These are serious allegations indeed. It would help if the paper where this article were given, along with date of publication.
Apparently UNICEF has taken up her cause (http://www.unicef.de/akt/akt_141.php?news_id=802), as has the 'Coalition to Stop Child Soldiers' (www.child-soldiers.org).
Her story has appeared in the Havard Gazette (http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2002/11.14/13-uganda.html), South Africa's Sunday Times (http://www.suntimes.co.za/2002/12/15/insight/in01.asp), in the Mail Guardian (http://www.chico.mweb.co.za/art/2003/2003feb/030207-children.html), The East African (http://www.nationaudio.com/News/EastAfrican/01122002/Regional/Regional14.html), etc, etc.
She is also featured on Carte Blanche (http://www.mnet.co.za/CarteBlanche/Display/Display.asp?Id=1792), on Desarme (http://www.desarme.org/publique/cgi/cgilua.exe/sys/start.htm?sid=15&infoid=731), Enter Uganda (http://www.enteruganda.com/about/chinastory.php),
and of course her own website: http://www.xchildsoldier.org/
btw: For a different take on this see "China Keitetsi for Hague? Get serious!" by Austin Ejiet in Monitor (http://www.monitor.co.ug/news.php?record_number=13&show=Commentary)
----Original Message Follows----
From: "Y Yaobang" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: ugnet_: UGANDA GOVERNMENT IS TRYING TO SHUT ME UP
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 18:11:34 +0000
Mulindwa,
China Keitetsi's letter below raises the question of whether some NRM leaders might be "Pedophiles". If this proves to be the case, a serious case could be made in The Hague to have such leaders arrested if they ever venture outside Uganda.
y
>From: "Mulindwa Edward" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>CC: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
><[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Rwanda"
><[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
><[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
><[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
><[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: ugnet_: UGANDA GOVERNMENT IS TRYING TO SHUT ME UP
>Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 18:33:10 -0500
>
>China Keitetsi; the NRM Quest to shut me up
>Dear Editor,
>
>I write to make a few comments on a commentary sent to you by
>Hussein Kashillingi that appeared in your paper sometime last week.
>
>The government of Uganda have for some time been trying to make me
>keep quiet about my experiences as a child soldier. They have used
>many tricks in their attempt to make the world believe that my book
>is nothing but lies. After the first lies published by
>Government-owned News paper "New Vision" I wrote one article ( see
>The Monitor of 17 February 2002 ), which I responded to. New Vision
>refused to publish this article of mine, but The Monitor accepted
>to. New Vision kept on writing and I knew (of cause) that I am not
>as big as the NRM government of Uganda, who can print a new article
>every day, besides, I didn't see it necessary to reply to all the
>government machinated attempts in its quest to shut me down.
>
>In the best of my knowledge, Afande Yoweri Museveni's government
>still uses children, just see the Global Report of 2001. January
>2001 700 children were taken from Democratic Republic of Congo to
>Kyankwanzi in Uganda for military training. UNICEF managed to rescue
>163, this even managed to reach CNN. The way it looks here is that
>Afande Yoweri Museveni and ministers Amama Mbabazi and Nagenda have
>forgotten the hundreds of children they marched with in 1986 when
>taking over Kampala. If Afande Museveni has forgotten let me remind
>him of a friend of mine who was his bodyguard as a 9-years-old until
>he died: F. Kayanja. For me it is not a new thing. Anyone who talked
>ill of the NRM government is an `Adui� (meaning enemy). When you are
>a girl or woman, they will use words such as: Malaya (whore) or/and
>a liar. Imagine your name being associated with such words o n a
>newspaper headline; maybe you will be part of the many who say no
>more. For me I cannot, because NRA (UPDF) took away my dignity, my
>childhood and much more. For this reason and for the sake of the
>little children, I will never keep quiet, I will keep on, that no
>child goes through the same long road I have walked. The NRM
>government cannot abuse me anymore. I am safe now, but there are
>many like the 700 kids from the DRC who were taken away from their
>country and their parents to train for war. This is a mark for life,
>a scar that I will always feel, and it can't be washed away. This is
>one of the reasons that I refuse to enjoy this freedom alone. No
>matter how many international courts the NRM government threaten to
>take me to including the Hague, I'll keep on being the free voice of
>those children still forced into wars.
>
>I challenge Afande Museveni's Team of lawyers and ministers to bring
>their "evidence" to Den Hague. But remember my friends, fellow
>Ugandans; there are still a few of my comrades left who go further
>back in NRA history than me (I got there in 1984!). They know me,
>as well as you. I must say to Afande Shaban Bantariza that I joined
>the NRM/A in 1984. I still wonder where you got the false
>information. I wasn't born in 1970. If you have read the book, then
>you have chosen to say the opposite. Bantariza chooses to forget
>that I rejoined the army, and that was in Nyakyishara, and not in
>Ibanda or Kamukuzi, as he happily lies. He is just like many other
>dishonest intellectuals who have been telling a lot of lies in order
>to protect their job. Just like them, Bantariza is being paid to
>turn the truth into lies. I am so scared because four ministers an d
>their ministries are after me, as if I had committed a crime against
>humanity. All I did is to tell the truth on what happened to me and
>other children-comrade. If Afande Museveni has a heart he would have
>appointed a team of lawyers and soldiers to bring the person who
>have been terrorising children for the past 17 years in the north.
>If anyone should be taken to court, it is Afande Museveni and other
>Afandes of NRM/A that should be taken to Court for having abused me
>and other children of my generation or the hundreds taken from the
>DRC for military training in Uganda. After the pain and the dignity
>they took away from me as a woman, I thought of taking them to court
>but I was scared because I had the fear that the NRM with all the
>team of intellectuals trained in telling lies was stronger than me.
>
>To me it seems like that Museveni's government knows that there are
>a lot of comrades who'll begin to talk. I am relieved that some
>people have begun to tell what happened during the struggle. I think
>the rumour of suing me in court is an attempt to scare more people
>who may want to talk. The government know very well that I have
>opened the Pandora's box of NRM /A. You can choose to break the
>silence and get mud thrown at you and save thousands of children, or
>take cover and protect your own wings.
>
>Having a tight schedule, I will not talk on many false and
>uncoordinated pieces of information. Nonetheless, I will hereby
>respond to Hassan Kashillingi who referred to me as a lair. Hassan,
>you have never been my friend. I know you as a son of Afande Ahmad
>Kashillingi. You are the only son with a mother who was living in
>Rukingiri, the home Town of Kashillingi. The other children, about
>50 or so, never had their different mothers near Kashillingi, be it
>in Kampala or in Rukingiri. When I worked as a bodyguard to your
>father, you spent most of the time with your mother in Rukungiri and
>studies. We were therefore not close to one another. Being a child
>of an Afande, you too ordered us around. Have you forgotten that we
>the little children made fire, slaughtered animals and cooked for
>you on Idi day in Rukungiri while you played, as a normal child
>should.
>
>Hassan, your father never cared or tried to give us education, as
>you try to say. Afande
>
>Kashillingi never employed us. Your father instead of giving us
>life, he took it away by sending some of his Kadogo bodyguards to
>the frontline in Kitgum simply because they fell in love with his
>daughters. Do you remember when Silas came back shot on the legs and
>arms. After he was released from Mbuya military hospital he came
>back to us but your dad didn't allow him to stay. Silas had to stay
>in the officers' mess. I watched him as he became thinner and
>thinner, but you couldn't see this because you were busy as normal
>children studying. Silas was sent to the north because he revealed
>to your mother the secrets of your father's girl friend. Your father
>never financed us in any way. We, his bodyguards, were on the
>payroll of the ministry of defence, which paid us with packets of
>Suppermatch cigarettes. While we smoked away our blood earned
>cigarettes, your fat her who didn't smoke, never cared to find out
>where we got the cigarettes. Although he had the possibility, your
>father never made the slightest efforts to take us (the Kadogos) to
>school. By the way, I was not the only Kadogo bodyguard of your
>father. Where are Katumba, Bisaso, Makumbi, Silasi, Jamil Nsubuga,
>"Sharp"(RIP) and many others. Did your father make any effort at all
>to take any of them to school? "Sharp" my God, the poor young boy
>died in an ambush in the north.
>
>You spread lies that your father built a house for my mother. That
>is utter nonsense. Go back to my book on page 135 and you will find
>the source of the money for putting up a house for my mother.
>Rumours had it that Col. Gaddafi gave to Afande Museveni some money
>adding up to monies collected from changing the national currency
>that was used to pay the soldiers, each of whom received between
>35000 to 50000 Shillings. On page 137 of my book, I stated that: "A
>week or so went by. I tried to figure out what to do with the money.
>I thought of my mother who didn't have a home of her own.". So
>Hassan, I used that money and not Kashillingi's to acquire a house
>for my mother.
>
>The sexual abuse of your father towards me is covered in my book. I
>do not intend to go into that again here. It would have surprised me
>if you knew about your father's sexual abuses to me before. For I
>know that an African father never talks about his personal sexual
>life with his children. I can feel your pain now Hussein as you try
>not to believe it. But true to the point as written in my book, your
>father abused me sexually. Do you know why your father has many
>children with different mothers. Have you ever blamed him for making
>his niece (Ms.) Regina pregnant whom he had sex with while she was
>half-legged recovering from the amputation following the gun
>injuries from a kadogo soldier who loved Regina as much as your Dad
>did. I suggest you take your father and Regina's child for a DNA
>test before you try another game of lying for the NRM.
>
>For my own reasons, I will not talk about Lt. Col. Drago Kaima here.
>He is the father of my child. I have read in some papers that Lt.
>Col. Drago (RIP) was a crook, a thief and all kind of things. Why
>then did the NRA promote and gave him (a crook) an entire Brigade
>under his command? However, no one talks about how old he was when
>he became apart of NRA in 1982. No one talks about the many battles
>he fought.
>
>Rugaba Hassan Kashillingi; I am terribly disappointed by your
>attempt to talk sweet about Afande Museveni. You wrote ". President
>Museveni had and has a soft heart for the children. He never exposed
>them directly to the frontline and constantly gave them lectures and
>comforted them that they will soon be re-united with their
>families." You were not a Kadogo and you never joined the NRA.
>Re-read my book and you will find out how dangerous Museveni is.
>While he kept his children in safety abroad, Museveni used us to
>fight his war. If Afande Museveni loves children, why did he give
>Fred Kayanja a gun instead of a pen? Many kids fell, especially at
>the battle of the Katonga Bridge. Who talks about them now? The
>sweet words that we would soon re-unite with our parents and
>families turned out to be lies. What did Museveni say when the NRA
>army council at a meeting in the State House. He saw an entire
>battalion of us kadogos who came with different officers. Did
>Museveni ask the kadogo bodyguard girls team, how `Suicide� treated
>them? Tell me, which kid got re-united with his/ her parents after
>the fall of Kampala? In fact some are still fighting in the North,
>of course now no longer Kadogos. (Go to www.xchildsoldier.org and
>read what Kevin Aliro wrote on such kids). You stated clearly that
>your father went into exile (and was arrested) for a reason that you
>might not be told in the whole of your life. Your father was a very
>good combat and/ or frontline commander. If Museveni loves kids, how
>many days did he take to throw you (kids) out of the Kololo House
>and give it to Afande Nanyumba? Didn't you sleep in a hungry stomach
>for days in that small house in Entebbe as Afande Museveni left you
>(kids) go hungry?
>
>Your father was later rejected by the NRA/ NRM system. He was
>arrested by Kyakabale, then an NRA darling, and detained. It never
>took long Kyakabale had to suffer the same fate of arrest and
>torture. You now speak sweetly about this system, perharps in the
>hope that you are given a job by that government. I wish you the
>best in your endeavour. I only pray that it should not happen that
>just like your father, you one Day end up in Makindye - a used
>condom, which is to be discarded. Hassan, I am defeated to see that
>you bring Olara Otunnu's name here. I mentioned the name Olara
>Otunnu in context and what is wrong with that? Olara Otunnu is too
>busy to invite people like me. Please before you write get your
>information right. Olara Otunnu was not in the bush with us, but
>must have seen us in the streets running with our guns behind our
>Afandes. It is in my forewor d of the book and reads as follows: ".
>My story reaches all people, regardless of their rank in society. So
>far I have met UN secretary General Kofi Annan, Olara Otunnu of
>children in Armed conflicts, Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Whoopi
>Goldberg, Harrison Ford, Nobert de Niro, even Graca Machel and Queen
>Sylvia of Sweden.." My story reached Olara Otunnu and the people
>listed above and it has reached you now. It will continue to reach
>other people. Olara Otunnu has nothing to do with the publication of
>my book. Do not pretend to know and talk about things that are not
>clear to you. If you want to know whoever helped with the
>publication of the book, please ask me. In any case, books always
>carry names of their publishers and my book is no exception to this.
>In my view Olara Otunnu loves children more tham Afande Museveni.
>Olara Otunnu has never abused children, but he protects them. Go ask
>the children in Mozambique, Sierra Leone, DRC, Sudan, Afghanistan
>and many other count ries about his personal love and official
>responsibilities towards children. I have respect and love towards
>anyone who loves, protects and cares about children! This, I have
>always thought, should at least be within the grasp of a lawyer.
>Please address your question of political expediency to Afande
>Museveni and probably this way: How comes you sacrifice the children
>for political expediency? I am now strong as Afande Museveni said
>once: a soldier doesn't cry nor give up, only women cry. For the
>sake of other children who are still fighting, I am not giving up
>despite the mud thrown at my face. I mean it.
>
>Finally, you wrote to me and gave me your telephone number. I phoned
>you and you tried to trap me with leading questions, hoping I would
>say things that would contradict what I have written in "My life as
>a child soldier in the NRA". You failed and the miserable result is
>the disjointed commentary that one reads in the monitor of
>01.02.2003. If you ever wanted to help me get my son, how come you
>have turned around to discredit the mother (me) of the child you
>want to help re-unite with her son? I do hereby reproduce your mail
>for the attention of the public so that who ever need to find the
>truth may read my book or contact you for Ugandans to decide who of
>us is telling the truth.
>
>
>
> First Name : Hassan
>
> URL : Kashillingi
>
> e-mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Comment : Hi China, I pray God gives you the energy to
>continue fighting.Fred Kayanja died and so did Sharp.Regina stays in
>the village.I need to talk to you very urgently.Call me on 256 71
>415577.Ill help you get your son.Am now a lawyer and married. I rema
>
>
>Finally, I am grateful to everyone who has showed sympathy with me
>and continue to support me. I am busy in trying to draw the
>attention of the western world to the rights of children in Africa
>and the world. I will not answer back to any further discussions on
>my book in a public forum.
>
>Greetings to everyone,
>
>For God and My Country,
>
>China Keitetsi (Copenhagen, Denmark)
>
> The Mulindwas communication group
>"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
_________________________________________________________________
The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
