here's a good start.
Dateline" traveled to Northern Uganda to report on "night commuters:" tens of thousands of children forced to hide in the night to escape being killed or abducted by rebels. If captured by the rebels, these children of war are torn from their families and forced to become soldiers under the maniacal leadership of Joseph Kony. Who is he? And why is his reign of terror unknown to most people in the world?
Around northern Uganda, little children who don"t find a safe place at night are in danger. And so are adults. People who are found by the rebels can be burnt to death, or beyond recognition. Body parts are cut off " noses, lips, ears, fingers.
Jan Egeland is the United Nation"s head of disaster relief. He"s seen it all. But nothing like this. "His is terror like no other terror," he says. "I"ve been in a hundred countries. I"ve been working with human rights, peace, and humanitarian problems for 25 years. I was shocked to my bones, seeing what happened in Uganda. For me, this is one of the biggest scandals of our time and generation."
The root of this trauma is a civil war that has raged for 19 years in northern Uganda, almost unnoticed by the rest of the world.
What makes this stand out from other wars is that it is being fought with children. Children stolen from their families are forced to become soldiers. At the age of 8, or 10 or 12, children forced to kill.
Joseph Kony: 'Worst of the worst'
Who steals the souls of children?
His name is Joseph Kony. He imagines he"s a reincarnation of Jesus and calls his group "The Lord"s Resistance Army." With virtually no popular support, he has increasingly resorted to abducting children to fight for him" against not only government forces but his own civilian people. His army has stolen as many as 30,000 innocent kids since the war began.
He is anything but a defender of the people. He terrorizes."Your nose will be cut off together with your ears and in the end the sword will kill you. Your children will be taken into captivity and they will be burnt to death," he says on video tapes.
His maniacal rants are more than empty threats. Listen to what these kids say they were forced to do:
[blockquote]
Patrick: There was a boy who could not walk anymore because he was too thirsty. So they made us kill him with a club.[/blockquote]
Attempting to escape is dangerous.
[blockquote]
Patrick: If you are captured trying to escape, you will be beaten or killed.[/blockquote]
Girls are no exception. They are forced to fight. Or, something else" become sex slaves for the rebels.
[blockquote]
Jennifer: They gathered all the girls aged 13 years and above. They then distributed us to the commanders as their wives.[/blockquote]
Some of them are lucky, they escape, now in recovery centers like this. But you can see the damage in their eyes. It's in the pictures they draw, that the horror at the hands of Kony comes back to life.
"He knows how to instill utter fear," says Egeland. "But he also knows how to make them believe that he has some kind of a mission."
[blockquote]
Keith Morrison: Almost a supernatural power?
Jan Egeland: Yes.
Morrison: Where does Kony fit in the in the sort of pantheon of evil people?
Egeland: I think Kony is among the worst. [/blockquote]
Among the worst because Kony preys on children" they"re easier to indoctrinate, control, have them commit atrocities.
Read the rest of the story here.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9006024/
One Worth Killing!!!
