Childhood in the battlefields

Abducted, intimidated, beaten, raped, abused and compelled to kill others under threat of their own death – this is the world of child soldiers who serve both rebel groups and government forces in over 30 armed conflicts worldwide. UNICEF and Amnesty International estimate that 250, 000 to 300,000 children (and may be more); between 15 to 18 years old are forced to become direct participants in bloody wars. Living a life of obscurity, these child soldiers grow up being physically, mentally and emotionally scarred for life.

Instead of attending school like many of us, these children are on the front lines of combat to serve as human mine detectors; their school bags have been replaced with suicide bombs and their little hands carry AK-47s and M-16s instead of notebooks. The only sport of their life is to kill!

Premier organizations like Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, UNICEF, International Rescue Committee, Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, Save the Children, World Vision and many others have testimonies documented of child soldiers from all parts of the world. The children are abducted from what is left of their homes and forced into a life of war and sexual slavery. Deprived of education, these child soldiers are raised in a world of war and violence knowing only how to use the gun. The children are repeatedly threatened that they would be killed if they ever try to run away. These brutal and dehumanizing tactics used to control the children, make the child’s rehabilitation and reintegration into their own home communities much more difficult, if ever rescued.

There is no dearth of information on the hard realities of life of child soldiers around the world. The Maoist forces in Nepal have been steadily recruiting children despite pressure from Nepali and international human rights groups. Just last year in April, the Chhattisgarh State Police in India arrested two girls, aged 14 and 15 years respectively; who were wearing school uniforms and were armed with old 303 bore rifles. Human Rights groups have also reported on child soldiers being recruited in Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura, Sikkim, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Stories from other parts of the world are no different. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is reported to have recruited thousands of child soldiers in Sri Lanka, using intimidation and threats to pressure Tamil families to provide their sons and daughters for military service. HRW in their report ‘Protect the People’ talks of Government-sponsored paramilitary forces known as “Guardians of the Peace” who have committed many killings, rapes, and other crimes over the last four years in Burundi. Burundian officials recruited many children aged 15 and even younger for service in the Guardians and in urban patrols.

Recently, while working on Free the Slaves Freedom awards 2008, I came across a nomination of an activist group from Uganda called the Friends of Orphans (FRO), which works to support the former child soldiers and abductees from the Northern Ugandan conflict. The war in this region is between the rebel Lord Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda. They mostly use children and militiamen to fight the war. I was inspired to know about Ricky Anywar Richard, a former child soldier, who laid the foundation of the organization along with others who had been in similar slavery situations. The Lord’s Resistance Army abducted him at the age of 14 along with his brother. His powerless family members were burned to death while he watched and heard them cry for help. The children were tightly guarded, trained as fighters and he saw abductees being killed brutally if they ever tried running away. He stayed in the bush for about 2 and half years until he took a chance and managed to escape successfully. Living in extremities of struggle, he managed to study and conceived the idea to start an organization while working on his university degree in 1999. Ricky uses his child soldier experiences as motivation to contribute to the empowerment, rehabilitation and reintegration of former child soldiers, abductees, child mothers and orphans. FRO is administered by former child soldiers, orphans and abductees from Pader District, all of who were and continue to be affected by the war in Northern Uganda. It also operates a vocational training centre that provides self-employment oriented vocational training, entrepreneurship and sustainable income generation skills.

Human Rights groups working on the issue are finding ways to reunite and resettle the children with their families and communities, and provide for their psychosocial care and recovery. UNICEF has stressed on girls - especially orphans or unaccompanied girls - being especially vulnerable because they are often sexually exploited, raped or otherwise abused, and forced to be 'wives' by other combatants.

The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict in February 2002 is regarded as a particular landmark in that it specifically prohibits the use of child soldiers. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child contained specific provisions for the protection of children less than 15 years from recruitment into armies. The Optional Protocol - now signed by 115 countries and ratified by 63 - has strengthened the Convention in several ways and raised the ceiling from 15 to 18 years. Human Rights Groups have been urging the UN to "name and shame" offenders in all conflicts on a yearly basis, in order to keep the spotlight on the international agenda and encourage punitive action against those who continue to abuse children in this way.

The hard facts of modern-day slavery hit our face in many ways…child soldiers is one such category. They are recruited from the most vulnerable communities, can be easily manipulated, are cheap to keep, require no maintenance – in other words they are easily ‘disposable’, when not of any use!

(Photo courtesy: International Rescue Committee)