Child Soldiers

Imagine lying asleep, in a cot. The child suddenly wakes up when you hear the blood

curdling screams of the other villagers in the hut next door. Their blood runs cold as they fear

the worst but suddenly the screams seize to ring. His heartbeat slows down as his worry

dissolves. But the next thing they know a man enters the room, and kidnaps them. This is the

worst nightmare for children living in Northern Uganda and other surrounding countries. They

are being forced to serve under Joseph Kony as child soldiers. Raping, killing, and pillaging their

own villages. Child soldiers in Uganda will be investigated in order to understand the

psychological and social effects on children resulting in raised awareness and the discovery of

possible solutions. This will be investigated through background, current events, and world

organizations trying to stop the use of child soldiers.

" Kony and the LRA's senior commanders must die." (Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni) Kony was born in Atyak, Uganda. He grew up an altar boy and is a "devote" Christian. Joseph

Kony considers himself quite a good Christian, and he wants Uganda to be a Christian nation. So in 1987 he formed a resistance group called the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), and the LRA has

been at civil war against the Ugandan government ever since. If the LRA wins, Kony has promised that Uganda will become a theocracy, with laws based on the Biblical Ten Commandments. The

LRA has abducted an estimated 66000 children. "In northern Uganda there is no Amber alert, there no news headlines across the bottom of television screens, there is only the silence after another

town or school are raided and children are taken." (Kabiza Wilderness Safaris 1) These children are forced to kill their own parents to make sure they have no home to return to.

Children who are able to escape from Kony's grasp have nowhere to go and no way to fit into the society they were so blatantly ripped from. These children have been witnessing some of

the most atrocious acts human beings can commit. These children don't know anything about money, social interactions, or how to survive in today's world. These children suffer from multiple

psychological problems. These problems can be direct results of the years of combat service and suicide missions assigned by the LRA, or by the tragic attrocities that they must deal with. Where

most