Nzara, South Sudanese fleeing reported LRA attacks, August 2010
Back to the LRA bad lands, on a UN backed trip to talk to those displaced by recent raids along the border with the DR Congo.
With a report out from Human Rights Watch on attacks in the Central African Republic, including hundreds of abductions and killings in recent months, on the heels of a report by the Enough project on comparably high abductions and deaths in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, the story has become grimly familiar.
With a report out from Human Rights Watch on attacks in the Central African Republic, including hundreds of abductions and killings in recent months, on the heels of a report by the Enough project on comparably high abductions and deaths in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, the story has become grimly familiar.
LRA soldiers, Nabanga, South Sudan/DRC border, 2006
I've not seen the LRA proper since late 2006, which is when this photograph is from.
I don't think many reporters have seen them since, beyond glimpses in the bush or interviews with those who have surrendered, or in the case of children, rescued.
I wonder if this crew are still around: they were sad individuals. I don't think many of us knew how to handle ex-child soldiers, who were only "ex" because they had grown up, and were acting out the same atrocities they suffered on a new generation of soon to be fighters.
Men who parade with weapons taken off the Guatemalan special forces mown down when they attacked LRA positions, suggest they have shrugged off the innocent child and embraced the movement to sustain it.
Many of the foot soldiers are once children from the communities they now attack: providing another often little mentioned reason why fighting back against those who attack poses extra moral dilemmas.
Who the ' LRA' are now is never clear: after abducting so many for so long outside of Uganda, the 'Ugandan rebel' tag has morphed somewhat awkwardly for an international audience into "Ugandan-led".
How far they are led however is also open to question, but 750 words is not the easiest place to debate that.
Many operate autonomously with the merest of occasional sat-phone calls to the head, an Al-Qaeda jungle model of doom.
Still, those attacked said they believed they were real deal - and yes, there were eyewitnesses -- if the long dreads and odd weapon attachment of an AK-47 bayonet are still to be taken as their calling card.
(That said the dress code of rebel fashion must still be worth mimicking, in that it still strikes terror into those they destroy.)
I don't think many reporters have seen them since, beyond glimpses in the bush or interviews with those who have surrendered, or in the case of children, rescued.
I wonder if this crew are still around: they were sad individuals. I don't think many of us knew how to handle ex-child soldiers, who were only "ex" because they had grown up, and were acting out the same atrocities they suffered on a new generation of soon to be fighters.
Men who parade with weapons taken off the Guatemalan special forces mown down when they attacked LRA positions, suggest they have shrugged off the innocent child and embraced the movement to sustain it.
Many of the foot soldiers are once children from the communities they now attack: providing another often little mentioned reason why fighting back against those who attack poses extra moral dilemmas.
Who the ' LRA' are now is never clear: after abducting so many for so long outside of Uganda, the 'Ugandan rebel' tag has morphed somewhat awkwardly for an international audience into "Ugandan-led".
How far they are led however is also open to question, but 750 words is not the easiest place to debate that.
Many operate autonomously with the merest of occasional sat-phone calls to the head, an Al-Qaeda jungle model of doom.
Still, those attacked said they believed they were real deal - and yes, there were eyewitnesses -- if the long dreads and odd weapon attachment of an AK-47 bayonet are still to be taken as their calling card.
(That said the dress code of rebel fashion must still be worth mimicking, in that it still strikes terror into those they destroy.)
AFP story, Aug 22 2010
So the trip becomes head scratching time, the deeply bleak task of trying to write a story that warrants publication by dint of being worst than the last. Please note I'm happy if I fail.
In a centre run by admirable nuns, a soft spoken man in a neat trilby approaches, one of the many hundreds here displaced by an LRA attack.
During the interview, he states his names as "Charles Edward."
"A very English name," I reply.
"You said that the last time you interviewed me," he shoots back, to my startled surprise.
Too long chasing the same story: next time I go back, let it be because it is the LRA's end...
In a centre run by admirable nuns, a soft spoken man in a neat trilby approaches, one of the many hundreds here displaced by an LRA attack.
During the interview, he states his names as "Charles Edward."
"A very English name," I reply.
"You said that the last time you interviewed me," he shoots back, to my startled surprise.
Too long chasing the same story: next time I go back, let it be because it is the LRA's end...
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