Child Soldiers in West Africa on Security in Europe - Article Example

Child Soldiers in West Africa on Security in Europe Introduction In today’s era, the West Africa has an impression of anarchy, civil war, less human rights, corruption. There are certain many factors, which have contributed in the backwardness and bad situation faced by the countries like West Africa. Such countries have mostly used by the dictators in order to do trade of diamonds and natural resources neglecting their own condition to be improved and maintained. (Wannenburg, n.p) At the international level of politics and discussion human security and conflict resolution has become a point of consideration. It has become a debatable issue at higher levels that security does not only mean to protect your borders and territories but also the most important thing is that the civilians should be granted peace and security of life within the state and this is the responsibility of the authorities concern with the security issues. In West Africa human security has become a serious issue. The security maintenance have been spoiled in past few years, the reason might be any external or internal. (Diallo and Possémé-Rageau, pg. 8) The Child Labor Issue: An estimated value about the world child labor report shows that 246 million children between the ages of 5-17 are under child labor category. The highest number of working children is found in Asia, then Africa and then in US, Middle East and other countries. Although the greatest number of working children exists in Asia, but Africa has greatest child labor ratio according to its population. (Finken, pg. 4) Child Labor As Soldiers: The aim of this paper is not to focus on the child labor issue but specifically child labor in form of soldiers’ issue. Throughout the world about 87 countries have such a setup in which children are use as soldiers. A number of children are under training and many have been passed all the trainings and actively participating in wars, combats and certain other actions. According to the child soldier report 1379 report; child soldiers are defined as: “…any person under 18 years of age who is a member of or attached to the armed forces or an armed group, whether or not there is an armed conflict. Child soldiers may perform tasks ranging from direct participation in combat; military activities such as scouting, spying, sabotage, acting as decoys, couriers or guards; training, drill and other preparations; support functions such as pottering and domestic tasks; sexual slavery and Forced labor.” (Child Soldiers WebQuest UN Cyberschoolbus, n.p.) With the passage of time the African states have faced political instability, economic decline, poverty, civil wars and disturbance, and all these factors lead to a drastic fall of the population to stay below the poverty line. The biggest loss was of the youths, surviving there since the economic downfall caused less opportunities in Africa. The educational system became poor, unemployment and crime rates reached height and youth started to be spoiled. One of many reasons, which caused the fall of African states, was military dictatorship, which started in 1960’s and in the same era the wars on minerals and natural resources began. It is observed that in such wars light weapons are used therefore children are forced to participate in the wars as they can handle light weapons easily. This hiring of children and youths is done without considering the character, psychological and overall child buildup, destroying their lives, which can never be able to recover againeven the conflict, is resolved. Basically children are forced to join armies and combats by brainwashing, to avoid extreme poverty, and many other such issues. Children used in such wars are hired at an age of 9-10 years and the wars typically lasts for 10 years in the mean time the child is abused, heavily put burden on and forced to engage in training of using weapons etc. After such a long period the child reach to adulthood, leaving their learning and productive age behind. These children when taken to the armies are alienated from their families and communities. The tragedy does not end here but there is another challenge, while these children reach at adolescence after such a big period of tension and disturbance they become so use to of idleness and agony that they could not be engage in to any productive work, neither they are willing to learn anything good or positive. (Achodo, p.2-8) There is a list of bad affects on the personalities of such children: 1. Psychological Affects: The children who are used as soldiers have very serious and tragic affects on their minds and personalities. They leave hope to live and survive normally. They are isolated from the rest of the world and are bounded to have any communication publicly. 2. The Moral Dilemma: The child soldiers are also abused morally in the wars. The authoritarians of the groups demand many tasks, which are sometimes very hard comparatively to the child’s age and physique. Not only this but the physical abuse and harassment in such camps destroy the mental abilities of the child completely and he/she goes in to deep depression and hopelessness. 3. Inheritance Of Diseases: In the training camps and combats teams the children are faced with very dangerous diseases like HIV\AIDS due to lack of food and health provision. The treatment and cure are not available to the youth, and hence they are sentenced to death with pain and sorrow. (Achodo, pg.2-8) 4. Forced To Take Drugs: Children under the training camps are forced to take drugs, cocaine, tobacco and alcohol which acts on their brain and consciousness, these are children chosen to burn homes, fight and kill humans during the battles. 5. Treatment As Adults: Child soldiers in any combat are often treated as equal to adult soldiers. They are never handled with leniency even if they are caught or done any mistake. The same prisons, torture, abuse and their own supervisors as well as the enemy they are fighting with adopt sentence to death behavior. Children who are weak to fulfill all the load and responsibilities given to them are often beaten and tortured in the camps. 6. Different Types of Tasks These children when brought to the camps are usually trained for some one-week period and are left in to the bushes. They are isolated from their families and are forced to practice to be harsh, rude, and inhuman to go for killing and brutality. One young soldier witnessed that sometimes the combaters take them back to their village and asked them to kill any of their relatives; this act is known by everyone in the village so that the doors to go back to their families are closed forever and at last they have to survive into the camps till death. 7. The Physical Abuse: Young soldiers not only include boys but girls as well. While these girls are treated to do all such tasks equivalent to the boy soldiers, besides this they are often forced to serve the male soldiers and are abused physically. When any of the soldiers died the girl is transferred to other and this way African child is faced with HIV sort of diseases, which is known to be the widest, and most frequently spread disease in this continent. (Child exploitation, n.p) Child soldiers are often recruited in any combat when there is not sufficient number of adults to serve the army. Children in armed forces can be found in any continent but specifically West Africa is said to be in worst circumstances. Children in the battles are not only used against enemies of war but sometimes to loot, and bother civilians and doing even worst inhuman actions. In Sierra Leone’s the war lasted for 10 years and most of the soldiers in the army were under the age of 18. It has been observed that Africa being a less developed country faced this problem due to insufficient supply of food and facilities, children are offered meals to join army forces, and also some children are taken by the rebel groups to be used for taking revenge for the assault of their relatives. (Human security report, p.115) “Violence is a slippery concept -- nonlinear, productive, destructive, and reproductive. ... Violence can never be understood solely in terms of its physicality -- force, assault, or the infliction of pain -- alone. Violence also includes assaults on the personhood, dignity, sense of worth or value of the victim. The social and cultural dimensions of violence are what gives violence its power and meaning” (Scheper-Hughes and Bourgois: Shepler, p.2) Let’s talk about the civil war of 1999-2002 held in Sierra Leone, which is at the West coast of Africa and was formerly a part of British colony. The framework of this war was so confusing and dramatic; all such activities like murder, looting, rape were done by youth; hired specially for these purposes. Sierra Leone is rich in natural resources and minerals especially diamonds, the trade of diamonds is so usual that most of the wars happened in this region because of it. The aim of this paper is to explain the child soldiers in Western Africa their problems, their difficulties in survival, how and why they come to participate in the combats? And what is the impact of this phenomenon on the children? While getting information and researching I get some experiences of the children who were later escaped from these camps or are caught by the opponents. (Shepler, p.11) The views from some of them are as follows: Story No. 1 The child name is David. He explained that he was part of the war for some seven months. He further explained that he was not alone child there but several other kids were taking part in that war. He said he was one of the many children recruited particularly to be the part of the battle. (Child soldiers, n.p) Story No. 2 A 14-year-old girl shares her experience. She said she saw horrific scenes including, violence, looting, murdering and brutality. She further explains that she was not able to escape nor she could cry loud just seem like she lived in prison. (Child soldiers, n.p) Story No. 3 A student from some Sierra Leone grammar school told his tale. His name is Mohammad Kuteh, he explains that while abused as a fighter against enemies or opponent’s children were introduced to weapons like A.K.-47, RPG, and other heavy machinery to make attacks. These attacks may be to towns, roads, houses and bridges. The children are given some chemical in the camps as part of meal after that they started beating others and even sometimes kill anyone who comes in front. When they come to their consciousness they become guilty of what they did. (Child soldiers, n.p) These are some horrifying stories of the children who faced just in explainable time in the camps. It’s a common concept that anywhere in the world when ever war broke out children are always used as a substitute to adults and given weapons very easily. Since the African continent is known to have food and economic crises the children are forcibly entered into the crime world. (Child soldiers, n.p) As we have discussed before as well child soldier recruitment nowadays is happening throughout the world in as many as 80 countries, and these recruitments are so cruel that about 2 million children are killed and 6 million children are found to be wounded or disabled not only this but 1 million children approximately are left orphaned by it. The children are not only taken forcibly in wars to be recruited in front of their families but also war in a country like Africa leaves the civilians in a miserable situation, because in war times when everything is destroyed children are left with hunger, lack of medicine and health services, shelter and anyone to look after therefore they themselves sometimes move towards the combaters so as to get food and shelter facilities at least without realizing the aftermaths. Some children join such teams due to unemployment, revenge taking or being spoiled and angry on their families. Few take it as a Holy War, or a struggle for societal impartiality. The scope of this paper is to count anyone who is under the age of 18 as a child, and if that person is associated with any political group or combat is termed as ‘child soldier’. The issue of child soldier in African countries is very sensitive and under debate. There are several conferences and meetings which have been held and which are organized time to time. One of the many conferences held worldwide, which was organized in April 2000, at Europe presented the importance of child rights protection worldwide. The conference especially highlighted the need of European ombudsman in Kosovo to resolve and look after the issue of child treated as victims of war and combaters. (E-mine, n.p) Another meeting, which was held in November 1999, on account of the tenth anniversary of the ‘Convention of Children Rights’, in this meeting a resolution for the protection of war-affected child’s rights was passed. (E-mine, n.p) In the same year (1999), a declaration known as Algiers declaration was passed, the aim of this declaration was to motivate the authorities concern and higher officials to work together in order to safeguard the children rights and to prevent them from being abused in the wars and by combaters also to provide them health and education facilities. (E-mine, n.p) The ministers of the West African states belonging to the economic community declared a plan to be adopted, for the war affected children and the armed conflicts in West Africa. This declaration was also supported by Canada and Ghana. The countries agreed to work together for the welfare and betterment of the innocent children. In July 2000, the G-8 industrialized countries lobbied together to discuss the issue of the war affected children and the ministers for the G-8 countries promoted a report known as “G-8 Miyazaki Initiatives for Conflict Prevention”. In this meeting the participants discussed the most serious and crucial problem faced by the world especially African countries. It was also decided in the meeting that all the G-8 countries either individually or collectively try to resolve the issue of child soldier and to provide aid to the effected children before and after the wars. The meeting assured that such measures will be taken to avoid the forcibly entrance of children into combats, and to maintain peace in most African countries. (E-mine, n.p) Impact of the Child soldier's phenomenon on the security in Europe: The hiring and use of child soldier in wars is a phenomenon, which is faced by the whole world today. This is an issue, which is mostly debated, and portrayed on media, but still it is going on with the same process. Recruiting a child as a soldier by any force is against the international laws. Child soldier now has become a disturbing phenomenon for the world. However this is not something created today it has its roots since after the world wars. The birth of child soldiers especially in the African continent started. The established facts in people’s mind about the child soldiers are related to African, middle eastern or Asian countries but until recently the UK army hired children under sixteen for training and send in wars properly to fight; the children who were under eighteen. It was in March 2002 that the Government passed the law of ineligibility of the child soldiers in wars. However the scope of this article is to highlight the impact of the child soldier on security in Europe. It has been observed from the studies and history that mostly soldiers in Europe were recruited before in the armies in the East. They were Kurds, Africans, and Bosnians etc. since after the ban of child soldier in European armies they have not merged in troops so far. As we discussed in detail about the child soldiers particularly in West Africa one important thing now to forget here is West Africa and Europe had a summit conference in 2000 and sometime later as well in which the security issues, conflict resolution and peace maintenance by the UN have been discussed. Also since the Europe and Africa have strong ties in terms of trade which are growing gradually the peace maintenance is equally important than any other project, deal or procedures to be implemented. Another point to mention here is the problem of refugees. These people either run away or are displaced in a planned way to create tension or to call for doing terrorist activities like bombings, riots, decoying, bothering civilians, harming them creating fear and terror. They themselves not willing to go for it but either they become habitual or sick or they are forced and used by agencies after the rebels and combaters. During war times the child soldiers sometimes cross borders and enters the European countries. They escape or refuge from the war. Hence being dangerously sick after harsh trainings and certain time period spending in troops and rebels they become mature and harmful for normal civilians. Being hidden in towns can be throbbing for the civilians and the security may disturb if such people come to front. Conclusions This paper mainly focuses the problem of child soldiers in West Africa; it does not invoke any newer research or topic as well any new discovery but it just covers the historical and present perspective of the children recruited in combats and armies as soldiers. The aftermath of their being abused and the injustice which happen with them. If we talk about children in Africa, it is not unique to this continent. Even comparing with the whole world the existence of a child to be used as a soldier is something more familiar to Africans than to any other country. In the past, the children were used as slaves or Negroes to serve their masters and do all work which any adult is abide and able to do, in the present era children are brutally and ruthlessly used in the wars as young soldiers. One major reason as observed why children are preferred in some cases over the adults to participate in the war is, They are not mature enough to think They move in either direction as order They don’t argue to their master They easily become scare of the threats given to them They can be killed without any reason and no one comes to ask about them as they are taken away from their families forcibly “Not surprisingly, the laws of war, the rules that govern how conflict is waged, and even human rights law, do not go far enough, and children, women and the family must bear the cost, precisely because they are together essential pillars in society. War today just simply does not match the traditional conception of two opposed armies; or even of an internal conflict pitting an armed opposition force against the established government, in which each side generally abides by the “rules of the game”, respecting the basic inviolability of civilian non-combatants and the special protection due to the young.’ (Rosen, pg, 13) Whatever might be the reason or bad circumstance faced by these children the need of the hour is to focus on the problem under consideration. Peace and security is the basic right of every individual in the world. Child abuse is a serious crime and should be punished and checked surely. The developed countries may it be any should work together to take steps in order to find ways for eradicating the mental and physical abuse of innocent children in West Africa and to assure them full protection of their lives, health and education even in war times!! Works Cited Alfred B. Zack-Williams, Child soldier in civil war in Sierra Leone, pg.1 http://www.devstud.org.uk/publications/papers/conf99/dsaconf99zackwilliams.pdf Accessed on 7th Feb 2008 Charles Chidi Achodo, Conflict and post conflict, pg.2-8 http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPRS1/Resources/Regional-Events/Africa-Poverty-Forum--06-00-/Plenary/conflict.pdf Accessed on 7th Feb 2008 Child exploitation.org http://www.childexploitation.org/soldiers.html  Accessed on 7th Feb 2008 Child Soldiers WebQuest UN Cyberschoolbus, http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/childsoldiers/webquest/glossary.asp Accessed on 7th Feb 2008 Comunidad sagura networks of ideas http://www.comunidadesegura.org/?q=en/node/32441 Accessed on 7th Feb 2008 David M. Rosen, Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers In War And Terrorism, Rutgers University Press, 2005 E-mine electronic mine information network http://www.mineaction.org/docs/7602278_.asp Accessed on 7th Feb 2008 Gail Wannenburg, ORGANISED CRIME IN WEST AFRICA, (2005) http://www.iss.co.za/pubs/ASR/14No4/F1.htm Accessed on 6th Feb 2008 Gregory Hamot, Chivy Sok and Carol Brown, Child labor module series, pg.7-10 http://international.uiowa.edu/centers/human-rights/documents/child_soldiers.pdf Accessed on 7th Feb 2008 Helen A. Finken, Child Soldiers, Center for Human Rights Child Labor Research Initiative, October 2004 UI Jean-Hervé Jézéquel, Child Soldiers in Africa, http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/IMG/pdf/jezequelgb.pdf Accessed on 6th Feb 2008 Lilian Peters, War is no child play, pg.1-4 http://se2.dcaf.ch/serviceengine/FileContent?serviceID=DCAF&fileid=90BD3ECB-9157-257C-7FEB-63057E1E8F8D&lng=en. Accessed on 7th Feb 2008 Massaër Diallo and Gwénola Possémé-Rageau, Human security in West Africa, pg.8 http://www.africanreview.org/docs/humsecjun04.pdf Accessed on 7th Feb 2008 Mzansi afrika http://mzansiafrika.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_archive.html Accessed on 6th Feb 2008 Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Philippe I. Bourgois, Violence in War and Peace Blackwell Publishing, pg, 2, 2004 Posper Addo, cross border criminal activities, pg.1-2 http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/lib.nsf/db900SID/JBRN-6ZAH8E/$FILE/KAIPTC-peacekeeping-May06.pdf?OpenElement Accessed on 7th Feb 2008 Africa-Europe Summit under the Aegis of the OAU and the EU : Cairo, 3-4 April 2000 - Cairo Declaration, (n.p), http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/site/c.glKWLeMTIsG/b.1846403/k.49B3/Profile_Children_and_Armed_ConflictBR12_July_2006.htm, Accessed on 8th Feb 2008 P.W. Singer, Child Soldiers ,The New Faces of War, p.3-4, www2.rnw.nl/rnw/en/features/humanrights/childsoldiers.html. Accessed on 8th Feb 2008 Afua Twum-Danso, Africa's Young Soldiers, The Co-option of Childhood, http://www.iss.co.za/Pubs/Monographs/No82/Ch1.html Accessed on 8th Feb 2008 Read More