Sunday, August 26, 2007
Former Uganda child soldier is building a future - A.P.
At 12, Lucy Aol was clutching an assault rifle and preparing to ambush government soldiers. At 13, a rebel commander a decade older made her his wife. At 16, she was a mother.
At 21, fresh-faced and beaming in a clean T-shirt and neatly braided hair, Aol is studying environmental health at college in Uganda's capital, and planning to use her knowledge to improve the health of her war-battered nation.
...
Aol was 12 when she was abducted by a feared Ugandan rebel group, forced to walk hundreds of miles to a base in neighboring southern Sudan and taught to use a gun.
"We were used like slaves," Aol said, staring at the wall of the cramped student dormitory at Kampala's Mulago Medical College. "We used to work in the fields or collect firewood from 7 in the morning until 5 in the evening and we were given no food. If you made a mistake or refused, they would beat us ... the three girls who were taken from my village with me were beaten to death."
...
Children are easily manipulated and can be groomed to obey instructions unquestioningly. Child-protection workers cite numerous tactics used by ruthless commanders to coerce their young captives into obedience. For example, in Sierra Leone, child soldiers were given a cocktail of gunpowder and cocaine before battle. ... [They] tell of oil being smeared on young fighters to make them believe they are bulletproof.
...
At 13 Aol was made the third wife of an LRA commander. She says she suffered "sexual abuse" and was regularly beaten by her older cowives. ...
At 12, Lucy Aol was clutching an assault rifle and preparing to ambush government soldiers. At 13, a rebel commander a decade older made her his wife. At 16, she was a mother.
At 21, fresh-faced and beaming in a clean T-shirt and neatly braided hair, Aol is studying environmental health at college in Uganda's capital, and planning to use her knowledge to improve the health of her war-battered nation.
...
Aol was 12 when she was abducted by a feared Ugandan rebel group, forced to walk hundreds of miles to a base in neighboring southern Sudan and taught to use a gun.
"We were used like slaves," Aol said, staring at the wall of the cramped student dormitory at Kampala's Mulago Medical College. "We used to work in the fields or collect firewood from 7 in the morning until 5 in the evening and we were given no food. If you made a mistake or refused, they would beat us ... the three girls who were taken from my village with me were beaten to death."
...
Children are easily manipulated and can be groomed to obey instructions unquestioningly. Child-protection workers cite numerous tactics used by ruthless commanders to coerce their young captives into obedience. For example, in Sierra Leone, child soldiers were given a cocktail of gunpowder and cocaine before battle. ... [They] tell of oil being smeared on young fighters to make them believe they are bulletproof.
...
At 13 Aol was made the third wife of an LRA commander. She says she suffered "sexual abuse" and was regularly beaten by her older cowives. ...
Labels: war
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