Posted by Oneka Richard, Gulu, Northern Uganda

Today, the People of Northern Uganda are enjoying the prevailing Peace after the two decades of war between the rebels of Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and Government of Uganda. This case study is to share with you how the LRA rebels treated abducted children and their life experiences with the LRA rebel while in the bush.

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels abducted young children, raped young girls, looted civilians properties, burnt down houses, and indulged in wanton, gratuitous acts of cruelty before they kill their victims. Are these soldiers, the rapists and looters and murderers? They are children, almost all. Many are ten, eleven, twelve and fifteen years old, barely taller than the automatic weapons they hold along. About 80% of the LRA’s fighting troops were children between 9 – 17 years old. In the course of the war, between 1994 to 2006 over 7500 abducted young children conscripted in to child soldiers, involved in fighting and committed atrocities in Northern Uganda, escaped, rescued or captured in the battle fronts were brought to GUSCO Rehabilitation/Reception Center (situated in heart of Gulu town) established for rehabilitation, resettlement and reintegration of former child soldiers with their families/communities in Northern Uganda.  

I have worked as a Social Worker at GUSCO Rehabilitation Center from 2005-2008 and got involved in the rehabilitation, resettlement and reintegration of nearly five thousands (5000) former child soldiers in to normal life in the community in Northern Uganda. While at the Rehabilitation Center, the children recalls their life experiences with the LRA rebels in the bush and they do shared with Social Workers at the Center. Today, I am glad to share with you Molly Case Study-My life as a Child Soldier. This is a real and true experience in the life of Molly as a Child Soldier in Northern Uganda.

Molly Life as a Child Soldier
Molly (not real name) was 15 when the rebels took her as a fighter and sex slaves. When rebels came to our home, I was asleep, suddenly I heard a bung on the door and I knew this must be the rebel. Out of panic, I urinated on myself. As I was preparing to get out, I discovered some of the rebels were already in the house.

I was ordered to get out of the house and I did.

I was told to join the long line of the captives and I did.

I was forced to kill a child who tried to escape and I did.

I was ordered to cut the neck and carry the head in my hand while looking into the face and I did.

I was ordered to smear my face with the blood of the slain child and I did.

I was forced to eat food with my hands stained with blood of the dead child and I did.

I was then caned 250 strokes as punishment for my decision for refusing to become a wife to a rebel commander.

I was left with nothing to think for myself. The only option was to give in for everything.

Molly then 15 didn’t really know what sex was, “but I was taken there, “she said – to the bed of the commander. For the next three months, they marched towards Sudan, stopping regularly to take more children. “If you are really pretty, you will most likely be killed, because three, four commanders will fight over you and they will kill you to avoid competition and rivalry among them”.

Once in Sudan, they smeared her chest and face and back with oil in an initiation ceremony: “It gets you confused.” They brought a witch doctor who slashed her skin with a razor at the wrists and ankles, then filled the wounds with herbs to make her a killer. It definitely worked, she said, her face ferocious: “After one month in captivity, you feel like killing.”

When a woman from her own village was caught trying to escape, Molly took a knife and sliced her from neck to pubic bone. “The drugs they give you makes you loose your memory, and you don’t think about whether it’s a human being you are killing.

A year ago, her unit was caught in a Uganda People Defense Forces ambush, and scattered. Molly found herself near an Acholi village, where a woman was farming. “I had a feeling I wanted to kill that woman – I wanted to beat her with a club.” But she was caught and tied up by the villagers. A message was sent to her parents.

Molly thought that they would be angry that she did not escape, as her siblings did, but the family held a traditional ceremony: They had her stepped on an egg, whose yolk would bind what was broken; they slaughtered a goat and sprinkled its blood to represent the shedding of tears. Then they took her home. She learned that the rebel group that took her had later killed her brother 13, and burned all the village houses.

“When I first came, “she said, “The feeling of killing was so strong. I wanted to kill. After they did a second ceremony, the feeling went away. I had been staying alone because of the feeling of killing.”

A year ago, she had a child with a villager. He torments her, asking, “Do you want to kill me like you killed that woman?” That, she added ominously, hurts her “more and more.”  She doesn’t see how she can marry: “Men will keep hurting me, and it will remind me of my past.”

“All these I shall never ever forget in my lifetime history. It’s a bad and nasty experience for me and all the children who have undergone the same kind of treatments in the brutal hands of the Lord Resistance Army”

Imagine being a child soldier before the age of 18 years. What decision can you make when caught in crossfire? Where there is armed conflict, we children are engaged in serious battles but remain invisible. As a child soldier you are used to spy the enemy, send massages across and often get caught in exchange of fire. For, we are ‘small and ‘innocent’ ”Said Molly”

Up Next is My life as a Child Soldier: Part Two – Ayolli Case Study!