uganda-+stories

=Stories of children in Uganda= These are stories from actual Ugandan children. These children were captured from their villages, and were taken prisoners. These are their own words.

Charles, fifteen: There had already been rumors that rebels were around, and we were very fearful. My grandmother was hiding in the bush. It was morning, and I was practicing my music when I heard a shot. I started running into the bush, but there was a rebel hiding behind a tree. I thought he would shoot me. He said, "Stop, my friend, don't try to run away!" Then he beat me with the handle of the gun on my back. He ordered me to direct him, and told me that afterwards I would be released. But afterwards it was quite different. That afternoon we met with a very huge group of rebels, together with so many new captives. We marched and marched. In the bush we came across three young boys who had escaped from the rebels earlier, and they removed the boys' shirts and tied ropes around their throats, so that when they killed them they would make no noise. Then they forced them down and started clubbing their heads, and other rebels came with bayonets and stabbed them. It was not a good sight.

Stella, fifteen: They came to our school in the middle of the night. We were hiding under the beds but they banged on the beds and told us to come out. They tied us and led us out, and they tried to set the school building on fire. We walked and walked and they made us carry their property that they had looted. At about six a. m. they made us stop and they lined up in two lines, and made us walk between them while they kicked us. On the second day of marching our legs were swollen. They said, "Eh, now, what should we do about your legs? You must walk, or do you want us to kill you? It's your choice." So we kept going. On the third day a little girl tried to escape, and they made us kill her. They went to collect some big pieces of firewood. Then they kicked her and jumped on her, and they made us each beat her at least once with the big pieces of wood. They said, "You must beat and beat and beat her." She was bleeding from the mouth. Then she died. Then they made us lie down and they beat us with fifteen strokes each, because they said we had known she would try to escape.

Here is a story about escape:
Lily, seventeen:

We were by the river between Gulu and Kitgum when we entered a UPDF ambush. People began to run and there were bombs everywhere. I ran into the deep water to hide from the bombs. I had a bag on my back that I was carrying, and it got wet and heavy and pulled me down until the water covered me. I dropped it and began to float in the river. Finally I reached a certain place where my legs touched a stone, and I stood there. The fighting was still going on, and bodies were falling into the water beside me. I saw some tall grasses in the shallow water, and I went and hid inside the tall grass. A UPDF airplane came, and I feared it would bomb me, so I stayed hidden until it left. Then there was no more noise of bullets and I got up. I heard someone crying. It was a little girl who was drowning in the river, and she was crying, "Come and help me, the water is taking me and I am dying!" I could not reach her because the water was too fast and deep. There was an old man and a young boy of eight or nine, and the little girl called to the old man for help, but his legs were swollen and he could not walk. We had to leave her. The old man said to me, "My daughter, pick for me that stick for me to lean on, and let us walk to Gulu town." So we began to walk with the young boy, who held a small jerrycan full of ground nuts. Then we heard voices, and UPDF people appeared, and began shooting at us. The young boy threw away the jerrycan and we began to run. In the confusion I became separated from the old man and the young boy, and for a long time I was lost in the bush. I could not find any homes or anything to eat. I moved, and I could not find anyone. I thought, "I cannot move anymore." In the night I heard wild animals pass me. Once I came across a place where people had been cooking, and I thought I was saved, but when I looked closely I saw it was a fire that had been made by the rebels. You can tell because the rebels don't use stones for setting fires, because the malaikas say they must not: if stones are used in fires, they say they will burst like bombs upon you. Also, the malaikas forbid cigarettes, while at UPDF fires you see cigarette butts. After many days I came across a village and saw two women. They were washing their hands to eat. I asked them, "What is the name of this place?" They told me to enter inside their home, and they told me to wash my hands and eat. They asked me many questions, and people from all through the village came to see me, then they took me to bathe and put me to bed. In the morning they said, "You cannot stay here, because the UPDF will harm us if we keep a rebel girl here. " So they took me to barracks, where I stayed for some weeks, and then they brought me back to my family in Gulu.

Resources:
http://www.hrw.org/reports97/uganda/