Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2008, pp. 129-166
 

Innocent Murderers? Abducted Children in the Lord’s Resistance Army

Terra Manca
University of Alberta

Abstract

For over twenty-one years, a guerrilla force known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has been terrorizing the people of northern Uganda. The LRA abducts children to help it fight against local civilians and the Ugandan government. LRA commanders use extreme violence to control these children. The LRA justifies the use of this violence with its secretive spiritual and political ambitions. Many of the children in the LRA commit horrendous acts, such as mutilations and murders, against civilians in a effort to survive while they await the opportunity to escape. Some of these children eventually internalize the violence that the LRA subjects them to and become willing participants in the movement. In this article, I discuss how the LRA’s organization, its use of religious doctrine, and its use of physical coercion manipulate children in an effort to create obedient members of the LRA.

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