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Children Killers or Misguided Youth

Throughout history, many different military groups have led children into harm’s

way with rifle and drum. Beginning with the Greeks and continuing into the Middle East,

all over the world, and some forms are even used today in advanced nations like the

United States and United Kingdom. Examples of this practice can even be seen in the

bible where David swears allegiance to King Saul. Another instance dating back to

antiquity was the when men would take their children on campaign together with the rest

of the family as part of baggage. In one instance, The Battle of Agincourt the retainers

and children of the English army were slaughtered by the French.

In Ancient Greece, Spartans would use young boys as young as 7 were taken from

their homes for military training. The film 300 glorifies this and yet the thought would

turn even the most militaristic modern American to do such a thing to their own child. In

the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire kidnapped young Christian boys and brainwashed

them into loyalty to the Sultan. Using the term Janissaries these young boys were used to

be scouts and spies. The Muslim religion prohibits the use of children under the age of 15

yet has no protections for Christians or Jews. In the “Western World,” the British navy

until the 20th century used young boys as aids on their Navy vessels.

In the battle of Waterloo, children were leading Napoleon’s army into the initial

attack only to be gunned down by Allied soldiers. In 1827, Jewish boys known as

Cantonist were forced into military training establishments to serve in the army. The

enlistment age was 18, however children as young as 8 were routinely used to fulfill the

hard quota.
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In the Americas during the Civil War, including battling on the open field,

children were used women as nurses, boys as soldiers. William Black, the youngest

wounded soldier, was twelve when his left hand and arm were shattered by and exploding

shell. An unknown number of lives were lost during this period and it makes it difficult to

determine how many of these were children either by choice or in a slave’s case forced

into battle.

Sometimes these children are forced, others they are deceived into believing they

are creating a better future. The source for the Nazi’s use of children came from the

Hitler Youth. This group evolved from various youth groups and one of the first was a

male-only group named the Wandervgel. Various other groups followed including the

Catholic Youth Organization and the Nazi Youth League. As the Nazi’s popularity grew,

the various groups eventually became the Hitler Youth, which was almost all male, began

teaching classes on the ideas of Nazism and became the eyes and ears of the Nazis state

sponsored fear. Nazi’s were not the only ones to use children during WWII however; the

Jewish resistance had its share of children members. Hashomer Hatzair fought in the

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 and the armed resistance of children in this era was

usually regarded as nothing short of heroic. Large numbers of children served in Russia’s

Red Army, mostly orphans, and these children came to be known as “Son of the

Regiment” and sometimes willingly performed military missions such as recon. One

example of this can be seen in the film, Enemy at the Gates, where a young boy plays a

double agent for the sniper main characters.

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As the war came to an end the Hitler Youth was dissolved and many children

were left without homes and forced into poor conditions and subjected to little food or

money. Baldur Von Schirach was head of the Youth and was punished for with crimes

against humanity for his partaking in the atrocities of the war.

In the 1960s there were several guerrilla organizations fighting against the

government of Colombia the group known as the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas

Revoluciaonarias de Colombia), which formed before in response to other political

issues, have used and recruited children as well. The call the children soldiers “Little

Bees” because they sting before the target realizes they are being attacked. The FARC

even goes to the lengths of recruiting campaigns in schools and at homes of children.

There are approximately 11,080 child soldiers serving in Colombia today. Of these

soldiers, about seventy-percent have experienced combat.

Another very notorious case involving children occurred during the Indochina

Wars; the Khmer Rouge communist group exploited thousands of children to commit

mass murders and other inhumane acts during the Cambodian Genocide.

When the continent of Africa is mentioned most of the time people just see the

babies with swollen stomach and flies on them. Sure, that is heart breaking, and may even

make one maybe two people get out their checkbooks and cut some organization a check.

However, this does little to nothing in regards to any semblance of aid. People either do

not acknowledge the existence of the situations or just simply say, “What can I do?” or

“That’s over there, that’s not going to affect me.”

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Truth of this maybe be that yes, Africa is a long way from the comfort on your

couch, or the store you go to and get your groceries from. To bring into light only one of

the issues that are happening on the “Dark Continent” will be the issue of child soldiers

are some of the most common forms of soldiers used to fight the numerous conflicts on

the continent as of right now; there are approximately 200,000 to 300,000 children

soldiers on just the African continent alone.

Nearly 20 years ago when the rockets exploded in Monrovia, Liberia, the children

soldiers were the front line assault troops of Charles Taylor’s movement. Nigeria, the

Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Mozambique, Namibia, and Angola have conscripted boys and

girls as young as seven to accompany armies and militias. The RAF (Revolutionary

Front) kidnapped and indoctrinated scores of kids in Sierra Leone, General Shango the

RAF's leader and Sierra Leone's Vice President used young boys on the front lines, and

girls served as sex slaves.

The way these children come into this is a horrific experience for the majority of

them, first they are either kidnapped in the night, or they are taken from their village and

“recruited” after their homes are burned and their family members are brutally

slaughtered often in front of them or in some cases by the children themselves. This is a

practice done in order to desensitize the child to make the task of killing and terrorizing

others much easier. After they are displaced from their homes, they are taken to camps

where the rebels, and the Governments as well, are stationed the children are beaten,

drugged, and told that their families are dead. They are subjected to all forms of abuse

such as rape, beatings, starvation the only way they are accepted is to kill and do the will

of the Generals, or Revolution leaders.

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Peer pressure to perform: Soldiers encouraged their kids to beat, maim, and

murder immediately. After a first kill, nicknames are created like "Mr. Brutal,” "The

Sadist,” "Little Devil" and "The Mutilator.” One child soldier carried a nickname "The

Butcher" and confessed to committing a dozen murders. He found solace post-war in an

orphanage. His reward for "military service" was two metal crutches and an inability to

walk.

The United Nations, UNICEF, and even the United States itself is aware of these

atrocities, have several documented cases, and have made legislature-stating definitions

of what “Child Soldier” is and the law defines that any person under the age of 18 that

has carried a weapon or that does carry a weapon. This is not very useful because men are

not the only people that are kidnapped and the majority of child soldiers are between the

ages of 8-13 when they are initially recruited due to the ability to manipulate a young

mind is easier than one of an older child.

The women or girls that are taken are used as sex slaves and raped repeatedly and

once they are pregnant and are no longer appealing they are simply abandoned or run off

to deal with a bastard child that is either abandoned by the mother upon birth or is born

into a world where neither the mother or the child is accepted due to their circumstance

due to their being victims of terrorist activities. In Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in

War and Terrorism anthropologist David M. Rosen discusses the murders, rapes,

tortures, and the thousands of amputations committed by Small Boys Unit of the

Revolutionary United Front (RUF) during Sierra Leone's civil war (1991-2001.)

Zimbabwe - The ZANU-PF government of Robert Mugabe sponsors a "youth militia" --

the National Youth Service, members aged between 10-30 are known as the "Green
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Bombers.” The latter is mentioned even in the Hollywood film Lord of War.

The issue of these children being used as pawns in a war they wanted nothing to

do with nor have any understanding of is just proof of the never ending cycle of what

lack of education, poverty, greed, and lack of intervention or concern can do to an issue

that was already an explosive situation. Around the world, children are singled out for

recruitment by both armed forces and armed opposition groups, and exploited as

combatants. Easily manipulated, the children are sometimes coerced to commit grave

atrocities including rape and murder of family members. Whatever the reasons may be,

the use of children in battle is wrong and the efforts should be stopped. The use of

youngsters to commit violence and mayhem has long been Africa's greatest sin.

There are others aside from the Africans, Greeks, Nazis, Colombians, and

Ottomans that I have mentioned.

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Bibliography

Ferrer, Yadira. "Colombia." Series in the SIRS Enduring Issues 2001. Inter Press Service,

2000.

Keairns, Yvonne E. The Voices of Girl Child Soldiers. New York: Quaker Unite Nations

Office, 2002.

Rempel, Gerhard. Hitler's Children: The Hitler Youth and the SS. Chapel Hill, N.C.: The

University of North Carolina Press, 1989.

Adeba, Brian. "Ex-Child Soldiers Seek A New Life." Embassy: Canada's Foreign Policy

Newsweekly. 22 Jan2007.

Human Rights Watch. "Child Soldiers in Colombia." 21 Jan 2007

Human Rights Watch. "Child Soldiers Used by All Sides in Colombia's Armed Conflict."

21 Jan 2007

Aloisi, Silvia. “Sierra Leone War Crimes Court will Hunt Guilty

Everywhere.”

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Terrorism. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press: 2005.

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