Victims or Perpetrators?
Imagine a young boy holding a rifle at a innocent civilian, this happens to children around the world. They are called child soldiers. There are a total of around 300,000 child soldiers in the world, and 40% of armed forces in the world also use children in their fighting forces. Children are often forced to fight at an age as young as five, and many of them are mentally and physically wounded for the rest of their life. These kids lost their childhood due to war. Child soldiers are victims because they brainwash the kids, they lie to the kids to make them fight, and they have little choice in their decision to fight.
Most importantly children are majorly brainwashed into the army. Armies use drugs and alcohol on the kids to make them more obedient. The drugs tricked them to kill due to the affects it has on the underaged mind. In more recent studies “after being taken captive, the would-be child soldiers -which include boys as young as five- were told that isis commanders cared for them more than their own parents.”(www.cnn.com/2012/10/08/world/africa/ishmael-beah-child-soldier/) They also told the children that their parents were unbelievers and the first thing they had to do was to go back and kill them. In Sierra Leone they brainwash child soldiers with drugs and alcohol, and then forced to kill, “any children who refused to fight, kill or showed any weakness were ruthlessly dealt with. Emotions weren’t allowed.” Many other children have been abducted by the RUF in recent weeks to carry military equipment and stolen goods, and female abductees are regularly raped. The RUF is a major factor in child soldiers. Fighting forces do many things to the kids to persuade them in helping fight for their side.
Additionally, children are not only drugged, they are also promised false information. They have promised food, water, and shelter, and with the little food they have to survive it is difficult to leave because they rely on the commanders for basic things. Some war children are promised “money or a chance at better life.” Sometimes the children are rejected by their own communities, especially girls who have had babies with soldiers. They are forced by commanders through false promises, drugs, and things you can’t imagine, to kill innocent civilians, and other children or even their own family. Children were promised anything they could steal including houses, cars, clothes, and food. “False promises were given -- that they would be paid in U.S. dollars, that they would get a house in Monrovia, or cars. This was a major thing that caused random killings; you get the property, if you get rid of the owner.” Promising false information made the young children very dangerous.
Another significant reason, children are so young they have little choice in their knowing to fight. Most child soldiers are kidnapped and taken from their families. Children are forced into fighting and they have little choice on whether or not they enlist, they follow all orders of adults rather than acting on their own free will. “Abduction is the most common method by which child soldier recruitment takes place. In short, there are two primary ways children can become child soldiers: they are abducted, or conscripted through coercion or severe threats; or they are born into forces or groups.” Reflecting on this, we see that children are too young to understand what they are even doing.
All in all, children are victims when it comes to fighting in war. Child soldiers are forced to fight at a young age. They are manipulated and brainwashed into doing what their
commanders say to. These children lost their family, their childhood, and their home. They are forced to fight. Forced to kill. Forced to abduct more children for the next generation. The war had lasting effects on them from physical to mental. Whether it being them brainwashed, being lied to, or their lack of understanding. Child soldiers are victims not perpetrators.