Northern Uganda

For 21 years now atrocities rage on in Northern Uganda. Did you know about it? A whole culture, a whole people - the Acholi - are close to being wiped out, and not just by the LRA or the government army either. Death tolls are staggering in the camps that are supposed to be "refugee camps" to protect those Acholi that are "escaping" the atrocities committed by the LRA. Children are being kidnapped to be child soldiers, brutally traumatized by what they see. But children are also being traumatized by the lack of adequate health care and other basic needs in these camps. Suicide is taboo in the Acholi culture, but in the camps, conditions are so dire that many are contemplating it while others have carried through with it. Where is the international community in all of this? Where is the call to hold the Ugandan government accountable for the protection of their people?

Peace talks are resuming and while people are returning to their villages in northern Uganda, it is still a long way from over. There are still estimated to be about 1.2 million people in the camps and the conditions continue to be terrible. And peace is tentative for the time being. The peace needs to be sustainable and permanent.

So write to your representatives, your senators regarding these issues. There are samples of letters on the Human Rights Watch site and Amnesty International. And sign the "No Child Soldiers" Declaration on World Vision's website at:

https://www.worldvision.org/Worldvision/guest.nsf/nochild_soldiers?OpenForm&campaign=1256080&cmp=KNC-1256080