UGANDA SCRIPT

 

CAR DRIVING

 

I’m in the countryside outside the northern Ugandan town of Gulu , on my way to see a government project for former rebels of the notoriously brutal Lords Resistance Army.

 

I'm with Captain Ray Apire, a former rebel commander.

 

UPSOF ANNA LABORA FARM

 

Captain Apire came home in 2004, after seventeen years as an influential LRA officer. 

 

Like other rebel commanders, he has been granted amnesty… in an attempt to help bring peace to this region.

 

UPSOUND RAY (SUBTITLES)

We have denounced rebellion, we have left the gun we have come to handle hoes.

FADE THROUGH TO THE PATROL

 

The conflict in the north began twenty years ago as a conventional anti-government rebellion.

 

But it soon mutated into something altogether different - backed by the Sudanese government across the border.

 

FADE INTO LRA PICTURES

 

The LRA are led by self styled prophet Joseph Kony.   

 

He says he wants to rule Uganda by the Biblical ten commandmants.

 

This year, for the first time in over a decade, the government and the LRA are involved in serious peace talks.

 

The security situation in the north has now improved dramatically.

 

But the conflict isn’t over yet - and its consequences are still felt.

 

At the height of the insecurity, close to two million people were driven from their homes into overcrowded displaced camps. 

 

The UN calls this one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.

 

PICTURES OF CHILDREN AT RACHELE REHABILIATION CENRE

 

But it is the children who have suffered most. 

 

The  LRA is known for abducting new recruits.

 

Boys as young as ten have been kidnapped, given guns and forced to commit atrocities.    

 

PICTURES OF ME

 

I've been reporting in this region for twelve years,  but the stories these children never ail  to shock.   

 

Bosco Nyer was abducted when he was eleven, and stayed with the rebels for four years. 

 

BOSCO

One day one of our friends tried to escape and when he was caught he was hacked to death. We ourselves were forced to chop him. Even I had to do it. I was forced to do it.

How did you feel about that?

I can’t forget it. Even now I have nightmares about it when I feel myself killing again.

 

COUNSELLOR DIRECTING

 

For the past decade, rehabilitation centres -  like this one -  helped children who escaped   from the LRA come to terms with their experiences.

 

A trauma counsellor divides them into rebels, government troops and civilians so they can re-enact a rebel raid as part of their therapy.

 

PICTURE OF BOY SPRINKLING

 

This boy pretends to be a rebel commander preparing his troops for battle.  

 

He sprinkles them with holy water to protect them from bullets.  

 

The children are susceptible to the supernatural beliefs that underlie the LRA. 

 

Many remain convinced that the rebel leader, Joseph Kony has real spiritual powers

 

FIGHTING STARTS

 

LRA battles have always been bloody, with fighters forbidden to take cover.

 

The rebels abducted adults, but they have always preferred children.

 

Over twenty thousand have been taken since the war began.  

 

Girls were distributed as wives to rebel commanders.

 

 

Many returned home with children.

 

DOREEN

When I was 14 I was given to a commander as a wife.

What was he like, was he good to you? How was he?

He was bad. When I didn’t want to sleep with him he’d beat me and force me to sleep with him. It was the same for all the girls.

 

PICTURES OF CIVILIANS

 

The LRA’s brutality is staggering. 

 

Michael was mutilated by a rebel commander, who accused him of being a government soldier.   

 

In fact, Michael was a primary school student -  but his pleading was ignored. 

 

INSERT MICHAEL.

‘Two of you, tie the man back and get a sharp panga’

A machete?

Hmm, a sharp panga .. ‘and directly cut them off. And here, put his fingers into the big tree and cut them off and leave the man there. And tell him to go to the village to tell the people that whenever people come to the village they will do the same thing to them’.

So they were making an example of you. They cut your lips, your ears and your fingers – they wanted you to go back and tell people.

Yes.

CAR WITH ESCORTS

 

Civilians have born the brunt of this conflict.

 

Until last April, roads were insecure, and aid agencies used military escorts to get around. 

 

A population of peasant farmer have been displaced into camps like these.

 

Some are now venturing out to till their land. 

 

But many still rely on food hand outs to survive.

 

There's not enough water or medicine.

 

There’s nothing for people to do.    

 

And until recently… it wasn’t even safe.    

 

Pictures of woman crawling out of hut

 

When I visited this camp earlier in the year, rebels had just been to this woman’s house, seized her and her daughter... and forced them to carry looted property.

 

LADY

How was her daughter when she last saw her, was she OK?

When they released me she was already far away.

I am so sorry madam

 

This was the second time the child was abducted. 

 

She knew the LRA routinely kill children who escape, and are recaptured.

 

JACKSON ACTUALITY:

When an abductee escapes it is just a regulation that that person should be killed. So if you escape and are rearrested you will be killed.

Jackson Achama was a major in the LRA. 

 

He explains the rationale behind such atrocities.

 

INSERT JACKSON

And usually the person who is rearrested after he has escaped will be killed in front of the other abductees so that it will instill fear in them so that they will not escape.

LUNCH SHOTS

 

I met Major Achama - and other ex senior rebels commanders -  in the main hotel in Gulu town.

 

They’ve returned home in the last two years, after being captured or surrendering.

 

Captain Ray Apire, preached the LRA’s religious gospel.

Brigadier Michael Acelam Odong was once Joseph Kony’s chief escort.

Brigadier Kenneth  Banya, was the LRA leaders senior advisor.

 

So how do they explain the abduction of children?

 

RAY AND JACKSON

Jesus also abducted people. People never wanted to join Jesus willingly so he also abducted people because the Kingdom of God calls for everybody. So anybody he found he just abducts.

RAY

Jesus Christ said: ‘Go and teach, go and abduct’

He said ‘go and abduct?’ I don’t remember that being in the Bible.

Jesus Christ said: ‘you are no longer going to be fishermen, you are going to catch people instead of fish’.

Don’t you think he meant their souls? He didn’t mean physically tying them with a rope…

That means abducting!

JACKSON

Did you have abducted girls as your wives, you had several?

Yes, abducted girls, I have them as my wives, they have stayed with me up to now.

They stayed with you when you came out of the bush

Yes, up to now they are with me.

Did you feel bad taking an abducted girl as your wife, one who was kidnapped?

You see, love is built. When you have built love between you and the abductee - all of us are abductees: I was abducted, she was abducted - so if she is given to me as a wife, if we build our love, we can continue to live, that’s no problem

 

And what about Joseph Kony, the rebel leader?   

 

These men once worked alongside him.

 

ACTUALITY COMMANDERS ON KONY

He claims he is a prophet sent by God.

Do you believe that, do you believe he has that power?

The spiritual power was exercised and I do believe he has that spirit.

Ray

Do you believe Joseph Kony is a Godly man?

What he predicted comes true. But mostly he is from God.

I don’t understand how he can be from God and yet do such terrible things, like abduct children and harm people so terribly.

You know, when God wants to return people to him he punishes them.. usually God punishes people when he wants them to return to him.

So, by making people suffer the LRA is bringing people closer to God?

Yes

It’s strange to hear the LRA defended with these bizarre Biblical interpretation, particularly as Joseph Kony now presents himself as a ‘freedom fighter’.

 

BREAK

 

LAUGHING WITH MICHAEL ETC

 

Until this year, the  rebel Lords Resistance Army was a closed organisation, hostile to journalists.

 

INSERT…. Brig Michael

I was flanking you from behind.

You were flanking me from behind? I didn’t know that at the time, I felt secure at ‘Mile 41’ because I had the Sudanese rebels around me.

It's something that's brought home to me… when Michael Acelam Odong, who used to be Joseph Kony's chief escort, described how he was sent by the rebel leader to abduct me when I was reporting here in 1997.

 

INSERT BRIGADIER MICHAEL

What would have happened if you’d caught me?

I would have taken you to the Boss, because he is the one that gave me the order that: ‘you go and bring.. I know that Anna Borzello, the journalist, is in the field. Bring her alive don’t shoot her, don’t kill her, I want her alive with me here’. Then we went. We went very near you – about 150/200 meters. After that the deputy of Kony told me: ‘No, you leave her, that is an international journalist.’

But what would have happened if you had caught me?

We will send you to the HQ where Kony is.

Then what?

I don’t know

PICTURES OF WALKING AWAY.

 

I'd always imagined these commanders would be incoherent,  evil men.

 

But despite any atrocities they may have committed… they are articulate, even charming … and insist they too are victims of this war.

 

PICTURES OF AMNESTY GATES OPENING

 

The former commanders are living freely in Uganda thanks to an amnesty law.

 

Six years ago, the Ugandan government offered the Amnesty to all LRA fighters, partly to encourage the leadership to come back home.  

 

PICTURES GIRLS WITH BABY

 

Seasoned officers, child abductees, wives with their babies…. all have been eligible for a document exempting them from prosecution for crimes committed in the bush.

 

INSERT MARY

The Amnesty came about as a demand from the people because this war has dragged on for a long time and the people felt that if we can forgive the rebellion in the N, forgive them and ask them to come out, then maybe this war will come to an end. 

Mary Odong is the Gulu head of the Amnesty Commission.  

 

Her job involves welcoming back former fighters who escaped or are captured.

 

These girls were briefly abducted, and used as porters.  

 

The LRA has always warned recruits like these they’ll be killed if they come home. 

 

Mary assured them they’d be safe.

 

RADIO MEGA

 

Many fighters learned about the amnesty from this radio station, Mega FM. 

 

They broadcast a programme – “come back home” - to convince rebels to surrender.

 

RAY

 

Commanders like Ray Apire called out to their former colleagues by name.

 

UPSOF

 

Ray himself returned home after hearing his wife, who he’d sent ahead, give a coded message of assurance over the airwaves. 

 

And in turn…   he was heard.

 

BANYA

 

They said: ‘Banya and other commanders you come out, the government has given amnesty and people of Acholi have forgiven us, if you come there is no problem’.

Did you believe it when you first heard it on the radio?

At first I couldn’t, but I got encouraged because I trusted Ray from the bush and these commanders. So I knew they were not deceiving me so I decided to come.

 

PARADE

 

Thousands of former fighters have been been granted amnesty.

 

Many were forced out of the bush by increased military pressure, and the fact that the Sudanese withdrew has withdrawn its support.

 

Hundreds have gone on to join the Ugandan army.

 

This entire battalion is made up of ex LRA.

 

SINGING

 

The army says these former rebels make good soldiers. 

 

The LRA are brutal, but their troops are disciplined: used to following orders on pain of death.

 

ACTUALITY ACHOKA

They have adapted very quickly. Human beings are very easy to change. These are young people, quick learners. The problem they had in the past is leadership so with good leadership they are very obedient and very disciplined soldiers. 

CUT AWAY marching soldiers.

 

ACTUALITY ACHOKA

Brigadier Sam Kollo, has been the spokesman for the LRA.

Brigadier Kollo’s job was to defend the LRA. 

 

He came out of the bush last year, after Joseph Kony turned against him.

 

SAM KOLO

Were you surprised at how easily you have been welcomed back, these were your bitterest enemies.

No, I am saying we are Ugandans, it is not a matter of being bitter: if we fought and then overnight we became friends I think that is amazing, you can’t get that kind of spirit anywhere in the world. The culture of Africa, especially in Uganda, is different. You cannot buy that kind of culture to be imposed on Ugandans.

ACHOKA

The legislation of the amnesty law, the policy of reconciliation, it is what we are seeing in practice.

KOLLO

And even the culture of Acholi – there is no word in Acholi for revenge, the revenge is not there.

ANNA

That is very lucky for you Brigadier Kollo, you have benefited from that

KOLLO

Not really lucky, it is the culture, the customary regulation. From the beginning of the creation of the world, there is no revenge in Acholi

 

BICYCLE TAXI

 

There is an impressive show of forgiveness here in the north. 

 

People have lived side by side with former fighters for years. 

 

This bicycle taxi drive in Gulu town told me he’d been kidnapped and taken to the bush. 

 

There are so many like him, abductees forced to commit atrocities, now trying to live a normal life back home. 

 

But even if they they’ve been granted amnesty, do men like Major Jackson Achama feel responsible their actions.

 

JACKSON

Kony is he only one responsible for issuing orders and no-one objects

Do you feel responsible for any bad tings you did?

Actually I don’t feel responsible because if it was a kind of command structure where people could sit down and discuss operational and military strategies then I could feel I was a bad participant. But people just took orders from him that is all. Sometimes he said ‘The spirit has said do this’.. then you cannot negotiate with the spirit’s orders.

INSERT PICTURE OF KONY

 

So should the line be drawn at Joseph Kony. Should he be lured out of the bush for the offer of amnesty or made to pay for his crimes.

 

PIECE TO CAMERA

There's always been a tension between peace and justice in northern Uganda, but this issue came to the fore recently after the international criminal court issued arrest warrants for the top five rebel commanders.

 

PICTURES OF TOWN

 

The ICC ruling means that if Kony comes out he should, under international law, be tried for war crimes.

 

And while this satisfies a need to make someone pay for the LRAs atrocities,  it also means the peace talks keep faltering.

 

PICTURES OF CHILDREN

 

So what’s more important: ensuring a handful of men face an international court, or letting them off the hook in the hope of bringing peace to millions?

 

Remarkably, many in the north - even some of  the worst affected victims - say they are ready to forgive.

 

INSERT MICHAEL

They can not be punished them. Because we want just them to come out of the bush

So you can forgive them?

Yes, we can forgive them because we want to be in peace.

You can forgive them even though they have done terrible things to you, you can still forgive them?

Yes

Perhaps this is down to a culture of forgiveness.  But more likely… it’s the cry of a people… desperate for peace.  ENDS