Child Soldiers: How Do Disasters Take Form?

Disasters, as menacing as they are, take time to form. But how exactly?

     

     Now that the topic of child soldiers' inception and story has been told, by a third-person's point of view, some may now be wondering about the first-person's point of view- the children themselves. What it felt like and what they went through. However before I begin, one needs to understand that not all child soldiers are forced into fighting- some volunteer on their own accord. But in this particular case, I will be exploring a child's typical forced-to-join-army story.

     1. So what happens first? 

TESTIMONIAL:

"All of us told the soldiers we didn't want to join the army and some said they were students, and the soldiers punched us. They asked me, 'Do you want to join the army?' I refused and they punched me. Then they asked again, 'Do you want to join the army?' I refused again and they punched me again. They did this seven times and I still refused. They punched my face, my chest, my forehead, and they cut open my eyebrow and it bled. I was bleeding from the eyebrow and the mouth. I hadn't agreed, but then they sent me to the clinic. . . . Then the second boy was punched and kicked, and he was sent to the clinic too. Then they said to the other five, 'You see your friends? You see my boot? Now would you like to join the army?' Then the others were afraid and agreed to join the army." 

-Soe Naing, recruited at age twelve

     2. How are they trained to fight?

TESTIMONIAL:

"The youngest were about twelve. There were five of them. They couldn't carry a weapon because it was too heavy for them. . . . They beat them. There were often beatings, then they ordered them to carry two weapons. I dropped my weapon one time, and the trainer said 'You are a soldier. Can't you carry a weapon?' Then he whipped me on the neck with the rope of his whistle."  

-Thein Oo, who was trained at age fourteen

     

     3. What happens to the children on the battlefield?

TESTIMONIAL:

"When I first heard the gunshots I was very afraid. I stayed in a hole and cried. I'd never heard that noise before. I was fifteen. That first time I didn't shoot at all. The battle lasted two hours. Three of ours were killed. I saw it, and it made me afraid."

- Moe Shwe, recruited at age thirteen

"We captured about fifteen women and children. . . three babies and four others who were under eighteen. They took the babies away from their mothers. We gathered them in one place and sent a report to headquarters by radio. . . . The order that came over the radio was to kill them all. . . . Then six of the corporals loaded their guns and shot them. They fired on auto. The women had no time to shout. I saw it. I felt very bad because there were all these people in front of me, and they killed them all. Their bodies were left there. The soldiers were holding the babies and the babies were crying. Two of them were less than a year old, maybe nine or ten months. One was maybe fourteen or fifteen months old. After the mothers were killed they killed the babies. Three of the privates killed them. They swung them by their legs and smashed them against a rock. I saw it."

-Khin Maung Than, age thirteen at the time

     4. What if they tried to escape? 

TESTIMONIAL:

"He was sixteen or seventeen. They ordered him to kneel down. Then three or four NCOs beat him on the head and back with sticks for about half an hour. When he fell the NCOs pulled him back up to his knees. He was unconscious. There was blood all over his face. . . . Then they put him in the leg stocks, and he regained consciousness. They left him in the leg stocks for a week. I saw him there about three times. He looked like he was getting worse. He couldn't eat rice, just a little rice soup. Then he couldn't eat anything and they sent him to hospital. He died in the hospital." 

-Salaing Toe Aung, trained at age sixteen in 2001

     5. Are there consequences for being a child soldier?

TESTIMONIAL:

"Somebody being shot in front of you, or you yourself shooting somebody became just like drinking a glass of water." 

- Anonymous

     After child soldiers are rescued from captivity, you may think that their lives have gotten much better, correct? However, unlike many people believe, this notion is wrong. Just because a child has escaped physical bondage does not automatically place them in the same state emotionally and socially. 

     Some out of many after-effects include PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), depression, and social rejection. Some children may even harbour suicidal thoughts. In the quotation, the child, among many others, has suffered from PTSD since he or she has been exposed to much trauma while they fighting in wars as a child soldier. In some cases, the child has even been detained on ground of 'war crimes' against the government, despite the fact they were forced. Sadly in most cases, the group responsible for recruiting them never gets arrested for their crimes because they bribe their way out of it. Which is another way of demonstrating how greed can thwart people to serve 'justice' to defenseless children.

     Therefore, an organization that rehabilitates child soldiers and reintegrates them back into society, while trying to prevent it from happening in the first place, creates a much more crucial outcome than multiple organizations who work solely on freeing child soldiers. Children who are at risk because they could either kill themselves or simply going back to their previous way of life as a child soldier. They think that nobody loves them anymore.

Sources:

-https://www.hrw.org/news/2002/10/15/testimonies-my-gun-was-tall-me-child-soldiers-burma
-http://www.dynamictreatment.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/pstdcartoon.jpg
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo5zuPeszSk