Captured boy Soldier Forced into Life of War
Published in The Universe
(November 03, 2002)
Andre was 14 years young
when he was recruited by a group of Philippine communist rebels, he was
trained to fight the Philippine army and lived a life of fear and terror
and fought and fled week after week in the Mountains of Zambales north
of Manila.
Andre was abandoned by his American father when the
US navy base was closed down after many years of campaign and political
lobbying. I was very much involved in that campaign and proposed a
conversion plan for the bases that was hugely successful. But for Andre
or his mother it was too late. She died of TB before we could save her,
Andre went to school but could not cope and one day disappeared. Almost
a year we found him captured by the military and we had him released.
But it was short lived, he was then pressured to join the Philippine
military. He was lost
Jo Becker of Human rights
Watch in New York tells a similar story about a 11 year old boy in Burma
forced into the Burmese government army and was sent into battle like
Andre to shoot and kill. Within 2 years he had fought in 20 battles and
saw the army massacre women and children .The women were blindfolded and
machined-gunned to death and three babies were swung and their heads
smashed against rocks.
There are thousands of
children recruited into the armies of both rebels and government armies
around the world but Burma has perhaps the worst record of all and their
numbers are increasing daily. According to Jo Becker there are an
estimated 70,000 minors in the Burmese army. Rebel groups have recruited
child soldiers also in this vicious war replete with atrocities and war
crimes. Jubilee Campaign a Christian human rights action group based at
St. John's Wonish in Sussex is a tirelessly campaigning for Human rights
in Burma and has been instrumental in helping to bring about an easing
of restrictions on the leader of the National League for Democracy, Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi. Jubilee is the publisher of Just Right a powerful
magazine championing the cause of the oppressed and the exploited around
the world. It has lobbied the cause of child soldiers for decades.
Child soldiers are
traumatized through fear, brutality and threats. They have been forced
to kill and maim others. They can hardly ever recover from such
experiences and it is time to renew the campaign to have these children
released from the army and demand an end of the abduction and forced
recruitment.
Some people may think that
children forget the brutality and the harm done to them but they never
do. All pain and abuse is buried inside them no matter how or by whom is
inflicted on them. The memories may be repressed but they continue to
exert a powerful effect on the personality and the emotions of the
child. This in turn affects their behaviour. When children become unruly
and violent you can bet there is some negative experience buried deep
down that is building up pressure and stress.
Traumatized children can
recover when given support and therapy to relieve them of the buried
hurt and anger that is hidden deep inside. Without help they can commit
vicious acts of violence against others. But we must remember that they
are born innocent, they become what they are because of how we treat
them and the example we give.
Armed with deadly weapons
and pressured by adult’s child soldiers can be pushed further and
further into horrific acts against others. In recent African Wars there
were thousands of children armed and threatened with death if they did
not "prove" themselves loyal by committing an atrocity like chopping of
another child's arm or killing a neighbor or even a parent.
We cannot be blamed for
turning away from such terrible acts of violence that adults force
children to do. But we have to pray for the courage and the resilience
to face up to human perversity and do spiritual battle with evil as it
stalks our world. Otherwise one day it will turn up on our doorsteps as
it frequently does with the abduction and murder of innocent children.
