Teenage Soldiers: Bullet Catchers and Mine Detectors

Imagine the army is looking for recruits. Also imagine that one day, you and a few friends are standing around in front of your school. Maybe you're chatting a few minutes before heading home or to your jobs. You're killing time before band practice. You're getting together a game of whatever. Suddenly you find yourselves confronted by a group of men, a "press gang", which doesn't mean a bunch of reporters. Their job is to inform you that you have just joined the army. Resistance is made pointless by their greater numbers, larger size, or the weapons they carry. If you attempt to leave their army after this point, you are a deserter, and you can be beaten or even killed with no trial, no right of appeal.

Sound far-fetched? This happens every day in some countries.

Amnesty International reported a child soldier in Uganda as saying, "One boy tried to escape. His hands were tied, then they made us kill him with a stick. I refused, but they told me they would shoot me. After we killed him, they made us smear his blood on our arms. They said we had to do this so we would not fear death or try to escape." She was a soldier for the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which has made extensive use of child soldiers for its war against the Ugandan government, and has been receiving help from the government of neighboring Sudan. She was describing a way of turning kids into killers, by getting them accustomed to killing, and desensitized to the suffering of the victims.

The United Nations and human rights groups estimate that 200,000 to 300,000 minors (under 18 years old) are now soldiers in various armies, some of governments, many of rebel movements. The majority of these are under 15, which is the minimum age for military service under international law, though there is a movement now to raise that to 18. Even children under 10 are being used. If they're unable to fight, they get used as support personnel, like cooks and porters. Even if they're not in combat, these jobs put them in harm's way. Some armies have even used children for clearing mines, and the mine detectors are their own feet. Girls sometimes become involuntary "companions" for their commanders.

While many child soldiers are impressed (forcibly recruited), that's not the only reason they become soldiers. Most recruitment takes place in severely impoverished areas, which is also generally where the wars are fought. Many join to be able to eat, or in hopes of getting access to medical care. They're sometimes even sold into armies by parents. Often though, they have no home, or they're already out on their own because their parents can't support them. These kids are prime candidates for recruitment.

Sometimes underage soldiers really do believe in the cause they're fighting for. Most adolescents are trying to work out a sense of selves, and are sometimes prone to believe in simplistic and militant ideologies. Some armies are quite willing to take advantage of such youth to throw them in the front lines. During the Iran/Iraq war in the 80's, Iran recruited adolescents who cleared mine fields by running across them. They were recruited with promises of going immediately to heaven if they were killed.

Young soldiers often fight with little training, and are more likely to be killed in battle. Those not killed often die from inadequate medical care for diseases and wounds. If they get back to civilian life, they frequently have trouble readjusting. Their experiences leave them traumatized. They may find it hard to be accepted in a community because of concerns about what sort of people they've become. Besides psychological effects, they have missed the schooling normal for children and teens, and so may be completely illiterate and with no job skills.

Protections for children in this and other issues and codified in the U. N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is the law that sets the minimum age for military service at 15. Few nations have failed to ratify it, but among those few is the United States, which is also one of the few nations which has refused to ban land mines.

For more information or to find out what you can do, visit Amnesty International or Child Rights Information Network.