SUFFER THE CHILDREN

LRA leader Joseph Kony is wanted by the ICC for war crimes.

LRA rebels in DR Congo withdrawal

Lord's Resistance Army rebels are leaving their bases in the Democratic Republic of Congo as demanded by a peace deal with Uganda's government.
The truce, signed on Saturday, has a ceasefire coming into effect on Tuesday and gives rebels three weeks to move into assembly points in southern Sudan.
Thousands have died during the 20-year conflict in northern Uganda, and more than one million have fled their homes.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) wants the LRA's top officials - among them Joseph Kony - to face charges including murder, rape and forcibly enlisting children.
The LRA has abducted thousands of children and forced them to fight since the conflict began.

[Abduction, brutalisation and desensitisation: ABC Radio's Radio National program All in the mind aired a harrowing account of the effects of pressing children, some younger than 10 years old, into becoming killers. Transcript and audio download available here.]

Senior Child Protection Specialist Michael Wessells: I've talked with young people in Sierra Leone who said that they were pumped up on what they called 'brown brown' which was mostly amphetamines and cannabis and alcohol, all at once. And the way they used to do the 'brown brown' was they would cut your temple, or your pectoral muscle on your chest and they would literally pack it in to make sure that you had a good healthy dose inside of you. And they would tell me when I went into combat that I felt no fear. And villagers often said that the worst thing was when they saw these small boys' units, when they showed up with what they described as 'that look on their face', they knew that horrible things would happen.
They were out of their minds and some of those small boys' units were involved in committing atrocities. One of the ways that the RUF, the rebel group in Sierra Leone, terrorised villagers was to commit mutilations. They would literally line people up and ask , 'Do you want a long sleeve or a short sleeve?' And if you said long sleeve they'd take a machete and hack your arm off at the elbow and if you said 'A short sleeve,' they'd hack your arm off at the shoulder.