Pitt students rally: March protests child soldiers

Children abducted by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army of Northern Uganda undergo a brutal… Children abducted by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army of Northern Uganda undergo a brutal initiation. The army gives them clubs and machetes and forces them to kill another child. If they are boys, they are trained in the army. If they are girls, they become concubines to rebel leaders or given to arms dealers.

More than 400 activists marched through the South Side and slept overnight in Market Square as part of the international Global Night Commute on Sunday to raise awareness about the children.

According to Civil Society Organizations for Peace in Northern Uganda, the LRA has abducted more than 30,000 children, ages 6 to 17. In order to prevent this, children walk from their villages to town centers every night. According to Amnesty International’s Web site, an estimated 35,000 children make the journey and have become known as “night-commuters.”

The Global Night Commute took place in 43 states across America and in seven countries, such as Norway and Singapore. In Pittsburgh, the activists marched from the South Side Works down Carson Street, drawing stares and questions from bystanders.

“I had chills the entire way,” said Alison West, a Pitt senior who helped organize the march.

Peter Okema, a northern Ugandian refugee currently studying at Pitt, spoke to the students in Market Square after they registered and spread their sleeping bags beneath the trees. Okema explained the origins of the conflict and current situation and then took questions from the students.

“Somehow along the way, it’s the regular people who change things,” he said.

“You can’t ignore us. We’re part of something much bigger. There’s so much energy. I think it’s really spreading,” West said.