President of the Republic of Sudan
Lieutenant General Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir
People’s Palace, PO Box 281
Khartoum, Sudan

Your Excellency:

I am writing to express my concern regarding the abduction and abuse of thousands of Ugandan children by members of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), an armed opposition group that is fighting the Ugandan government. It is my understanding that the LRA has bases in Sudan and is supported and armed by the Sudanese government.

The LRA has mutilated, raped and killed several thousand northern Ugandan villagers. Children between the ages of 13 and 16 have been abducted and turned into slaves and soldiers by their captors. These children are coerced into fighting well-armed government troops and then further traumatized by the human rights abuses they are forced to commit against villagers and other children. In addition, girls are frequently raped and forced into "marriages" with older LRA soldiers.

As you are surely aware, your country, which has signed and ratified the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human rights, is bound by its provisions – provisions which proclaim that everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person, and no one should be held in slavery or servitude or subjected to torture or ill-treatment, including rape.

The children who have been abducted and abused by the LRA have been denied rights that the world has said should never be violated. Because of its relationship with the LRA, your government has the power to intervene to free this army of child soldiers. Instead it further abuses these children by using them to fight armed opposition groups in Sudan.

I strongly urge your government to fulfill its international obligations and call on the LRA to free all abducted children. The human rights abuses perpetrated against these children must not be allowed to continue.

Respectfully yours,