Child+Soldiers


 * COUNTRIES:** Uganda + Sierra Leone


 * UGANDA: **

**HISTORY -** A woman named Alice Lakwena believed that the Holy Spirit spoke to her and told her to overthrow the Ugandan government for being unjust to her people. She gathered a massive following and was exiled, so a man named Joseph Kony, who claimed to be her cousin, took over the movement and created the Lord’s Resistance Army, but it didn’t have as many supporters as the Holy Spirit Movement. Kony and his rebels received threats from the Ugandan government, so they began recruiting children as their soldiers. More than 90% of the LRA soldiers were made up of children.


 * POLITICAL IMPACT - ** The minimum age for most countries military was age 15, and the United Nations created a policy that refused to allow soldiers under the age of 18 to serve the peacekeeping forces. Many of the governments raised the minimum ages to 18 then the UN wrote a strongly worded document called the “Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict.” This protocol forbade the use of children (under 18) in war, and to demobilize child soldiers but the issue remained unsolved because of the “optional protocol."

====**SOCIAL IMPACT -** People treat children differently because they don't know if they can trust them because of their past. If a child comes to a village they might not let them in or even kill them on the spot because the child might be a soldier. It is hard to trust anybody. Children born of rape are usually rejected by there families and community. ====

**ECONOMIC IMPACT -** The economic impact of Child soldiers is the same for many countries. In one aspect, the economy is actually better when they use children to fight wars because they pay them less, or nothing at all to be fighting. "Children are cheap, expendable and easier to condition into fearless killing and unthinking obedience." Children are often put under pressure to join by the RUF after their families are killed. However, the economy also could suffer because generations of children are being deprived of a proper education because they have to go into combat. Therefore it brings down the literacy level and the economy as a whole.



**SIERRA LEONE: **
**HISTORY** - In the past years RUF in Sierra Leone has forced children into fighting, using mainly AK-47s, into armed conflicts. Many of the boy children are forced to carry military equipment and looted goods, as well as goods they were forced to loot from houses in cities they have overrun. The boys are the lucky ones. Many young girls are raped multiple times when they are captured. But carrying things is the least of the kids under RUF and other organizations in Sierra Leone's worries. The children don't want to fight, but they are put into situations where they must fight or die. And the deaths weigh on their consciences forever. The child soldiers are also often forced to do things such as burn down towns. And if a child doesn't like what he is doing, he better keep his mouth shut, because if a child does not do as he is told he gets shot in the head. There is no rest for the children even in demobilization camps. The RUF often travels to demobilization camps and threatens the children that they will kill everyone in the camp if they do not return to battle. But the demobilized are not only frightful of RUF. Kamajors, a pro-government group, and the Sierra Leone Army can often be seen harassing the demobilized for information and to join their ranks.

**POLITICAL IMPACT -** The political impact of child soldiers on Sierra Leone is the same as the political impact for Uganda.

**ECONOMIC IMPACT -** The economic impact of Child soldiers is the same for many countries. In one aspect, the economy is actually better when they use children to fight wars because they pay them less, or nothing at all to be fighting. "Children are cheap, expendable and easier to condition into fearless killing and unthinking obedience." Children are often put under pressure to join by the RUF after their families are killed. The economy also could suffer. However, the economy also could suffer because generations of children are being deprived of a proper education because they have to go into combat. Therefore it brings down the literacy level and the economy as a whole.

** Both Countries **
==== **Future of the Issue:** The War Child organization is working to get children out of wars in both Uganda and Sierra Leone, as well as many other countries. The War Child organization is also working to educate the children, as schools are a big target in wars. The countries of Sierra Leone and Uganda need outside intervention to help stop the use of children in armed government. Because even the Sierra Leone army is using and abusing child soldiers it cannot be left to the government to fix the problem. Instead major countries need to work together to put on the pressure for Sierra Leone and Uganda. Refusing to buy from these countries until Child Soldiers are set free and a treaty is made that they will not be used again is one way to stop Child Soldiers. Other methods could involve denying membership to these countries for UN and other international groups. Bargaining could also be used to help stabilize the government so that a working government could enforce laws banning child soldiers. The special courts that are backed up by the UN should continue to enforce the law to stop the the recruiting of the children. ====

http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=170

http://www.wellandtribune.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2776299

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"Invisible Children - History of the War." //Invisible Children - Home//. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2010. .

"Sierra Leone Rebels Forcefully Recruit Child Soldiers | Human Rights Watch." //Home | Human Rights Watch//. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2010. .

"AK-47: the Sierra Leone child soldier." //BBC News//. BBC, 6 Dec. 2005. Web. 28 Sept. 2010. < http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4500358.stm>.