[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 163 (Saturday, December 17, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H12147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         AN EXTRAORDINARY NIGHT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Conaway). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, as we enter this Christmas season, there 
will be many children sitting down around the country listening to a 
story that begins, `twas the night before Christmas.
  I want to tell you about another night before Christmas that will be 
going on in the next week and has been going on for the last 20-some 
years. There is an extraordinarily tragic situation ongoing in a 
stunningly beautiful country in Africa, Uganda.
  In recent weeks, a group of Rotarians from my district and 
surrounding areas went to northern Uganda with one item on their 
agenda: to advance the common good by providing polio vaccine and other 
assistance.
  Ben Abe is a Ugandan from my district. He led this mission by the 
Rotarians, along with our former secretary of state from the State of 
Washington, Ralph Munro. They brought back an excruciatingly shocking 
and painful account of an extraordinary night where they observed 
firsthand a heinous tragedy that has been perpetrated on children in 
northern Uganda for years. It is only now beginning to see the light of 
day in mainstream media in publications like Vanity Fair and the 
Smithsonian Magazine. It occurs in Gulu in northern Uganda. Each night, 
a human mass moves through the pitch dark roads of Gulu. These are the 
night commuters. Not a late shift going to work, but a gigantic mass of 
thousands of children fleeing their unsafe homes, walking miles in the 
darkness to retreat behind locked gates in hopes of avoiding abduction, 
rape, disfigurement and, most horribly, to avoid being forced 
themselves to become the murderers of children as abducted child 
soldiers in the Lord's Resistance Army.
  Over 25,000 children have been abducted over the last 19 years; more 
than 21,000 children walk miles each night seeking a safe harbor. These 
young children seek sanctuary in tents, hospitals, warehouses and empty 
lots. They sleep piled up on each other, sometimes with a blanket but 
most often without, and they are separated from their mothers and 
fathers every night. Thousands of those Ugandan kids never make it to a 
safe haven.
  Seventeen-year-old Daniel is an example. He is one of the boys 
abducted from school by the Lord's Resistance Army. One boy escaped but 
was caught. The rest were then forced to tie him to a tree and stone 
him to death. Daniel said, ``That is what we did, because if we did not 
kill him, we would be killed.''
  Anna Grace was 11 years old when she was abducted. The Lord's 
Resistance Army forced her to march and carry someone else's baby. Then 
they threw a bomb at her, blowing off the baby's head. Anna Grace was 
raped and gave birth to her own child in 2005.
  Dave, 10 years old, was kidnapped in March of 2004 and watched as his 
two brothers were beaten to death with a log.
  The only chance these night commuters have to reach safe harbor every 
night is to walk without adults, without protection, without light. The 
Rotarians from my district walked with these kids, moved with this mass 
of kids as they set out defenseless, in the deep darkness of night, 
seeking shelter to stay alive for just one more day.
  The winner of the 2005 Sidney Peace Prize, Olara Otunnu, recently 
declared Uganda the worst place on earth to be a child today.
  Though this despicable outrage has occurred for almost two decades, 
the Congress and the international community has not lifted a finger 
about what we proclaim is our duty, to protect children. There has been 
no dedicated international commitment or intervention to end this 
abhorrent situation. These Rotarians came back rightly incredulous over 
the international community's failure to mobilize and blunt this highly 
visible tragedy occurring every single night.
  As Americans sit down and read that Christmas story, whether they 
read the one about the reindeer or the one about the baby Jesus coming 
to Bethlehem, these kids will be moving through the darkness. These 
Rotarians ask: How can this continue in a world where we proclaim our 
love and dedication to all children? They are right to ask these 
questions. Each night, that savagery hides in northern Uganda.
  During this season of goodwill, this Congress and the entire national 
community must combine our collective strength to give some hope to 
these children, these night commuters, and their families. We can do 
better than we have.
  If you believe, as I do that it is our utmost obligation to work 
toward a world safe for children, this obligation does not stop at our 
borders or oceans--all children are our children and we must act. The 
U.S. alone cannot break this outrageous nightly tragedy, but we can and 
must assert our political will, and insist that we meet it head on.

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