World Ark Magazine - November/December 2008 - (Page 18)

blending into the trees near biem rom, sudan, a Dinka and his cattle escape attack by government forces, who avoid the forest because they fear ambush by the rebel sudan People’s liberation army. © Getty/Randy Olson Later that day, I caught a ride on a dirt road that led out of town, through one of the hundreds of camps in the area, where people came to live out of fear of attack from the rebels. There were hundreds of mud huts gathered close together, but many were empty. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 872,000 of the displaced people have gone back to their homes. Some of the camps have even started evolving into towns, with permanent buildings going up along the roads that run through them. I headed back into town, where I walked through Gulu’s streets packed with cars and lined with makeshift stalls full of goods. If peace held, these would likely become actual shops someday. Those shops that did exist were covered in bright new paint, put on by telecom companies in exchange for the free advertising. I stopped in a local restaurant where I’d arranged to meet Richard Ocitti, a former child soldier in the Lord’s Resistance Army. When he was 12, the rebels killed his father, nearly killed his mother and kidnapped him. For two years, Ocitti lived in the bush, carried a gun and lived a life well beyond his years. “We did a lot of things,” Ocitti told me as we sipped our sodas. “Terrible things. Sometimes you will be forced to do things like killing, maiming, raping. Sometimes we also faced the battle, so you must do all the duties a soldier must do.” Ocitti was the guard for Okot Odhiambo, one of those indicted by the International Criminal Court. “Some of my friends are still there,” he said. “Others have been killed.” “Did you ever meet Kony?” I asked. “Yes. When I was in Sudan, he used to address us.” “What was he like?” “He’s a young man. Very energetic. He looks friendly. Kony is very friendly.” “Really?” I couldn’t picture that. “Yes, he looks friendly. And even when he is addressing us, you have to see that he has two things in mind. He has a reason for the fighting, because the spirits tell him what to do. He talks to spirits, so one day he says one thing, the next day he can say another thing. So it’s hard to know what he will do.” “Does he have another reason for fighting?” “They always say that we are fighting to liberate our people,” Ocitti said. “Because the current government has totally marginalized us. And we just want the national cake www.heifer.org 18 November/December 2008 | WORLD ARK http://www.heifer.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Ark Magazine - November/December 2008

World Ark Magazine - November/December 2008 Contents Letters For the Record The Good Life Asked and Answered Finding Peace in Africa Sierra Leone on the Mend The Roma: A People Apart Mixed Media Heifer Bulletin Heifer Spirit Calendar First Person

World Ark Magazine - November/December 2008

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