Posted on 06/29/2006 10:51:22 AM PDT by The Lion Roars
Following recent comments from Lord's Resistance Army rebel leader Joseph Kony in which he denied committing atrocities, Ugandan Ochola John, 25, responds by telling his story. He was abducted by rebels from his village, Namkora in northern Uganda, which was attacked in February 2002. During the attack 50 people were axed to death and he was one of 35 abductees.
Ochola John was deformed by rebels from Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army I wish I could be born again. It hurts me to see my reflection because of the way I now look.
The memories of it all are so painful.
It was in the night when I saw a number of torches flash at me. I was commanded to lie down facing the ground. As I did so, the rebels began raiding other houses around me.
They arrested many - tying, and lying the victims on the ground in three lines.
People were screaming from all corners of our village.
Two men were tied and forced onto the ground where their heads were joined together. The rebels tried to force me to pick up a log and hit their heads but I refused so one came for me with a knife and cut off my left ear. He accused me of being a government soldier and said that I would be finished off if I failed to smash their heads.
But then, they started smashing the people's heads themselves. I was put in the middle as they smashed the people's heads.
Abducted
At about 0700 in the morning, they led 35 of us into the bush. About five kms (approximately three miles) from the scene they began taunting me, saying that I was big-headed, and because I refused to respect them I would be cooked alive.
They kept on beating us and they denied food or water from us. We complained saying we were hungry and thirsty. They stopped raping the women that were in our group and acted as though they were going to let us eat and drink. The ladies were forced to boil water in a big tin.
Shortly after this they announced that we would eat the government soldier - supposedly, me.
For a long time, the rebels took turns at beating us men with hot metal, and raping the girls.
I was already spiritually dead.
They returned to me at some point and re-tied me before chopping off my lips. They then cut off my right ear and my nose.
Some time later their commander Joseph Kony phoned, telling them to leave the place immediately.
We were then relocated about 15km further into the bush.
Bad omen
I was bleeding. I could not cry anymore and for two days I couldn't drink water.
The rebels debated for two days whether or not I was to be killed. They told me I was a bad omen and so must suffer.
My wounds had begun to rot. The smell was so bad. But still they refused me any treatment.
Then on the seventh day, because I never expected to live, I insulted their commander in the hope that in revenge he would kill me.
He just ordered his soldiers to cut off my hands. They did.
That evening I remember seeing my fellow female abductees crying. One of them had been killed and another had had her breast cut off.
I don't know how but by what I think was the eleventh day of being abducted I was still living.
Helpless
The rebels kept telling me that I would soon be dead. They picked out two of the starving, tired girls that could hardly even walk from being repeatedly raped and ordered them to take me home.
The three of us were helpless. The girls were crying, inconsolably, when some government soldiers found us following a further night spent out in the open.
They took us straight to the nearest hospital where we received treatment. On reaching hospital, my wife came to see me with my parents, relatives and friends.
They found it hard to see me as a human being. I was rotting, smelly and deformed.
Time
My wife could not find words to speak to me. She just felt very sick.
My thoughts were filled with bitterness. I hated life and wished that I had just been killed. All I wanted was to commit suicide and die.
Ochola John and his wife called their baby boy Anywar, which in their Luo language means an insult or an abuse
My wife started taking care of me in the hospital. I had asked her to leave me alone, explaining that because I was deformed, I couldn't be her husband anymore.
She refused. Over and over she rejected my request, saying that the baby she was carrying for us, the child we were expecting, needed a father.
She kept saying that I hadn't asked to be deformed like that and someday God would let me know why I had been put through such an ordeal.
My wife, Grace, with time helped to suppress my terrible feelings and thoughts.
When our baby boy was born, I named him Anywar, which in our Luo language means an insult or an abuse.
I named him so because of what the Lord's Resistance Army leader, Joseph Kony, did to me.
I try, but I cannot forgive, and I cannot forget.
Absolutely sickening and disgusting beyond words. He is scarred for life, inside and out.
Good Lord....
What is in a human that can allow him to do this to another human?
Such atrocity! Kony deserves to have done to him what his men did to this young man...right before he is hanged.
The motivation is demonic.
Ironically in the guise of the "Lords resistance Army"
Fear. Dark, abject fear of the unknown, of demons, of powers conspiring against one. The same fear that has scarred the African subcontinent for millenia. The only way to alleviate such culturally ingrained fear is to take action against those you believe are in league with your enemies. By killing or mutilating such hapless people and thereby "proving them weak", these fearful man/boys hope to reestablish their own courage and manhood. But of course it never works.
The motivation is demonic, in a sense - for it springs directly from an excessive fear of the supernatural by the uneducated.
Servants of Satan come in many guises, but they often disguise themselves as either servants of man or God.
Fear always springs from ignorance.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Lords Resistance Army
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord's_Resistance_Army
The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)[1], formed in 1987, is a rebel paramilitary group operating mainly in northern Uganda. The group is engaged in an armed rebellion against the Ugandan government in what is now one of Africa's longest-running conflicts. It is led by Joseph Kony, who proclaims himself a spirit medium, and apparently wishes to establish a state based on his unique interpretation of Biblical millenarianism. The LRA have been accused of widespread human rights violations, including the abduction of civilians, the use of child soldiers and a number of massacres.
On 8 July and 27 September 2005, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti, and LRA commanders Raska Lukwiya, Okot Odiambo and Dominic Ongwen. The warrants were filed under seal; public redacted versions were released on 13 October 2005, soon after the death of Ongwen in a battle with the UPDF.[12] These were the first warrants issued by the ICC since it was established in 2002. Details of the warrants had been sent to the three countries where the LRA is active: Uganda, Sudan and the DRC. The LRA leadership had long stated that they would never surrender unless they were granted immunity from prosecution, and the ICC order to arrest them seemed to guarantee that the insurgency will not have a negotiated end.[13]
Thx for the info. /i know the LRA are scum, but is the Ugandan govt any better?
Africa (n) - see 'quagmire', 'tragedy'
honestly i dont know. but this inappropriately named lords resistance army is a band of murderers.
honestly i dont know. but this inappropriately named lords resistance army is a band of murderers.
I'm pretty sure the government isn't all goodness and light but they can't be any worse than the Satan Resistance Army.
And Museveni wants to give him amnesty. Of course the UPDF are responsible for a fair share of the atrocities committed in the north and a number of senior military and government officials have benefitted financially from the war.
soo much misery because of one sob. i dont know what to say!! those pictures above are worth a thousand columns.
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