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Uganda Turns Over Child Soldiers
Ugandan officials turned over 163 child soldiers, some as young as 9 years old, to the United Nations on Thursday for eventual return to their homes.
The children were taken from Congo last August to a military training school in Kyakwanzi, 80 miles west of Uganda's capital, Kampala.
They were part of a group of about 700 Congolese combatants who were evacuated from the town of Bunia for their own protection, camp commandant Maj. Bernard Obola said. He said the adult soldiers returned to Congo on Feb. 21.
The group had been involved in a mutiny against a Ugandan-backed rebel leader, Ernest Wamba Dia Wamba. Wamba has since been replaced.
Human rights groups have complained about Uganda harboring Congolese child soldiers, and the Congolese government accused the Ugandan army of kidnapping them.
But Ugandan officials insist the children were airlifted out of Bunia for their own protection and that they did not undergo military training.
The United Nations Children's Fund first took the children to the Kiryandondo Trauma Counseling Center, 100 miles northwest of Kampala. The children will undergo psychotherapy for several weeks while officials trace their families in eastern Congo, mostly in villages around Bunia.
``We have to establish contacts around Bunia and look for their families. We have to work out how they will reintegrate with their families and the communities and see how they can re-enter schools in Congo,'' explained Michael Sedibe, head of the UNICEF office in Uganda. ``We shall continue to fight against the involvement of children in wars.''
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