From: Matek Opoko [mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], ugandanet@kym.net
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 22:19:19 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Ugnet] 6,500 Girls in Kony Captivity - Report
6,500 Girls in Kony Captivity - Report
The Monitor (Kampala)
April 27, 2005
Posted to the web April 26, 2005
Frank Nyakairu & Agencies
Kampala
About 6,500 girls some as young as eight years are in captivity of the Lords Resistance Army, a children's charity organisation, Save the Children, has said.
But the Army Spokesman, Maj. Shaban Bantariza, doubted the figures. The 38-page report released on Monday also said girls comprise 33 percent of LRA total strength.
"In Uganda, there are an estimated 6,500 girl soldiers captured in the rebel Lords Resistance Army," the report said.
The global report, Forgotten Casualties of War, highlights the plight of the girls, some as young as eight, who have been left without help after surviving the horrifying experience of war.
Research has shown girls are used extensively in combat in a wide range of international conflicts, in some cases by groups who have had the support of Britain and the United States.
Mike Aaronson, the director general of the organisation, said, "When people picture conflict they think of men in bloody combat, but it's girls who are the horrifying and hidden face of war.
"Most girls, who escape or leave an armed group do so on their own because formal programmes have not been designed with them," he said.
Bantariza said the figures in the report were not scientific. "Nobody in the world, apart from Jesus, knows how many girls are in the LRA," Bantariza said on Monday by telephone.
"They (Save The Children) are incapable of estimating any figures of the LRA," he said. Army records show declining figures of children and fighters rescued or captured since 2003. In 2003, a total of 5,345 were rescued, captured or they surrendered, while in 2004 the figure stood at 4,436 and from January 1 to March 7 the figure was 294.
"Those are declining figures which show that those who could be rescued have greatly reduced remaining with hardcore criminals," Bantariza said.
The authors of the report were not immediately available to defend their figures.
The LRA has been fighting since 1988 to replace President Yoweri Museveni's government with one based on the biblical Ten Commandments.
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