Clergy plead for Ugandan children

By Will Ross
BBC, Kampala

Rebels turn the children into fighters and wives

Religious leaders in the northern Ugandan town of Gulu have spent the night out in the open with thousands of children, who leave their homes every evening for fear of abduction by rebels.

For the last 17 years the Lord's Resistance Army rebels have been abducting children, whom they turn into rebel soldiers.

The United Nations says that in the last year over 5,000 children have been abducted by the rebels.

The religious leaders have now appealed to the UN Security Council to address the issue of conflict in northern Uganda.

Speaking shortly after leaving the bus station where the religious leaders had stayed the night with the children, the Archbishop of Gulu called for the rights of the children of northern Uganda to be protected.

Archbishop John Baptist Odama, who slept on plastic bags and a reed mat, described the conditions the children sleep in as pathetic and appealed for a peaceful end to the conflict.

Fearing abduction by the Lord's Resistance Army rebels, thousands of children walk into the urban centres of northern Uganda every night.

More fighting

They sleep on shop verandas and in any available open space, often with no shelter or blankets.

Less than two kilometres from where the religious leaders and children were sleeping, gunfire rang out on Sunday night, as government troops repulsed an attack by the LRA.

Uganda's atrocious war

Over the last week, the 17-year-long conflict, which has displaced 800,000 civilians, has spread to eastern Uganda, where LRA rebels have attacked villages, abducted civilians and ambushed vehicles.

The rebels are suspected of working with elements of a former rebel group from the area.

Following its reports of the rebel activity in eastern Uganda, a radio station run by the Catholic church in the town of Soroti, has been prevented from broadcasting by the authorities.