Yajing Zhang
Professor Broadous
PAS 114B
March
19, 2012
Child
Soldiers, the Invisible Children
If a child goes missing in the United States, the police are notified and
then issue an Amber Alert. Radio stations begin broadcasting descriptions,
while TV stations flash pictures of the abducted. Billboards along roads flash
important information regarding the abduction. The police move out with
helicopters and cars, and the Army National Guard may even be called in. Everything is put into operation to bring a
child home to its family. Meanwhile, they go after the abductor to put him or
her behind bars, so he or she cannot harm any other child. In contrast, in
another part of the world, 30,000 children have been abducted in the past 18
years in Uganda. Many families have lost
at least one child, or their villages have been attacked and destroyed by an
army of abducted children known as The Lord’s Resistance Army (Beah). Children there live
in fear of being recruited, and after serving their time, they are psychologically
traumatized. In addition, they are more likely to be killed because of the war.
Thus, the use of child soldiers in Uganda destroys the children's childhoods
and future.
This situation is first caused by the Ugandan government. The corrupt Amin
government in Uganda directly led his opposition’s abduction and exploitation
of child soldiers. The Ugandan government ran mostly by Idi Amin fell into such
a deep financial crisis that when other countries would send in food and money,
the government would not spread its wealth to the country’s population(Brown). Instead
the outside aid that was given only made the corrupt government even stronger.
Idi Amin was known to be corrupt and incapable of maintaining a successful
economy. He bribed all of his men with luxury items such as alcohol and
expensive gifts without sharing the rest of his wealth with his people (Briggs,
70). Idi Amin was known for taking money from public projects and giving it to
his military commanders. In an act of racism, Idi Amin ordered 50,000 Asian
shop owners to be expelled from Uganda. Factories and businesses crumbled and
Idi Amin's arms trafficking industry collapsed( Beah). Britain, America, and
Israel started to support Amin by giving military training for Ugandan troops so
that they could stabilize the region. The international community ignored the
previous acts of his military repression, thinking that Amin could bring peace
and Democracy to Uganda (Beah). Instead, Idi Amin used the military training
the Western forces provided to enforce his total control over Uganda and take
over the northern Acholi tribes which he thought were planning to overthrow
him. (Brown). Therefore, this caused many Ugandans to rebel. It first started
out as peaceful protest, but as matters, got worse the protests only became
deadlier. Soon leaders from tribes like Joseph Kony started to form rebel
groups trying to overthrow the government. After several failed attempts, Kony
and his people began to get more desperate so they resorted to the use of child
soldiers (Briggs, 89). At first the government believed that the use of child
soldiers would not be a problem, but as Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army
(LRA) became more and more powerful the government only became weaker and
weaker (Beah).
Ugandan Children live in fear of being recruited. The families have to
live their lives as nomads because of their constant fear that the rebels might
raid their villages. Each night in northern Uganda, tens of thousands of
terrified children leave their villages at dusk and walk into neighboring towns
to avoid being kidnapped by the Lord's Resistance Army (Briggs, 74). Loving
parents reluctantly send their children away every night. (Browne). They seek
refuge overnight in churches, hospitals, bus stations and temporary shelters. Early
the following morning, children have to walk miles in order to head home or go
to school. Almost every family in the Acholi and Lango areas has been affected.
Meanwhile children in Gulu and Lira cannot even be reached by aid workers for
basic health care because they fear being attacked by the LRA (Beah, 47).
Those children are lucky in some ways because they sleep away from the
rebels. Once they are recruited by the rebels, they will never be the same
again. Child soldiers live short lives because their exposure to war increases
their chances of getting killed. "Children ten years old are taught to
kill, often beginning with their own families. Other child soldiers are killed
while others are commanded to kill in order to stay alive" (Beah, 3). The
countryside is virtually empty from people having moved into "safe"
villages that are supposed to be protected by the government which does not
always happen. People are not able to leave their homes without having to fear
the rebels. Commerce has vanished, villages have been burned down, and children
grow up without a future. This conflict has been going on for 18 years with no
solution in sight. This war is extremely brutal because Joseph Kony’s army
recruits young boys by abducting them from villages and schools of northern
Uganda. Kony’s older child recruits assault and force newly recruited child
soldiers to commit atrocities on fellow abductees and even siblings (Beah, 36). Thousands of children have been robbed of
their childhood. At night, the children of the north flee into towns to sleep,
fearing that they might be abducted. When the LRA commanders run out of weapons
or food, they send their child soldiers to raid nearby villages and are told to
leave no survivors. Often before raids, the children receive drugs to numb
their pain. While the child soldiers fight, the LRA leaders just watch because
they feel their lives are far more valuable than any of the children’s. The
army abducts children and put them in the front lines of its army, ordering
them to return to their villages and kill their neighbors, friends and parents
(Browne). If they are lucky enough to survive, the children return to their
communities with injuries and severe trauma. Although many may believe that Ugandans
would still be struggling even if there weren’t a civil war the terror brought
by the Lord’s Resistance Army has had the most devastating psychological effect
on Uganda’s people (Briggs, 65).
The exploitation of child soldiers by the rebels is a never-ending story
of children being abducted and killed (Beah). Young children are ripped away
from their families and turned into killing machines. Uganda’s children are
being forced to kill instead of enjoying a normal childhood of laughter and
dreams. While this is happening, the corrupt government continues to spend the
financial aid it receives from other countries only on its officials. In
northern Uganda, there is no Amber alert, no police or help, only the silence
of another town or school being raided while children are taken (Brown). Is
there a solution? This is what thousands of innocent Ugandans ask themselves
everyday. Solutions that propose to minimize the violence in Uganda range from military
options to peaceful movements (Beah). Although none of them have yet ended the
use of child soldiers, other people still need to contribute these child
soldiers and their families by giving relief, food and shelter. Most
importantly, people need to make them believe that they are cared by this
world, and they are not invisible.
Works
Cited
Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of
a Boy Soldier. Waterville, ME: Thorndike, 2007. Print.
Beah, Ishmael. "The Making, and
Unmaking, of a Child Soldier." Nytimes.com. The New York Times, 14 Jan. 2007. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/magazine/14soldier.t.html?pagewanted=
1&_r=1&ei=5089&en=18db63db3854257e&ex=1326430800&partner=
rssyahoo&emc=rss&adxnnlx=?>.
Browne,
L. Dallas. “Sierra Leone: Lasting Peace or a Cruel Mirage?” History Behind the Headlines: The Origins of Conflicts
Worldwide. Ed. Sonia G. Benson.
Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale Group, 2002. Student Resource Center – Gold.
Thomson Gale. Alameda Free Library. 19 April. 2008.
<http://find.galegroup.com/srcx/retrieve>
Briggs, Jimmie. Innocents Lost: When Child
Soldiers Go to War. New York: Basic, 2005. Print.
Grossman, Lev. "Pop Culture Finds Lost
Boys." Time. Time, 02 Feb. 2007. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C1584807%2C00.html>.
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