A child guerrilla told investigators that he and other children to overcome fear drank milk mixed with gunpowder. "The gunpowder gives you more energy, such as the desire to kill the troops that you pass in front of you. You say to yourself: I hope to be on my way and then load and shoot in bursts and you feel more capable, with higher morale ... "
(Testimony of a Colombian child collection by Human Rights Watch, 1998)
stories:
1. The story of a child soldier
"I do not know how old I am," said Abu Bakar Bangura, a slender boy and posed in Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. "I was very young when I was away from my family," he explains. Abu is one of the 10,000 children who were taken from their homes and forced to become soldiers by both the pro-government forces that the rebels during the 11 year civil war that has torn this country. After being kidnapped by a rebel group, Abu was drugged, beaten, and forced to commit terrible atrocities. Instead of a childhood of innocence and affection, he lived a life of violence and fear. Only when the fighting in Sierra Leone ended in 2001, these children were able to lay down their arms and return to their homes and to their childhood. But many had forgotten what it meant to be a child, and being part of a family. Defend themselves and fight for their lives was all he could remember. American actor Michael Douglas, acting as a Messenger of Peace for the United Nations, he met Abu during his stay at the Center for Child Care and Protection of Kono District in Eastern Sierra Leone. There was not much time to lose, if the family of the child is not found quickly, Abu would be entrusted to social services. Samuel T. Kamanda, one of the leaders of the program of the International Red Cross for the Center for Protection and Care of Children, after having gone without success in many villages in an attempt to trace the family of Abu, has decided to follow one of the last tracks, a village in another region of Sierra Leone. Michael Douglas has accompanied Kamanda and Abu during the search. After an initial transfer by helicopter of the UN, have walked for hours under the scorching sun, the exhausting search of the village and the family of Abu. They finally arrived at a village and suddenly, while they waited for the village chief, Abu heard a scream of joy and surprise. It was his mother. Abu recognized her immediately and ran to her, crying with emotion and joy.
(Testimony of a Colombian child collection by Human Rights Watch, 1998)
stories:
1. The story of a child soldier
"I do not know how old I am," said Abu Bakar Bangura, a slender boy and posed in Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. "I was very young when I was away from my family," he explains. Abu is one of the 10,000 children who were taken from their homes and forced to become soldiers by both the pro-government forces that the rebels during the 11 year civil war that has torn this country. After being kidnapped by a rebel group, Abu was drugged, beaten, and forced to commit terrible atrocities. Instead of a childhood of innocence and affection, he lived a life of violence and fear. Only when the fighting in Sierra Leone ended in 2001, these children were able to lay down their arms and return to their homes and to their childhood. But many had forgotten what it meant to be a child, and being part of a family. Defend themselves and fight for their lives was all he could remember. American actor Michael Douglas, acting as a Messenger of Peace for the United Nations, he met Abu during his stay at the Center for Child Care and Protection of Kono District in Eastern Sierra Leone. There was not much time to lose, if the family of the child is not found quickly, Abu would be entrusted to social services. Samuel T. Kamanda, one of the leaders of the program of the International Red Cross for the Center for Protection and Care of Children, after having gone without success in many villages in an attempt to trace the family of Abu, has decided to follow one of the last tracks, a village in another region of Sierra Leone. Michael Douglas has accompanied Kamanda and Abu during the search. After an initial transfer by helicopter of the UN, have walked for hours under the scorching sun, the exhausting search of the village and the family of Abu. They finally arrived at a village and suddenly, while they waited for the village chief, Abu heard a scream of joy and surprise. It was his mother. Abu recognized her immediately and ran to her, crying with emotion and joy.
2. Testimony of a former child soldier Jean Onama-Baptiste, born in northern Uganda. The son of a minister of Uganda, has escaped with his family from his country after the coup of Idi Amin. On his return, after the outbreak of the civil war, was forced to join the army government.
Here is the testimony of Jean-Baptiste Onama today 42.enne Professor of Political Science at the University of Padua, collected by Father Vito Great:
- I was 14 years old. From October until November I had made an initial period of fighting. Then, returning to headquarters in Gulu, I met a Comboni nun who already knew; I took in his school, and made me take the licensing exam grade. In March 1981 I was again sent to the front. And then, finally, there was the intervention of the bishop of Gulu, Msgr. Cipriano Kihangire, to which my case was presented by a deacon, was the chairman of the Board of Directors of the College run by the Comboni Missionaries. Sent me to that school and for me it was the final exit from the experience in the army.
- I have witnessed rapes by soldiers, of young girls; I also saw a tragic incident that involved an elderly woman: she could not escape, had remained close to the huts burned; a soldier shot is struck but not to death. She was still alive. And before he died he said the words. The soldier who shot her could not understand them because they were a Kuangu: I was the only tribe that he could understand that language, because it was the people of my father. And this woman said: "My son, why did you kill? What harm have I done? ", And he repeated these words several times. This was the strongest and most significant moment of the conflict: contains all the madness of war. I think that someone like me, it was miraculously saved from a situation of death and destruction, has the duty to make sure that the world no longer live the horror.
- You could not refuse to kill, because the war has a very strange mechanism: they gave us smoking marijuana and the like; so we were under the influence of marijuana and in this state, in a war situation, it certainly ends up committing the crimes. When the war begins, one thing becomes uncontrollable and always leads to massacres.
- I had a great fortune to meet along my way who have helped me. I, today, whenever I see violence, relive the exact same things. I have learned to live with the trauma of my former child soldier.
THE SITUATION
Currently are more than 250,000 children under 18 years used in armed conflict. Over the last decade hundreds of thousands of boys, girls and adolescents were directly involved in the hostilities and used by both government armies, both by armed opposition groups to governments. The majority are between 15 and 18 years old, but some have only 10 years and the trend is toward you notice a lowering of the age. Tens of thousands of boys, girls and adolescents are at risk of becoming part of the armies or armed groups. The list of countries report was updated in 2006 and currently includes: Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire, Iraq, Liberia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Uganda. Although progress has been made in some countries, such as Liberia and Sierra Leone, in some areas of crisis, Sudan (Darfur), Chad, Afghanistan, Iraq and Sri Lanka, for example, the situation has continued to deteriorate, while in Lebanon, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories the recent escalation of violence has claimed thousands of victims.
CHILD SOLDIERS AND GIRLS: NOT ONLY FIGHTERS
They are children and adolescents and those soldiers who are fighting and weapons, as well as those that are used by armies and armed groups as decoys, couriers or guards, to carry out actions or logistical support, such as transport ammunition and supplies, laying mines and explosives, do reconnaissance. Their life is no less hard and at the risk of one of those fights. Whether you are regularly recruited in the armed forces of their country, whether they are part of armed opposition groups to governments, children and adolescents are exposed to the dangers of battle and weapons, brutally treated and punished in an extremely severe for errors that may commit. An attempted desertion can lead to arrests and, in some cases, a summary execution.
In situations of conflict, there are also children belonging to vulnerable groups and for this reason require special protection. It is those who are separated from their families (orphans, refugees and displaced unaccompanied children of single women) or who come from disadvantaged economic and social situations (minorities, street children) or who live in warmer parts of the conflict. In cases of forced migration and sudden, in fact, households and communities are divided and the children, girls and teenagers often find themselves left to themselves in a situation of great uncertainty. Children living in the refugee camps (refugees, IDPs) are particularly at risk of being recruited.
THE LITTLE SOLDIER
These boys and girls are particularly vulnerable, often orphaned of both parents, who were killed during the fighting, or who are kidnapped during the raids of the rebel groups. The orphaned girls tend to seek refuge and protection in the army in order to escape the harsh conditions of street life, but once you are enrolled in slavery, forced to satisfy the desires, including sexual, of the combatants. Repeatedly subjected to violence and abuse. The risk of contracting HIV / AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases is very high, as are the chances of becoming pregnant. The programs of disarmament, demobilization and rehabilitation of child soldiers must take into account the girls and the girls and their specific experience.
The girls are forgotten because they are unwilling to come forward, as this means they have been identified by the community as "wives" of combatants or do identify their children as "children of the rebels." The girls got pregnant during the period in which they were part of the armies must face the harsh judgment of their community of origin. The communities tend to stigmatize and marginalize them because they are linked to rebel groups and tend to give the girls themselves to blame for what happened to them. The birth of children from relationships started with the kidnapping and violence often results in the fact that the rebel groups categorically refuse to let go of the girls, even though you have made a commitment to release child soldiers. In many situations of conflict, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the fighters have been reluctant to release the girls and they have held captive by asserting that it was their "wives."
Despite distinct structures are in place for boys and girls, and specific programs that pay attention to gender issues in certain countries, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, most of the girls continues to remain excluded from the programs of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration into their communities. All of these factors are the challenges that the international community must deal with and, often, the available resources are scarce relative to the complexity of these objectives.
THE CAUSES
Even in the past history, the children were used as soldiers, but in recent years this phenomenon is on the increase because it has changed the nature of war. Do not we see more armed conflict between the states, but the explosion of internal crises in which political groups, factions, religious or ethnic groups are measured between them. In these contexts, the kids and even the kids become important: they quickly learn to use the weapons that are light, automatic and cost relatively little - now a 10 year old child can use a weapon as an adult; they indoctrinate you with greater ease, more meekly obey the orders of an adult soldier, rebel less even in the face of challenging or dangerous actions like going through a minefield or sneak into enemy territory as spies.
The soldiers "career" in these wars long after some time are scarce, they die in battle, however, are taken prisoner and claim higher wages; children are not paid, they are enticed or forced into the war and if they die, for them it is easier replacement. It is said that some boys join as volunteers. In this case, the causes can be different: for the most part they do it to survive, because there is half the hunger or the need for protection. In some cases, what drives the boys to enlist is the desire to find an identity or the desire for revenge. The desire for vengeance pushes them to take up a gun or a machete to get the pain when the violence - in fact recurrent ethnic wars - have seen their parents or relatives suffer violence at the hands of the opposing group.
THE CONSEQUENCES
The boys and girls who survive the war, as well as easily have suffered injuries or mutilations, are in serious health conditions: states of malnutrition, skin diseases, respiratory and sexual diseases, including AIDS. Moreover, there are the psychological repercussions due to the fact that they were witnesses or committing atrocities sense of panic and nightmares continue to haunt these guys even years later. To all this must be added the consequences of a social nature: the difficulty dell'inserirsi family again and resume their studies often is that the kids are not able to deal with it. The girls then, especially in some circles, having been in the army, they can not marry and end up as prostitutes. The use of child soldiers has repercussions on the other boys and girls who remain in the conflict, because everyone becomes liable to suspicion as potential enemies. The risk is that they are killed, interrogated prisoners.
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento