Lord's resistance army for english
The Lord's Resistance Army, lead by Joseph Kony, is an injustice to human rights. Joseph
Kony is a former altar boy, self-stylized mystic, and a ruthless leader who claims that his groups goal is to turn Northern Uganda into a state that is based on the Ten Commandments. However, the only
thing his group is doing is stealing young children and teenagers from their families and forcing them
to do the fighting and killing for them. Joseph Kony claims that he only wants the best for the
Acholi people. He wants people to belive that he invisions a peaceful existance for the people
living in Uganda, one that is based around Christianity, Catholosism and Islamic values.
Yet any resemblance to any of these religions is sketchy; While the army may observe rituals
like praying the roseray and bowing towards Mecca, there is nothing they are really doing in the
theological sense. The beliefs that Joseph Kony teaches and follows are ones that he has derived
partly from the Bible and the Qur'an. The rest he has made to fit his own personal desires and
things that he himself needs for the moment. An example of such things is Joseph Kony's belief that,
"Jesus is the Son of God. But instead of saving the world from sin through his sacrificial love on the
Cross, he is a source of power employed for killing those who oppose Kony. The Holy Spirit is not the
Divine Comforter, but one who directs Kony's tactical military decisions." (Carter, Johnson)
In 1987 Joseph Kony made his first appearance as a spirit medium. A spirit medium is a
person who believes that they have the ability to contact spirits, ghosts, and other entinities. Kony's
Aunt is Alice Auma, a defeated fighter who reformed herself and became a spiritualist. Alice
Auma was the head of the Holy Spirit Movement, a millenialist rebellion group. In 1987
she and her group were defeated. Seeing such a strong rebelious group defeated, other
groups gave up. This left a space open for Joseph Kony to step forward and start his
rebellion with the Lord's Resistance Army.
The tactics used by the Lord's Resistance Army began as surreal and mostly a waste of
time. The group followed the Holy Spirit Movements examples and would assemble in the
shape of a giant cross. The cross formation was armed with holy water and convinced that
the rocks they had would turn into grenades when thrown if they all believed strongly enough.
The Lord's Resistance Army switched to normal guerrilla tactics after the former commander
of the Uganda People's Democratic Army convinced them these tactics would be more useful
then the former.
The Lord's Resistance Army didn't beging abducting people until 1991. Before that they
were still a mostly peacful group who raided people for supplies. It wasn't until 1994 that the Lord's
Resistance Army saw their first mass abduction of children and young people. Tactics involved
stealing children from their villages in the dark and forcing them to come back and kill thier parents
and family members so that they wouldn't have anywhere to leave the Lord's Resistance Armys
and go home to. Over 20,000 children have been abducted in this fashion. This terrorist group is
one of the largest in the world, killing more people than most other violent groups. Most western
civilizations have yet to hear about them since their primary focus is of the Acholi people
in the region bordering Uganda and Sudan in East Africa. The crimes that the Lord's Resistance
Army commits are so terrible, that their only ally, the Islamic governor of Sudan, severed his
relationship with the group. Unfortunatly, sources in Uganda still insist that Sudan supplies
weapons to the Lord's Resistance Army.
Since past groups like the National Resistance Army had been so violent, the minister Betty
Oyella Bigombe, an Acholi minister, started a defense tactic called "Arrow Groups". These groups
were armed mostly with bows and arrows. It was their job to protect the Acholi people from
the Lord's Resistance Army but their efforts were futile. The Lord's Resistance Army was armed
with guns and other machine weaponry. Like an itch you just can't reach, the Arrow Group managed
to anger Joseph Kony just enough to give him the idea that he no longer had the Acholi people
behind him. Joseph Kony convinced himself that the Acholi people must be collaborating with
a group the Lord's Resistance Army disagreed with, therefore, the Acholi people must be against
Joseph Kony and what he was trying to do for them. He began ordering the Lord's Resistance Army
to target civillians. There were three reasons attacking civillians would prove useful. First, in attempt
to escape Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army the Acholi people tried to flee. This was
an attempt to deny the government information about any movements because the people were
spreading out. Second, Kony and his people could gather any resources they wanted from the
emptied villages without any trouble because all of the people had already fled. Thidly, Joseph
Kony wanted to prove to the Acholi people that the government did not care about them and
wouldn't help them. He had guessed right. The Lord's Resistance Army has been going strong
for almost 18 years and there is nothing the government has ever been able to do to stop them.
Joseph Kony hoped that this would convince people that they should support the Lord's Resistance
Army, since they were obviously more powerful then the government.
The Lord's Resistance Army targets children because they are easier to manipulate and
condition then adults. Young girls are abducted and turned into sex slaves, or they are sold
or traded or even given as gifts. The children are tortured into slavery as guards, concubines,
and soldiers. They are raped, beaten and forced to march until they're exhausted. They are
also forced to chase down and kill children that try to escape. The Amnesty International
reports that without these children soldiers, the Lord's Resistance Army wouldn't have
enough people to fight for them. This is especially true considering that almost 90% of the
soldiers fighting for the Lord's Resistance Army are kids. Children are easy targets, and
easier to steal and force to do things then adults. The Lord's Resistance Army abducting
children is just one small branch of the worldwide trouble that is becoming child soldiers.
There is an estimation of a quarter of a million under the age of 18 that are child soldiers.
Guns are being made so tiny and light weight now that even the smallest of children can be
used to shoot down enemies, or at the very least pack the equipment around. Many of the
children who are stolen from their families are used in place of pack animals, forced to
carry things for the Lord's Resistance Army. One girl gives her testimony on what it was like
in the Lord's Resistance Army:
Stella, fifteen:
"They came to our school in the middle of the night. We were hiding under the beds but
they banged on the beds and told us to come out. They tied us and led us out, and they tried to set
the school building on fire. We walked and walked and they made us carry their property that
they had looted. At about six a. m. they made us stop and they lined up in two lines, and made us
walk between them while they kicked us.
On the second day of marching our legs were swollen. They said, "Eh, now, what should we
do about your legs? You must walk, or do you want us to kill you? It's your choice." So we kept
going.
On the third day a little girl tried to escape, and they made us kill her. They went to collect
some big pieces of firewood. Then they kicked her and jumped on her, and they made us each
beat her at least once with the big pieces of wood. They said, "You must beat and beat and beat
her." She was bleeding from the mouth. Then she died. Then they made us lie down and they beat
us with fifteen strokes each, because they said we had known she would try to escape."
In an attempt to get away from the Lord's Resistance Army before they lay their hands
on them for the first time, many children are turning into "night commuters." Typically, the children
of a village will bring woven matts as bedding and they will gather in large groups and make long
treks in the dark to schools, hospitals and other public buildings that the Uganda government has
provided for them to escape to in times of needs. Uganda soldiers are stationed outside entrances
of the buildings in an effort to keep the children safe from late night abductions.
Human rights violations are now being commited against adults as well as children and it's
not the Lord's Resistance Army that is exclusivly responsible. Now in nothern Uganda the Uganda
Peoples' Defense Forces have been found responsible for illegal detentions, extrajudicial executions,
rape, and other types of torture. However, the Amnesty International has chosen to issue their
reports on the condition of children because they have been targeted much longer then the adults have
been and there is also a greater risk of their suffering continuing, then that of the adults in Uganda.
So what is being done to put a stop to Joseph Kony's inhumane group? The International
Criminal Court, responsible for trying individuals who have been causing genocide, war crimes, and
human rights abuse, has finally issued arrest warrents for Josephy Kony and five other Lord's
Resistance Army leaders. However, none of this seems to be enough to even slow down the damage
and abduction rate of the Lord's Resistance Army. On July 25, 2002, forty-eight people were hacked
to death in the northern regions of Uganda. Reports say that people were killed with machettes and
spears, which is the standard style of the Lord's Resistance Army, and babies were thrown against
trees. The horrible attack raised questions about what was going to be done to put a stop to the Lord's
Resistance Army. The President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, has decided to have a peace talk with
Joseph Kony and see if they can't work out some kind of treaty. A peace talk might be the Uganda
people's only chance at getting a hold on the Lord's Resistance Army since the Uganda army has
been unsuccessfully trying for 16 years to keep them at bay. Most millitay peoples are skeptical
that the peace talk will do any good because Joseph Kony doesn't even have an agenda to
discuss. At this point all the Lord's Resistance Army is doing is sensless slaughtering and inslaving,
their only excuse, is they are doing, "God's will."
What are the United States doing to help the people of Uganda? In 2003 western
civilizations called the Lord's Resistance Army's actions terroristic, and therefore finally stepped
forward to help. American sattelite photography and other types of electronic survelliences will
be deployed in Uganda. Earlier this year Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni went to Washington
D.C. to talk to United States President Bush. The two worked out a logistical support for a strategy
to defeat terrorist groups in Uganda. Some Africans belive that the best bet to get the United States
involved enough to really make a difference is to put this on the news in America. It all goes back
to the old saying, "out of sight, out of mind." If Americans were made aware of the horrible violence
that takes place on a regular basis in Uganda, they would feel more obliged to do something about it.
American Christians could play a large role in helping the Uganda government by notifying their
churches about the turmoil the people in Uganda are facing and starting an agency that would work
with Uganda children, and they could press their government officials to take action against the
Lord's Resistance Army.
Will this be enough to stop the Lord's Resistance Army? It's too soon to tell. Everything is
worth trying once if there is even a slight chance that the children of Uganda won't be abducted
and forced into the slave driven circumstances of fighting for the Lord's Resistance Army. There
is no idea that isn't worth trying if it can safely give hope to the thousands of Uganda natives that
they will no longer have their villages pillaged, raped, and murderded, in "the name of the Lord,"
delivered by the spiritual radicalist, Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army.
Kony is a former altar boy, self-stylized mystic, and a ruthless leader who claims that his groups goal is to turn Northern Uganda into a state that is based on the Ten Commandments. However, the only
thing his group is doing is stealing young children and teenagers from their families and forcing them
to do the fighting and killing for them. Joseph Kony claims that he only wants the best for the
Acholi people. He wants people to belive that he invisions a peaceful existance for the people
living in Uganda, one that is based around Christianity, Catholosism and Islamic values.
Yet any resemblance to any of these religions is sketchy; While the army may observe rituals
like praying the roseray and bowing towards Mecca, there is nothing they are really doing in the
theological sense. The beliefs that Joseph Kony teaches and follows are ones that he has derived
partly from the Bible and the Qur'an. The rest he has made to fit his own personal desires and
things that he himself needs for the moment. An example of such things is Joseph Kony's belief that,
"Jesus is the Son of God. But instead of saving the world from sin through his sacrificial love on the
Cross, he is a source of power employed for killing those who oppose Kony. The Holy Spirit is not the
Divine Comforter, but one who directs Kony's tactical military decisions." (Carter, Johnson)
In 1987 Joseph Kony made his first appearance as a spirit medium. A spirit medium is a
person who believes that they have the ability to contact spirits, ghosts, and other entinities. Kony's
Aunt is Alice Auma, a defeated fighter who reformed herself and became a spiritualist. Alice
Auma was the head of the Holy Spirit Movement, a millenialist rebellion group. In 1987
she and her group were defeated. Seeing such a strong rebelious group defeated, other
groups gave up. This left a space open for Joseph Kony to step forward and start his
rebellion with the Lord's Resistance Army.
The tactics used by the Lord's Resistance Army began as surreal and mostly a waste of
time. The group followed the Holy Spirit Movements examples and would assemble in the
shape of a giant cross. The cross formation was armed with holy water and convinced that
the rocks they had would turn into grenades when thrown if they all believed strongly enough.
The Lord's Resistance Army switched to normal guerrilla tactics after the former commander
of the Uganda People's Democratic Army convinced them these tactics would be more useful
then the former.
The Lord's Resistance Army didn't beging abducting people until 1991. Before that they
were still a mostly peacful group who raided people for supplies. It wasn't until 1994 that the Lord's
Resistance Army saw their first mass abduction of children and young people. Tactics involved
stealing children from their villages in the dark and forcing them to come back and kill thier parents
and family members so that they wouldn't have anywhere to leave the Lord's Resistance Armys
and go home to. Over 20,000 children have been abducted in this fashion. This terrorist group is
one of the largest in the world, killing more people than most other violent groups. Most western
civilizations have yet to hear about them since their primary focus is of the Acholi people
in the region bordering Uganda and Sudan in East Africa. The crimes that the Lord's Resistance
Army commits are so terrible, that their only ally, the Islamic governor of Sudan, severed his
relationship with the group. Unfortunatly, sources in Uganda still insist that Sudan supplies
weapons to the Lord's Resistance Army.
Since past groups like the National Resistance Army had been so violent, the minister Betty
Oyella Bigombe, an Acholi minister, started a defense tactic called "Arrow Groups". These groups
were armed mostly with bows and arrows. It was their job to protect the Acholi people from
the Lord's Resistance Army but their efforts were futile. The Lord's Resistance Army was armed
with guns and other machine weaponry. Like an itch you just can't reach, the Arrow Group managed
to anger Joseph Kony just enough to give him the idea that he no longer had the Acholi people
behind him. Joseph Kony convinced himself that the Acholi people must be collaborating with
a group the Lord's Resistance Army disagreed with, therefore, the Acholi people must be against
Joseph Kony and what he was trying to do for them. He began ordering the Lord's Resistance Army
to target civillians. There were three reasons attacking civillians would prove useful. First, in attempt
to escape Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army the Acholi people tried to flee. This was
an attempt to deny the government information about any movements because the people were
spreading out. Second, Kony and his people could gather any resources they wanted from the
emptied villages without any trouble because all of the people had already fled. Thidly, Joseph
Kony wanted to prove to the Acholi people that the government did not care about them and
wouldn't help them. He had guessed right. The Lord's Resistance Army has been going strong
for almost 18 years and there is nothing the government has ever been able to do to stop them.
Joseph Kony hoped that this would convince people that they should support the Lord's Resistance
Army, since they were obviously more powerful then the government.
The Lord's Resistance Army targets children because they are easier to manipulate and
condition then adults. Young girls are abducted and turned into sex slaves, or they are sold
or traded or even given as gifts. The children are tortured into slavery as guards, concubines,
and soldiers. They are raped, beaten and forced to march until they're exhausted. They are
also forced to chase down and kill children that try to escape. The Amnesty International
reports that without these children soldiers, the Lord's Resistance Army wouldn't have
enough people to fight for them. This is especially true considering that almost 90% of the
soldiers fighting for the Lord's Resistance Army are kids. Children are easy targets, and
easier to steal and force to do things then adults. The Lord's Resistance Army abducting
children is just one small branch of the worldwide trouble that is becoming child soldiers.
There is an estimation of a quarter of a million under the age of 18 that are child soldiers.
Guns are being made so tiny and light weight now that even the smallest of children can be
used to shoot down enemies, or at the very least pack the equipment around. Many of the
children who are stolen from their families are used in place of pack animals, forced to
carry things for the Lord's Resistance Army. One girl gives her testimony on what it was like
in the Lord's Resistance Army:
Stella, fifteen:
"They came to our school in the middle of the night. We were hiding under the beds but
they banged on the beds and told us to come out. They tied us and led us out, and they tried to set
the school building on fire. We walked and walked and they made us carry their property that
they had looted. At about six a. m. they made us stop and they lined up in two lines, and made us
walk between them while they kicked us.
On the second day of marching our legs were swollen. They said, "Eh, now, what should we
do about your legs? You must walk, or do you want us to kill you? It's your choice." So we kept
going.
On the third day a little girl tried to escape, and they made us kill her. They went to collect
some big pieces of firewood. Then they kicked her and jumped on her, and they made us each
beat her at least once with the big pieces of wood. They said, "You must beat and beat and beat
her." She was bleeding from the mouth. Then she died. Then they made us lie down and they beat
us with fifteen strokes each, because they said we had known she would try to escape."
In an attempt to get away from the Lord's Resistance Army before they lay their hands
on them for the first time, many children are turning into "night commuters." Typically, the children
of a village will bring woven matts as bedding and they will gather in large groups and make long
treks in the dark to schools, hospitals and other public buildings that the Uganda government has
provided for them to escape to in times of needs. Uganda soldiers are stationed outside entrances
of the buildings in an effort to keep the children safe from late night abductions.
Human rights violations are now being commited against adults as well as children and it's
not the Lord's Resistance Army that is exclusivly responsible. Now in nothern Uganda the Uganda
Peoples' Defense Forces have been found responsible for illegal detentions, extrajudicial executions,
rape, and other types of torture. However, the Amnesty International has chosen to issue their
reports on the condition of children because they have been targeted much longer then the adults have
been and there is also a greater risk of their suffering continuing, then that of the adults in Uganda.
So what is being done to put a stop to Joseph Kony's inhumane group? The International
Criminal Court, responsible for trying individuals who have been causing genocide, war crimes, and
human rights abuse, has finally issued arrest warrents for Josephy Kony and five other Lord's
Resistance Army leaders. However, none of this seems to be enough to even slow down the damage
and abduction rate of the Lord's Resistance Army. On July 25, 2002, forty-eight people were hacked
to death in the northern regions of Uganda. Reports say that people were killed with machettes and
spears, which is the standard style of the Lord's Resistance Army, and babies were thrown against
trees. The horrible attack raised questions about what was going to be done to put a stop to the Lord's
Resistance Army. The President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, has decided to have a peace talk with
Joseph Kony and see if they can't work out some kind of treaty. A peace talk might be the Uganda
people's only chance at getting a hold on the Lord's Resistance Army since the Uganda army has
been unsuccessfully trying for 16 years to keep them at bay. Most millitay peoples are skeptical
that the peace talk will do any good because Joseph Kony doesn't even have an agenda to
discuss. At this point all the Lord's Resistance Army is doing is sensless slaughtering and inslaving,
their only excuse, is they are doing, "God's will."
What are the United States doing to help the people of Uganda? In 2003 western
civilizations called the Lord's Resistance Army's actions terroristic, and therefore finally stepped
forward to help. American sattelite photography and other types of electronic survelliences will
be deployed in Uganda. Earlier this year Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni went to Washington
D.C. to talk to United States President Bush. The two worked out a logistical support for a strategy
to defeat terrorist groups in Uganda. Some Africans belive that the best bet to get the United States
involved enough to really make a difference is to put this on the news in America. It all goes back
to the old saying, "out of sight, out of mind." If Americans were made aware of the horrible violence
that takes place on a regular basis in Uganda, they would feel more obliged to do something about it.
American Christians could play a large role in helping the Uganda government by notifying their
churches about the turmoil the people in Uganda are facing and starting an agency that would work
with Uganda children, and they could press their government officials to take action against the
Lord's Resistance Army.
Will this be enough to stop the Lord's Resistance Army? It's too soon to tell. Everything is
worth trying once if there is even a slight chance that the children of Uganda won't be abducted
and forced into the slave driven circumstances of fighting for the Lord's Resistance Army. There
is no idea that isn't worth trying if it can safely give hope to the thousands of Uganda natives that
they will no longer have their villages pillaged, raped, and murderded, in "the name of the Lord,"
delivered by the spiritual radicalist, Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army.