Introduction Narrator: Around the world today, hundreds of thousands of children are being forced to serve in armed conflicts. The problem of child soldiers is one of the most serious human right issues facing the international community. But awareness of the problem through programs and communications is a large step toward a solution.
We're joined today by Voice of America radio host Shaka Ssali. A seasoned journalist with more than 20 years of experience, Ssali knows well the experiences of child soldiers. He was just 16 when he began a five-year stint in the army of his homeland of Uganda. He'll share his own experiences and discuss how children can overcome the trauma of conflict and lead successful lives. Part 1: Child soldiers and the International Criminal Court Narrator: The use of child soldiers is condemned by most countries in the world. In the United States, for example, President Bush recently signed into law the Child Soldiers Accountability Act. The law was approved unanimously by both houses of the U.S. Congress, and makes it a federal crime to recruit or use soldiers under the age of 15. Any violation of the law permits the United States to prosecute any individual on U.S. soil for the offense, even if the children were recruited or served as soldiers outside the United States.
The diplomatic fight against the use of child soldiers has, in the last 10 years, directly concerned the role of the International Criminal Court, located in The Hague in the Netherlands. The court was created as a permanent tribunal to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
We asked Ssali if American participation would have an impact.
Shaka Ssali: It surely would because, let's face it, the United States in the only superpower on this planet Earth. And therefore it really carries a lot of weight. I think that if it were to ratify the ICC treaty, which is the Rome treaty, it would make a significant difference because of its stature.
Narrator: In 1998, the ICC recognized the recruitment and use of children as soldiers as a war crime. In 2007, four former military commanders from Sierra Leone were convicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for recruiting and using children as soldiers. Rebel and military commanders from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda have also been charged with recruiting and using child soldiers.
The United States has supported certain International Criminal Court investigations, such as those conducted in the Darfur region of Sudan. And America remains strongly committed to international accountability for war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. The U.S. strongly opposes the Rome Statute as flawed, but will work together with other nations on these serious issues. Other mechanisms either already exist or may be established to ensure international accountability, the most fundamental being domestic state accountability. In the absence of such accountability, America believes the International Community should act to assist the state and in dire circumstances, the UN Security Council may be required to establish mechanisms for specific situations. Such action is consistent with the UN Charter.
Part 2: Social impacts of using children as soldiers Narrator: In armed conflicts, not only are children killed and injured, they are deprived of the social structures that provide reference points for right and wrong. Child soldiers are deprived of their families, schools, health systems and religious institutions that help provide moral direction.
Shaka Ssali: Well, first of all, it provides what you would call a negative role model to society because as kids, one grows up looking at those who are a little bit older than him or her, and depending on the activities, on the sort of things they involve themselves in, it can have a long term negative impact because it can make the difference between a kid growing up looking forward to becoming a teacher, looking forward to becoming a doctor, a nurse; in other words, looking forward really to becoming a useful member of society as opposed to someone frankly that doesn't have any inspirations at all and therefore doesn't aspire to anything meaningful. Narrator: Children are very impressionable – and the use of ideological indoctrination or brainwashing on youth can have disastrous consequences. It is important to note that in some cases, children can identify with social causes and fight for their self-determination, national liberation or political freedom. But in the end, the children themselves are not in a good position to judge a just cause from one leading simply to their own destruction.
Shaka Ssali: I grew up watching movies, we call it cinema, and it was when I was I think about 8 years old that I immediately started interacting with characters such as John Wayne, Gene Autry, Clint Eastwood. And I started imagining myself as someone that one day wouldn't mind really being a cowboy. Having unfettered access to a pistol, which looked like a source of pride, a tool of power, something that would give me the sort of independence, the sort of power, the sort of clout that would help me to somehow look at myself as someone that had made it. So you can imagine how many other kids look at life that way. And where you have civil wars, it almost automatically translates into kids losing their parents or one of their parents, and in some cases families becoming impoverished. In that event of course, you find that kids are extremely vulnerable.
Part 3: Recruitment of child soldiers Narrator: Both governments and opposition or rebel groups are responsible for using children as soldiers. Aid groups that work on the issue focus much of their work on preventing the recruitment of child soldiers. How they approach the problem depends on how the children are being recruited – often either by force or seduction.
Shaka Ssali: I think it is a combination of both and also it's a question of whether you're looking at a society that lacks some reasonable sense or degree of stability, because in a lot of these cases, where kids have actually been forcibly recruited into the ranks of rebels or governments and what have you, it's countries frankly where there is a long history of civil wars. Narrator: When families and communities are torn apart by conflict, becoming part of an armed group can seem like the best option for many children. Shaka Ssali: I'm not surprised that kids end up becoming part of these armed groups because, again, I think they sort of get a false sense of security in that they are associated with a group which appears to care for them, perhaps in some cases provides some kind of shelter, in some cases creates an environment whereby these kids meet other kids and therefore they can interact, they can play with them, they can share those types of experiences even though of course those experiences in the long term do not really have what you would call positive dividends. I have seen some cases kids actually who were even 5 years old – can you believe that? If you look at a kid anywhere between 5 and up to 18, for the most part really, they are not in a position to make decisions based on a lot of knowledge. They are not mature enough to figure out what is best for them. They are basically very highly impressionable by something that might make them look like a sort of cowboy character, you know.
