Recruitment on Child Soldiers

In war-ton countries, children are keenly recruited by two main types, which are “coercive” and “voluntary.”

Coercive recruitment is using power to force children to join in the military such as kidnapping or menacing (Francis 213). For forced recruitment, children are abducted from their family under harsh intimidation. In Uganda, the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is infamous for kidnapping children from their homes. This organization has been reported for having abducted about 25,000 Ugandan children since the 1980s. Parent and guardians in countries like Uganda have been trying in vain to hide and protect their kids from that nightmare. In the case of a Sierra Leone boy who had been taken away from his family when he turned sixteen: “My Dad and I were planting rice and the Revolutionary United Front, a rebel army like LRA, came and captured us. Dad begged the soldiers to release me, but they insisted… Dad trailed them since he couldn’t let me go… So they killed my Dad” (Ann-Lynn). Marie K, a Sierra Leone girl who was kidnapped from her home responded in an interview in July 2003 that “I was abducted, raped and forced to fight by the RUF boys” (Francis 213). These statements provide the first impression that children are mainly coerced to become under-age combatants.

However, there are numerous children who have been joining the army as a voluntary action. Most of the children that voluntarily enlist as young soldiers do so because of poverty. For them, the army is one of the best opportunities where they can make their life better. Being soldiers, “they can get regular meals and wages or escape from an abusive home environment” (Ali 14). In Myanmar, parents send their kids to the Rebel Karen army because they will be provided with clothes and two square meals a day (Ali 14). Moreover, a study of Krijn Peters and Paul Richards in Sierra Leone claims another reason why children in Africa want to join in the military fearlessly. After interviewing the former child soldiers, they conclude that children want to come to the army as a replacement of a lack of education. Parents and children believe that armed forces could teach the kids how to be useful in life. They find military the only choice of education.

Consequently, children prefer serving in the army to staying and doing nothing at home because at least, they learn new things. Furthermore, holding the guns in their hands, the kids feel more secure from other soldiers (Francis 213). During war time, there are many threats that lie in wait to harm people. Children enter the troop with a hope to be provided weapons, so they can protect themselves and their family. Additionally, some of them join the army because they experienced their bereavement during conflict periods and then perceive the responsibility of taking vengeance for those killed their family (Ali 13). Besides, there is a motivation that cannot be ignored to understand why the kids and even their parents want them to join the army-patriotism. Professor Francis explains that, “identity brainwashing indoctrination also plays a major part in the crucial decision to join, motivation to be part of an armed group to achieve certain perceived vested interests” (213). For the rebel factions or even government militaries, it is nothing better than changing people’s mind and let them join in the combat as their responsibility to the nation. Children and parents feel that they will pay their debt to the society when they fight in the or even sacrifice their life in the battle field. As a cause for most of above reasons why children are being recruited for military purpose, “the environment of war provides motivations for child soldiering” (Francis 211). So, they have no choice but being a part of a bloody picture of war which they do not deserve to be included.

References:

Ali, Shaikh M. “Child Soldiers.” 2001, https://www.ma-law.org.pk/pdf/Child%20Soldier%20eidte d.pdf.

Francis, David J. “‘Paper Protection’ Mechanisms: Child Soldiers and the International Protection of Children in Africa's Conflict Zones.” The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 45 no. 2, Jan 2007, pp. 207-31. ProQuest Research Library, www.pierce.ctc.edu:2048/login?url=http://www.pierce. ctc.edu:2077/docview/196398765?accountid=2280.