The Use of Child Soldiers in Contemporary Conflicts

1
The Use of Child Soldiers in Contemporary
Conflicts
2
Child Soldiers in Active Combat

• Reasons for recruitment
• Uniquely vulnerable
• Easily trained and intimidated
• Cheap and abundant labour force
• Ability to absorb new indentities
• War games
• Elevated levels of brutality
• Reluctance of troops to attack children
• End of Cold War resulted in abundance of small,
  light weapons that are easily used and carried by
  children

3
Recruitment

• Kidnapping and abduction
• Refugee camps
• From schools
• From streets / homeless
• Child soldiers re-recruited into other conflicts
• Enticements offered by rebel groups
• Education
• Food
• Security
• Parents volunteer children in exchange for
  food/ security
• Familial environment
• Sense of power
• Revenge

4

• 300,000 children associated with armed combat
• 10 are in direct combat
• Northern Uganda
• 8,000 children abducted between 2002 2003
• DRC
• Approx 90 of armed forces under 18 years of age
• Burma/ Myanmar
• 70,000 child soldiers within National Army
• Those as young as 12 routinely sent into battle
• Sudan
• Militias supported by the government are
  currently using 20,000 child soldiers within
  their ranks.
• (Becker, 2007)

5
Duties of Child Combatants

• Human shields
• Mine detectors
• Initial wave of attackers / cannon fodder
• Guerilla warfare
• Killings
• Torture
• Execution of colleagues attempting to escape
• Forced rape
• Forced destruction of home towns/ villiages to
  cut social ties
• Mutilation

6
Reconciliation

• Reintegration into community
• Re-establishing social structures
• Education
• Dealing with stigmatisation
• Fear
• Pregnancy
• Mutilation
• Knowledge of actions during conflict

7

• Local approaches v international approaches
• Involving the entire community v isolated
  rehabilitation centres
• Importance of local customs and traditions
• Spirit mediums
• Local chiefs
• Religious beliefs

8
Mozambique and Liberia as Case Studies

• Similar Conflicts
• Different outcomes for former child soldiers
• Mozambique
• Community based reconcilitation
• Focus on involving family members
• Incorporation of cultural beliefs
• Government funded programmes
• Emphasis on cleansing and the future
• Successful?
• Liberia
• National programmes of rehabilitation
• Focus on skills and education
• Government and EU funded programmes
• Emphasis on atonement
• Unsuccessful?

9
Conclusion

• Effect of combat on children

10
Bibliography

• BECKER, J 2007 Children as Weapons of War
  http//www.hrw.org/legacy/wr2k4/ download/11.pdf
• COLLINS, A (Ed) 2007 Contemporary Security
  Studies Oxford Oxford University Press
• HONWANA, A 1999 Negotiating Post-War Identities
  Child Soldiers in Mozambique and Angola
  Codesria Bulletin http//medico-international.de
• MORAN, M and PITCHER, M 2004 The Basket Case
  and the Poster Child Explaining the End of
  Civil Conflicts in Liberia and Mozambique Third
  World Quarterly 3 501 519
• HICK, S 2001 The Political Economy of
  War-Affected Children Annals of the American
  Academy of Political and Social Science 575
  106-121
• BENNETT, TW. 1998 Using Children in Armed Combat
  A Legitimate African Tradition? Institute for
  Security Studies Monograph 32