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Margaret Aloyo (Aloyo meaning "No Escape")
is 42 years old. She is the sole income earner for her eight children.
The father of the children died of AIDS when he was forty years old.
Margaret and her five year old daughter are HIV positive. The five-year-old
is currently receiving treatment at the local hospital - a twenty minute walk away.
Neither Margaret nor her daughter are receiving life prolonging ARV (Anti
Retroviral) medication.
Another of her children died when they were only eight months due to meningitis.
Margaret and her family have been displaced from their village for many years.
Her village is thirty-five miles away from Kitgum.
Seven years ago, the LRA raided her village. Many people were killed.
Margaret's uncle had his hands and lips cut off. Some people were kidnapped,
but Margaret was spared. Her sons - Jeffery and Sunday - were not so lucky.
Jeffery's and Sunday's story of survival and death can be found below.
Many older ladies were taken as well to carry precious food supplies with them.
Escaped ladies said that they walked many miles with the rebels. Sores and
blisters covered their feet. If any of them said they were tired, or collapsed
from exhaustion, the soldiers said they would give them rest and promptly shot them.
She receives no help from the UN sponsored World Food Program (WFP) - she missed
the registration day.
She often begs her neighbors for any menial tasks she might perform for money -
"Can I fetch water? Can I break bricks?"
She tends to work one day and cooks and eats the next, which means that her family
usually gets one meal every two day.
Jeffery's and Sunday's Story
Seven years ago, Jeffery was with his family in their village when the heard word
that the LRA was coming. They all fled to the bush and hid. Jeffery's
younger sister was sick and a cough was threatening to escape. Margaret, Jeffery's
mother, was faced with a horrible decision. Smother her child and stay hidden
with her family, or let her cough and give away their position. She chose
to let her cough.
The LRA rebels descended on their position and they were discovered. Jeffery's
family and everybody else that was captured was rounded up in the village.
Jeffery and his seven year old brother, Sunday Nakony (Nakony meaning "helper"),
were tied together with forty five other village children and marched to the Sudanese
border with LRA. They were forced to carry plundered food with them.
On the way, Sunday got very tired and his legs began to swell. One LRA soldier
asked if was tired and would like to rest. Simon said yes. The soldier
beheaded Simon with a machete and his body was left at the side of the road.
This is a common tactic used by the LRA to desensitize the children to violence.
A newly kidnapped child is made an example of.
It keeps the other children
in line. Other children are often forced to do the killing.
The group that Jeffery met up with other kidnapped children - 500 in all - and they
crossed into the Sudan.
Jeffery was given basic training, a gun and ended up fighting for the LRA for seven
years.
During that time, Jeffery says he killed fifteen people and was involved in many
of the horrible things that LRA are noted for. Mutilations, rape, kidnapping,
village and IDP Camp raids and so on.
When Spike asked Jeffery what the hardest thing was, she says his voice becomes
quiet and he tells the story of his time with Lieutenant Atto. Lieutenant
Atto (Atto means "Dead Body") was a 38 year old female in the LRA army. She
wanted Jeffery to be her lover as the "younger boys have more energy". She
was his lover - or more accurately victim of rape - for three months before she
tired of him and got another young lover. She was later killed in an ambush.
During an IDP camp (Internally Displaced People camp) raid,
Jeffery managed to make his escape. Jeffery said that Lieutenant Atto and
others had warned of even thinking about escape because Joseph Kony - the head of
the LRA - would find out via the spirit of Lakwena that was inhabiting
him.
Jeffery put all thought of escape out his mind until he had his opportunity.
Jeffery had not eaten for three days and was very hungry. During the IDP camp
raid, Jeffery found himself alone inside a hut and gorged himself on the food within.
A heavily armed Ugandan Army vehicle pulled up right outside the hut Jeffery was
in. He hid and kept quiet.
Eventually the vehicle moved away and so did the other rebels. Jeffery had
got his chance to escape. He eventually made his way to a shelter where escaped
child soldiers go.
Being in the LRA for such a long time, the Ugandan Army wanted him to join them
and show them their hideouts and so on. But Jeffery had had enough and refused.
Jeffery spent one month at the shelter receiving consoling before being released.
He was met outside by his family - including his mother Margaret - and was welcomed
back into the family. He had thought they were all dead. His family
had also thought Jeffery was dead via a false report and had gone so far as to organize
a funeral service so that his spirit may be at peace.
Many child soldiers are not so lucky. Some of them had been forced to kill
their family members as an act of loyalty. Their family members are often
not as forgiving as Jeffery's and they are refused entry back into the family.
You killed our mother! How dare you return!
Jeffery underwent a ritual when he returned to Kitgum. This involved drinking
a very bitter wine and breaking an egg under his foot to break ties with his previous
life.
Jeffery harbors no ill feelings towards other LRA soldiers. Like him, he knows
that they are victims and are being forced to do what they do. Failure to
do so
will cost them their lives. He sees the man who beheaded his brother
Sunday around town. He - in an act of amazing forgiveness and understanding
- harbors no ill feelings to him either.
This is common among the people of Kitgum. The know that most of the LRA are
people like Jeffery. The just want them to come home. They only want
peace now. They are not interested in justice.
Jeffery is back at school studying in P7, the last year of primary. Many of
his friends are three years ahead of him in S3 and he says school gets a bit lonely
sometimes - he is the eldest in the class by far. He hopes to become a doctor one day. At the moment, he cannot afford his school fees and is hoping to
find a sponsor.
He still has trouble sleeping and only gets snatches of sleep during the day and
night. Every time he closes
his eyes he sees images of his life with the LRA.
Jeffery still has a strong faith and prays everyday. He says God must of been
sleeping when he was kidnapped.
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