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INSIDE AFRICA
The Crisis in Northern Uganda
Aired November 9, 2007 - 12:30:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ISHA SESAY, GUEST HOST: Hello, I'm Isha Sesay filling in for Femi Oke. This is INSIDE AFRICA, your weekly look at life and issues on the continent.
This week, we take a special look at Uganda, where hopes are running high for an end to a long and vicious civil war. We'll talk to the filmmakers of "War/Dance", a critically acclaimed documentary that profile some of the conflict's youngest survivors.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, I'm 14. When I'm singing, I feel like everything is exactly how it used to be.
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SESAY: Also ahead, we'll meet a group of Ugandan women who are being recognized for helping former child soldiers and sex slaves. And we'll examine tensions between Ugandans and the Indian immigrant community.
We begin with the story behind the film "War/Dance." For more than 20 years, northern Uganda has been caught in the grip of an especially brutal rebellion by a group known as the Lord's Resistance Army. Led by Joseph Kony, the LRA is accused of abducting tens of thousands of children and forcing them to become soldiers, porters and sex slaves.
Many former child soldiers recount the horrors of being forced to kill and mutilate their own family members and neighbors. The conflict has displaced millions of Ugandans, who now wait for peace in dangerous, overcrowded, undersupplied camps.
A new documentary "War/Dance" tells a story of a group of children living in one of the camps as they prepare to compete in a national music competition. I spoke to the award-winning filmmakers of "War/Dance", Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine.
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SEAN FINE, DIRECTOR, WAR/DANCE: When we set out to make the film, we - we had just heard that there might be a dance competition in northern Uganda, or in Uganda we just heard that there was this dance competition. So we weren't really sure what film we were going to make when we showed up in northern Uganda.
What we did know, though, is that we wanted to tell a different story, wanted three children to tell their story. And we wanted the children to represent all of the children of northern Uganda.
SESAY: Such difficult experiences for these children, and I was wondering as I watched it how hard it was for you as the filmmakers to get them to open up?
ANDREA NIX FINE, DIRECTOR, WAR/DANCE: Well, I think that's really a testament to Sean's ability to connect with characters when he was filming with them, that they really came to trust him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We lost our parents. The rebels leave us orphans and everything we had before is gone.
NIX FINE: Whenever we start a film, we never bring the cameras up. The first thing we need to do is connect with the people, so then -- and explain what we're doing and why we want to do this. And in this case, you know, this is such an isolated area, it's so hard hit. No one had really asked these kids what has happened to them, and they really wanted to share their stories.
FINE: You know, when a child is sitting there, and you're interviewing a child, and they tell you, you know, I saw my parents' heads get pulled out of a cot in front of me -- it's not the kind of thing where for us we keep pounding away at that interview for the rest of the day. That's it. You know, once they say something like that, we have a few small follow-up questions, but we take a break. You know, we might take a break for two hours; we might just stop filming for the rest of the day.
SESAY: These children, for all intents and purposes, don't have a lot in life. They are living in very, very dire, dire circumstances. Yet they have such pride, such pride in this dance championship that they're performing for. Tell us a little bit more about that, and the relationship they had with, you know, with dance and with music.
FINE: Well, I think it's even - it's even more than just dance and music for them. It's their - it's their tribe. And I think they have a lot of pride for their tribe, which is the Acholi tribe. And when they dance, they talk about - when they dance the traditional Acholi dances, they talk about feeling like they're no longer in the refugee camp.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): In everything we do, if there is music, life becomes so good. Why I want to be a part of music.
FINE: They talk about feeling like they're at home, like things are normal again. They talk about when we'd ask them how do you feel when you dance, they'd say, I just don't think about anything about, you know, except what being Acholi means, how - how important it is to me to be Acholi.
NIX FINE: You know, what you really see when the kids perform music, is they become kids again, and that was a really big part of the storytelling process that we wanted to get across. And it allowed them, you know, to really show the rest of the world that they're not just the victims, they're not just what people have done to them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We know that we are the children from the war zone. We have lost our parents, our sisters. And the fighting has left us with a lot of scars. But that is not where our story ends.
FINE: Different kids deal with trauma in different days, but there is a girl in the film names Rose, and that's - she's a really - she's a really powerful, really powerful little - little girl, and really amazing little girl. Because she - she basically -- when she wasn't dancing, she would be by herself, she would be looking down, she would sometimes be crying. And then I noticed, every time she practiced dance, or her time was to practice dance, she'd get into the - to the group of kids and she'd start smiling ear to ear.
NIX FINE: I think the biggest thing we really want to have happen when people watch this film is to connect with these kids. And, you know, throughout the year's film festivals, that's a response we've been getting. Audiences have really felt that at the end of this film, they can't stop thinking about Dominic, Rose and Nancy. And that's really meant a lot to us, because it said that, you know, we did - we did our jobs. Because if people can't stop thinking about these kids and they start to connect with them in a very human way, our belief is that when you connect on a human level, that's the first step to evoke some change. And what we want afterwards is for people to walk away from this film and say, you know, what's going on, why has this gone on for 20 years, and I didn't know anything about it, or why has this gone on for 20 years, and what's my government doing about it? And why didn't other people know and what can I do about that?
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SESAY: Movie goers can help. All proceeds from "War/Dance" ticket sales will fund relief and development programs in northern Uganda. This film will open this weekend in New York and Los Angeles, and opens in Washington on Friday. For more "War/Dance" release dates, visit www.shineglobal.org.
Well, hopes for a lasting peace in northern Uganda are running high. The Ugandan government and the Lord's Resistance Army signed a three-month extension of a cease-fire that had been due to expire at the end of this month.
They reached the deal during a landmark meeting between Uganda's president and an LRA negotiator. But a key sticking point remains: a set of International Criminal Court warrants against top LRA commanders. The LRA says it will not sign a permanent peace deal until those warrants are lifted.
We get a status report from Ugandan journalist Richard Kavuma of "The Weekly Observer" newspaper.
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RICHARD KAVUMA, UGANDAN JOURNALIST: The Ugandan government (inaudible) has done some - some consultations with some ordinary civilians, and I'm not quite sure of the figures, but the feeling is that because the people have suffered for so long, they're saying if lifting the ICC warrants will bring us peace, let us have maybe a system where the rebels can be tried in Uganda, so that we can have peace.
So I think people have just been - people have suffered so much that they want peace. But again, it is not a homogenous sample. I mean, there are people who are saying, we can't have this kind of impunity. What we are watching with a lot of interest is what happens after the deadline expires, because there is this fatigue that's creeping in among the establishment. And the people are saying the talks can't go on forever. I mean, we've got to bring this to an end and allow the people to resume normal lives.
So I think we'll be watching with keen interest to see what happens, because some people fear that maybe if the rebels are going to run out of options and they still won't sign a peace because they have these warrants on their heads, and then they just won't surrender, then we might see them maybe being isolated internationally, and maybe some military expedition to hunt them down.
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SESAY: That was Ugandan journalist Richard Kavuma there.
Coming up on INSIDE AFRICA, thrown out, but making a comeback. Indian immigrants are returning to Uganda, but how warm is their welcome?
Also ahead, U.S. magazine recognizes a group of Ugandan women devoted to helping former child soldiers and sex slaves.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Making business news in Africa this week. Nigeria is suing three cigarette companies for $40 billion. The government alleges that Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and International Tobacco Limited encouraged underage smoking. Selling cigarettes to children is illegal in Nigeria, but the ban is rarely enforced.
A World Bank report says most African governments are spending too little on agricultural development, or spending their money unwisely. The report says agriculture is a critical sector in the fight against poverty in Africa. The Rwandan news agency quotes a World Bank official as saying Rwanda's agricultural programs are showing positive results and should be a model for the rest of the continent.
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SESAY: Welcome back to INSIDE AFRICA.
Indian immigrants have a long and tumultuous history in Uganda. They first came to build railroads when the country was still a colony. Many of the descendants eventually became big investors in Uganda, but in the 1970s, Idi Amin expelled 80,000 Indian immigrants. Now, they are being invited back, but as Nick Valencia reports from Kampala, a new generation of small- scale Indian investors is facing some old resentment.
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NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In this Kampala business district, some of the merchants are unwelcome.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The government is allowing too many foreigners to come here who don't have enough (inaudible), like the Indians.
VALENCIA: James Kibirigi (ph) competes with Indian immigrants in the roofing materials business.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They should be (inaudible) only. And leave the retail business to indigenous Ugandans.
VALENCIA: In the past, Indians made a name for themselves as big investors in Uganda. In the 1970s, they dominated large-scale enterprises, including the sugar industry. That made them a target for then dictator Idi Amin. Playing on populist sentiment, he kicked them out. Now, hoping to bolster the economy, the government has opened the doors to a new generation of small-scale Indian investors, and their presence has aroused some old resentments.
In April, animosity towards Indians turned violent in Kampala. Riots erupted over the proposed expansion of an Indian-owned sugar plantation in a national park. Two Indians were stoned to death, and two Ugandans also killed.
I was told by several Ugandan businessmen that lingering tension still exists between the Indian community and black indigenous Ugandans, much of it having to do with the belief amongst black Ugandans that the government favors Indian investors, courting them with such things as tax incentives, and land at low cost.
The head of Uganda's Investment Authority doesn't agree. She says everyone in Uganda has equal opportunity.
MAGGIE KIGOZI, EXEC. DIR., UGANDA INVESTMENT AUTHORITY: I don't think I would pinpoint Indians as the only community that was getting away without paying taxes. It was a weakness in the system of tax collection in Uganda. And it is being addressed. Anyone who doesn't pay taxes now will be taken to court or to the tax appeals tribunal.
VALENCIA: Sudhir Ruparelia, a big fish among Indian investors, is currently fighting charges that he owes back taxes and penalties. Despite his legal troubles, he is listed among Uganda's top taxpayers. He says the relationship between Indians and Ugandans is complex.
SUDHIR RUPARELIA, INDIAN BUSINESSMAN: There are three types of Indians in this country. There's the somebody like me, who's been here for - our family has been here for 100 years. And then you have the - the second type of Asians, who are professionals, middle managers. And then you have the other, the third category, they are the newcomers. The newcomers and the middle managers, they have a problem mixing with the Ugandans.
VALENCIA: Resentment towards Indians is not just about money. Many Ugandans say Indians put up cultural barriers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The only thing that bothers me about them is that they don't integrate that much, because they just like to work with themselves.
VALENCIA: Many Indians privately acknowledge the tensions, and many have escape plans in case of another serious backlash. But most operate with the spirit of optimism, and some small Indian businessmen say they have no problems working with Ugandans.
Three years after immigrating, Amin Bhawani says he has no intension of going back to India.
AMIN BHAWANI, INDIAN IMMIGRANT: There are Indian items that are there in India, but in Uganda, they don't have Indian sweets or snacks, and this Chinese (ph) restaurant and Indian food, so that I have been (inaudible) here.
VALENCIA: And people - is business good here?
BHAWANI: Yes.
VALENCIA: Though they are not welcome by everyone, Indians have been doing business in Uganda for more than a century, and many have adopted this country as their home. A statue of Gandhi stands on the banks of the Nile, as a symbol of their influence, an influence that seems unlikely to disappear.
Nick Valencia, CNN, Kampala, Uganda.
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SESAY: The power of forgiveness. Coming up on INSIDE AFRICA, a group of Ugandan women wins international recognition for empowering former child soldiers and sex slaves like themselves.
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SESAY: Welcome back to INSIDE AFRICA. A disturbing hallmark of Uganda's civil war has been the use of child soldiers and sex slaves by the Lord's Resistance Army. The unwilling conscripts suffered devastating psychological damage from enduring shocking brutality, and in many cases, being forced to mete it out. "Glamour" magazine is recognizing a group of Ugandan women devoted to helping them live normal lives. The U.S. magazine brought the leaders of Empowering Hands to New York to receive a "Glamour" women of the year award. As Soledad O'Brien reports, these women have suffered the very same wounds they are trying to heal in others.
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SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On a small patch of earth in northern Uganda, they sing about rebuilding, moving beyond a war that has torn up their country for more than 20 years.
These men and women, videotaped by "Glamour" magazine, were all once child soldiers, forced to murder and mutilate their own countrymen.
MAURINE AKELLO, FORMER CHILD SOLDIER: I was 16 when I was abducted.
O'BRIEN: Maurine was led into the woods and away from her family. She's among the estimated 25,000 who were kidnapped as children and forced to serve in the Lord's Resistance Army or LRA.
Maurine was forced into physical labor and fighting. She was told that an escape attempt could equal death.
AKELLO: I was given to a big man, who forced me into a relationship with him. So with the force he was forcing me, I also stayed with him. And I was also getting a lot of difficulties because I was young. I got pregnant with him.
O'BRIEN: When she did escape, going home was not an option.
(on camera): What was it like to come back to your community? Did they accept you or did they hate you?
AKELLO: They hated me and my child. They hate me because they know that all they have -- they believe that someone who had been abducted or who was in the bush have got a bad thing on her, like the evil, or the evil things.
O'BRIEN: You were cursed?
AKELLO: Yes.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): She found help when she found Empowering Hands, a nonprofit focused on helping escaped child soldiers through counseling and small loans.
The group, formed in 2004, is led by these women, all former child soldiers, all with stories like Maurine's.
(on camera): How did you come to Empowering Hands?
AKELLO: When I escaped, I was not really having any hope for my life or for myself. The most thing that helped me is Empowering Hands. It helped me like in counseling. Because these friends of mine were also counseling me, you know, we also went through the same thing.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): They live on a shoe-string, in huts with no electricity or running water. Just putting food on the table can be back- breaking work. But they found power in the power to forgive and to give.
CINDI LEIVE, EDITOR, "GLAMOUR" MAGAZINE: They can offer forgiveness, because they have been through what these children have been through. And there really is no one else in the world who could do the counseling that they are doing.
O'BRIEN (on camera): Because they've been there?
LEIVE: Because they've been through it.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): As recipients of "Glamour's" Women of the Year award, Empowering Hands will soon be able to buy vans and bicycles to help these women reach more survivors of Uganda's civil war.
(on camera): What kind of a difference will this award make for all of you?
AKELLO: It is now going to help Empowering Hands as a whole, not only the five of us. We should at least also let the world know some of the things. Or we should at least give them some message.
O'BRIEN: And what would that message be?
AKELLO: Yes. The world should also come out and help Uganda as a country so that the long-lasting war stops, so that Uganda gains peace at the world. That they live in peace through the now, because we also need peace.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Soledad O'Brien, CNN, New York.
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SESAY: "Glamour" magazine has just unveiled a women of the year fund initiative to support the causes of its award recipients, and Empowering Hands will be the first group to benefit. To find out how you can contribute, go to www.glamour.com/woty. And be sure to spell glamour with a U.
Next on INSIDE AFRICA, the difference the right medication can make for an HIV-positive child. We'll be right back.
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SESAY: Welcome back to INSIDE AFRICA. These pictures were sent to us by Rob Torrensi (ph) from the United States. He took them all doing humanitarian work near Kampala. The NGO he works for, Many Voices One Song, provides food, educational support and basic health care to Ugandan orphans. Rob tells us that more 1,000 children participate in the program, and 25 percent are HIV-positive. These two pictures show a 7-year-old boy before and after receiving antiretroviral drugs through the program.
Thank you for watching. There's much more to come next week, so please, let INSIDE AFRICA be your window to the continent. Take care now.
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