Press Release: Child Soldiers Coalition reports alarming levels of abductions and recruitment of children by LRA and UPDF in Northern Uganda

© Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers

London, 25 June 2003

The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers today stated that the recent abduction of girls from a boarding school in Lwara, Kabermaido district, Northern Uganda signals a sharp jump in child abduction and recruitment by all parties to the conflict.

“This incident is part of a generalized problem of escalating conflict fuelling unprecedented levels of child abductions and recruitment in Northern Uganda, and now spreading to Eastern Uganda,” said Geoffrey Oyat, Coordinator of the Ugandan chapter of the Coalition.

The international Coalition has monitored and documented on-going child abductions and recruitment, calling on all parties to end the practice. “In June 2002, the Coalition warned that the Uganda government’s offensive in Operation Iron Fist was counter-productive to its stated objective of child protection,” said Christina Clark, Programme Officer for Africa. “One year later, the devastating effects of continued conflict on children are clearer than ever.”

It is estimated that the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has kidnapped more than 5,000 children in the past year for use as combatants, sexual slaves, porters, cooks and domestic workers. LRA-abducted children are subjected to sexual, physical and psychological abuse, forced to march until the point of exhaustion, used on the frontlines, and obliged to participate in the killing of other children who attempt to escape.

Despite national legislation and international obligations to the contrary, the Ugandan government also continues to recruit and use children in the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) and Local Defence Units (LDUs). In a recent visit to the UPDF Lugore training camp, UNICEF identified 120 children among the recruits. International organisations have not yet been granted access to many more military training camps, where it is suspected that more children may be held.

Continued abductions, recruitment and instability have a devastating effect on local populations, particularly in previously safe communities, where coping mechanisms are not yet in place. Human Rights Watch recently reported a rise in “night commuters”, children who seek shelter in towns and villages at night to reduce the risk of recruitment.

Child recruitment by both the LRA and Ugandan government violates international law. Uganda’s accession to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict commits the Government to take all feasible measures to prevent the recruitment of children under 18, whether by government forces or armed opposition groups, and to demobilise and rehabilitate all former child soldiers. In addition, Uganda has ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which sets 18 as the minimum age for recruitment into military forces, and International Labour Organisation Convention 182, which includes forced recruitment of under-18s among the worst forms of child labour.

The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers calls on the LRA and the Ugandan government to immediately stop the recruitment and use of child soldiers, and to promote their demobilisation and reintegration into their home communities.

Background:

The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (CSC) works to prevent the recruitment and use of children as soldiers, to secure their demobilisation and to ensure their rehabilitation and reintegration into society. Formed in 1998, the CSC unites national, regional and international organizations in Africa, Asia, Americas, Europe and the Middle East. Its founding organisations are Amnesty International, Defence for Children International, Human Rights Watch, International Federation Terre des Hommes, International Save the Children Alliance, Jesuit Refugee Service, the Quaker United Nations Office-Geneva and World Vision International.

For more information, please contact:

Christina Clark, Programme Officer for Africa, CSC Secretariat (London), Tel: +44 (0)20 7713 2761; Email: [email protected]

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