MILLY BABALANDA: Keep children safe from violent extremism

Previously, I counseled Bazzukulu of Mzee the President on how to stay safe and utilise the Covid-19 situation gainfully. The highlights of the counsel were that amidst lockdowns which had put a lot of spare time in their hands being that they were out of school, young people could easily stray into risky behavior which would come back to haunt our progressive country. I urged them to use the time to continue reading and revising their school notes and learning online and through radio/TV.

I urged them to research more on Covid-19 to understand its features and tendencies, which could in future make them the next great innovators. I also raised an alarm over an epidemic of teen pregnancies that was being reported among should-be schoolgoers.

Lastly, Bazzukulu were to engage in family ventures including agriculture and learn how to be producers early in life and market proceeds online. Those who heeded this call will have good money for their pockets when schools resume.

Then in January as we headed into the General Elections, the counsel was that we were going to secure the future of Bazzukulu and all Ugandans but they had to be alive for them to enjoy that assurance. The major concern at the time was the environment in which the elections were to be held and the aftermath. Some participants were not working for peace, but were deliberately sowing a message of anarchy and destruction. Target recipients of such messages were the young people who were expected to carry out acts of indiscriminate violence and intimidation. We urged them not to be misled and a majority of them heard the call.

With elections behind us and the Covd-19 situation presumably coming under firm control, and with schooling set to resume in January 2022, there is a new but familiar danger that Bazzukulu need to be counseled about, and I beg the indulgence of all parents and people who interact with young people regularly, or with them under their charge-the danger of Terrorism and violent extremism.

I am certain that young people have heard about and seen the recent bomb attacks on radio/TV, and heard people talk about them. Unfortunately, some have been affected directly when their parents have died in the attacks-moreover, even the attackers could be parents and when they perish in the attacks, their children are orphaned.
In a more straight way, children are targeted for recruitment into the ranks of extremists, capitalising on their innocence and naivety to turn them into killer machines. This recruitment drive has been ongoing for sometime in parts of the country, mainly Busoga and Buganda. I know that most of our young people have turned down moves to radicalise them but the recruiters are intent on using all methods under the sun including direct coercion and seduction using money and other offers or promises. Others are kidnapped or bought from willing caretakers. And their lives are totally destroyed when that happens.

I saw a heart-breaking video of children as young as three undergoing drills and indoctrination in an undisclosed location but which is known by security. What can one say? A three year old cut off from common society and their minds pumped with ideas of murder and destruction without mercy. I am told that their loyalty is tested by testing them whether they could visit harm on their own parents; that is the test they are subjected to to confirm that they would take orders to attack and kill anyone without mercy.

On “graduating”, these children are armed or strapped with explosives to go and kill, like those suicide-attackers who conveyed and detonated bombs in Kampala. It is believed that some are hitherto innocent youngters who were picked on as infants and indoctrinated in terror camps. It’s frightening to imagine that there are babies in the jungles being groomed to become mules for killer devices or to carry out direct attacks as combatants in coming years; so the plan is long term to keep Uganda on tenterhooks and subjecting each subsequent generation to the agony of war and bloodletting using “martyrs” groomed from the previous one. Doubtless, the aim is to plunge Uganda into a state of war and keep it there, but this won’t happen unless we all decide to give in to the indoctrination.

I urge young people to stay away from people marketing wrong ideologies and ideas, avoid bad company and keep a distance from situations that place their lives and lives of other people in harm’s way. Peace is the most essential asset to live with; with peace, most other things are possible. exploitation and endangerment of young people is a direct affront on the immediate and distant future of Uganda. It must be prevented. I urge mature citizens to be part of the campaign to keep children safe from conscription into the ranks of extremists or promoting their ideas as alternatives to acceptable and reasonably tolerant, and progressive ideas. There is more to live for than die for in Uganda! We want to live distress free lives and contribute to nation-building to overcome common challenges.

Children who have fallen into hands of extremists unwillingly deserve a second chance at life and a way should be found to rescue them and rehabilitate them.

The author is the Minister for the Presidency