REPORTER: Tim Wise
It's early morning at the heavily defended Ngom Oromo camp in Northern Uganda. In a few hours, these soldiers will be off to hunt and kill the religious fanatics of the LRA, the Lord's Resistance Army.
COLONEL FRANCIS OKELLO, UGANDAN ARMY: They are armed and they are fighting the Government. They should leave the civilians out of this conflict which they are in.
The LRA has been terrorising northern Uganda since 1987. After their raids, they slip back over the border into southern Sudan, just behind these hills. Now the Ugandan Government has had enough. They've sent 10,000 troops and support personnel to stamp out the rebels once and for all. The operation is called Iron Fist. The battle is taking place in the border area of Uganda and Sudan. As the army moves out from the camp, the soldiers know that this is probably their best opportunity to crush the rebels.
COLONEL FRANCIS OKELLO: We believe that they are around 1,000 fighters in the whole total of the LRA strength, 1,000 fighters, we believe so.
Operation Iron Fist has flushed the rebels out of their bases in Sudan and now they are on the run. Some of the children abducted by the LRA have escaped and been brought to the camp by the Ugandan army. It's this use of children in their war that has earned the LRA such a terrifying and notorious reputation. Their primary recruiting tactic is to abduct children from their villages in northern Uganda and brainwash them to become fanatical fighters. They tell horrifying stories of their life at the LRA, including cannibalism.
CHARLES (Translation): First they killed one person and made others eat the body. After killing that person, they killed another 300 people. That's what I saw of the massacre.
The LRA child soldiers are brought out for the media at the camp. It's a humiliating experience and they're extremely nervous. They've been told by the LRA that, if captured, the Ugandan army will kill them. Many of the children have been walking for more than a month in extremely harsh conditions with little food and water. 12-year-old Bosco Kanyera tells me with difficulty about his ordeal at the hands of the LRA.
REPORTER: What happens to those who try to escape?
BOSCO KANYERA (Translation): They're killed.
Who'd kill them?
BOSCO KANYERA (Translation): Those in command.
REPORTER: So what will happen to these kids now?
ANDRW GUTTI, UGANDAN ARMY COMMANDER: These kids, we shall take them to the rehabilitation centre, where we are gathering all of them for further handlement because they are traumatised.
And this is a rare photo of the man who controls the LRA and has such a hold over the child soldiers. He preaches that he's on a mission from the Holy Spirit to overthrow the Ugandan Government and set up as Messionic Christian state with him as leader. Dennis Ojwee, a journalist for the national newspaper, 'The New Vision', has been reporting on the war for the past ten years. At one stage he was even abducted by Kony himself.
DENNIS OJWEE, 'THE NEW VISION' JOURNALIST: The fact is, the LRA rebels have turned to be the worst murderers, which is not in line with the Ten Commandments because one of the Ten Commandments says "Thou shall not kill," but they are killers, they are murderers.
Kony's control of the child warriors appears total. He tells them they will be invincible in battle if they chant the right words with conviction. The children live in fear of his perceived powers and still accept them even after escape.
CHARLES (Translation): I know he has powers because he can predict the future... and it happens.
REPORTER: He uses water?
CHARLES (Translation): To sprinkle medicines.
REPORTER: Where's the water from?
CHARLES (Translation): The well.
REPORTER: Do you know which well?
CHARLES (Translation): No, I don't know.
Kony tells them it is God's orders to attack villages and kill people - even their own parents. And those who do not return or are wounded are not committed to God's cause. But Kony is not prepared to bet his own life on this belief.
CHARLES (Translation): I don't know what he uses to protect himself, but if harm is coming to him, he is protected. When he goes to war, he doesn't go himself, he selects children to go and fight. He doesn't go to where the fighting is taking place. He stays behind.
Despite the army's overwhelming presence in the area, they can't seem to stop the LRA. A mere 40 minutes from the camp is a trading village that was attacked only a day earlier. These people are still fleeing the attack. As we arrive, the locals seem fed up with the war.
VILLAGER NO. 1 (Translation): You people should not bring bad things to our place. You children, why do you do all those bad things? We know that there are a lot of enemies in this area. We want to stop this and move forward in peace.
VILLAGER NO. 2 (Translation): They were wearing uniforms the government soldiers wear. This is what happened. When people ran away, they started blasting the shops which you see around here. I don't know what explosives they were using.
After 17 years of attacks from the LRA, the Acholi community has been completely dislocated. Approximately 500,000 people have been displaced, with tens of thousands living in camps like these, with no idea when they can safely return to their homes. In order to better understand this bizarre movement, I came here to the New World Meltar Jerusalem church, run by Severino Lukwiya in the regional capital of Gulu. He was once the leader of the Holy Spirit Movement, the forerunner of the LRA.
SEVERINO LUKWIYA (Translation): We started it because of the evil being done to other people. Here, we didn't have an army, or any guns at that time.
When I asked Severino what he thought of Kony, the answer was typically obscure.
SEVERINO LUKWIYA (Translation): If the people of Uganda want fire, they will have fire.
Given this mad background, it's little wonder that the child soldiers are so traumatised. They are about to begin the first stage of their rehabilitation. They will be taken to the regional centre of Gulu. Commander Andrew Gutti reassures a teacher who also escaped that they are now in safe hands.
ANDREW GUTTI: Greetings to everybody there, those who are still hiding in the bushes, you should tell them to come out and then they should be able to talk to the rest of their brothers at home. That thing is not easy.
But the trip to Gulu is anything but safe. With groups of heavily armed rebels now back in Uganda, elephant grass like this is the ideal place to stage an ambush. After a good night's sleep and a change of clothes, the former child soldiers can start the slow process of rehabilitation. Inside the army headquarters in Gulu, they are taken care of by the child protection unit set up by the local community. Some of the children will also be interrogated here by the army, and their information used in the war against the rebels. The local press are invited to interview the kids. It's a significant occasion. Operation Iron Fist has apparently killed dozens of rebels, but relatively few children have been recovered. That worries the local community, and they're keen to have news of the children. Martin Wokorach has been a trauma councillor for seven years. As many as 15,000 children have been abducted in the war and one of them was his son. He was taken five years ago and has not been heard of since.
MARTIN WOKORACH, TRAUMA COUNSELLOR: When they turn to the abduction of children, they found it was much easier for them to manage the children because they can be easily threatened and easily deceived.
This control over the child soldiers can have devastating effects on the children.
JOSEPH OOLA, FORMER LRA FIGHTER (Translation): I was there when my father was shot. He was in front of me. I remained behind and my other brother was behind me. There were many people. We were told that if anybody tried to do anything silly, they would be shot. They allowed me to go ahead and warned me, if I cried, they'd kill me.
MARTIN WOKORACH: They continue to control the children just by suppression and threats and truly, if a child participates in killing, in a way, if he is forced to kill, maybe his own brother or a relative or somebody, a close friend, then he will begin to think that, how will he go back to live in the community, when he has already participated in killing his own brother?
In the rehabilitation camps, they also have to undo the brainwashing from Kony's rituals. One of them was to smear their bodies with oil and ash to make them bullet-proof.
DENNIS OJWEE: Once somebody is smeared using that Shea oil, he gets protection from bullets or from maybe guns, saying that when you tend to fire at certain persons, the bullet does not hit him.
Young girls who are abducted are given as trophy brides to the LRA commanders. Sunday Acan was abducted at the age of 14 and has spent six years in the bush.
SUNDAY ACAN (Translation): Even if I tell my husband to come back, he won't stay in the village. Even if he returns, he'll keep going back to the bush. I think he's no longer fit to stay in the village.
Since Operation Iron Fist forced the LRA on the run, the appalling conditions have got even worse.
SUNDAY ACAN (Translation): There are two main problems - disease and lack of food. During drought, what we grew, Kony wanted it to last a full year. But it could not last a year. That's what I found out. Children died from disease and lack of food. And because of poor diet, there'd be no mother's milk.
And conditions are now so desperate that Kony is resorting to outright murder.
SUNDAY ACAN (Translation): Kony kills weak children. He selects them and kills them.
While at the rehabilitation centre, word came through that a group of 100 women and young children had been released by the LRA. An army helicopter went to rescue them from Atiak, about 70km from Gulu. And this is what we found. (Group of children crying) This is the largest group ever freed by Kony, who had told his commander to either release them or shoot them - a further sign that the loss of their bases in Sudan had turned the LRA into a desperate and ruthless guerrilla force.
DENNIS OJWEE: That guerrilla fighter is normally used. You have got to reduce the number, set free the weak ones, set free the children who make noise and need a lot of food for feeding, are incapable to fight, and remain possibly with the strong ones.
Many of these babies have deep wounds on their necks from being carried long distances, tied up on the backs of their mothers. Local nurses from the Atiak community immunise the babies and the mothers are given clean clothes to wear. There's concern that as the war against the rebels intensifies, the children will be caught in the crossfire. And that's exactly what happened to Maurice Otto. After being abducted, he was shot through the back of his neck and the bullet exited through his nose. He's lucky to be alive.
MAURICE OTTO (Translation): I don't know who shot me. There was such a stampede and someone called out, "Let's run this way or that," and we were running in all sorts of directions, this way and that way. The army was shooting at us. Some people ran that way, others ran this way. So we tried to run away and that's when I was shot.
Thus far, about 15,000 children have been abducted - about half of those have been rescued. At least 7,000 remain unaccounted for. World Vision are ready to cater for more children, but no-one knows why more haven't been located.
MARTIN WOKORACH: We are getting ourselves set, but, however, I am not really sure what is happening, because we have been waiting for all this time long now coming, maybe two months, but only a very few children are trickling in.
Dancing is used in the rehabilitation process - apart from the children enjoying themselves, it also helps in bonding. And while many children have been indoctrinated to kill for the crazed Kony, few have actually seen him. This photo, seized by the Ugandan army, aroused much interest. Lucy Aloyo knows more about Joseph Kony than most. Abducted at the age of five, she spent six years in Kony's main camp in Sudan. And it seems Kony even trained his own children in the art of killing.
LUCY ALOYO, FORMER LRA CAPTIVE (Translation): I saw it. They killed many people. I don't know what's in his head. Out in the bush he loves his own children very much, yet he kills other children, he must be very strange.
During her years of captivity at Kony's headquarters, Lucy was also made to kill.
LUCY ALOYO (Translation): We killed only four people. There were many killed, but some were killed by other soldiers. There were too many to count, because we found others on the way.
There is no compassion for the man who drove her to kill.
LUCY ALOYO (Translation): I don't think he's a good man. He's killed too many people. When I look at this picture, I'm very angry. They should do whatever it takes to kill him.
These boys will go through a 6-week rehabilitation program before they are allowed to go home. But many are so traumatised by what's happened, they stay much longer.
LOUIS OKELLO, SOCIAL WORKER: So at times you are forced to go beyond the six weeks, because the problem is, you can't reunite a child when you don't see proper transformation. Because at the end of the day, we want to see a positive transformation, I want to see this child putting on at least a smiling face when she goes back home, than when she or he was entered here.
Today, the program is farewelling 13-year-old James Kilama, who has completed six weeks of rehabilitation. He was abducted in February. His brother remains with the LRA, too injured to escape. James seems uncertain about leaving the rehab program. He's developed some strong friendships here. For James, the process of reclaiming his childhood has just begun. Returning to his village holds mixed emotions for James. It was from these very paths that he was abducted and he's still very frightened. But seeing his mother again is almost too much for him to take in. Martin Wokorach tries to help the family understand what James has been through.
MARTIN WOKORACH (Translation): Make sure your children are loved. Everything you do should show that you are giving love to your children. Don't let them wander around, they could be abducted again.
This fear is very real. Just last week, the LRA abducted another 120 civilians in this area. But increasingly, it looks like this is the LRA's last desperate throw of the dice. With operation Iron Fist bearing down on them, it should only be a matter of time before Kony's assault on the innocence of childhood is finally wiped out.
It's early morning at the heavily defended Ngom Oromo camp in Northern Uganda. In a few hours, these soldiers will be off to hunt and kill the religious fanatics of the LRA, the Lord's Resistance Army.
COLONEL FRANCIS OKELLO, UGANDAN ARMY: They are armed and they are fighting the Government. They should leave the civilians out of this conflict which they are in.
The LRA has been terrorising northern Uganda since 1987. After their raids, they slip back over the border into southern Sudan, just behind these hills. Now the Ugandan Government has had enough. They've sent 10,000 troops and support personnel to stamp out the rebels once and for all. The operation is called Iron Fist. The battle is taking place in the border area of Uganda and Sudan. As the army moves out from the camp, the soldiers know that this is probably their best opportunity to crush the rebels.
COLONEL FRANCIS OKELLO: We believe that they are around 1,000 fighters in the whole total of the LRA strength, 1,000 fighters, we believe so.
Operation Iron Fist has flushed the rebels out of their bases in Sudan and now they are on the run. Some of the children abducted by the LRA have escaped and been brought to the camp by the Ugandan army. It's this use of children in their war that has earned the LRA such a terrifying and notorious reputation. Their primary recruiting tactic is to abduct children from their villages in northern Uganda and brainwash them to become fanatical fighters. They tell horrifying stories of their life at the LRA, including cannibalism.
CHARLES (Translation): First they killed one person and made others eat the body. After killing that person, they killed another 300 people. That's what I saw of the massacre.
The LRA child soldiers are brought out for the media at the camp. It's a humiliating experience and they're extremely nervous. They've been told by the LRA that, if captured, the Ugandan army will kill them. Many of the children have been walking for more than a month in extremely harsh conditions with little food and water. 12-year-old Bosco Kanyera tells me with difficulty about his ordeal at the hands of the LRA.
REPORTER: What happens to those who try to escape?
BOSCO KANYERA (Translation): They're killed.
Who'd kill them?
BOSCO KANYERA (Translation): Those in command.
REPORTER: So what will happen to these kids now?
ANDRW GUTTI, UGANDAN ARMY COMMANDER: These kids, we shall take them to the rehabilitation centre, where we are gathering all of them for further handlement because they are traumatised.
And this is a rare photo of the man who controls the LRA and has such a hold over the child soldiers. He preaches that he's on a mission from the Holy Spirit to overthrow the Ugandan Government and set up as Messionic Christian state with him as leader. Dennis Ojwee, a journalist for the national newspaper, 'The New Vision', has been reporting on the war for the past ten years. At one stage he was even abducted by Kony himself.
DENNIS OJWEE, 'THE NEW VISION' JOURNALIST: The fact is, the LRA rebels have turned to be the worst murderers, which is not in line with the Ten Commandments because one of the Ten Commandments says "Thou shall not kill," but they are killers, they are murderers.
Kony's control of the child warriors appears total. He tells them they will be invincible in battle if they chant the right words with conviction. The children live in fear of his perceived powers and still accept them even after escape.
CHARLES (Translation): I know he has powers because he can predict the future... and it happens.
REPORTER: He uses water?
CHARLES (Translation): To sprinkle medicines.
REPORTER: Where's the water from?
CHARLES (Translation): The well.
REPORTER: Do you know which well?
CHARLES (Translation): No, I don't know.
Kony tells them it is God's orders to attack villages and kill people - even their own parents. And those who do not return or are wounded are not committed to God's cause. But Kony is not prepared to bet his own life on this belief.
CHARLES (Translation): I don't know what he uses to protect himself, but if harm is coming to him, he is protected. When he goes to war, he doesn't go himself, he selects children to go and fight. He doesn't go to where the fighting is taking place. He stays behind.
Despite the army's overwhelming presence in the area, they can't seem to stop the LRA. A mere 40 minutes from the camp is a trading village that was attacked only a day earlier. These people are still fleeing the attack. As we arrive, the locals seem fed up with the war.
VILLAGER NO. 1 (Translation): You people should not bring bad things to our place. You children, why do you do all those bad things? We know that there are a lot of enemies in this area. We want to stop this and move forward in peace.
VILLAGER NO. 2 (Translation): They were wearing uniforms the government soldiers wear. This is what happened. When people ran away, they started blasting the shops which you see around here. I don't know what explosives they were using.
After 17 years of attacks from the LRA, the Acholi community has been completely dislocated. Approximately 500,000 people have been displaced, with tens of thousands living in camps like these, with no idea when they can safely return to their homes. In order to better understand this bizarre movement, I came here to the New World Meltar Jerusalem church, run by Severino Lukwiya in the regional capital of Gulu. He was once the leader of the Holy Spirit Movement, the forerunner of the LRA.
SEVERINO LUKWIYA (Translation): We started it because of the evil being done to other people. Here, we didn't have an army, or any guns at that time.
When I asked Severino what he thought of Kony, the answer was typically obscure.
SEVERINO LUKWIYA (Translation): If the people of Uganda want fire, they will have fire.
Given this mad background, it's little wonder that the child soldiers are so traumatised. They are about to begin the first stage of their rehabilitation. They will be taken to the regional centre of Gulu. Commander Andrew Gutti reassures a teacher who also escaped that they are now in safe hands.
ANDREW GUTTI: Greetings to everybody there, those who are still hiding in the bushes, you should tell them to come out and then they should be able to talk to the rest of their brothers at home. That thing is not easy.
But the trip to Gulu is anything but safe. With groups of heavily armed rebels now back in Uganda, elephant grass like this is the ideal place to stage an ambush. After a good night's sleep and a change of clothes, the former child soldiers can start the slow process of rehabilitation. Inside the army headquarters in Gulu, they are taken care of by the child protection unit set up by the local community. Some of the children will also be interrogated here by the army, and their information used in the war against the rebels. The local press are invited to interview the kids. It's a significant occasion. Operation Iron Fist has apparently killed dozens of rebels, but relatively few children have been recovered. That worries the local community, and they're keen to have news of the children. Martin Wokorach has been a trauma councillor for seven years. As many as 15,000 children have been abducted in the war and one of them was his son. He was taken five years ago and has not been heard of since.
MARTIN WOKORACH, TRAUMA COUNSELLOR: When they turn to the abduction of children, they found it was much easier for them to manage the children because they can be easily threatened and easily deceived.
This control over the child soldiers can have devastating effects on the children.
JOSEPH OOLA, FORMER LRA FIGHTER (Translation): I was there when my father was shot. He was in front of me. I remained behind and my other brother was behind me. There were many people. We were told that if anybody tried to do anything silly, they would be shot. They allowed me to go ahead and warned me, if I cried, they'd kill me.
MARTIN WOKORACH: They continue to control the children just by suppression and threats and truly, if a child participates in killing, in a way, if he is forced to kill, maybe his own brother or a relative or somebody, a close friend, then he will begin to think that, how will he go back to live in the community, when he has already participated in killing his own brother?
In the rehabilitation camps, they also have to undo the brainwashing from Kony's rituals. One of them was to smear their bodies with oil and ash to make them bullet-proof.
DENNIS OJWEE: Once somebody is smeared using that Shea oil, he gets protection from bullets or from maybe guns, saying that when you tend to fire at certain persons, the bullet does not hit him.
Young girls who are abducted are given as trophy brides to the LRA commanders. Sunday Acan was abducted at the age of 14 and has spent six years in the bush.
SUNDAY ACAN (Translation): Even if I tell my husband to come back, he won't stay in the village. Even if he returns, he'll keep going back to the bush. I think he's no longer fit to stay in the village.
Since Operation Iron Fist forced the LRA on the run, the appalling conditions have got even worse.
SUNDAY ACAN (Translation): There are two main problems - disease and lack of food. During drought, what we grew, Kony wanted it to last a full year. But it could not last a year. That's what I found out. Children died from disease and lack of food. And because of poor diet, there'd be no mother's milk.
And conditions are now so desperate that Kony is resorting to outright murder.
SUNDAY ACAN (Translation): Kony kills weak children. He selects them and kills them.
While at the rehabilitation centre, word came through that a group of 100 women and young children had been released by the LRA. An army helicopter went to rescue them from Atiak, about 70km from Gulu. And this is what we found. (Group of children crying) This is the largest group ever freed by Kony, who had told his commander to either release them or shoot them - a further sign that the loss of their bases in Sudan had turned the LRA into a desperate and ruthless guerrilla force.
DENNIS OJWEE: That guerrilla fighter is normally used. You have got to reduce the number, set free the weak ones, set free the children who make noise and need a lot of food for feeding, are incapable to fight, and remain possibly with the strong ones.
Many of these babies have deep wounds on their necks from being carried long distances, tied up on the backs of their mothers. Local nurses from the Atiak community immunise the babies and the mothers are given clean clothes to wear. There's concern that as the war against the rebels intensifies, the children will be caught in the crossfire. And that's exactly what happened to Maurice Otto. After being abducted, he was shot through the back of his neck and the bullet exited through his nose. He's lucky to be alive.
MAURICE OTTO (Translation): I don't know who shot me. There was such a stampede and someone called out, "Let's run this way or that," and we were running in all sorts of directions, this way and that way. The army was shooting at us. Some people ran that way, others ran this way. So we tried to run away and that's when I was shot.
Thus far, about 15,000 children have been abducted - about half of those have been rescued. At least 7,000 remain unaccounted for. World Vision are ready to cater for more children, but no-one knows why more haven't been located.
MARTIN WOKORACH: We are getting ourselves set, but, however, I am not really sure what is happening, because we have been waiting for all this time long now coming, maybe two months, but only a very few children are trickling in.
Dancing is used in the rehabilitation process - apart from the children enjoying themselves, it also helps in bonding. And while many children have been indoctrinated to kill for the crazed Kony, few have actually seen him. This photo, seized by the Ugandan army, aroused much interest. Lucy Aloyo knows more about Joseph Kony than most. Abducted at the age of five, she spent six years in Kony's main camp in Sudan. And it seems Kony even trained his own children in the art of killing.
LUCY ALOYO, FORMER LRA CAPTIVE (Translation): I saw it. They killed many people. I don't know what's in his head. Out in the bush he loves his own children very much, yet he kills other children, he must be very strange.
During her years of captivity at Kony's headquarters, Lucy was also made to kill.
LUCY ALOYO (Translation): We killed only four people. There were many killed, but some were killed by other soldiers. There were too many to count, because we found others on the way.
There is no compassion for the man who drove her to kill.
LUCY ALOYO (Translation): I don't think he's a good man. He's killed too many people. When I look at this picture, I'm very angry. They should do whatever it takes to kill him.
These boys will go through a 6-week rehabilitation program before they are allowed to go home. But many are so traumatised by what's happened, they stay much longer.
LOUIS OKELLO, SOCIAL WORKER: So at times you are forced to go beyond the six weeks, because the problem is, you can't reunite a child when you don't see proper transformation. Because at the end of the day, we want to see a positive transformation, I want to see this child putting on at least a smiling face when she goes back home, than when she or he was entered here.
Today, the program is farewelling 13-year-old James Kilama, who has completed six weeks of rehabilitation. He was abducted in February. His brother remains with the LRA, too injured to escape. James seems uncertain about leaving the rehab program. He's developed some strong friendships here. For James, the process of reclaiming his childhood has just begun. Returning to his village holds mixed emotions for James. It was from these very paths that he was abducted and he's still very frightened. But seeing his mother again is almost too much for him to take in. Martin Wokorach tries to help the family understand what James has been through.
MARTIN WOKORACH (Translation): Make sure your children are loved. Everything you do should show that you are giving love to your children. Don't let them wander around, they could be abducted again.
This fear is very real. Just last week, the LRA abducted another 120 civilians in this area. But increasingly, it looks like this is the LRA's last desperate throw of the dice. With operation Iron Fist bearing down on them, it should only be a matter of time before Kony's assault on the innocence of childhood is finally wiped out.