Child Soldier Relief

Information, research, news, resources for and about child soldiers

November 17, 2009 • 2:52 pm 0

The Charles Taylor Trial Series – Part Two: Charles Taylor’s Use of Child Soldiers

Child Soldier Relief is creating a three part series on the Charles Taylor Trial; the second report in the series explores Charles Taylor’s use of child soldiers.

The Council of Foreign Relations reports that in the late eighties and early nineties Charles Taylor recruited child soldiers into his National Patriotic Front of Liberia movement and created the Small Boys Unit, a group of child soldiers within his rebel movement.

As President of Liberia from 1997 to 2003, Charles Taylor allegedly also sought child soldiers in the most recent conflict between Liberia and Sierra Leone. One of the reasons child soldiers were sought by Taylor and rebel groups is that children don’t fully understand the danger that faces them in battle. In fact, according to IRIN, child soldiers are “highly prized for being fearless in combat.” A militia commander in Liberia told IRIN why he thinks child soldiers can be the “best and bravest” on the front line, “They can fight more than we the big people….It’s hard for them to just retreat.”

Because of their “fearlessness” child soldiers were often used as officers. “These children were given high positions. They were called colonel and general, and this made them feel like they had power,” said UNICEF Child Protection Officer Michael Charley about child soldiers in Sierra Leone.

As Gloria and Mary, two former child soldiers in Liberia, explain in a video by the Guardian, girls taken as child soldiers had extra burdens to bear: being raped at the will of soldiers. “…For a girl, sometimes we used to be raped by [the soldiers] not just by one person, sometimes by two or three and afterwards we still had to carry [weapons] to the frontline. So the girls were maltreated more than the boys,” said Gloria.

“When I think about the war, I think of doing bad things to myself. Sometimes I just want to kill myself…but if I think about the future I will be happy,” said Gloria.

For more on the Charles Taylor Trial…

Filed under: C. Taylor Trial, Liberia, Sierra Leone , charles taylor, child soldier, Liberia, Sierra Leone, War

August 7, 2009 • 9:16 am 0

The Charles Taylor Trial Series – Part One: A summary of charges

Child Soldier Relief is creating a three part series on the Charles Taylor Trial; the first explores the summary of charges against Charles Taylor concerning child soldiers.

Charles Taylor is charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law. According to Count 9 of the Indictment, Taylor is charged with conscripting and enlisting children under the age of 15 in Sierra Leone from November 30, 1996 through January 18, 2002.

Specifically, the prosecution accuses Taylor of assisting, encouraging and directing the RUF, AFRC, AFRC/RUF Junta and/or Liberian fighters to conscript and enlist children under the age of 15 “to participate in active hostilities.”

These actions are punishable under Article 4 (c) of the Special Court Statute for Sierra Leone.

Under this Article the Special Court has the power to prosecute those that violate international humanitarian law including, “Conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 years into armed forces or groups or using them to participate actively in hostilities.”

According to CharlesTaylor.org, which has been covering the trial from the beginning and provides daily, weekly and monthly summaries on the trial, Charles Taylor was leader of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia from 1989 to 1997 and from 1997 to 2003, he was the democratic president of Liberia.

As ChildSoldierRelief.com wrote in February 2009, the Special Court for Sierra Leone is a collaboration between international and national justice, set up to try those accused of committing war crimes in the civil war in Sierra Leone.

Filed under: C. Taylor Trial, Intl Criminal Ct, Liberia, Sierra Leone , charles taylor trial, conflict, court, law, politics

March 27, 2009 • 3:23 pm 0

Empowering former girl child soldiers in Uganda, Sierra Leone and Liberia

University of Wyoming professor Susan McKay is in the third phase of a research project studying former girl soldiers in Uganda, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Her findings have been wide-ranging, but her most recent discoveries have been concerned with the “stigma and marginalization” faced by the women, many of them young mothers, attempting to transition back into their old communities and lives with their small children.

McKay said that often the girls with children live alone in dire poverty and sometimes must resort to prostitution because they have a hard time becoming part of the community.

McKay, working with 100 local academics and agency workers, as well as several child welfare organizations, has conducted her study in 20 research sites and involved 700 participants. The project, titled ‘People in the community told us we are good for nothing:’ Community-based participatory research to empower war-affected girl mothers in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Northern Uganda’ in addition to being a research study, has also helped to aid the women in reintegration and empowerment.

To start, the researchers got the girls together and had them define their problems. Just that first step was valuable, McKay said…

Then the girls create plans to address their problems. Many have started small businesses together. They’ve also created dramas that they act out for their communities to help people understand how they’ve been marginalized, and that has resulted in changed behavior, McKay said.

More more information on the project, please see PARGirlMothers.

Filed under: Educational, Girl Soldiers, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Treatment Centers, Uganda , child soldiers, children, education, girl soldiers, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, university

January 14, 2009 • 10:28 am 1

Mental health problems for child soldiers in Liberia

In a clinic that serves the needs of former child soldiers in Paynesville, Liberia, a common problem arises. There are not enough beds for the children - many of which arrive drug addicted or are diagnosed schizophrenic – and as a result many must leave the clinic after only three months. “The centre can’t keep them any longer because it doesn’t have enough beds,” says John Philip, a psychiatric nurse.

According to the nurse, many among the Paynesville patients have been driven to self-mutilation, attempted suicide and violence against those closest to them.

The children are returned to their families, often unwelcome and certainly without proper long-term professional care and treatment.

Families – often reluctant to re-engage with offspring considered “crazy, dangerous and inhabited by evil” – must then return to the hospital three months later for fresh supplies of the legal drugs used “to control” their children.

The problem is overwhelming:

Experts calculate that more than half the population of 3.5 million have psychological problems, 80 percent of them war-related, often the legacy of rape and the conscription of 21,000 children, some as young as nine, who were used as soldiers or sex slaves.

Filed under: Liberia, Treatment Centers , child soldiers, Liberia, mental health, suicide, War

April 21, 2008 • 6:59 pm 0

Liberian Gangs in Philadelphia, with former child soldiers as members

Last month, an NPR story was broadcast on the issue of Liberian youth gangs in Philadelphia. The reporter, Jennifer Ludden, mostly spoke about children of refugees developing gangs to protect themselves from abuse and violence. In the brief report, it was easy to miss the reference to child soldiers, so I’ll recap the story here.

According to the story, in the 1990s, scores of Liberians began settling in Philadelphia fleeing the civil war in their country. Instead of seeing relief from persecution, however, many of their children began having to deal with abuse, taunting and racism; teasing that sometimes led to physical abuse and serious injuries. According to the report, many of them have started their own gangs to fight back.

Jennifer Ludden, spoke to the Children’s Crisis Treatment Center, a group that has provided teacher training classes, telling teachers that teasing could be extra traumatic for kids who have lived through war by triggering certain reactions based on the constant fear of living with war.

Due to an anti-violence campaign, and the fact that the number of war victims arriving has decreased, violence has subsided. But others think it has nothing to due with the campaign, but is instead because of the gangs, one of them called LIB - Liberians in Blood.

A couple of remarks on LIB from the story:

It’s a group pledged to each other’s protection…

Today… they can move around freely, thanks to LIB…

But significantly, one local soccer coach said,

“Refugees arriving in recent years have included war children who have seen nothing but violence their entire lives, among them some former child soldiers [emphasis added]… By the time these guys get here and try to emulate the hip-hop life-syle out here combined with what they already have, it’s a problem.”

Jennifer Ludden concludes with,

Children once lost to war at home, now some fear lost to street violence in America.

Filed under: Educational, Liberia, Treatment Centers , child soldier, gangs, Liberia, Philadelphia gangs, War

April 17, 2008 • 2:19 am 0

Paying Close Attention to the Charles Taylor Trial

One important blog to be aware of is CharlesTaylorTrial.org. Taylor is charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international law committed in Sierra Leone, for supporting rebels in that country who committed such crimes. Significantly, the statute establishing the Special Court of Sierra Leone includes a provision prohibiting conscription of children under the age of 15. There is one count in the formal indictment alleging Charles Taylor’s use of child soldiers, note Count 9 in the Indictment.

The use of child soldiers (or “Small Boy Units”) by both the government of Sierra Leone and the RUF (supported by Taylor) during the Sierra Leone Civil War (1991-2002) is well documented, but the prosecution will need to prove Charles Taylor’s role in conscripting children.

A witness for the prosecution, Suwandi Camara, a Gambian who saw Taylor and in Libya in the early 1990’s seeking weapons and support and later served in Taylor’s Special Security Service (”SSS”), testified on Taylor’s use of SBU (small boy units).

Camara testified that during his time at Cobra Base he saw many 13 year olds being trained. He explained that in an average SBU Company there would be 230 – 240 soldiers and many of these companies were trained at the Base. Camara was aware of the Commander of the SBU who was called Supoom who he thought worked at Charles Taylor’s mansion and reported to Charles Taylor. Camara first saw Supoom when Camara arrived in Liberia in 1991. Camara thought that Supoom was about 15 at that time.

Camara explained that soldiers in the SBU could sometimes be as you as 9 or 10. Sometimes they were so small than when they handled guns like AK-47’s, the guns would touch the ground. They were trained like the other soldiers with the exception sometimes of the obstacle training which some of the children could not complete. Some members of the Women’s Army Company (”WAC”) were also excused from obstacle training. Camara explained that this company was made up of “matured girls”.

Camara confirmed that the majority of the SBU recruits were Liberians but that there were also a few children from Sierra Leone. Camara explained that the recruits were organised by company, platoons and sections and that every company was made up of 4 platoons with 4 sections in a platoon. Normally one battalion was trained at a time. Before the recruits finished their training and “passed out”, General Yetim [sic] would be informed who then inform Taylor. Taylor would then sometimes come to the base to visit the recruits and would often bring cows and food and rice for the recruits. Taylor would attend the “passing out” parade and talk to the recruits and Camara saw Taylor many times at the Base. He also used to bring badges for the children to put on their uniforms. Camara explained that they used to dance and sing during the “passing out” ceremonies and that sometimes Taylor would join in. Once the training was completed, the recruits were sent back to their units all over Liberia or Sierra Leone depending on where they had come from.

The Prosecution examined prosecution witness José Maria Caballero, also known as Father Chema, a Catholic priest (more about him in another blog entry) who works directly with child soldiers and former child soldiers in Sierra Leone.

Father Chema testified that children who arrived at St. Michael’s Lodge were normally between the ages of 14 and 16. He explained that the children committed atrocities as soon as they were old enough to carry weapons (between the ages of 7 and 8).

Human Rights Watch Corinne Dufka testified:

Pros: I want to ask about the issue of boys and girls abducted and forcibly recruited into the fighting forces in Sierra Leone. Did you get any indication of their ages?

Wit: In general, for the events which I documented in 1998, I would say the ages of recruitment were from very young ages. There were people from 5 years old, even younger, abducted with their parents. Abductions into the fighting forces – 12, 13, 14 was not uncommon. There were children of that age working in the rebel camps doing other jobs such as washing and cooking.

Another mention I have found is about the execution of children accused of “spying”.

Def: Children executed on suspicion of giving food to government troops or spying? Or simply moving from government-controlled areas. You ordered them executed?

Wit: I can not recall whether I personally issued such orders. Women and children, yes, we carried out executions on them as long they suspected you of spying.

Def: As long as you suspected them of spying?

Wit: Once they suspected them.

Def: How young was the youngest child that your men shot dead for suspected of spying, giving food to government troops or moving from government-controlled areas?

Wit: I can talk about 12.

Def: Any younger than that?

Wit: There was 10.

Def: Any younger?

Wit: I can’t recall. I can say they were within those age brackets.

Filed under: C. Taylor Trial, Intl Criminal Ct, Laws, Treaties, Liberia, Sierra Leone , charles taylor trial, child soldier, Father Chema, International Criminal Court, Liberia, Sierra Leone, small boy units