Innocent

Killers
Feature Article by Aidan Quimby
But Awol, whos employed, so to speak, as
a soldier working for Somalias transitional
government (World: Somalias Child
Soldiers). Awol is holding an AK-47, an
automatic weapon of mass destruction, is
protecting Somalias government. He might
be dead the next day, due to his poor
military training, along with the hundreds of
other child soldiers dying per day.

countries. As many as 40% or child soldiers

are in Africa (African Child Soldiers and
Humanitarian Consumption). Countries
include Uganda, Angola, Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Cte dIvoire,
Burundi, Mozambique, Somalia, Sierra
Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Colombia, Iraq,
Palestine, Afghanistan, Guatemala, El
Salvador, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Burma, and the
Central African Republic (Ertl, Djereke, and
Shankey). Almost all of these countries are
in a war using child soldiers to suffer their
pain.
These soldiers
arent always acquired peacefully, though.
Most child soldiers actually volunteer
because of poverty at home, while 40% are
forcefully taken (Gade). While the soldiers
who volunteered did it out of their own will,
years later, they almost always regret it.
With one less mouth to feed their families
back in the most popular countries for
recruitment like Uganda, Sudan, the Central
African Republic, the Democratic Republic
of the Congo, and Nepal (Ertl), they have a
better chance of surviving for themselves.

Actions towards solutions

Child soldier straddled with

7.62x49mm rounds. Wikipedia.

Breeding grounds for child

soldiers
As one would
expect, the common ground for child
soldiers are in the developing, 3rd world

These militarized
acts arent without resistance, though. One
semi-effective way of preventing abductions
was to move the 1.8 million citizens of
Northern Uganda into desolate areas where
they set up camps (Verena). Of course, the
U.S. has a different way of thought.
According to PC Magazine, they have been
developing unmanned robots to send into
combat, which could possibly be controlled
be children. The magazine goes on to say
that because children have a talent for video
games, they could be used to control these
unmanned robots. Although an
unconventional way of looking at the future
of the child soldier, there is a chance it could
happen, due to the children not being in any

grave danger. Organizations that are

working against child soldiers being used
like UNICEF, Amnesty International, the
Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers,
and Human Rights Watch, based on Rosens
article, will most likely focus the real
danger: The killing of innocent children.
There are some
limitations which might prevent unmanned
robots being controlled by children. Policies
like the Declaration of the Rights of the
Child from Gades article and the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the
Child article 39 from Harendras article put
into place laws that protect children from
fighting until 18. Although there might be
many lawsuits against what fighting is, the
U.S. might find a way to prove itself and use
these types of soldiers. Unless the next
president has a new view on actions towards
solutions, the future doesnt look bright for
the children.

Who are the Child

Soldiers?
These child
soldiers arent always your totally-not
picture perfect child soldier like you may
see in an elusive newspaper article. Many
girls are forced to marry leaders of the
armies (Lee-Koo). Also, it isnt uncommon
for girls to be involved in the war. In a study
recorded by Verena, 266 were female and
208 were male. And mostly because of the
main religion of child soldier groups being
Muslim, the girls do not get the amount of
respect a stranger would give them in a
developed country (World: Somalias Child
Soldiers). Another study was taken in
Northern Uganda, in which 24% where
recorded females (Klasen). The more
females, the more wives, if you want to
call them that, the armies have. But its for
you to decide what is worse: handing a child
an automatic weapon and placing him in the

middle of a war, possibly against his own

family, or forcing girls under the age of 18
to marry men who arent punished for their
actions against women.

Survival of the fittest

The amount of
child soldiers who survive being shot isnt
extremely high. With little to no medical
care and combat training that you might get
from a video game medical care is cyanide.
A photo of a boy holding a cross in one hand
and cyanide packet in the other resulted in a
huge boost of support for the camera men or
women taking the photos (Shankey). Some
kids are shot by groups responsible for over
a thousand deaths, like the Shabab
(Shankey). Other times, the instinct not to
shoot a child soldier overcomes you, even
though he is pointing an AK-47 at your
head. An Australian patrol experienced this,
as they watched and waited for a child
soldier to shoot at them before they shot
him.

Shabab militant group, responsible for

thousands of kills. Timeofisrael.com
When you see a
child, you never think of them shooting you,
at least not the first thought. You may think
things like innocent, helpless, or even
scared. The day when you see a child and
think shoot is the day that you realize

something needs to be done about child

soldiers.

Citations
Djereke, Jean-Claude. "What Hides Behind
The Question Of
Child Soldiers In
Cte
DIvoire?" Peace
Review 24.3
(2012): 268275. Academic
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Web. 1 Feb.
2015.

Ertl, Verena, et al. "The Challenge Of Living

On:
Psychopathology
And Its
Mediating
Influence On The
Readjustment Of
Former Child
Soldiers." Plos
ONE 9.7 (2014):
1-11. Academic
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Web. 1 Feb.
2015.

Gade, Emily Kalah. "The Child Soldier: The

Question Of SelfDefense." Journa
l Of Military
Ethics 10.4
(2011): 323326.Academic
Search Premier.
Web. 1 Feb.
2015.

Harendra de Silva, D G. "The Use Of Child

Soldiers In War
With Special
Reference To Sri
Lanka." Pediatric
s & International
Child Health 33.4
(2013): 273280. Academic
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Web. 25 Jan.
2015.

Klasen, Fionna, et al. "Posttraumatic

Resilience In
Former Ugandan
Child
Soldiers." Child
Development 81.
4 (2010): 10961113. Academic
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Web. 1 Feb.
2015.

Lee-Koo, Katrina. "Not Suitable For

Children: The
Politicization Of
Conflict-Affected
Children In Post2001
Afghanistan." Au
stralian Journal
Of International
Affairs 67.4
(2013): 475490. Academic
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Web. 1 Feb.
2015.

Sharkey, Donna. "Picture The Child

Soldier." Peace

Review 24.3
(2012): 262267. Academic
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Web. 26 Jan.
2015.

Rosen, Sarah Maya, and David M. Rosen.

"Representing
Child Soldiers In
Fiction And
Film." Peace
Review 24.3
(2012): 305312.Academic
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Web. 25 Jan.
2015.

"The Military's Child-Soldier Future." PC

Magazine (2013):
33-36.Academic
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Web. 25 Jan.
2015.

"World: Somalias Child Soldiers."

NYTimes.com
Video Collection
2010. Student
Resources in
Context. Web. 27
Jan. 2015.