GULU, Uganda: Haunted by horrifying memories of captivity, girls kidnapped by northern Uganda rebels during the country's 20-year guerrilla war are discovering that men are rejecting them as wives.

Hundreds of girls were kidnapped by the Lords Resistance Army during the war and were forced to bear arms along with kidnapped boys.

Now as they enter marriage age, many local men are rejecting these women as brides because of rumors that former girl soldiers have violent tendencies which in some cases have led to murder, according to Q.B. Kitara McMot, vice-chairman of Gulu district in northern Uganda.

He mentioned several reported incidents that have alarmed male suitors, including the murder of a sister by a former captive and violent behavior by others against husbands.

"True or not, this has forced many of the former captives to either leave the district or conceal from all but their closest relatives that they were kidnapped," McMot said.

The United Nations estimates that about 25,000 children were kidnapped by the LRA as soldiers, laborers or sex slaves during its rebellion against the Ugandan government from 1987 to 2006 when it agreed to enter into peace talks.

The young boys were trained and forced to kill not only government soldiers but also friends and family members to prove their loyalty.

The young girls were used primarily as sex and labor slaves, but all were trained to kill and often left in charge of campsites when men went off to fight.

Now these girls, after escaping from the LAR and maturing, still need to struggle for their lives.

Christine Aryemo, a waif-like 22-year-old in Gulu who was held captive for ten years, revealed her experiences.

When she was 12, about 150 LRA soldiers came at night to take her away. Christine recalled that nearly 400 children were kidnapped that night. Her parents were killed and she was left alone to take care of the other two children of her family.

The LRA forced them to walk about 150 km in two days to join the main rebel army, where she began a life she could have never imagined - not only farming, but also military training.

"When the soldiers went out on patrol or to fight, the women remained home to defend the bases," she said. "That's why women were forced to be soldiers."

Another woman named Milly Oryem said she was kidnapped at night when she was a student in high school.

"They carried guns and just ordered me 'Go', and you needed to go with them because I knew if you resisted they just shot you at once," she said. After two weeks in the LRA, she escaped. But she was kidnapped again for half a year before she could escape once more.

The terror of being abducted was only the beginning.

According to research carried out by the Survey of War Affected Youth (SWAY) in 2006, 78 percent of the LRA children witnessed killings and 63 percent received severe beatings.

For those children who escaped the rebels and made it home, there was often another cruel blow waiting ahead: finding themselves orphaned.

(China Daily 06/11/2008 page11)