First Kill Your Family: Child Soldiers of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army

337 Pages·2009·8.14 MB·English

by  Peter H. Eichstaedt

current events / history / african studies $24.95 (CAN $27.95)
E
i
and other deadly movements; and what the c
h
global community can do to bring peace and s “ Richard Opio has neither the look of a cold-
t
justice to the region. This insightful analysis a blooded killer nor the heart of one. Yet as his
e
delves into the war’s foundations and argues “Youmustreadthispowerfulbook.PeterEichstaedthasgivenvoicetothevic- d mother and father lay on the ground with their
t
that, much like Rwanda’s genocide, interna- timsofthelargelyunheard-oftragedyofUganda.Thisstorycallsouttoourvery
hands tied, Richard used the blunt end of an
tional intervention is needed to stop Africa’s humanity.”
ax to crush their skulls. He was ordered to do
virulent cycle of violence.
—Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu this by a unit commander of the Lord’s Re-
sistance Army, a rebel group that has terror-
“FirstKillYourFamilyisanemotionalpictureoftheunthinkableconditionsand
ized northern Uganda for twenty years. The
brutalitiesthatIknowfrommyownexperiencesarestillplaguingourchildren
memory racks Richard’s slender body as he
today.ThisbookisacalltoactiontohelpourbrothersandsistersinAfricathat
wipes away tears.”
wecannolongerignore.” Child Soldiers of Uganda
—John Dau,formerLostBoyofSudanandcoauthorofGodGrew
or more than twenty years, beginning in the
TiredofUs:AMemoir and the Lord’s Resistance Army
mid-1980s, the Lord’s Resistance Army has
ravaged northern Uganda. Tens of thousands
“Acompellinglookatalittle-knownAfricanwar,drivenbyamadman,keptalive
have been slaughtered, and thousands more
bybloodyregionalpoliticsandtheapathyofthewiderworld,andwhosevic-
mutilated and traumatized. At least 1.5 million
timsareprimarilywomen,children,andanancientculture.Thisfinefirsthand
people have been driven from a pastoral exis-
accountofthewarthatisaprototypeofthosethatwilldominatethetwenty-first tence into the squalor of refugee camps.
centuryshouldbereadbyanyoneseekingtograpplewiththechallengesofwar The leader of the rebel army is the rarely
andpeaceincomingdecades.” seen Joseph Kony, a former witch doctor and
self-professed spirit medium who continues
—Douglas Farah,authorofMerchantofDeath:Money,Guns,PlanesandtheMan
to evade justice and wield power from some-
WhoMakesWarPossibleandBloodfromStones:TheSecretFinancialNetworkofTerror
where near the Congo–Sudan border. Kony
claims he not only can predict the future but
is the Africa editor for the “Eichstaedt’saccountoftheLord’sResistanceArmyledbyJosephKonyinits
also can control the minds of his fighters. And
Institute of War and Peace Reporting in The ongoingtwenty-yearwarinUgandaisdeeplydisturbing.Ittakesusintothe
control them he does: the Lord’s Resistance
Hague. A veteran journalist, he has worked deepestrecessesofman’sinhumanitytomanthroughtheeyesofchildsoldiers
Army consists of children who are abducted
in locations worldwide, including Slovenia,
whowerekidnappedandpressedintoserviceassoldiersbycompellingthemto from their homes under cover of night. As ini-
Moldova, Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia,
cold-bloodedlykilltheirownparents.Itisabookfilledwithhauntingimagesthat tiation, the boys are forced to commit atroc-
and Uganda, where he was a senior editor for
leaveonegropingforanswers.” ities—murdering their parents, friends, and
Uganda Radio Network. He is the author of If
relatives—and the kidnapped girls are forced
You Poison Us: Uranium and Native Americans. —Mac Maharaj,SouthAfricanactivist,freedomfighter,andauthor,withNelson
into lives of sexual slavery and labor.
Mandela,ofReflectionsinPrison:VoicesfromtheSouthAfricanLiberationStruggle
In First Kill Your Family, veteran journalist
Peter Eichstaedt goes into war-torn villages
and refugee camps, talking to former child
soldiers, child “brides,” and other victims. He
Cover: Villagers on the border between South Sudan
and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, photo by examines the cultlike convictions of the army;
Peter Eichstaedt how a pervasive belief in witchcraft, the spirit
Jacket design: Monica Baziuk world, and the supernatural gave rise to this
Author photo: Dina Horwedel Peter Eichstaedt
Printed in the United States of America (continued on back flap)
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Eichstaedt, Peter H., 1947–
First kill your family : child soldiers of Uganda and the Lord’s
Resistance Army / Peter Eichstaedt.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978–1-55652–799–9
ISBN-10: 1–55652–799–3
1. Children and war—Uganda. 2. Child soldiers—Uganda. 3. Lord’s
Resistance Army. 4. Human rights—Uganda. I. Title.
HQ784.W3E33 2009
303.6'4083096761—dc22 2008018291
Interior design: Jonathan Hahn
Map design: Chris Erichsen
All photos courtesy of the author
Copyright © 2009 by Peter Eichstaedt
All rights reserved
Published by Lawrence Hill Books
An imprint of Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
ISBN 978–1-55652–799–9
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3 2 1
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This book is dedicated to the people of northern Uganda who lost
their lives or suffered at the hands of the Lord’s Resistance Army.
May they find peace and justice.
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Man’s inhumanity to man is not only perpetrated by the
vitriolic actions of those who are bad, it is also perpetrated
by the vitiating inaction of those who are good.
—Martin Luther King Jr.
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First Kill_2nd pages_working 10/21/08 12:15 PM Page ix
Contents
hjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjh
Maps 0x
Preface 0xiii
Chronology 0xvii
Prologue: Richard’s Story 01
1
Faded Luster of the Pearl 07
2
The Lips Are Not There 023
3
Anatomy of an Attack 039
4
God, Grace, and the Aboke Girls 053
5
Witch Doctors, Rattles, and Unholy Ghosts 071
6
A Game of Blood and Spiritualism 091
7
The Arrow Boys 0109
8
Degrees of Darkness 0127
9
Back to the Land 0147
10
The Call for Peace 0167
11
Armed Conflict Is a Health Risk 0183
12
In Search of Joseph Kony 0203
13
Jungle Rendezvous 0223
14
The View from Kilimanjaro 0243
Epilogue: Metamorphosis 0263
Acknowledgments 0279
Notes 0281
Index 0287