Rehab

As the war was starting to come to an end, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), ordered both sides to stop using child soldiers. ''UNICEF calls on all warring sides to put an end to the use of children as combattants and to incorporate provisions for their physical and emotional welfare in a future peace settlement,'' Carol Bellamy, UNICEF's Executive Director said at the height of the conflict." (Fofana). The RUF said they would remove all their soldiers under the age of 18, while the rebels could care less about what UNICEF was saying. However, the government initially didn't make any effort to stop child soldiers from fighting for them, they only said they would.

Eventually the war was declared over and many kids had to go through rehabilitation centers. "Between 1992 and 1996, the period of the worst fighting between the government forces and the RUF, an estimated 4,500 children were forced to fight on both sides." (Fofana). This shows that only half way through the war, there already were many children who would need to go through some sort of treatment to kick there old habits and return to a somewhat "normal" state of mind. I believe that the reason some of these rehabilitation centers worked is because the children were finally getting the care that they needed during the war. Not all children were fortunate though, during one incident, 83 children at a demobilization camp were heading to Freetown when the RUF stopped them, stripped them of their possessions and made them rejoin the RUF (HRW).

To view a blog on the events after the war click Here.

Government use of Child Soldiers

The Government force known as the Kamajor also use child soldiers but they are not forced to join in the same way as the RUF. The government does not use drugs on their child soldiers, instead they bribe them with food and shelter which is a hard thing for a child to come across on their own. Most of the child soldiers have been split up from their parents so their is no one taking care of them and they need the Kamajor to support them. According to some estimates, 8000 children were separated from their families or orphaned by the civil unrest (Fofana). To the Kamajor it is a good deal because children are way more unpredictable which they believe makes them better fighters and the children are way cheaper and require less food then an adult (BBC).

The Kamajors also tell the child soldiers that they will be protected by the "juju", which is said to be magic that will stop bullets (BBC).

Child Soldier holding a gun

(photo from HRW2)

Drugs

One way that the RUF made child soldiers fearless was giving them drugs and it was believed to give them courage during a fight (Children of Conflict). They would give them marijuana, alcohol, cocaine, brown brown and other drugs. Brown brown is a term that means cocaine mixed with gunpowder. The RUF felt that they needed to give these children drugs to make it even easier to manipulate the child's psychological views (HRW2). Giving the kids drugs would also get some of them addicted to the point where they fight because they looked forward to the reward of getting more drugs. Children would get so hooked on these drugs that they would even sneak them into demobilization camps which is where they are supposed to be weened off the drugs.

Child soldier smoking
(photo from BBC)

RUF Child Soldiers

Even though both sides of the war used child soldiers to fight for them, the RUF recruited more children and usually did so in cruel ways. "Children were abducted and forced to commit various atrocities. Some were ordered to torture and murder their own relatives, before being taken to other villages to slaughter others" (Fofana). The RUF was recruiting children as young as 8 years old, and they would take either boys or girls, it didn't matter as long as they could hold a gun, carry loot or serve as a sex slave.

The RUF would raid villages and abduct any of the surviving children for recruitment. The children would be kept for a couple months of training and they would be killed if they disobeyed orders or if they tried to run away. Most children will go through an initiation which usually involves killing other children who tried to flee or did something wrong (BBC). The RUF would even go as far as trying to recruit children who were being treated at demobilization camps (HRW).

The development of the light AK-47 made it possible for these small children to wield devastating weapons. When the RUF would go to raid a village they believed nothing would put more fear into the civilians then having the village chieftain be executed by a small boy (Child soldiers: Under-age killers). They believed that a child killing an adult sets a strong example for others.

Click Here to see a mini-documentary on atrocities committed in 1996.

Click Here for a link to a blog about RUF war trials

Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone

Map of Sierra Leone
(picture from UN)

Dimensions of Freedom is a class that is meant to teach people about the importance of issues dealing with freedom and oppression throughout the world. The purpose of the assignment is to create an informative blog about an issue that has to do with freedom.

Child soldiers have been used in wars and fighting all over the world, but this blog is only going to cover the child soldiers that fought in Sierra Leone's civil war. The civil war began in 1991 and continued on until January 2002. Both government forces (Kamajors) and rebel forces (AFRC and RUF) were using child soldiers to fight each other (Fofana). Many children captured by the rebels were forced to fight for them by being drugged or threatened with death if they did not obey. Not all children were used for fighting, some were used for carrying loot or some were abducted for the purpose of being raped as well as other reasons (HRW).

Sierra Leone's use of child soldiers is a perfect example of what should never happen again. It is wrong that the world stood by and watched as both sides of a country were forcing children to kill others including their own families. This civil war split up many families and it scarred a generation of children whose lives will never be the same.