Fellow Citizens: Ms Keitetsi's book shows in very glaring picture some of the atrocities the NRM committed and continues to commit against the people of Uganda; both during Yoweri Museveni's Bush wars of the 1980's upto the present day.
Those members of the International Community who are interested in the people and history of our country better take Ms. Keitetsi's book very very seriously. As a matter of fact, there are very many Ms. Keitetsis out there who, given the opportunity, are very much willing to tell, rather, reveal all to the world about the true nature of Yoweri Museveni and his NRM. In fact, I highly recommend Ms. Keitetsis book as a required reading for most Ugandans, Friends of Uganda, and members of the International Community. Keitetsi's book reveals the other side of the story, so to say. It does help members of the International Community look at Museveni's politics from a different angle. Matek In a message dated 11/25/02 6:21:49 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: << Regional Monday, November 25, 2002 Nairobi-Kenya --------------------------------- 'Congo Rebels Using Ugandan Child Soldiers'By KEVIN J. KELLEY SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT CHINA KEITETSI has a vision of a big room in Africa filled with computers, books and paintings a place where former child soldiers can learn in safety. Ms Keitetsi would also like psychologists to be in the room to reassure the children, because, she says, "they get ashamed when they talk about who raped them." It is Ms Keitetsi's dream to create rooms like this in Rwanda, Sierra Leone and other war-ravaged African countries with the proceeds from a book she has written about her experiences as a child soldier in Uganda. She says she was abducted in 1984, at age eight, into the National Resistance Army commanded by then rebel leader Yoweri Museveni. For the next 11 years, until her escape to South Africa, Ms Keitetsi says she was brutalised psychologically and sexually. "My childhood was taken from me and I can never get that back," she told The EastAfrican in a recent interview. The autobiography ranks high on bestseller lists in Germany, where it was published under the title, They Took Away My Mother and Gave Me a Gun. In its English-language edition, published by Jacana of South Africa, the book is called My Life as a Child Soldier. Ms Keitetsi, now 26 years old, is touring the United States to call attention to the desperation of children forced to fight in adults' wars. She says her advocacy is not aimed specifically at the Ugandan government though she does accuse it of still using child soldiers but at "the child torture that goes on in many parts of this world." The United Nations estimates that as many as 300,000 children may be serving in armies in more than a dozen countries in Africa and Asia. During a trip to New York earlier this year, Ms Keitetsi met at the UN with Secretary-General Kofi Annan and with two former presidents – Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton. She recently addressed an audience at Harvard University and will travel to Washington this week for meetings with a leading African-American lobbying group. Ms Keitetsi tells Americans that "the United States should put pressure on every rebel leader and every government that uses child soldiers." Her crusade is not being well received by powerful figures in Uganda. They recognise that Ms Keitetsi's harrowing life story could tarnish the generally positive reputation that President Museveni enjoys in the West. Perhaps especially vexing to the authorities is Keitetsi's claim that Ugandan children are still being forced to serve as soldiers "not just by the anti-government Lord's Resistance Army, but on behalf of a rebel group in Congo supported by President Museveni's government." The government-owned New Vision newspaper has challenged aspects of Ms Keitetsi's account, quoting two officers in the Ugandan People's Defence Forces who charged that she never fought in bush battles on the side of Museveni's guerrilla force. Ms Keitetsi has not been to Uganda since fleeing the country in 1995, and "I'm really scared to go back," she says. "My government has taken personally everything I've said. To go back would be like putting my head in the mouth of a hungry lion." Not all Ugandans are critical of her book and her activism, however. She says that some Ugandans who know about the situation" have sent e-mails via her website – www.xchildsoldier.org – expressing support for her efforts. "These are the words that make me go on," Ms Keitetsi says. Now that she has found her voice, it appears unlikely that Ms Keitetsi will be silenced. She says that after taking up residence in Denmark three years ago as a UN-sponsored refugee, she was at first unable to talk with counsellors about her experiences. But she did begin to tell her story privately on tape, and it was those recordings that eventually became the basis for her book. It tells of how two members of the National Resistance Army happened upon the eight-year-old girl after she had wandered from her village and got lost. She was taken into the ranks of the NRA, which often used children as spies, she says. She was given the name "China" by an officer who thought her eyes had an Asian appearance. Ms Keitetsi says that she was taught to kill "and did so on more than one occasion." She was also sexually abused by soldiers much older than her. In 1991, at age 14, she gave birth, Ms Keitetsi told a South African interviewer. The baby's father, whom she identified as Lt-Col Moses Drago Kaima, sent the child to live with his family, she relates. But the officer soon died, and Ms Keitetsi said she has not seen her son for the past nine years. In 1995, having been promoted to the rank of sergeant, Ms Keitetsi says she rejected a sexual advance by a soldier who, in retaliation, threatened to report that she was selling guns to the enemy. She says her only options then became either to escape Uganda or be killed. Using a false passport, Ms Keitetsi made her way to Kenya and on to South Africa. Four years later, she was resettled in Denmark by the UN. Although she now uses a UN travel document, Ms Keitetsi remains a citizen of Uganda. The emotional scars inflicted during her years as a child soldier are slow in healing. And habits she learned in the army have not yet been shed. "Because I was trained like a boy, I act like a boy in some ways," Ms Keitetsi says. "In Denmark, when I have an appointment with a girl, she might spend 45 minutes in the washroom. I spend maybe five minutes." Asked whether she may some day be able to carry on a loving relationship with a man, Ms Keitetsi replies, "I have a Danish father now, but when I feel myself loving him, I get scared. I'm on guard 24 hours a day. Every word from a man makes me wary." Comments\Views about this article >>
