Former rebel re-settles child soldiers

Mar 09, 2009

GRACE Arach has seen tough times — abducted by rebels, raped, coerced into marriage, forced to kill, until she said: “Enough is enough.” The 23-year-old escaped from the captivity of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group that has abducted, mas

BY F. WOMAKUYU

GRACE Arach has seen tough times — abducted by rebels, raped, coerced into marriage, forced to kill, until she said: “Enough is enough.” The 23-year-old escaped from the captivity of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group that has abducted, massacred and maimed people in northern Uganda for 20 years.

Sitting pensively with her palm on her cheek, Arach speaks as if she was still in throes of abduction. But as she recovers from the horror of war, Arach has one thing on her mind: to help former abducted children settle in the communities.

Through Children / Youth Peace Builders (CAP), a local advocacy community organisation, Arach is teaching her community how to treat the former child abductees, help the reintergrate into society and learn their responsibility towards the community.

CAP-Gulu was formed in 2000 and is affiliated to CAP International which deals with horrors arising from the effects of war in conflict regions like Colombia, Angola and Thailand.

In only nine years, Arach and her team have undertaken counselling, social interaction and peace building programmes in Gulu.

With a team of 90 youth, she has trained former child soldiers in vocational skills to generate income and also learn how to live in society positively.

“We encourage them to go back to school. Some went but later dropped out due to lack of school fees,” Arach said. They also teach former child-mothers who intend to get married on how to pick the right partner. They have also helped counsel and rehabilitate children who have suffered trauma.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than 20,000 children have been abducted by the LRA since 1986. However, some who manage to escape from captivity have no home to return to while others are neglected.

“The community rejects them saying they killed people, stole and looted their property,” Arach explains.

Arach, a native of Pawel village, Amuru district was only 12 and in P7, when she was abducted by the LRA.

On March 23, 1996 when she was coming from Pabbo to visit her grandmother in Pawel, Fr Santo, a priest in Pabbo, was going in the same direction and her mother requested him for a lift.”

“We were approaching Pawel when people dressed in army uniform stopped us. “We were six people, five men and I. The rebels pulled me out of the car and removed my shoes. They put a land mine in the vehicle and burnt it. We moved through the bush the whole day and reached a trading centre called Ajulu where they looted shops and released several prisoners in Lugore prison in Patiko sub-county,” she says.

Arach says after moving several kilometres, her feet were swollen. The rebels released the priest and the rest of the men but took her with them: “I was given 50kg of sugar to carry. We moved from Ajulu, via Pabbo and finally reached Atiak.

“The rebels said they wanted me registered. I thought they were going to write my name, but instead gave me 30 strokes of the cane and told me to do the same to other new recruits.”

“I was tired and could not move any farther. I fell down and it is at this point that the UPDF soldiers attacked us and all the rebels ran in different directions. I hid under a cassava tree. After a while, the UPDF went away.

“Otti Lagony, the second in command of LRA came back, tied me with a rope so that I could not escape. I was made to carry beans, posho saucepans and sugar.

“We went to Otti’s place in Pabbo village in Amuru district. I wanted to run away but he put me at gun point and raped me.”

She adds that she stayed in Otti’s place for a month and was returned to Lagony as his seventh wife.

She was trained as a soldier and sent for duty. Under Lagony, their areas of operation were Apach, Goma and Pabbo.

“Shortly after that, the UPDF attacked our camp. They sprayed the camp with bullets and as I ran, they shot me through the right breast and I fell down but I quickly got up and ran. We won the battle, but the UPDF helicopter gunships surrounded us.

“As I was healing, the rebels went and abducted the Aboke girls. The Sister followed them and the rebels released about 105 and kept 30 beautiful ones.

“In February 1997, we heard news over BBC that Lagony and a group of 3,000 rebels had surrendered to the government, yet it was not true. Kony and the Sudanese government were upset. They gave Lagony only five days to leave Uganda. We battled for two days with UPDF until we crossed into Sudan.”

“We helped the government of Sudan to fight the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). They used to sprinkle us with oil and water to cleanse us of ‘demons’. Kony used to believe in the Bible and spirits. There was a spirit for operations and discipline. But these spirits used to come in form of Kony himself. He would become possessed and speak in different tongues.

“It prepared us for operations. It made us courageous and disciplined.

“In 1999, cholera attacked our camp and I got infected. They threw us out of the camp sayingh we shall spread to others. Many people died because there was no medication. I stayed out of the camp for three days without food,” Arach says.

Meanwhile, Kony and Lagony had developed a poor relationship. Kony suspected Lagony wanted to kill him and take over.

“Lagony was arrested and killed. A certain man called John Tata took over as the overall commander, but had little military experience. Many of the fighters became demoralised and escaped. That is the time I also planned to escape.

“I was given to a man called Odongo as the 10th wife. I spent two days with him and was sent to Uganda for operations. The Sudan government had grown impatient with Kony and stopped giving us food and ammunition. This is because Kony had killed Lagony, whom they trusted.

A week after Odongo had left, Arach talked to two child mothers about the plan to escape but they were scared. Luckily, Kony had left the camp for a meeting in Sudan and there was little military presence.

“I pulled the two mothers and we escaped. We moved for two days and ended up in the hands of Arab soldiers who then handed us to UNICEF. We were flown to Khartoum and later to Uganda in 2001. I was received by World Vision.

“After a week I was admitted to a school in Gulu. I sat for mid-term exams and scored Aggregate 30. “I realised my potential and saw the importance of rejoining school. I had not registered for exams, so I never did PLE. In 2002, I was taken to Aboke Girls by a lady who paid my fees. I was admitted to S.1, but cautioned that I would not sit for S.4 if I did not have a PLE certificate. I registered for PLE in a nearby school where I could study Form One and also do PLE,” says Arach.

She scored Aggregate 21 in PLE. In 2004, she sat O’ Level and passed in Division 2. “I was given History, Economics, Divinity and Geography at A’ Level.” Arach later scored 8 points and was admitted to Gulu University, where she is doing a diploma in development studies.

At the same time, she volunteers in CAP-Gulu. The team has undertaken peace building efforts to show to the community the effects of war. “We use drama and radio talkshows to show the people that war is bad. We stage scenes like how abductions go on in the bush. It helps them to know that the children were forced into war and need community acceptance.

Through the sexual violence study, CAP found out how the children in the community are abused. “We aimed at finding out the real cause of the rampant sexual violence on children and how to find a solution,” she says.

Arach has also attended international conferences on former child abductees. “In 2003, in the US, I met former child soldiers from Colombia, Sierra Leone and many other countries. We discussed how to prevent children from being involved in war and good enough, the UN resolution 1612 was passed to protect children.”

Last year, Arach went to Sierra Leone to learn how they have managed to restore peace after decades of war. Despite this success, Arach says she is facing some challenges. “I want to go for further studies, but I do not have school fees. I got admission to study a degree at Mukono University, but because I had no fees, I opted for a diploma in Gulu University.”

For the moment, she is happy to be helping her community. “My people are voiceless and I am working hard to improve their lives,” she says.

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