Former UNICEF director writes piece on the ties between the Govt of Sudan and LRA in the Globe & Mail

There has been a ton of interest and speculation revolving around Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir since the International Criminal Court announced that it was seeking indictments against him two weeks ago for the genocide in Darfur.

As Stephen Lewis, the former deputy head of UNICEF, writes in today's Globe & Mail, the atrocities in Darfur aren't the only crimes against humanity he has committed.

Lewis recounts several meetings he had with al-Bashir during the time in which the Sudanese government was supplying the LRA with the supplies and cash it needed to abduct kids and turn them into child soldiers.

Writes Lewis:

Somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 were abducted over the past 10 to 15 years. It is estimated that a third are dead, a third are lost forever in the bowels of Sudan and a third managed to escape back to Uganda. I've interviewed many of the escapees: You cannot imagine children more abused, scarred, mutilated, traumatized and robbed of their childhood.

The entire operation was sustained by an unholy pact between Mr. al-Bashir and Joseph Kony, the madman who leads the Lord's Resistance Army, and who also, appropriately, has been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

You can read the full article here.