...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Wednesday, June 11, 2003
      ( 3:20 PM )
 
Leave No Child (Soldiers) Behind

Thanks to Jeanne over at Body and Soul (fantastic blog if you haven't read it) for focusing us on human rights lately. Her post on Burma is not only eloquent and educational but motivates me to write about a human rights issue that has been heavy on my heart lately.

The closest you may have gotten to hearing about Uganda lately is the news about the French sending in troops to rescue people in the Congo. The situation there is horrendous. But I want to talk about the children in Uganda.

UNICEF reports that since 1986, the Lord's Resistance Army has kidnapped over 20,000 children to use them as soldiers. According to the Uganda Children's Charity, over 30% of children in Uganda are malnourished, and there is the highest proportion of AIDS orphans in Uganda than any other country. A report on what happens to the abducted children relates that

Abducted children were tortured, threatened, made
to torture others and witness killings and sometimes
forced to kill. Girls were sexually abused and teenage
pregnancies occurred as a result of young girls being
given as 'wives' to rebel commanders. On escape/rescue,
they arrived underfed and malnourished and in need of
essential medical treatment.

NPR's Jesse Graham reported yesterday on Morning Edition that upwards of 8,000 children trek into city streets in northern Uganda every night to try and escape abduction. Chidren as young as 4 are walking as far as 5 miles every night with sleeping mats and blankets to sleep in bus stations, on the streets, in parking lots - anywhere they can find. If they stay home, they could be kidnapped and turned into baby soldiers. Their parents have to stay at home to protect the house and any babies or smaller children. The children interviewed by Graham say things like "it's hard to get homework done" and that they are afraid of being abducted so they make the nightly trip willingly. One mother is upset when her son informs her he slept in a parking lot instead of a church where she had urged him to go. But there just wasn't room.

Human Rights Watch reported back in 1997 the plight of children in Uganda. HRW also reports that over 300,000 children are used as soldiers. But HRW's definitive report was done only two months ago, in March 2003: "Stolen Children."

Early on when my brothers and I were captured, the
LRA explained to us that all five brothers couldn't serve
in the LRA because we would not perform well. So they
tied up my two younger brothers and invited us to watch.
Then they beat them with sticks until the two of them
died. They told us it would give us strength to fight. My
youngest brother was nine years old. -Martin P., age thirteen

As background, the conflict in Uganda has been going on for over 16 years. The rate of abductions had fallen greatly in 2001 after much of the LRA retreated to Sudan. But after a military offensive by the Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF), they came back up into the country in droves and the abductions of children skyrocketed.

The threat of abduction has made children throughout the
region fear for their safety. Each night, thousands of children
pour into Gulu town and Lacor hospital from surrounding areas,
hoping to avoid abduction. They seek refuge on verandas,
in the bus park, on church grounds and in local factories before
returning home again each morning.

But it's not just the rebels, though they are the most brutal. The Ugandan forces also recruit children and train them to be "home guards" to guard villages and towns. But most often, when the Ugandan forces take children they do not return them but put them into soldiering service against the LRA.

The conflicts in Africa are hard to understand, mostly because we are not educated about them, our media does not cover them and our government ignores them. The racist foundation for the U.S.'s dealings with African nations is centuries-old. We only supported the fight against apartheid when it was obvious we could no longer stand up against the pressure of the rest of the world opinion. We of course imported slaves from Africa for centuries and are going to have to long pay the price for that here at home. The consequences of European colonization and American disinterest in Africa are far and widespread. Currently, wars are raging and only make it into media reports when American citizens happen to be in danger. But the conflicts in Uganda, Sudan, Liberia, Zimbabwe, The Congo, Rwanda, Somalia (the list goes on) are important because they are about human lives.

Why are we willing to invade a country and risk all manner of world opinion, diplomatic bargaining power, and military and civilian lives in order to rid that country of a regime that oppressed it, but not apply that same standard to other countries (I know, the answer is obvious)? Saddam's treatment of his citizens was abhorrent, and the subjugation of the population heinous. That and the (missing) WMDs were our stated reasons for invading. Our reasons for bombing Afghanistan were similar. We arrogantly argued on the world stage that we were freeing the people of Iraq and Afghanistan from oppression and subjugation.

Yet we ignore the children of Africa, and their mothers and fathers. I don't think it's only because they are black, though the racism is a major cause of our neglect. It's also because they can offer us nothing economically. The countries of Africa don't have great oil reserves (well, except Nigeria, where we are all too willing to devastate the land and ignore the people there too), or offer land across which an oil pipeline can be laid. They don't offer much of anything to us (according to our government, despite the fact that they have many exports that are very desirable) and wouldn't be very bright gems in our empire's crown.

We are a nation of vast wealth and resources. Our population which makes up 5% of the world's population, uses 60% of the world's resources. We consume and we ignore the rest of the world. We pay attention only when our sensibilities are offended. We were attacked by a group of individuals who used our own resources against us and we responded in great arrogance and violence towards people who had nothing to do with the attack. We responded by inflicting draconian legislation on our own citizens which take away civil rights and erode the liberties this country was founded on. And still, we learn no lessons. The attacks on 9/11 did not teach us to be more humble, to look around the world for the places we could use our wealth to uplift and join nations together. We did not learn the valuable lesson of setting an example of integrity, mercy and cooperation. We did not pay attention to the people who have been suffering under violence and terror long before we ever heard of Al Qaeda. And we are still not paying attention.

George W. Bush received Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni as a guest and honor him for participating in the BushCo Aids Campaign (you know, the one where you don't get the money unless you preach abstinence and deny birth control education in clinics). But President Museveni commented later that the US and western countries like it have so many trade barriers set up, that even if they wanted to, the African countries could not prosper. I don't know if George Bush addressed the subject of the child abductions and child soldiers, or if President Museveni just conveniently ignores this blight on his country.

What I do know is that I have heard several stories in the last few days about this subject from various sources and my heart is broken about it. I wish that I were a millionaire and could build a safe and secure campus for all the children to live on until the adults of the country stop the violence against the children. I wish I could travel there and see for myself what is going on, I wish I had press contacts who would do stories in the mainstream corporate media. I wish that our government would condemn publicly these acts and do something productive to stop this abuse. I feel helpless and angry.

I am often overcome with insecurities and doubts about how I will raise my child in this country where he may grow up in a total police state or face a lack of freedoms or rights - but if only these were the only troubles faced by the children in Uganda and other violence-ridden countries. Humanity is cursing itself to generations of destruction and war if we do not stop and take care of the least of us. But that's the way it has always been. It's only in this century that children in this country had any protection at all from overwork and abuse. Children don't vote. They have no money. They have no power. Those in power are only interested in keeping that power - and children don't figure into those plans.

But it's an indictment on us as a people if we can live with ourselves in the comforts we have (even when we are laid off, living from paycheck to paycheck, wondering what may happen next - we are still better off), hear about the plight of these children, and still not care. What can we do? I am at a loss as to how to answer this question. But I'm going to look for an answer. There is simply not enough time or reason on this earth to allow children to experience this:

That night, the LRA came abducting people in our village,
and some neighbors led them to our house. They abducted
all five of us boys at the same time. I was the fifth one. . . .
We were told by the LRA not to think about home, about our
mother or father. If we did, then they would kill us. Better to
think now that I am a soldier fighting to liberate the country.
There were twenty-eight abducted from our village that night.
. . . We were all tied up and attached to one another in a row.
After we were tied up, they started to beat us randomly; they
beat us up with sticks.
-Martin P., abducted in February 2002 at age twelve

There is a Convention on the Rights of the Child - but how many countries and governments are giving it attention, I cannot say. Meanwhile, children in Iraq are killed by gunfire and malnutrition, children in Israel and Palestine are killed by each other's parents, children in Afghanistan are killed by landmines, children in North Korea die of starvation, children in Aceh, Indonesia are killed by their own government, and children in America are left behind. I would like to end this post on a positive note, but I can't think of one. I just needed to write about it.

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