The LRA has repeatedly used children to do its dirty work. Professor Bemak has met many of these kids after they escaped or were rescued. He gives an example of how the horror usually begins for a child.
“One night suddenly at the door of his mud hut are three or four soldiers, who start yelling at people, who may kill one or two people in the hut to create fear and obedience. Who start to pull up the 12 year old or 7 year old or 8 year old, physically by the arm. Who force them out and they march them off to the bush,” he said.
During that march to the LRA camp, the children usually see someone killed.
“Just slaughtered or killed or maimed. Left to die. And that’s a very quick lesson very early on – you better shape up (be obedient) or this could be you,” he said.
Being obedient can mean taking part in brutal killings - sometimes being forced to remove bodily organs.
“Those rituals begin to desensitize the very impressionable and afraid youth to what it’s like to be in the Lord’s Resistance Army. That’s one piece of it. The second is they begin to build up a culture where the youth say this is what the norm is. This is what everybody does. When they come out they get hit with a tremendous shock, saying, my God, what did I do?”
That’s where Bemak and the counselors he trains come in. It’s their job to help the kids deal with the guilt, shame, confusion and helplessness. Without help, the former child soldiers are unable to re-enter society. They have trouble holding jobs or having relationships.
最新
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27