[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 48 (Thursday, April 27, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E646]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               THE ENDANGERED CHILDREN OF NORTHERN UGANDA

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 27, 2006

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, when current Ugandan President 
Yaweri Museveni overthrew the murderous regime of the late Milton Obote 
in Uganda in 1986, many had hoped that their nation would finally 
emerge from the nightmares of the Obote and Idi Amin regimes. 
Unfortunately, yet another horror lay ahead for the people of northern 
Uganda.
  Many in the Acholi community were alarmed at the sudden loss of power 
when Obote was overthrown, and Alice Lakwena formed the Holy Spirit 
Movement to fight for the Acholi people. Despite her promises that her 
followers would have immunity from the bullets of the Ugandan army, 
they were defeated two years later, and she fled to Kenya.
  Meanwhile, Joseph Kony, believed to be Lakwena's cousin, took up the 
battle, forming a group known as the Lord's Resistance Army or LRA. The 
LRA is often said to be determined to rule Uganda according to the 
Bible's 10 Commandments. In reality, this group has a philosophy that 
blends elements of Christianity, Islam and traditional Acholi beliefs 
into a murderous world view that has terrorized Kony's own Acholi 
people and set back development in the North by years if not decades.
  Over the last 20 years, as many as two million persons--an estimated 
90 percent of the population of the Acholi area in northern Uganda--
have been forced into internally displaced persons camps. More than 
20,000 children have been forced to serve as either soldiers or sexual 
slaves for the LRA. Those children who have escaped kidnapping by the 
LRA are forced into the phenomenon known as night commuting, in which 
an estimated 50,000 children walk miles from the rural areas to towns 
in order to find relative safety in bus shelters, churches or even on 
the streets.
  The impact of this war on Ugandans in the North, as reported by the 
Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda, is almost 
unbelievable:
  --The rates of violent death in northern Uganda are three times 
higher than those reported in Iraq following the Allied invasion in 
2003.
  --Each month, nearly 3,500 Ugandans die from easily preventable 
diseases, extreme violence and torture;
  --Each day, 58 children under the age of five die as a result of 
violence and preventable diseases.
  --Three times more children under the age of five die in northern 
Uganda than in the rest of the country.
  --One quarter of the children in northern Uganda over ten years of 
age have lost one or both parents.
  --Half of the nearly two million internally displaced persons in 
northern Uganda are children under the age of 15.
  --About a quarter of a million children in northern Uganda receive no 
education at all because of displacement and the fact that 60% of 
schools in northern Uganda no longer function due to the war.
  Because of the war in the North, Uganda has developed a lost 
generation that has grown up in dire circumstances with fear and 
deprivation as their constant companions. Nearly half of all children 
in the northern town of Kitgum are stunted from malnutrition. They 
likely will never be able to recover what this war has cost them.
  There is great concern that the Government of Uganda is 
insufficiently committed to improving the situation in northern Uganda. 
On at least two occasions when there appeared to be a chance for peace 
talks with the LRA--once in 1993 and again in late 2004-2005--the 
Government of Uganda launched offensives that ended any chance of peace 
and yet failed to end the terrorism of the LRA. More recently, the 
indictment of top LRA leaders by the International Criminal Court has 
effectively ended further peace efforts.
  Because of its inability to end the LRA threat, the Ugandan 
government in 2003 began encouraging local leaders in northern and 
eastern Uganda to raise civilian militias to help protect civilians. 
Unfortunately, according to a study done by the Alan Shawn Feinstein 
International Famine Center at Tufts University, these militias were 
hurriedly recruited, poorly screened and incompletely trained. 
Furthermore, known criminals are part of these militias, which also 
contain boys and girls less than 18 years of age.
  The Feinstein Center study also reports that there is a widespread 
perception among individuals and organizations in northern Uganda that 
the government has malevolent reasons for not ending the war with the 
LRA. They include revenge against northerners for human rights abuses 
under previous governments and neutralization of political challenge 
from the North. In the Uganda elections held earlier this year, 
President Museveni's main opponent Kizza Bessigye, won 80 percent of 
the vote in northern Uganda--a testimony to the government's 
unpopularity in the North.
  Whatever the truth about the Government of Uganda's war effort, it is 
certainly a fact that not enough is being done to safeguard the 
endangered children of northern Uganda. With all the attention given to 
the genocide in Darfur, a similar crisis in northern Uganda has been 
eclipsed in both attention and resources.
  Just as we have a moral obligation to rescue the suffering people of 
Darfur, we have a similar obligation not to ignore the terrorized 
population of northern Uganda. If the eyes and ears of the world are 
focused elsewhere, we must redirect them to Uganda's distressed 
northern population--especially the children. Uganda's future may 
depend on our efforts.

  Regrettably, the phenomenon of child soldiers is not one confined to 
Uganda or Africa. It is a global tragedy in which as many as 300,000 
children are involved in as many as 30 conflicts around the world. As 
in Uganda, children are used by governments or government-supported 
militias and rebel forces such as the LRA. Utilized in everything from 
combat to spying to clearing minefields, these children are often 
killed or maimed, and even those who can escape often find it difficult 
to reintegrate back into society. They desperately need our help.
  To that end, I and some of my colleagues in the House and Senate are 
planning to introduce legislation shortly to address the issue of child 
soldiers. This legislation condemns the conscription, forced 
recruitment or use of children by governments or paramilitaries in 
hostilities and urges the U.S. Government to lead efforts to enforce 
existing international standards to end this horrendous human rights 
abuse.
  This legislation would deny U.S. military assistance to 7 of the 26 
nations believed to use children in their military forces: Burundi, 
Columbia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, 
Paraguay, Sudan and Uganda.

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