By Richard Humphries
English Network / January 2002
You see a lot of horror in a war zone—death, destruction, and shattered societies. One can but hope the war ends and society rebuilds, but some disturbing images linger, suggesting that psychological wounds may be harder to heal.
Maybe it was the petite, 15-year-old girl, guarding a river. She had a Kalashnikov rifle slung across her shoulder. Maybe it was the 12-year-old boy at an armed camp, smiling and calmly smoking a large homemade cigar. He was dressed in full military kit and his M-16 seemed to dwarf his small stature. Or maybe it was the wooden jungle jail. Inside, sitting in a semi-circle, were several enemy prisoners captured in battle. Some were only 14 and you could see the hesitant emotions on their faces. Some of their guards were even younger.
The prisoners were Burmese soldiers and the other soldiers were from the opposing ethnic Karen army. All sides in Burma’s civil wars use children in their armed forces though the government army uses the lion’s share. When asked, the ethnic minorities will say they are facing a war of extinction and have no choice. Or they will say something like, ??his parents were killed by the enemy and now he wants to fight.? Some join Burma’s Army as a way out of poverty or to raise their family’s social status. Excuses do not make the practice right. Another reason Burma’s army uses children is because it can. Many youngsters are forced to join up or to help the army in other, often dangerous, ways.
Burma, though the world’s worst offender in terms of numbers, is by no means the only place in the world with child soldiers. Worldwide estimates run as high as 300,000 at any given time.
It is in Africa, with its myriad of inter-state wars and ethic conflicts, where some of the worst abuses occur. For example, the Lord’s Resistance Army, a bizarre and particularly brutal rebel group in northern Uganda, actively kidnaps thousands of children, male and female. It uses young boys as soldiers, and young girls to serve as sex slaves. HIV/AIDS is rampant.
Even after fighting has subsided, and aside from the physical injuries of war, children like those mentioned above have lost something irreplaceable—their childhood. Common psychological effects include anguish, apathy, depression, difficulties in concentration, and refusal to eat. Communities face an added burden with large numbers of youths whose only recourse to solving problems is through violence. An all too common result is that these children are marginalized or expelled by their communities and the cycle of violence continues.
The international community is trying to deal with this crisis at different levels. NGOs such as “Radda Barnen” (Swedish Save the Children) and the “Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers,” based in Geneva, are campaigning to promote awareness, develop community-based rehabilitation projects, and adjust international law to raise conscription ages and treat violations as war crimes.
On May 25, 2001, the United Nations General Assembly adopted an Optional Protocol to the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Subject to ratification and enforcement by member states, this protocol raises the age limit for both compulsory recruitment and participation in combat from 15 to 18.
Much more needs to be done and it would be wise to keep in mind the words of Graca Machel, from her 1996 UN report, the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children. ?Whatever the causes of modern-day brutality towards children, the time has come to call a halt. (RH)