Children in Armed Conflict, in Uganda and around the world

Olara Otunnu speaks to KPFA Radio and AfrobeatRadio.net

Olara Otunnu, presidential candidate of the Ugandan
Peoples' Congress, and former UN Undersecretary-General 
and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict 

On New Year's Eve, I spoke to Olara Otunnu for KPFA News about children in armed conflict regions, as the holiday season closed.

Acholiland, the homeland of the Acholi
people in Northern Uganda.  Acholi
also live in Southern Sudan. 

Olara is a Ugandan lawyer and human rights advocate, who served as President of the International Peace Academy from 1990-1998, as UN Under-Secretary General and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict  from 1997 to 2005, then as President of the LBL Foundation for Children based in New York City.

This is the complete conversation, not only about children in armed conflict regions, but also about Uganda, Uganda's war and occupation in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, and U.S. backing for Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni even as he made war on Congo and on Olara's own Acholi people of Northern Uganda.



http://www.anngarrison.com/images/mp3s/olaraafrobeat2.mp3  (Audio link.)

Acholi children in an Internally Displaced Persons 

(IDP) camp in Kitgum, in Northern Uganda. 

"They think that a refugee camp is home."  -Olara Otunnu