnesty program.
And as for military action
against the LRA: as in most guerilla warfare, the foot soldiers on the front lines are the first to be killed.
And most of the LRA’s foot soldiers are children under the age of 16 (some as young as 5). I simply cannot,
in this case, accept that the ends (getting Kony and his generals) justify the means (killing children, even if they are “trained
soldiers”).
In any case, military action has been largely ineffective against the LRA. In one case,
a US-backed military offensive backfired horribly, resulting in fleeing groups of LRA soldiers massacring almost a thousand
Congolese.
And what if there were some way to end this war permanently and peacefully?
What happens then to the children who have been the dehumanizing process of LRA indoctrination? These children, who
have been desensitized to violence as part of that process, have killed and maimed so many. Some children escape the
LRA, and upon returning to their villages they are often ostracized and feared. There is no real mental health infrastructure
in place to deal with the massive psychological damage done to all the parties – the parents and siblings of these children,
and of course the children themselves. This is practically an entire country of people with PTSD.
Invisible Children doesn’t delve too deeply into these complexities. What it does do is
pull you in and make you pay attention. The most heartbreaking and affecting moment of the entire film comes from the
last interview of Jacob, a former child soldier who has lost almost everything and is now hunted, along with one of his brothers,
by the LRA. Interviews with Jacob and his surviving brother Thomas are sprinkled throughout the film. They are
in turns angry, funny, lost, and hardened, even suicidal – and like the other children in the film, they hide their
pain and talk about the atrocities done to them and their friends with anger as the only displayable emotion. But when
Jacob lets a little of his sadness out when talking about his murdered older brother, his crying becomes a raw, wrenching
keen that undid me completely.
You can see the movie Invisible Children here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3166797753930210643 The website for the nonprofit organization is www.invisiblechildren.com.
Some of the articles I read after seeing Invisible Children:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/world/africa/07congo.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&hp"
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/18/international/africa/18uganda.html?scp=4&sq=lord's%20resistance%20army&st=cse
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2008/11/081125_
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7983143.stm
http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/uganda-government-miserably-failing-care-victims-conflict-20081117
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/weekinreview/29gett.html?fta=y