"Even your soul, it runs away"

While we were in Potika we stayed with an exteremly nice family: A man named Michael, his four wives, and his 25 children. The 'junior' or fourth wife was named Rose and she cooked for us and washed our clothes during our stay in Potika. Every evening Michael would come in and chat with use about different things and issues. He is very well educated and informed on many issues surrounding the peacetalks, international politics, and the situation in Northern Uganda. One night the conversation turned to the LRA and LRA abduction experiences. It turns out that Rose, our cook, was abducted several years ago by rebels and escaped by running away and shouting, "The LRA rebels are here!" once she was within earshot of the Ugandan military.

Once we were on the subject of LRA abductions, our translator, Alex decided to tell us his abduction story. He said that when he was 15 years old his mother sent him to take some sugar and oil to his grandfather. Alex and his friend were riding their bikes down a dirt road and some drunk rebels with AK-47s came out of the bush and stopped them. The rebels asked Alex and his friend how old they were and Alex tried to lie and said he was 9 hoping that they would think he was too young to be of any use. They said Alex's friend wasn't strong enough so they let him go, but they took Alex.

Alex said the rebels then told him he was part of the Lord's Resistance Army and the gave him (and other abducted children) an induction into the LRA by making a cross with palm tree butter on their foreheads and told them that if they tried to escape they would be cursed and die. They told him he was part of the LRA and that he could never go back to his family. When the LRA abducts young boys from their families, sometimes the force the boy to kill one or more members of his family. Then they tell him, "You are a murderer now and you can never go back to your village. The LRA is the only life you can have now." Fortunately, Alex's family wasn't nearby so he wasn't forced to kill any of them.

After the induction, they started forcing Alex to do hard labor. Namely, carrying very heavy loads. He said they forced him to carry a backpack full of batteries and bullets in addition to 50kg (over 100 pounds) of rice. The LRA rebels told Alex, "We are not your mother don't complain to us about the load being heavy. If you complain we will shot you. Or if you collapse while you are carrying the loads we will shot you." Alex tried to describe the despair he felt when he was struggling to carry the heavy loads, in constant fear of being shot in the head on the whim of a solider, and thinking that he will never see his family again. He said, "You are so sad your heart feels empty and even your soul, it runs away." I think that this probably describes how many children feel after they have abducted by the LRA. The LRA forces the boys to carry heavy loads or become or to fire weapons and they force the girls to be "wives" for the rebels. Perhaps the fate of the girls is worse. They get gang raped every day until they become pregnant and then the LRA rebels shot them. Unless of course, a girl happens to fall into the good graces of Joseph Kony (the leader of the LRA rebels) and then you can join the ranks of his some 600 'wives' and only be raped by him.

Three weeks after he was abducted, Alex was able to escape while the LRA was fighting with the Ugandan Military. The Ugandan Military captured Alex happily took the batteries and bullets from his backpack and then discussed whether or not they should execute him as an LRA rebel for several hours. Finally they decided to let him go and he was reunited with his family.