Children and Conflict

The breakdown of civil war in any country will inevitably see the same kind of child soldier. The targets by the so called rebel leaders being children compeled to kill one another, their own families, fighting as soldiers in an armed force deliberately composed of children committing atrocities with such malevolence and unrestrained evil is an experience no child should go through.

 Just as seemingly contradictory standpoints are common in every human setting, the transition of any child from civilian to soldier is a painful experience. Learning to adapt to new settings, vulnerable with no experience of battle comes with a lot of pyschological pressure.   

I was abducted one afternoon on my way home from the farm. Life was terrible, it would rain hard on us on cold nights. I was tied up with other abductees and forced to carry looted food to a hideout in the bush, sometimes given loads to carry and forced to walk distances  I was not used to. If I slowed down or became weak, I was beaten. That is when I realized that things were not good. 

In days to come the new recruits had to quickly learn how to live in their new environment. How to sleep without shelter,where to fetch water, how to cope with the long walking distances and much more. They easily get killed if they tried to escape, were not able to walk any longer or refused an order..
  We are removing the civilian type of life from you. we want to change you into a military person continued Martin. Instead of giving me a gun, I was given a  lockwire. Then we got some six people and I was told to use the lockwire to beat these people. 
And I had to do it, because if you dont do it you are the next person. 

Such horiffying experiences are common during ab abductees initial time with the revels but if the abductee was ready to take on his new role as soldier, the situation could improve.The time you are threatened is when you are still new but when you are a real soldier, a good fighter, already you have been trained, you are now respected.

James a 17  year old school drop out from Northern Uganda (a child) surprised me when he came to the conclusion that vigilante attacks sometimes even against their own people, can be legitimate when no other options are open, when the political climate has stifled any oppositional effort, when you can do nothing. With this in mind, I consider myself fortunate to have escaped all this psychological pain and use this blog as a sensible expression of sensitization.