Ms. Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
U.S. State Department
Washington DC 20520

Dear Secretary Rice,

I am deeply concerned about the conflict in northern Uganda, and particularly its devastating impact on children. I am writing to urge you to place this forgotten crisis higher on the United States' agenda, and to use U.S. influence to end the human rights abuses by both sides that lie at the heart of the conflict.  

Since the war began in 1986, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has abducted more than 30,000 children to serve as soldiers, laborers and sex slaves.  These boys and girls are forced to fight against the government Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF), carry out raids, beat and kill civilians, and abduct other children. Girls are additionally forced into sexual slavery as "wives" of LRA commanders. Children who refuse to follow orders or try to run away are often captured and killed.

The threat of LRA abduction is so great that every night as many as 40,000 children leave their homes in the countryside to sleep in the relative safety of towns.  They seek refuge overnight at churches, hospitals, bus stations and temporary shelters before returning home again each morning.  These children are known as "night commuters" because of the long distances they travel nightly on foot.   

Top UN officials have called the war in northern Uganda the world's biggest forgotten crisis. Child abductions and other human rights abuses have now continued for nearly twenty years.

I urge the United States government to take stronger action to address this crisis. The United States should use its leverage with the government of Uganda to push for increased protection for children and other civilians in the north of Uganda. It should press the new government of Sudan (the government of National Unity, formed with the former rebel forces in 2005) to cut off all support, formal or informal, for the Lord's Resistance Army which operates in southern Sudan. The U.S. should also support efforts through the United Nations to strengthen human rights and child protection operations in the North.

Under President Bush, the United States played a significant role in achieving peace between long-warring parties in Sudan, Uganda's northern neighbor. I urge our government to place a similar priority on addressing the crisis in northern Uganda.

Sincerely yours,

(signed)

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