US Gives Ex-Kony Rebel Asylum
Sep 14, 2003
A US federal immigration panel in Philadelphia has granted political asylum to a Ugandan who says he was kidnapped by the Lords Resistance Army rebels as a child and forced to fight.
Felix Osike and Agencies
A US federal immigration panel in Philadelphia has granted political asylum to a Ugandan who says he was kidnapped by the Lords Resistance Army rebels as a child and forced to fight.
The decision put a stop to the government’s four-year effort to deport him.
Bernard Lukwago, 21, (right) says he was 15 when the LRA slaughtered his parents, abducted him and ordered him to fight against the Government.
Army spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza, however, said Lukwago’s case was suspect. “He could have gone there for greener pastures or he is being used by political opponents,†Bantariza said. He said there was no case of Lukwago’s subversive activities to warrant political asylum.
Lukwago said he escaped after four months in LRA captivity and began a long journey to the United States, using a false passport to travel to Germany, Netherlands before arriving in America.
On August 25, he received word that the Board of Immigration Appeals had overturned its earlier decision and would allow him to stay as a political refugee.
“I’m just so happy to have my freedom,†Lukwago said, early this month from his new home in Harrisburg.
“Now, I don’t have to worry about Immigration and Naturalisation Service. I want to concentrate on school. ... I don’t have to worry about someone coming in the middle of the night to send me back,†he said.
Lukwago, now 21, said he is afraid he would be killed if forced to return to the country he fled in 1998.
Immigration officials had argued that former child rebels who returned to government-controlled territory were not at risk of persecution.
In a ruling on May 3, U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Lukwago might be singled out because his case had received significant media attention, and he had spoken about his experiences in “Armed and Innocent,†a film on child soldiers.
ends
A US federal immigration panel in Philadelphia has granted political asylum to a Ugandan who says he was kidnapped by the Lords Resistance Army rebels as a child and forced to fight.
The decision put a stop to the government’s four-year effort to deport him.
Bernard Lukwago, 21, (right) says he was 15 when the LRA slaughtered his parents, abducted him and ordered him to fight against the Government.
Army spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza, however, said Lukwago’s case was suspect. “He could have gone there for greener pastures or he is being used by political opponents,†Bantariza said. He said there was no case of Lukwago’s subversive activities to warrant political asylum.
Lukwago said he escaped after four months in LRA captivity and began a long journey to the United States, using a false passport to travel to Germany, Netherlands before arriving in America.
On August 25, he received word that the Board of Immigration Appeals had overturned its earlier decision and would allow him to stay as a political refugee.
“I’m just so happy to have my freedom,†Lukwago said, early this month from his new home in Harrisburg.
“Now, I don’t have to worry about Immigration and Naturalisation Service. I want to concentrate on school. ... I don’t have to worry about someone coming in the middle of the night to send me back,†he said.
Lukwago, now 21, said he is afraid he would be killed if forced to return to the country he fled in 1998.
Immigration officials had argued that former child rebels who returned to government-controlled territory were not at risk of persecution.
In a ruling on May 3, U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Lukwago might be singled out because his case had received significant media attention, and he had spoken about his experiences in “Armed and Innocent,†a film on child soldiers.
ends