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UNICEF condemns abduction of girls in Uganda

Michel Sidibe, UNICEF Representative in Uganda, on a visit to Kalongo yesterday, heard how the LRA in a carefully planned operation selected and abducted 40 of the 80 girls in the dormitory that night. They would serve the atrocious requirements of the LRA and sustain the rebels. These girls will be kept by the LRA as slaves and sexual objects and will be subjected to a life of torture and brutality.

These latest abductions are in addition to the estimated 8,000 children who have been abducted and the 2,000 to 4,000 who remain in tcaptivity.

Abduction is a deeply traumatic experience. Accounts from the abductees who have been able to escape tell of despicable, inhumane acts, including forced killings of civilians and soldiers; lashings and beatings, sometimes to death; being tied to trees to die of dehydration; witnessing the killings of the weak and other children; they undergo torture for days while imprisoned in a trench with the bodies of other children killed by the LRA, and sexual abuse. These children are victims of a complex, protracted conflict they neither understand nor can control.

The abduction of children and the unacceptable treatment that they endure constitute crimes against humanity. Gross abuse of human rights and child rights must be brought to justice. Perpetrators of these crimes should be tried. As stated by Stephen Lewis, Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, the adoption of a statute for the establishment of an International Criminal Court, under discussion in Rome, is the expression of "an unequivocal message from the international community that heinous violations of human rights cannot go unpunished and impunity cannot prevail".

The on-going abduction and abuse of children in Northern Uganda is one of the most serious violations of children's rights. It is a situation that requires prompt and extraordinary action.

UNICEF strongly condemns the continuing abduction of children by the Lord Resistance Army and calls upon all Governments and international agencies to put pressure on this group and those that support them to let children enjoy their rights.

UNICEF joins the families of those who have lost their dear ones at this difficult time and wish to renew its continued support in the struggle to make all children free.

UNICEF Kampala, 24 June 1998

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