Boy soldiers and abused girls

Boy Soldiers and Abused Girls

The Declaration of the Rights of the Child, ratified by the United Nation’s General Assembly on November 20th, 1959, asserts in “Principle 9”: “The child shall be protected against all forms of neglect, cruelty and exploitation. He shall not be the subject of traffic, in any form”.
Wars have destroyed more than 2 million children, 6 million disabled and 1 million orphans throughout this last decade. More than 15 million children have been expatriated. On Earth, there are more than 600,000 child soldiers.
“Forced in being soldiers”… Sierra Leone is a country where this calamity has nested itself with brutality. Children have been kidnapped, tormented and have been physically abused implanting them with a heart full of resentment and rancor, as well as a tendency for assassination. They are obliged in being spectators of cruel deaths of their own parents, as well as witnesses of the destruction of impoverished areas. They are narcotized with cocaine to perpetuate savage military actions.
If the practice of enlisting children under 18-years-of-age in the military and wars dangerously equipped with armaments is a war crime, then Amnesty International has revealed that in more than 35 countries the military, paramilitary forces, and armed opposition groups rest upon soldiers that have not even turned 15-years-old.
Child soldiers are sent off to the front fiery lines, as patrols and bodyguards; they are cooks and armament, water and edible food deliverers. However, the case of little girls is degrading; they are the first ones to be tormented by the corporal abuses that are realized by the rest of the recruits. These abuses generate painful traumas, pregnancies, and other diseases, like AIDS. Some children have to intervene in sexual and cannibalistic acts with the already dead bodies of their adversaries – all this under the effects of ethyl alcoholic drinks or alkaloids.
Andrew Mawson, an observer of the cited Eastern African NGO, points out that these fanatic activities are ruining an entire generation. The devastation of these adolescent lives, will severely afflict Uganda for a prolonged period of time. An advertising campaign repeats once again the following slogan: “Child soldiers… will be placed in the front lines. And if they die, they’ll go to schools and look for others. And after, others as well”. Jean-Charles, who practices his labor of solidarity in Guru (North Uganda), states that “they kidnap children with the intention of turning them into killing machines”.
“Dead and mutilated bodies chase me in the middle of the night, airplanes launching bombs from up in the air, and rebels assassinating entire villages”; these are the delusions that Kenneth Opwonya, an 18-year-old boy, still has ever since his escape from the Resistance Army.
Squalid and short, like the majority of Ugandan boys, he reasons with a meager tone and a gloomy and profound stare about his experience as a LRA captive. He explains on how he was forced to kill against his own free will. “When the rebels would tell you to kill somebody, and you opposed, they would kill you themselves or would order someone else to kill you with their own hands”.
He recalls how officials would force people to lay on the ground faced down so the victim’s face could not be seeing during the moment of their murder. There were moments where munitions were scarce and, not being able to waste bullets, they were forced to kill the victims with spears.

Kenneth resided with his relatives in a camp for displaced. Since he heard of the “Jesuit Refugee Service” program in Kitgum, he decided to enlist. They train children to develop different abilities so that ex-soldiers could manage themselves on their own.
There are still 250,000 children in regimented power and guerilla groups in the African Continent. China Keitetsi, a girl soldier, strives to combat this stigma all the way from Denmark. She remarks that the Universe “has betrayed many Africans”, who expose their lives on meager boats to reach the European Continent.
She has not been able to return to Uganda, but is edifying a home in Rwanda, for the off-springs of abused girls like herself whose virginities were violated in the front lines.
China Keitetsi asserts that “talking about herself has turned into an armament to help other child soldiers. The pain is forever a part of you. You learn how to live with it and accept what has happened, and that way you don’t cry as much everyday”.
“They shave off your hair and convert you into a little soldier that must go and talk like a boy. You must be tough and demonstrate that you are as strong as the others. At the same time you are a sex object”, adds Keitetsi. Everything was frightening; she resisted with 13-years-of-age and had to give birth all alone in the jungle, just after being harassed and violated.
According to the UN, more than 2 million children have died due to an armed conflict, while 6 million have suffered amputations or unrecoverable disabilities. (Translated by Gianna A. Sanchez-Moretti)

Clemente Ferrer is the President of the European Institute for Marketing, Communication and Advertising.