CNN just released a report citing that teenagers have been discovered working for the Mexican Gulf Cartel (one of the Mexico’s most significant drug cartels) as assassins. Said one of the youth:
I thought I was Superman. I loved doing it, killing that first person. They tried to take the gun away, but it was like taking candy from kid.
According to Laredo, Texas police, who apprehended three young men recruited by the Cartel, the youth were assigned to serve as hitmen in the United States.
Jal, rapper, writer, philanthropist and former child soldier from Sudan, just completed a memoir and was interviewed and videotaped by S.P. Sullivan and Dinah Gorelik from the Daily Collegian at UMASS.
Red Hand Day – on February 12 – is almost here. Check out the abundance of information online to get involved.
Red Hand Day has the objective of collecting one million ‘red hands’ and presenting these to the UN on 12 February 2009, the sixth Red Hand Day. For the past 12 months schools, societies, NGO’s, and individuals have been raising awareness and getting supporters to print red hands on sheets of papers with their names, towns and personal messages.
New studies challenge the popular view that children forced to commit war atrocities end up as “lost boys,” incapable of ever leading constructive lives.
According to these new studies, and years of practical experience, war affected youth have been found to be extremely resilient, and respond well to targeted treatment through DDR programs, especially ones found at the local level.
Neil Boothby, an education professor at Columbia University conducted a study on former child soldiers in Mozambique and found this:
Participants often described trauma and depression symptoms that lasted for years after their release. Yet they had largely reintegrated themselves into civilian life. Almost all the boys and 80 percent of the girls were accepted by their families without problem after leaving the LRA. These kids typically regarded their time with the rebels as what God had willed for them.
Another study of children in Uganda by Judith Bass of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found that group therapy was successful in treating the children.
In a 2007 study, her team adapted a form of group therapy for use in Uganda. Trained, local counselors delivered this therapy to 105 teenagers living in either of two camps for displaced persons. The youngsters had been abducted by rebels, had witnessed murders or had experienced other war-related traumas. Constant worrying, social withdrawal and other signs of depression substantially declined after four months of weekly therapy sessions.
Thomas Lubanga, Congolese militia leader who was facing trial this summer for charges of recruiting and conscripting children under the age 15, and using them to participate actively in hostilities during the conflict in the Ituri region of north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, has been released.
Here is the press release from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Judges ordered the proceedings against Mr Lubanga to be halted due to concerns about whether he could get a fair trial as his defence cannot view some evidence against him. He will remain in detention for a further five days to give the prosecution time to appeal. The prosecution immediately confirmed that it would appeal Mr Lubanga’s release.
The trial of Lubanga, who was transferred to the ICC in 2006, was to have been the first international war crimes case ever to focus solely on the use of child soldiers. As leader of the notorious Union of Congolese Patriots, Lubanga is accused of conscripting children under 15 to carry out attacks on civilians in the mineral-rich Ituri province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002 and 2003
Emmanuel Jal, former child soldier from the age of 7 in Sudan, wowed Nelson Mandela and a huge crowd at his 90th birthday party in London’s Hyde Park with his song “Emma”, sung with the Soweto Gospel Choir. Emma, the song’s namesake, is the British Aid worker who rescued Emmanuel from the Sudanese civil war. Similar to Ishmael Beal’s story, she adopted Emmanuel and moved him to Kenya to live with her. Shortly afterward, she died in a car accident. (A film on Emma’s life called “Emma’s War” is due for release in 2009).
“This next artist came out of the horror of a brutal war, a brutal childhood with a clear voice calling out against violence, hatred and materialism. He’s gonna have a huge influence in the world way beyond his music. He’s still developing and exploring his musical voice, but I think you have the opportunity to see someone with the potential of a young Bob Marley. Please give an enormous welcome to the amazing Emmanuel Jal.”
See these earlier postings about the recent film screened at the Tribeca Film Festival on Emmanuel Jal’s life.
