UN tells LRA To Stop All Attacks
Apr 15, 2004
THE UN Security Council has demanded that LRA rebels immediately stop attacks on civilians.
By Patrick Jaramogi
THE UN Security Council has demanded that LRA rebels immediately stop attacks on civilians.
In a statement issued in New York on Wednesday, the council condemned the rebels for forced recruitment of child soldiers.
Council President Gunter Pleuger of Germany issued the statement after getting a briefing from UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland, who later told reporters that “a major humanitarian emergency†was unfolding in Uganda.
The 15-nation council said the warring parties should explore “all peaceful avenues to resolve†their conflict and allow aid workers unrestricted access to civilians.
The council also called on the Government to step up its protection of displaced persons.
It warned that such crimes as abductions, sexual violence and sexual exploitation “should not remain unpunished.â€
“I would say this is perhaps the most under-reported story in the world today,†Jan Egeland said, the statement said.
“Because where else would there be 10,000 kidnapped children in the course of only 18 months who have been terrorised into becoming killing machines, terrorised into attacking their own villages, killing their own relatives?â€
Egeland said most of the soldiers and victims of the war were children.
“Minors make up 80 % of the LRA soldiers,†he said. He said the Government, regional organisations and the international community had done “far too little†for the people of northern Uganda, but he was heartened that the council pledged greater funds and attention to the problem. The children are abducted and forcibly recruited into the LRA, he said, with many girls also serving as sexual slaves for the senior commanders.
During a field visit late last year, Egeland said, he spoke to a girl, who had now escaped from the LRA, who said she and other captives were once forced to take another child who tried to flee and “literally tear apart that child with her own teeth.â€
“The psychological trauma of these acts is incalculable. The atrocities are unspeakable and they affect thousands and thousands and thousands every month,†he said.
The LRA’s policy of abductions had also created a new phenomenon known as “the night commuter,†he said, where as many as 40,000 children and mothers walked for hours every night to sleep outside hospitals, town halls and community centres because they feel it is unsafe anywhere else.
Ends
THE UN Security Council has demanded that LRA rebels immediately stop attacks on civilians.
In a statement issued in New York on Wednesday, the council condemned the rebels for forced recruitment of child soldiers.
Council President Gunter Pleuger of Germany issued the statement after getting a briefing from UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland, who later told reporters that “a major humanitarian emergency†was unfolding in Uganda.
The 15-nation council said the warring parties should explore “all peaceful avenues to resolve†their conflict and allow aid workers unrestricted access to civilians.
The council also called on the Government to step up its protection of displaced persons.
It warned that such crimes as abductions, sexual violence and sexual exploitation “should not remain unpunished.â€
“I would say this is perhaps the most under-reported story in the world today,†Jan Egeland said, the statement said.
“Because where else would there be 10,000 kidnapped children in the course of only 18 months who have been terrorised into becoming killing machines, terrorised into attacking their own villages, killing their own relatives?â€
Egeland said most of the soldiers and victims of the war were children.
“Minors make up 80 % of the LRA soldiers,†he said. He said the Government, regional organisations and the international community had done “far too little†for the people of northern Uganda, but he was heartened that the council pledged greater funds and attention to the problem. The children are abducted and forcibly recruited into the LRA, he said, with many girls also serving as sexual slaves for the senior commanders.
During a field visit late last year, Egeland said, he spoke to a girl, who had now escaped from the LRA, who said she and other captives were once forced to take another child who tried to flee and “literally tear apart that child with her own teeth.â€
“The psychological trauma of these acts is incalculable. The atrocities are unspeakable and they affect thousands and thousands and thousands every month,†he said.
The LRA’s policy of abductions had also created a new phenomenon known as “the night commuter,†he said, where as many as 40,000 children and mothers walked for hours every night to sleep outside hospitals, town halls and community centres because they feel it is unsafe anywhere else.
Ends