Tuesday, 03 June 2008
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Children on the Frontlines
There has been serious conflict in Northern Uganda since 1986. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) was formed by leaders Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo, Raska Lukwiya, and Dominic Ongwen. The LRA has planned to overthrow the Ugandan government by raiding villages, killing many people there, and abducting the children that they saw fit to serve in the LRA.
The LRA was expanded by the recruitment and abduction of children. Adult leaders lured some of the children into the army but, many were captured and held against their will to serve for the LRA. Boys are given guns and are trained to be warriors, ordered to kill other children, or adults that their commanders want dead. Girls that are abducted are used as sex slaves and labor slaves for the adult leaders of the LRA. Children are not only beaten, physically and emotionally exhausted, starved, and sexually assaulted but, they are also forced to kill other children within the army and in the villages they raid. These children may have been as young as 7 or 8 when they were commanded to take the life of another person.
Since January 2008 the LRA has still been active in abductions of children to increase their army. The Human Rights Watch organization estimates that nearly 100 children have been brought into the LRA since the beginning of 2008 as they have traveled to the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and also Southern Sudan.
After nearly 20 years of committing these vicious crimes the International Criminal Court (ICC) has taken action against the LRA and in 2005 issued warrants for the arrests of the five main LRA leaders (Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo, Raska Lukwiya, and Dominic Ongwen) on charges of many war crimes as well as crimes against humanity. Of the five leaders only three of them are known to be alive.
Please pray that these men would be found and captured quickly. Also, that the ICC and Northern Ugandan government would be able to work together to successfully end the reign of the LRA. Pray for the children that are still in the LRA and those that have been recently freed, that there would be many people ready to receive them and help them through this terrible experience. Also, that all children in the LRA would not only be physically free but, also spiritually free from the lies that the enemy has and will bring to their minds, that they may know this freedom and receive it through Christ.
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/05/19/uganda18863.htm
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/lra.htm
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