Posted on 06/29/2006 2:23:19 PM PDT by Sax
LRA victim: 'I cannot forget and forgive' 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.
Kony breaks his silence Night commuters Child soldiers
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.
The man was blessed with a strong wife.
One of the most brutal barbaric groups I have ever heard of...Lord's Army was supported financially by the muslim Sudanese regime.
What? Muslims did this? I'm shocked, I tell you. Shocked.
THey're not Moslems, they're just supported by them. They're really a wacko "Christian" cult, which is really anything but Christian.
Muslims did this? I'm shocked, I tell you. Shocked
I despair for this poor man's plight...I truly do....but I've been saying on this forum for years now:
Africa is just one, big, humongous s**thole that should be obliterated from the earth....along with most of the Middle East. The world would be far, far better off.
That is a hard thing to say and a hard thing to hear.
But I wonder how many people, in secret, have thought it?
Consider what the rulers of these holes do to their people. Would it in fact be a kindness to end the misery, morality aside (We know that is wrong), but how valuable is a miserable, tortured, doomed and futile life under these systems?
Much of Africa is an open sore of human misery crying out for mercy. I suppose some in North Korea might be defined so.
At one time, we had plagues running wild to exert some kind of control...But we outlaw DDT and doom people to malaria, and otherwise tamper with the natural order, often to Feel Good about "Saving people".
Saving them for WHAT? This?
He said they cut off his lips, but they look fine. Frankly, I don't see the horror he sees in the mirror. So, his hands are gone but he's alive to hopefully see justice done for those who didn't live. Be thankful he's alive to see his son born. The real horror is that he's blighted his son with such a name.
When I hear stories of barbarism like this, I can't imagine hating anyone enough to do things like this to anyone. It goes beyond hate; it indicates an empty soul. These are truly humans without God and without conscience. I'm not sure that anything short of a bullet could rehabilitate them.
"The center part of his upper lip is gone. His ears are gone, too. Take a moment and think about how agonizing it must be to have parts of your own body hacked off.
Hope you are happy for posting such crap that gives this sites enemies some fine ammo!
Disgusting. I in no wise approve of Rightonline's post!
They're airplane flight away from your front door.
Well just get over it.
.....and while you're at it, give me evidence that I'm wrong.
He just posts the truth, if u can't handle it.............move on
The NIF was a close ally of Saddam Hussein...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.