Let the Children Die; The Girl Soldiers Who are Left Behind

As the once invincible structures of western capitalism verge on collapse, some industries are thriving. Human trafficking rakes in about seven billion dollars annually and continues to see healthy increases in its profits. Last week, the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) published a report on Trafficking in Human Persons that offers some disturbing insight into this rampant phenomenon. Sexual exploitation accounts for 79% of human trafficking, though, as the UNODC report acknowledges, this may well be simply because prostitution is the only visible face of this chimera. The rest happens in the fog of war or in countries where there is neither legislation nor enforcement capacity and where social stigmas prevent victims from persecuting offenders. The recruitment of child soldiers is one of the forgotten facets of this tragedy. Even more overlooked are the cases where young girls are recruited, becoming both victim and victimizer. It is estimated that there are over 300,000 girl child soldiers throughout Europe, Africa, Latin America and East Asia.

Children of both genders are abducted, ripped away from screaming mothers or dragged away from their lifeless and violated corpses. And then they themselves are turned into ruthless killers. As induction, it is common practice to have the new arrivals kill other children who are tied helplessly to a chair. Those who refuse are used as target practice for the rest. In P.W. Singer's haunting book Children at War he records the confession of a boy, aged six, who along with his brigade tied two "women down with their legs eagle-spread and took a sharpened stick and jabbed them inside their wombs until the babies came out on the stick." This story is not exceptional. Child soldiers quickly become the most brutal fighters; violence is the only thing they know. The younger the child is, the easier it becomes to erase all sense of morality. So young, they know no fear, no wrong and are therefore often more daring and less forgiving than the adults they fight with. Such frenzy is fueled by rampant drug use.

For girls, the trauma is two fold. In battle, they too are soul-less killers. In the camps, however, they are taken as sex slaves and turned into "war wives." Should the daily violations they endure result in pregnancy, the girls are forced to abort using sticks and guns. If not, they continue to be sent into battle, with infants strapped to their back. The Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka were the first to establish "Baby Brigades" made up of children sixteen and younger; roughly half of these forces are female. The Maoist insurgency in Nepal and the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda are also notorious for targeting young girls. In the remote instance that international peacekeeping forces intervene to remove children from conflict zones, the girls are left behind, claimed by their husbands and denied the psychological counseling they would require in order to, perhaps, reclaim their stolen humanity. Should they be lucky enough to escape the battlefield, they become ostracized members of society; even relatives will not take them back, labeling them as "unclean and promiscuous."

In unraveling this bloody Gordian knot, we are faced with a multiplicity of problems. The United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child, for example, is a feeble attempt to curb this supreme violation of human rights. It is however, a first step, a well-guided attempt to alleviate the ills of conflict. The United States is, shamefully, not signatory to this treaty, which seeks to remove child soldiers from conflict and attempt to rehabilitate these broken souls. Current programs lack funding and people, and though governments may be party to this agreement and refuse to enlist any soldiers under the age of eighteen, the true perpetrators are beyond their control. Heavy recruiting often happens in anti government guerrillas and militias. Recent reports find that in nine countries both government and guerrillas recruit children. Non-state actors are three times as likely to induct children into their ranks.

So, how do we control forces that are battling against everything a sitting government stands for? They will not follow any protocol imposed by UN resolutions or any other such measure. This means nothing to them. In countries that are drowning in bloodshed, where is the space to provide the necessary help, even with all the money in the world backing programs and professionals willing and capable to save the innocent? Where do you begin to rebuild when all is torn asunder, when war is the only reality? In Liberia and Sierra Leone, where child soldiers made their entrance into the global consciousness, there is some semblance of stability. But the question remains, even in peace, how do you rebuild a shattered soul? When these kids have been utterly dehumanized, when their every instinct and reflex is violent, do you risk the well-being of classmates? Do you isolate them? After years of committing unimaginable atrocities, how do you bring them back into society when many times, society refuses them? How do you counsel girls who fear coming forward as rape victims? They all become an intractable part of a vicious, demonic cycle of violence that makes true development unattainable. In places like the Democratic Republic of Congo, conflict simply sees no end. A land so rich in resources, so poor in infrastructural and human development is raped time and time again; looted so that I can write this post on my laptop computer. As long as there is war, there is rape, there is abuse, and amidst all this suffering there is precious little room for hope and progress. Every survivor is left with the ghosts of loss and guilt to lead hollow lives. How do you end such a war?

These children are in desperate need of help from local peers and elders. In many countries women's organizations are forming, encouraging victims to congregate and share their stories, so that they might at least find solace in the company of others. In Uganda, a UNICEF sponsored organization has taken root and flourished. Empowering Hands creates awareness about the plight of child soldiers and helps to deconstruct the problematic social stigma surrounding female abductees. Through dance and musical performances, they raise money to help members start small businesses, allowing many women the economic empowerment to emancipate themselves and find hope. Over two thousand former child soldiers have been saved through this program and others like it. (see bottom, right)

Child soldiering has been in vogue in the West for some time, featured in the movie Blood Diamond, in novels, and magazine articles. So perhaps a few wealthy westerners will donate money, shed a tear and then move on. But nothing changes. We have become experts at pretending to care, and yet miserably and shamefully fail to provide the necessary action. We do nothing, or just enough to ease our own conscience and then turn the other cheek. If we do not stand up for the rights and protection of children, then how can we call ourselves civilized? Stealing a child's innocence and ripping his or her human dignity to unrecognizable pieces is the most despicable act. We must take the work of effective organizations seriously and support their efforts with funding and personnel. If enough people are trained and can participate in the rehabilitation of their destroyed society, then perhaps a road for peace can be cleared out of the indiscriminate wreckage of war.