Uganda

A DECADE AFTER achieving independence from Britain in 1962, the Republic of Uganda began a 14-year period marked by dictatorial governance, civil war, mass murders, atrocities, and extensive human rights abuses that sapped the country of both human and physical resources. By the end of that period, some 400,000 Ugandans had lost their lives. In 1987, many young Ugandans came under the influence of Joseph Kony, who further drained the country of its resources by recruiting soldiers for what he called The Lord's Resistance Army. Kony's tactics involved kidnapping children between the ages of eight and 12 and coercing them to be soldiers by threatening their lives and the lives of their families. Even after Kony was expelled, he continued to reinforce this children's army ...