April 29, 2009 • 11:25 am
There are still over 3,500 child soldiers fighting in eastern Congo, abducted by militias that have gotten rich from a lucrative trade in conflict minerals. Electronics companies need to play an important role in cleaning up their supply chains and help stop the continued use of child soldiers.
According to the report, the “electronics industry is the principal end user of the four main minerals mined in eastern Congo,” and “profit maximizing pressures from the electronics industry have driven demand for Congo’s conflict minerals, produced cheaply as a result of the medieval conditions in which they are mined and the illicit networks that funnel them out of Africa.”
Mark Craemer – Armed groups in Congo earn over $130 million
per year from the trade.
The strategy paper makes a number of recommendations: first, that industries trace and audit their supply-chains for these minerals, by tracing “3Ts and gold in their products down to the mine of origin”; that mines be properly secured; and that miners are supported and provided with additional economic alternatives; and reforming governance structures.
GRG and Enough are calling on companies and individuals to sign the Conflict Minerals Pledge which includes concrete steps to make electronic devices conflict-free.
Filed under: Congo, Educational , armed conflict, child soldier, children, conflict diamonds, Congo, LRA, War
…where they will be “abducting” themselves in several cities around the world in an effort to promote awareness about the child victims of war in uganda, thousands of which have been abducted by the LRA and forced to fight. About the event:
citizens across the world will “abduct themselves” in 100 cities in nine different countries. The purpose of the event is to gain the attention of the media and celebrities. Participants will wait to be “rescued” by these prominent figures, just as the child soldiers are waiting to be rescued from the LRA.
Filed under: Educational, Human Rights, Uganda
Law and Order: Special Victims Unit broadcast an episode that addresses former LRA child soldiers and sex slaves from Uganda, living as refugees in the United States. The show was called “Hell”, and was “based on the experiences of child soldiers and sexual slaves in Central Africa.”
From the Enough Project:
In the episode, entitled “Hell,” a young female Ugandan turns up in New York City with a severe knife wound, and doctors notice that her body displays evidence of long-term physical and sexual abuse. The young African girl, when asked who hurt her, makes a stick drawing of a devil. The girl’s character, and that of a young boy – a former “child soldier” – were written to symbolize the plight of survivors of the 22-year war in Northern Uganda waged by the Lord’s Resistance Army…
And John Prendergast, co-founder of Enough said:
Law & Order is taking on the very hard issue of child soldiers in a sensitive way. The death of Elijah, the former child soldier, illuminates the stories of thousands of children all around the world who are in captivity, forced to fight in wars and commit atrocities. The hell on earth referred to in the episode is the area of central Africa destabilized by the Lord’s Resistance Army, a Ugandan militia that abducts children to act as child soldiers and sex slaves. Countering the LRA and freeing the child soldiers and concubines are urgent human rights priorities. International action is needed, and hopefully the Law & Order episode can contribute to galvanizing that action.
The episode was provocative and worth checking out. For more information go to NBC.com.
The episode can now be found here.
Filed under: Girl Soldiers, Media/TV/Films, Uganda , child soldiers, law and order, LRA, svu, television
January 29, 2009 • 10:17 pm
Take a look at “First Kill Your Family: Child Soldiers of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army” - a new book by Peter Eichstaedt on child soldiers and the LRA. From Barnes and Noble:
In First Kill Your Family, veteran journalist Peter Eichstaedt goes into the war-torn villages and refugee camps, talking to former child soldiers, child “brides,” and other victims. [sic] This insightful analysis delves into the war’s foundations and argues that, much like Rwanda’s genocide, international intervention is needed to stop Africa’s virulent cycle of violence.
For more information on Peter Eichstaedt.
Peter Eichstaedt is the Africa editor for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting in The Hague. He is a veteran journalist who has reported from locations worldwide, including Slovenia, Moldova, Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, and Uganda, and a former senior editor for Uganda Radio Network.
And his blog. Definitely worth checking out.
Filed under: Books, Uganda , child soldiers, Joseph Kony, LRA, Uganda
November 17, 2008 • 6:16 pm
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has been accused of kidnapping and forcibly recruiting tens of thousands of children. However, a new report condemns the government of Uganda for failing to properly rehabilitate these children after their release or escape.
According to a new report by Amnesty International thousands of former child soldiers ”remain destitute and physically and mentally traumatised due to the government’s failure to deal with the conflict’s aftermath”
In particular, the report discusses:
- women and girls who were victims of sexual violence. One 18-year-old from Pader district, abducted by LRA forces, told Amnesty International:‘I dream about my forced marriage and the people I was made to kill and others who were killed during our time with the LRA. Because of my experience, I sometimes find myself shouting uncontrollably.’
- young men and boys forced to become soldiers. A 20-year old from Amuru district dropped out of school because of ‘regular flashbacks and memory of the terrible things I was made to do, including the forceful participation in the beating of my dad and the killing of other abducted people. When I think of these things I find myself losing my sense of being normal’.
- people unable to recover because of lack of access to money and medical care. A 26-year old from Pader district who returned to her community after ten years in LRA captivity told Amnesty: ‘There is still a (bomb) splinter inside my right leg. I have endured terrible pain for the last three years…I don’t know whether I can access medical treatment. I also doubt if I will have the money to pay for it…As it is, the only thing I do is to occasionally clean the wound by myself.’
Godfrey Odongo, Amnesty International’s Uganda specialist, said:
They desperately need government assistance to help them come to terms with the ordeals they survived and rebuild their lives – assistance that sadly has not been forthcoming.
Filed under: DDR, Girl Soldiers, Human Rights, Treatment Centers, Uganda , amnesty international, child soldier, Human Rights, Lord's Resistance Army, rehabilitation, Uganda
October 2, 2008 • 2:04 pm
As recently as September 17, almost one hundred children were abducted from various schools in northeastern Congo. According to the Associated Press, UNICEF is demanding from the LRA:
the immediate and unconditional release of all of the abducted children, who were taken during simultaneous attacks on the Kiliwa, Duru, and Nambia villages in Orientale Province on Sept. 17. They blamed the Lord’s Resistance Army for abducting the 90 children from their schools in the villages.
These ninety children are the latest innocent victims of this decades-long war in Uganda, eastern Congo and southern Sudan. The Lord’s Resistance Army, accused of this latest atrocity, is headed by known child soldier recruiter Tony Kony (who has been accused of abducting tens of thousands of children over the past 20 years). Kony repeatedly denies accusations of using child soldiers despite overwhelming evidence collected by UNICEF and human rights organizations to the contrary. Kony was quoted saying yesterday:
First of all I would want to address this question of child kidnapping and so on and so forth. I would like to categorically tell you that in the places that I have crosschecked with MONUC, I have crosschecked with UNICEF and all the places they alleged the LRA is kidnapping the children. But there are other private militias that are operating in Congo and the government of Congo should check and MONUC should check on these private militias, which are fighting and attacking civilians. The LRA soldiers are not in those areas.
Additional information on child soldiers in Uganda and Congo:
Filed under: Congo, Human Rights, Uganda, United Nations , child soldier, child soldiers, Congo, DRC, Human Rights, Uganda, United Nations, War
