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What You Can Do
The Crisis in Northern Uganda:
- The civil war has been going on for 19 years, since 1986.
- As many as 30,000 children have been abducted by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and forced to serve as soldiers, laborers and sex slaves.
- To escape LRA abduction, every night as many as 40,000 children flee their homes in the countryside to sleep in the relative safety of towns.
- At least 1.3 million people have been displaced in northern Uganda. In three districts there, an estimated 90 percent of civilians are homeless.
- The LRA attacks civilians even in displaced persons camps. Many residents of the camps have been forced to move there by the Ugandan government for their protection. However, the Ugandan government often fails to protect camp residents from attack.
- The Ugandan government has also recruited children as soldiers.
What You Can Do
Write to US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice: Urge her to place the conflict in Northern Uganda higher on the United States agenda, and to use US influence to end the conflict’s widespread human rights abuses.
Sample letter (download MS word file).
Write to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni: Urge him to take all feasible steps to protect children from abduction, safeguard child captives during military operations, and end all recruitment of children by Ugandan government military forces and militias.
Sample letter (download MS word file).
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The Crisis in Northern Uganda: What You Can Do |
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Video
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Photo Essay
By Angelina Atyam. First published in The Chicago Tribune, Aug. 3, 2004. Reprinted with permission Sept. 15, 2004. |
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Mother, Daughter Reunited
By Angelina Atyam. First published in The Chicago Tribune, Aug. 3, 2004. Reprinted with permission Sept. 15, 2004. |
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Uganda: Child Abductions Skyrocket in North
Press Release, March 28, 2003 |
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"Stolen Children: Abduction and Recruitment in Northern Uganda"
Human Rights Watch Report, March 2003 |
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Testimonies
from "Stolen Children: Abduction and Recruitment in Northern Uganda" |
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More on Human Rights in Uganda |
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More on Child Soldiers |
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More on Children’s Rights |
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Click on a photo to view a larger version:
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