Nightmare that won’t die
Published in the Today
10 May, 2002
UNITED NATIONS-They tote machine guns more than half their size, and they
kill people more than twice their age. They see themselves as soldiers, not
children. They often die in combat before they reach adulthood – and if they
do survive, they do not readily adapt to normal civilian life.
"Our childhood has been taken away from us, and none of you can give that
back," China Keiletsi, an Ugandan who served as a rebel soldier from age 9
to 20, told a group of UN officials and children's rights activists here
Tuesday.
"But I hope that everyone in this room will work to make sure that no other
child in this world should go through that," said Keiletsi, now 25, after
describing a life of abduction, carnage, numbing brutalization and
unquestioning obedience, “I beg you."
For decades, from west Africa to Central America to Southeast Asia,
adolescents and even preteens have been pressed into military duty by
government and guerrilla forces alike. But the United Nations – with broad
new support from the major powers here – is now seeking to enforce a
worldwide ban on the use and recruitment of child soldiers.
"For far too long, the use of child soldiers has been seen as merely
regrettable' said Kofi Annan, & UN secretary-general, addressing the
gathering Tuesday. “We are here to ensure it is recognized as intolerable.
Even on the battlefield, them are minimal norms of conduct that must be
upheld.”
Several international treaties prohibit sending minors into combat but the
provisions have rarely been enforced. There are now at least 300,000
combatants under the age of 18 fighting in armed conflicts around the world,
UN agencies estimate.
The Security Council has asked Annan to submit a list in October of any
known violators of these prohibitions. Under the rules governing the new
International Criminal Court, anyone who sends children younger than 15 into
combat faces possible prosecution for war crimes, UN officials said Tuesday.
“We are here to put parties to conflict on notice that the use of child
combatants will carry consequences," Annan said.
With about 60 prime ministers and heads of state scheduled togather, here
Wednesday for a special General Assembly meeting on children's issues, the
UN is also trying to increase support – and funding – for its rehabilitation
programs for newly surrendered and disarmed child soldiers. In pilot
projects in Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone and the Congo, thousands of young
ex-combatants are now in these "demobilization camps," which offer formal
schooling as well as extensive psychological therapy.
"It becomes a normal thing – killing someone was
as easy as doing anything,” said Ishmael Beah, a 20-year-old from Sierra
Leone who was forced to serve as a rebel soldier for three of his teenage
years. After eight months in a UN rehabilitation program, Beah, now a
charming, effortlessly eloquent young man, said he was able to resume
classroom studies. But he still suffers from nightmares and wrestles with a
deep sense of guilt. "I was killing someone else's parents," he said.
Because underage soldiers are impressionable and obedient they have been
responsible for "some of the very worst wartime atrocities" committed in
recent years, said Olara Otunnu, a senior UN official specializing in the
problems of children in armed-conflicts.
Since 1999, Otunnu has traveled to war zones seeking pledges from
governments and rebel groups that they will no longer send anyone under the
age of 18 into combat. He says he has now received 59 such commitments, many
in sub-Saharan Africa where the problem is most acute.
