“Throughout the day we did not have time to think, but now I did, That´s when I got angry, began to imagine different scenes where I was ether shooting or stabbing… I imagined many of the rebels being captured, locking them up in a house, spraying gasoline and lighting a match. We would see they burn and we laughed. ”
This a line of a book I read while I was doing my masters in Madrid, written by Ismael Beah in 2007 called “A long way, memories of a child soldier”… As I was browsing today on an essay that I wrote on the matter for one of my classes, it suddenly dawned on me that i had to forgotten about this horrifying situation that is happening in many parts of the world at this very moment.
A child soldier is often recruited to fight where ever there is a conflict. Asia, Latin America, Europe, are some regions where governments know that children are being recruited as soldiers, therefore are obligate to live and practice acts of crime and violence that automatically steals from them whatever once of innocence they had. Africa, is the place where this practice is most common. According to UN estimates there are over 100.000, particularly in Uganda, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sudan.
While I was writing my essay, I learned about the atrocities that child soldiers are forced to commit. There is the obvious, they are being forced to kill, it´s ether their life or their enemy´s life. The real twisted part I that very often child soldier are recruited by the rebels that force them to kill people from their own village, who many times are their friends even families. They are also forced to sexually abuse the enemy raping girls and women, again sometimes from their own village. They are forced to lose their childhood and become these monsters of war. How the fuck (and pardon my french) can a Global Report in 2008 written by the Spanish Coalition to stop child soldiers report that some militaries in the US actually torture child soldiers captured in war in Guantanamo, and the american government do nothing! In Palestine, and im sure in other parts of the world too, child soldiers were used as human shields, still no one did nothing.
I seriously don’t understand why this is matter that in 2012 it’s still an issue. Governments know which countries used children as soldiers in a conflict, what´s most surprising is why are they letting a war steal this children´s hearts and souls.. We most definitely live in a really sick world…
My question is, can they really be rehabilitated? Can they really have a normal life after having a starting role in a war, after knowing that they killed and raped. Ismael Beah, was a child soldier who fought in the Sierra Leona conflict when he was 13 years old. His immediate family was killed by the rebels who recruited him as a soldiers. He killed many of his “enemies”. Through his book, he tells the horrific part of his life, in a way to heal, and to let the world know that this is a reality that´s happening. I don’t like to read sad and heartrending stories, but this is book that shows you that there is hope for these children to have a normal life, and that the people and organizations that work with ex child soldiers are the ones that are worth supporting. Yes it´s a sick world, but i´m personally trying to get out of my bubble and being aware of this sickness buy some how trying still being hopeful that things have and will change.
abbieperez 