Kids or Killers?

The methods used to train child soldiers turn them into killers through great manipulation; although rehabilitation programs are the only way to attempt to reintegrate these children into society, the people recruiting them must be stopped to end the vicious cycle. From the moment a child is chosen to fight in war, he/she is forced to face death with utter insensitivity. When a child is taken from their home to become a soldier, their families are often killed right in front of them; this is a way for the commanding officers to obtain total control. One of the first few steps in training a child to fight usually involves having the child kill someone; this person is often a civilian or someone from the child’s village. Killing someone from their village ensures that the child will not try to escape, for they will no longer be welcomed at home. It is common for the child to then have to consume the flesh or blood of the person they have killed, in an effort to diminish their emotional reaction to death.

Evidently, after this process the children are killers; they now see killing as a solution to most problems and have no emotional reaction to the crime they are committing. A child soldier, whos name was anonymously recorded as M, was quoted saying, "When I was fighting, I enjoyed it- killing and destroying. I killed human being, many; young, old, anyone. The first one, an old lady, I shot from far away. I was very angry, so I shot her. Their families killed my people" (Children At War). Although the children affected did not choose to be murderers, they are nonetheless a threat to society once returned to their normal lives. The rehabilitation programs and laws in place to protect children are not aggressive enough to put an end to this issue. Most of the rehabilitation programs in place by the United States in other countries require the children to want to willingly go through the rehabilitation process. Also, with the high possibility of children being sent back into war, they are only helped temporarily before being placed back into this vicious cycle.

Photo credit

http://childsoldierrelief.org/laws_treaties/

http://www.vision.org/visionmedia/article.aspx?id=6684

Singer, P. W. Children at War. New York: Pantheon, 2005. Print.

Child Soldiers

Many nations around the world are using children in warfare. Some of these children become child soldiers voluntarily and some are abducted. Most child soldiers, who join of their own free will; join because they are trying to escape poverty, starvation, and physical or sexual abuse. They also join because they are separated from their families, lack of education, and they don’t have any where to go. Others join voluntarily because they relate to the groups ideology. Once these children become child soldiers, some are coerced into killing members of their own families, other child soldiers, and civilians. Others serve as porters, cooks, guards, messengers, spies, and sex slaves. In order to make the child soldiers follow orders and not resist, they are given drugs. They are given "amphetamines, crack cocaine, palm wine, brown-brown (cocaine mixed with gun powder), marijuana and tranquilizers." These drugs affect the child soldier's sense of reality.
The problem of child soldiers is most critical in Africa, where children as young as nine have been involved in armed conflicts. These armies use child soldiers because they are cheap, and easy to manipulate. "Their underdeveloped ability to assess danger means they are often willing to take risks and difficult assignments that adults or older teenagers will refuse." These children are forced to commit unthinkable crimes, and once they are rescued or escape, "face an enormous challenge in trying to return to normal civilian life."
Whether these children are abducted or become soldiers of their on free will, should we view them as victims even though they have committed so many horrible crimes? Should they receive mercy? Should the reasons behind them joining grant them mercy or make them a victim? These children should be viewed as victims and given mercy. "Child-soldier expert Michael Wessells told Vision that no choice is a “free choice” because it is typically grounded in dire circumstances, including poverty, starvation, separation from their families, physical or sexual abuse, or lack of livelihood or education." These children join because they have no other choice. In A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier an autobiography by Ishmael Beah, he tells us how he was "separated from his family when their village was attacked by rebel forces, for a while he avoided abduction into the armed conflict that enveloped his country. Eventually, however, hunger and insecurity led him to join the government forces, who compelled him not only to fight against the rebel opposition but to perpetrate acts of extreme violence against innocent civilians along the way."
These children should not be at fault for what they have done because it was out of their control. Organizations such as, Amnesty International, The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and UNICEF, draw attention to this problem and help children who become child soldiers. No child should have to become a child soldier, or be kidnapped from their families and forced to become one. These children should have a normal childhood but instead it is tainted with blood, and the horrible crimes that they must live with for the rest of their lives.