Child Soldiers
Africa
Central Africa
“I feel so bad about the things that I did. It disturbs me so much that I inflicted death on other people. When I go home I must do some traditional rites because I have killed. I must perform these rites and cleanse myself. I still dream about the boy from my village that I killed. I see him in my dreams, and he is talking to me, saying I killed him for nothing, and I am crying.” A 16-year-old girl after demobilization from an armed group (Source: U.S. State Dept. TIP Report 2005)
Democratic Republic of the Congo“When they came to my village, they asked my older brother whether he was ready to join the militia. He was just 17 and he said no; they shot him in the head. Then they asked me if I was ready to sign, so what could I do - I didn’t want to die.” A former child soldier taken when he was 13. (BBC report.)
“They gave me a uniform and told me that now I was in the army. They even gave me a new name: ‘Pisco’ They said that they would come back and kill my parents if I didn’t do as they said.” Report of interview with a 17 year old former child soldier in 2006
“Being new, I couldn’t perform the very difficult exercises properly and so I was beaten every morning. Two of my friends in the camp died because of the beatings. The soldiers buried them in the latrines. I am still thinking of them”. Former child soldier interviewed in 2002.
Sudan“I joined the SPLA when I was 13. I am from Bahr Al Ghazal . They demobilized me in 2001 and took me to Rumbek, but I was given no demobilization documents. Now, I am stuck here because my family was killed in a government attack and because the SPLA would re-recruit me. At times I wonder why I am not going back to SPLA, half of my friends have and they seem to be better off than me.” Boy interviewed by Coalition staff, southern Sudan, February 2004.
Uganda“Early on when my brothers and I were captured, the LRA [Lord’s Resistance Army] explained to us that all five brothers couldn´t serve in the LRA because we would not perform well. So they tied up my two younger brothers and invited us to watch. Then they beat them with sticks until two of them died. They told us it would give us strength to fight. My youngest brother was nine years old.” Former child soldier, aged 13.
Zimbabwe“There was no one in charge of the dormitories and on a nightly basis we were raped. The men and youths would come into our dormitory in the dark, and they would just rape us - you would just have a man on top of you, and you could not even see who it was. If we cried afterwards, we were beaten with hosepipes. We were so scared that we did not report the rapes The youngest girl in our group was aged 11 and she was raped repeatedly in the base.” 19-year-old girl describing her experience in the National Youth Service Training Program
http://www.child-soldiers.org/childsoldiers/voices-of-young-soldiers
Filed under: JMC 494