CHILD SOLDIERS

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CHILD SOLDIERS

• By Lizy Pieters

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History and Overview

• Child soldiers have been used since Bible
  times- for example, Sauls use of David. In
  medieval times, boys were used as squires. Even
  in early modern warfare, children have been used
  for drummer boys sometimes gunned down on the
  front line, and powder monkeys on naval ships.
  Even in the holocaust, Jewish boys were forced to
  join the Jewish resistance to survive. More
  recently, the problem is most critical in Africa.
  Mostly, children being used in fighting can take
  form in three main ways They can actually take
  part in fighting, be used in supporting roles
  (such as porters, spies, messengers, look-outs,
  and sexual slaves) or they can be used as human
  shields or propaganda.

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Specific Examples

• Colombia-"They give you a gun and you have to
  kill the best friend you have. They do it to see
  if they can trust you. If you don't kill him,
  your friend will be ordered to kill you. I had to
  do it because otherwise I would have been killed.
  That's why I got out. I couldn't stand it any
  longer." 17-year-old boy, joined paramilitary
  group aged 7, when a street child.
• Uganda-"Early on when my brothers and I were
  captured, the LRA explained to us that all five
  brothers couldn't serve in the LRA because we
  would not perform well. So they tied up my two
  younger brothers and invited us to watch. Then
  they beat them with sticks until two of them
  died. They told us it would give us strength to
  fight. My youngest brother was nine years old."
  Former child soldier, aged 13.
• Zimbabwe-"There was no one in charge of the
  dormitories and on a nightly basis we were raped.
  The men and youths would come into our dormitory
  in the dark, and they would just rape us - you
  would just have a man on top of you, and you
  could not even see who it was. If we cried
  afterwards, we were beaten with hosepipes. We
  were so scared that we did not report the rapes.
  The youngest girl in our group was aged 11 and
  she was raped repeatedly in the base."
  19-year-old girl describing her experience in the
  National Youth Service Training Program.

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Key people/organizations connected

• Coalition to Stop the use of Child Soldiers
• (http//www.child-soldiers.org/home)
• Amnesty International
• (http//www.amnesty.org/en/children)

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Proposed Solutions/Responses

• Organizations such as Amnesty International are
  working to stop the recruitment of children into
  armed forces and reintegrate former child
  soldiers back into normal, or civilian, life.

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The Biblical Perspective

• Q 1) What does the Bible say about the use of
  child soldiers?
• A 1 a) The deprivation of liberty, and enforced
  arms bearing and soldiering are a violation of an
  individual - especially a child who cannot defend
  themselves. The bible says that all humans are
  made in the image of God, and therefore have
  great individual dignity. This means that things
  such as slavery - particularly the extreme
  example of child slavery where children are
  stolen against their will, must be in violation
  of their freedom, and their dignity as image
  bearers of God. 
• 1 b) God has particular concern and compassion
  for the weakest. God in the Old Testament always
  has a concern for the weakest in society - the
  widow, and the orphan - and child soldier would
  certainly fall in this category.  God is always
  concerned with protection of the weakest, and
  liberation of the slave (eg Exodus where he
  rescued the ISraelites from Egypt).  Exploitation
  of children, and forcing them to sin by killing
  people would certainly be condemned by Jesus, who
  said it that someone should put a mill stone
  around their own neck, rather than cause a child
  to sin.
• So ... the taking of children to be soldiers and
  their enforced slavery is in radical violation of
  God's character and law, and is a symptom of
  radical evil in the world.

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The Biblical Perspective (continued)

• Q 2) What do you think Jesus would have done if
  the problems of child soldiers was happening back
  in his day (When he came down to earth)?
• A 2) I think Jesus would have condemned the use
  of child soldiers in his teaching, and also if he
  had come across any examples of child soldiers he
  would have definitely freed them - he came to set
  the captives free from Luke 4 and the Isaiah
  quote from Isaiah 61. 
• Q 3) Are there any examples of child soldiers in
  the Bible?
• A 3) I don't think there are any examples of
  child soldiers in the bible - although in Old
  Testament times very often when one country was
  defeated its people were taken as slaves, and it
  is probable that the children would have also
  been made to work as slaves, or not had any
  freedom over their own lives.

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Call to Action

• Often issues seem so far away its hard to do
  anything about them. But you can do something
  about child soldiers. Donate to and get involved
  with organizations trying to stop child soldiers.
  Also, you could write letters to governments that
  still allow child soldiers telling them that its
  wrong.

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Bibliography

• Internet
• Voices of Young Soldiers Coalition to Stop the
  Use of Child Soldiers Jan. 8th, 2009
• http//www.child-soldiers.org/childsoldiers/voices
  -of-young-soldiers
• Military Use of Children Wikipedia Jan 15th
  2009
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_use_of_child
  renHistory
• Children and Human Rights Amnesty International
  Jan 19th, 2009
• http//www.amnesty.org/en/children
• People
• Ummy youth leader?