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Matovu
We are very proud people, aren't we.
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"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" ----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, February 08, 2003 5:36 AM
Subject: RE: [CONGOTRIBUNE] China Keitetsi visits
Germany1 JCM -----Original Message----- From: Mulindwa Edward [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Saturday, February 08, 2003 7:30 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Rwanda; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; anarkosyndikalismswe Subject: [CONGOTRIBUNE] China Keitetsi visits Germany1 China Keitetsi visits Germany and talks about "My life as a child soldier" Sent: Friday, February 07, 2003 9:16 AM Subject: China Keitetsi visits Germany1 China Keitetsi visits Germany and talks about "My life as a child soldier" China Kitetsi, the lady who wrote about her life as a child soldier in the NRA is in Germany reading and talking about her book. She arrived here on 04.02.2003 and will spend about a week visiting public libraries, bookshops, NGOs and other institutions associated with children and their rights, talking about this work on her biography. On this day (04.02.03) at 8:15 pm central European time, she talked about her book in a bookshop called Rhianon. Rhianon, located in Ehrenfeld in the heart of the famous German cathedral city of Cologne has a collection of books from all parts of the world mainly talking about women and children. In one corner, one could see the books "Lawinos lied/ Ochols lied"- a German version of "Song of Lawino and song of Ocol" written by the Ugandan genius, the late Okot p' Bitek who died in 1982. On the main table were piles after piles of china's book in German that were selling like hot cakes. Although it was a working day when one would have expected people to stay at home and relax after a hard day's work, very many people turned up to hear this lady talk and the bookshop hall was full to capacity. China began by narrating how she joined the NRA in 1984. At barely 8 years of age, she joined the NRA in the bush. She was not the only child there for she found hundreds of other children there, some even at the ages of 6 or 7. After a brief training, they were taken for real combat activities. Their commanders, all grown-ups, would put them in front, directly in the enemy fire line and shout orders from behind. Asked about what they did with captured enemies, China was in tears, as she tried to answer the question. She took a rest and recomposed, then she said that they were made to tie the enemies' hands tightly behind their backs (Kandoya), with their chests threatening to break apart, and after that hit the enemies with Akakaumbi small hoes on the head until they die. They were told that these enemies, called the Anyanyas, coming from northern Uganda were different kinds of people. The commanders said and repeated over and over again that these Anyanyas are half human beings, really animals, who would not feel the pain when hit with the hoes on the head. Any Kadogo "Child soldier", who feared to do this beastly act of killing with the hand hoe would be called a coward and turned into a laughing stock of the rest of the children. It turned out that being called a coward was the most hated thing amongst the Kadogos and every child soldier smiled whenever he was said to be "Sharp". Another question posed to China was whether the male child soldiers were treated preferably / better than the female "colleagues". China said, when at the front line, there was no room for preferable treatment. They all fought shoulder-to-shoulder to defeat the enemy. The difference comes in when the female soldiers were used as sex slaves by the high-ranking officers. The officers made sexual advances and called it an order. You as an ordinary soldier must not and could not say no. "You see me standing in front of you here. All those 11 years that I spent in the NRA, I had to say Yes Sir, Yes sir to everything that the officers said. An officer would say, I want to see you in my tent at 9:00 pm and you knew what awaited you there but you could do nothing to prevent it for you did not have the power. You were just a tool being used by the officers. Because of the regular sexual abuses being meted to us by the officers, we were nicknamed "Chakula ya Wakubwa" (Food of the big men) and/ or "Gunduria" (rain coats). Do you still feel threatened, now that you have left Uganda, a country that we hear from the mass media is coming up as a beacon of hope for Africa? To this question, China pulled out of her bag a print out of an article which appeared on 01.02.2003 in "The monitor" with the title "Govt to counter Keitetsi, Ssekyaya lies". She read this article which says the Ugandan Govt plans to take her (China) to the international court of justice in Den Haag (The Hague in Holland) because of this book and her "film" talking about her life as a "Kadogo", and the "listeners" nearly went wild as they expressed anger at this threat from the Govt. One lady immediately stood up and said "I have heard you talk and share your experiences with us China. You can always count on me. Let them take you to Den Haag and we will face them". This was greeted with much applause. China thanked the participants and sat down to give her signature or sign the books that were being bought. On the second day of her visit, 05.02.2003, China goes to the German city of Duisburg in the Coal region of Germany "Ruhrgebiet". China visits "Kindernothilfe" a German NGO, which fights for the rights of Children. She is surrounded by a team of journalists from "Deutsche Welle", "Rhein post", "WAZ" and from other local newspapers who are eager to learn of her experience that she has written in a book. China talks about the "Kadogos" in the NRA and emphasized here that the officers preferred children as bodyguards because the kids never asked questions. The kids always strove to be recognized and sometimes did more heinous acts than grown ups. She, China, herself was a bodyguard to an officer called Ahmad Kashillingi. One, Fred Kayanja (RIP) became a bodyguard to President Museveni when he, Kayanja, could not yet even keep his nose clean. In fact, Museveni had about 2 platoons of child soldiers surrounding him as bodyguards. Everyone saw those children, when the NRA took power in Uganda in 1986. Asked whether there is continuation of child soldiering in Uganda to date, China had this to say. "I get newspaper reports that the LRA which is fighting in northern Uganda recruits children into their ranks. That is what I read from newspapers and from the internet. As I always say, I wish to repeat here that my concern is about children for I have gone through this problem and I know how it is. In 1995, before I left Uganda, the Govt started moving the Acholi people to internally displaced peoples camps (IDP). The Govt said, this move was meant to protect the people from the LRA who would now not be able to come and abduct children since these camps would be under the protection of the national army, NRA that later became UPDF. After creating these camps, the abduction of children never stopped, in fact it increased. I now read from newspapers that the Govt of Uganda came and recruited the remaining children in Acholiland to go and fight (operation iron fist) against the other children who were once insufficiently "protected" and literally left to be abducted by the LRA. You can now see how generations are being wiped out by these activities. I ask myself how the future of that part of our country will be without the children. There are also newspaper reports that in 2001, the Govt of Uganda took about 700 children from DR-Congo and brought them to Uganda to train them to go and fight back in Congo. In that year UNICEF repatriated about 165 of those kids to Congo. So to answer your Question: Yes Child soldiering still continues in Uganda up to now, a thing being done even by the Govt itself". The meeting ends as China prepares to go to UNICEF and some more NGOs in the region. China will spend about a week in Germany before she goes back to Danemark. From there she will prepare to go to Holland, Den Haag, to launch her book in "Niederländisch" the Dutch language, sometimes towards the middle of April. Hartelijk gefeliciteerd (we wish you the best) in Holland China. Alex Awiny Abukha in Cologne (Germany) 06.02.2003 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. |
