Uganda's rebel LRA use torture to instil fear

Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has become synonymous with torture, abductions and killings



BBC photo: The LRA use torture to instil fear

"They tied me and laid me down. They told me not to cry. Not to make any noise. Then one man sat on my chest, men held my arms, legs, and one held my neck".

"Another picked up an axe. First he chopped my left hand, ... read the rest in Uganda's atrocious war by Will Ross, BBC Kitgum Uganda.

Tags: Africa Live 8 BBCUganda LRA Child Soldiers torture abductions killings BBC

Who are the LRA? Q&A: Uganda's northern rebellion

The UN's head of humanitarian affairs, Jan Egeland, has described the situation in northern Uganda as the most neglected humanitarian crisis in the world.

Some 20,000 children have been caught up in a conflict between government forces and a group known as the as the Lord's Resistance Army. More than one million people have fled their homes.



BBC Photo: The rebels are targeting camps for displaced people

Who are the Lord's Resistance Army?

Read BBC's Q&A: Uganda's northern rebellion to find out.

Note, the US recognises the LRA as a terrorist organisation.

Tags: Africa Uganda BBC Child Soldiers torture LRA terrorists terrorist organisation

Ugandan LRA rebel chief 'in DR Congo'

The deputy leader of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army rebel group is seeking asylum in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda's defence minister says.

DR Congo denies receiving an asylum request from the rebel official, Vincent Otti.

The LRA has operated from bases in northern Uganda and southern Sudan for nearly 20 years.



Photo: A soldier nursing a survivor, said to be the child of Vincent Otti.

Read Uganda's fallen child rebels by Callum Macrae, Film-maker and journalist. (BBC)



Photo: The LRA is notorious for child abductions.

See Child soldier pictures, the life of a former rebel child soldier and his double escape. (BBC)

Tags: Africa Uganda LRA Child Soldiers torture abductions Congo DR Congo

Northern Uganda: In pictures - Night commuters

Every night in northern Uganda, tens of thousands of children, known as night commuters, flow into town centres.

They come seeking safety in shelters set up by aid agencies, with the Ugandan government unable to end a brutal 18-year war and protect them from rebel attacks.

At a centre known as the Arc in Gulu town, hundreds of boys will share the floor. See BBC news In pictures: Night commuters.

One of the reasons why children walk the lengths they do is because of scenes like this.



A child stands outside a burnt home in an internally displaced persons camp near Soroti town because of a cooking fire that swept through a quarter of the camp.

Such fires are common in the camps and result in thousands of injuries and deaths each year.

Words and images: Jake Price, Hikari pictures
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Prayer and Action Weekend for the Children of Northern Uganda

On September 23-25, faith leaders and communities around the world will speak out to raise attention to the forgotten plight of children in northern Uganda.

Tags: Africa Uganda LRA Child Soldiers torture

Uganda says top LRA rebel wants asylum in Congo

The deputy leader of Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is asking for political asylum in Congo after fleeing into its remote northeastern jungles, Uganda's defence minister said today.

Uganda says Vincent Otti and about 50 fighters left their hideouts in southern Sudan's lawless mountains last week and crossed into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Sunday.

But the Congolese government said on Friday it had no information about the group's presence on its territory or of any asylum request.

See full story Sep 23 2005 (Standard)

Tags: Sudan Africa Congo Uganda

UN envoy says LRA to blame for violence in South Sudan

The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative to Sudan, Jan Pronk, said a Ugandan insurgent group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), was to blame for much of the violence in southern Sudan.

The group had hindered de-mining work and the opening of roads in the area, he added.

See further posts re LRA and Uganda-CAN at Sudan Watch September 23 2005. Not had a chance to cross-post them here at Uganda Watch.

Tags: Sudan Africa Congo Uganda

British Council holds festival for African writers

Forty-five African writers from 19 countries including Nigeria would next month participate in a literature festival in Kampala, Uganda.

Tagged "Beyond Borders: A Festival of Contemporary African Writing", the event will be held between October 19 and 21.

The Director of British Council Uganda, Mr. Richard Weyers, says, "The literature festival will be one of the largest gatherings of African writers in Africa to take place for several decades. It is a unique creative networking event that would broadcast to the world the richness of African and UK writing."

Participating writers have been drawn from across sub-Saharan Africa and the UK. From Nigeria, writers like Chika Unigwe, Tolu Ogunlesi, Helon Habila, Olubunmi Julius-Adeoye and Rotimi Babatunde are taking part in the festival.

Renowned Sudanese writer, Taban Lo Liyong, and Ivorien Veronique Tadjo are other writers participating in the festival, which will provide a platform for established and emerging writers, those in exile or have now returned home, to discuss the role of a writer and the state of contemporary writing across Africa today.

See full story Sep 23 2005 (DI)

US promises support for military operations to fight LRA

Xinhua reports that US National Security Advisor Steve Hadley has assured Uganda of his country's cooperation in the planned joint operation between Uganda, Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) against remnants of rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

On a group of LRA ebels entering the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) through southern Sudan, Hadley said US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton will take up the matter of UN Observer Mission in Congo to improve UN presence and performance in the DRC.

LRA rebels have killed tens of thousands of civilians and displaced over 1.4 million people in their 19-year-old rebellion in northern Uganda.

[via Uganda-CAN with thanks]

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa DR Congo Uganda LRA Uganda-CAN MONUC SPLA US

Africa's peace seekers: Betty Bigombe

It was a CNN "breaking news" flash that first caught her eye.

On the chilly morning of Feb. 22, 2004, Betty Bigombe was racing around her cozy condo in Chevy Chase, Md. She was focused on paying bills, packing for a business trip, and hoping to squeeze in a workout.

Walking past her bedroom TV, she suddenly froze. In her native Uganda, the anchor said, the Lord's Resistance Army had just massacred more than 200 villagers. They had forced entire families to stay inside huts - then set the houses alight, shooting anyone who ran out. Ms. Bigombe remembers whispering, "Oh, my God, I can't believe it's still happening."

Her own picture appeared on the screen. The reporter explained that Bigombe, a former government minister in Uganda, was the one person who'd ever gotten the rebels and the government close to peace. But that was back in 1994.

Now the ongoing barbarity in her homeland filled her with shame. Standing there in her nightgown, she was deeply torn. Should she go back to Uganda to help? Could she afford to lose her well-paying job at the World Bank? Could she stand to leave her college-age daughter alone in the US? After hours of pondering, she concluded, "Maybe ... maybe I can give it another try."

Read full story at csmonitor.com by Abraham McLaughlin, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor, September 13, 2005.



Photo: Betty Bigombe with Lord's Resistance Army negotiators. (James Akena/Reuters/CS Monitor)

Betty Bigombe biography

1954 Born in northern Uganda

1981-84 Became corporate secretary of the Uganda Mining Corporation

1986 Elected to parliament

1988 Appointed minister of state for pacification of northern Uganda

1993 Named Uganda's 'Woman of the Year' for her peace efforts

1997 Received master's degree from Harvard

1997 Appointed senior social scientist at postconflict department of the World Bank

Children: Pauline and Emmanuel



Photo: FREED: Betty Bigombe (center) with two Ugandan women who were kidnapped as girls and raped by LRA commanders. Recently, the women and their children escaped their captors. (Courtesy of Joyce NEU/Joan B Kroc Institute for Justice & Peace/CS Monitor)



Timeline

Click here to see at a glance Uganda's fitful path toward peace under Museveni.



Pictured above is President Meseveni Inking his thumb after casting a ballot in the 1996 elections. (Tomoaki Nakano/AP/CS Monitor)



Photo: FLEEING After rebel attacks, villagers jump in Army trucks. (Karel Prinsloo/AP/CS Monitor)

Sudan: Spotlight on Darfur 1 and The Darfur Collection

Huge thanks to Catez Stevens in New Zealand for initiating and hosting Spotlight on Darfur 1, a great round up of posts authored by 14 different bloggers from around the world.



Catez also produced The Darfur Collection last May.

Please email Catez at Allthings2all if you have a post for the next Spotlight on Darfur 2 or 3.

Picture courtesy Tim Sweetman's post Let Us Weep.

Thanks to Global Voices for their third post and links to my blog Congo Watch featuring this initiative.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa allthings2all aid bloggers blogburst

Ugandan asylum seekers being deported from the UK?

Today, I came across a post at Uganda Anarchism entitled "Uganda women to be traded by UK & Uganda governments" and do not know what to make of it. Parts of the post make serious accusations of asylum seekers' ill treatment in the UK. Note this excerpt:

"They dump us in detention centres where we suffer again from poor medical attention, bad food, harassment and sexual intimidation by male staff, false accusations and racism causing us more trauma. We have been denied the opportunity to make our claims properly through cuts in legal aid, negligent or even corrupt lawyers, and racism and sexism in decisions refusing our claims.

Some of us have been forced onto planes with the most appalling brutality and regardless of the justice of our claim. Women are continuing to fight for our rights and against deportation - we deserve safe accommodation not imprisonment, because we are not criminals, we are simply asylum seekers who deserve protection under international law. It would be better to die in a British rather than a Ugandan detention centre."

Corrupt lawyers? Appalling brutality? Considering everything else they say about their treatment UK, they make it sound worse than Uganda, the country they fear returning to. If their experience in the UK is as bad, which I do not believe for one moment, why do they want to stay? I hesitated at posting a link to this report but could not bear to ignore it, just incase someone, somewhere on the Internet reads this and may be able to help somehow, even to help the people concerned when they arrive back in Uganda.

Making serious claims of maltreatment, brutality, corruption, etc., within a country in which one is fighting to stay does not seem at all sensible. British authorities will know such allegations are a nonsense which casts doubt on the truth of their reasons for claiming asylum. All I know is I certainly could not do the job of an immigration officer. I would find it all too heartbreaking and let everyone in. It must be very difficult for everyone involved. I am sorry to read about anyone in such a predicament and hope things work out for the best for all concerned. God bless them all.

Katrina aid - Blogbursts - Spotlight on Darfur 1 and Darfur Collection

Further to an earlier post here below, I have just received word from Catez saying Spotlight on Darfur has been put forward to 5 September as the blogosphere has had planned blogbursts on Hurricane Katrina aid.

This means bloggers can email Catez with posts until Sunday 4 September.

Thanks to Global Voices for picking up on my post at Congo Watch publicising the initiative.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa allthings2all Hurricane Katrina aid bloggers blogburst Global Voices