FROM:     INTERNET:ronej@hrw.org, 
DATE:     3/19/98 1:35 PM

Sudan Complicit in Child Abduction by Ugandan Rebels


A Human Rights Watch report, The Scars of Death, documents  the
abduction and killing of children from northern Uganda  by a rebel
group calling itself the Lord's Resistance Army  (LRA), and the
complicity of the Sudan government in these  gross abuses. The full
report, dated September 1997, is  available  at:

http://www.hrw.org/hrw/reports97/uganda/index.html  

The heavily-armed LRA rebels abduct children as young as  eight
from their schools and homes.  The children are forced  to carry
heavy loads, act as personal servants to the  rebels, and, in the case of
girls, serve as "wives" to rebel  commanders.  Abducted children
undergo a brutal initiation  into rebel life; they are forced to
participate in acts of  extreme violence, often compelled to help beat
or hack to  death fellow child captives who have attempted to escape.  
The rebels march their child captives to base camps in  neighboring
southern Sudan, and many die of disease or  starvation during the
march.  Those who survive the journey  are forced to undergo
rudimentary military training and then  forced into combat against
the Ugandan army and the rebel  Sudan People's Liberation Army. 
Many of the children are  killed during the fighting.  Recent UNICEF
estimates place  the number of abducted children as high as ten
thousand.

While undoubtedly the LRA is directly responsible for  perpetrating
gross abuses against Ugandan children, the  government of Sudan
shares a part of that responsibility.   Children who had recently
escaped from LRA captivity  reported that they were brought across
the Ugandan border to  LRA base camps in government-controlled
southern Sudan,  where they were trained and armed to fight.  They
reported  that the Sudanese army supplied the LRA with food
supplies,  vehicles, and arms.  In return, the LRA, and the captive 
children who form the bulk of the LRA forces, are used by  the
Sudanese government to fight against the SPLA in Sudan's  own civil
war.  The Sudanese government is thus complicit in  the LRA's
atrocities against Ugandan children.  

Human Rights Watch has called on the Sudanese government to use
its influence with the LRA to secure the release of  abducted
Ugandan children and to halt further abductions.   Whatever
differences exist between the governments of Sudan  and Uganda,
and the armed groups enjoying their support,  Khartoum should stand
firm against the LRA's outrageous  conduct against Ugandan
children. 

NOTE: The March 23, 1998 issue of The New Yorker carries an
article by Elizabeth Rubin on the LRA and the Sudan  government's
involvement in it, "Our Children Are Killing  Us."