Children

In conflict there are many weapons that may be employed and while the Kalashnikov or IED may be favored arms in modern warfare, there is one weapon all men carry and all to often choose to use. Cheap and effective, men are choosing to use their bodies as weapons - in fact their manhood - to attack women and girls.

The use of rape as a weapon is one of the most violent and humiliating offenses inflicted on the enemy, the brutalization of rape permanently scars the victim’s mind, soul and often body. Victims are often shunned by their families and communities, permanently scared physically and mentally. Many victims become pregnant as a result of their rapes, leaving a permanent reminder through the birth of a child, placing both the mother and child in continual victimization and isolation.

Recently eyes have fallen on Zimbabwe, as evidence of the continued use of rape as a weapon of war has emerged. While the use of by Zimbabwe’s authoritarian government’s paramilitary National Youth Service, which was established in 2000, is well established little has been done to see its end. Therefore one now finds more news of Zimbabwe militias accused of keeping sex camps at ruling party bases. The some 900 camps were established by the ruling ZANU–PF’S party, as forward-operating bases for the shock troops after the March electoral defeat, for which they served as a base to target the opposition forces and intimidate voters, using violent tactics including murder. However the camps continue to operate despite the controversial re-election of President Robert Mugabe. In the camps the girls and young women captured to serve as sex slaves for the soldiers continue to be raped daily.

One who looks back on the use of rape in conflict is not surprised that the rapes continue, for thought Mugabe’s reign he has used the useful tool to control and wield power, and despite international knowledge of the crimes Mugabe and his forces went unpunished. The silence over the use of rape as a weapon of war, runs as long and deep as its historical use. The use of rape in conflict is rooted deep in world history and well established in modern warfare, however it can no longer remain an issue silenced by suppressive governments, ignorance and fear. The idea that rape is a normal by-product of war, due to its continual use historically and currently, only perpetuates its use. The seeing of it as normal and its continual impunity increases its use as a weapon, the perpetrators are less likely to be tried for rape than murder.

On June 19th, in the wake of 8 recent reports on rape in Zimbabwe by Amnesty International alone, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice following the U.N. Security Council debate on a U.S. resolution on wartime rape, led a second session on Zimbabwe, for which she called for more international pressure on President Mugabe. For more on the UN resolution see my previous post War Crimes Against Women and Girls

More on the use of rape in Zimbabwe:
Mugabe thugs raping teens: aid staff
Zimbabwe: Mugabe troops use rape as weapon
Dora, 12, gang-raped by Mugabe’s men for four hours
Zimbabwe’s torture training camps
ZIMBABWE: Focus on rape as a political weapon
ZIMBABWE: Women refugees in South Africa claim rape and torture at home
Reports of Rape and Torture Inside Zimbabwean Militia

Congo warlord accused of recruiting child soldiers set free
Judges at the Hague released a Congolese warlord, held on charges of coercing thousands of children into military service, after prosecutors withheld evidence supplied by the UN that would seem to exonerate him on certain of the charges.

Egypt launches campaign to slow population growth
A new campaign in Egypt attempts to dissuade citizens from having large families as the country struggles with population growth. Birth control is legal but frowned upon by some Egyptians, while abortion remains outlawed and vasectomies are not commonly performed. Egypt’s population has nearly doubled since Hosni Mubarak assumed the presidency in 1981.

Fistula crisis in Uganda
Experts say that, though many women in the Teso subregion of Uganda suffer from fistula, many cases are neither known, reported, nor treated, due to ignorance, limited materials, and limited personnel. It is estimated that nearly 3% of Ugandan women suffer from fistula.

Low-tech filters give Sri Lanka safer water
The introduction of clay pots fortified with low-tech filters by the American Red Cross has provided thousands of Sri Lankan families with access to safe drinking water and is helping to prevent the spread of disease. Water-borne diseases are the country’s number one cause of malnutrition.

Abortion rate on the rise in Middle East
Despite legal and religious restrictions against abortion in much of the Arab world, changing social values and economic realities as well as demographic shifts have contributed to an apparent increase in the number of the procedures in the Middle East.

Chinese protest corruption in case of girl’s death
Images of riots in China’s southwestern Guizhou province showed cars burning and cell-phone cameras snapping, as protesters responded with violence to evidence of police corruption. Following the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl by an individual with government connections, police called the death a suicide and brutally killed the girl’s uncle, who pressed for justice. Chinese government officials deployed paramilitary soldiers and riot police after 10,000 individuals took to the streets.

Leaders call for funds for women at Glasgow summit
Some participants at the 8th Civicus World Assembly in Scotland say not enough money is going to aid women in the developing world as outlined under the United Nation’s eight Millennium Development Goals. Activists stress that worldwide gender equality is an integral part of the program’s success.

ZIMBABWE: AIDS organisations still grounded
As Zimbabwe’s political crisis deepens ahead of the presidential run-off election on Friday 27 June, and the status of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) remains uncertain, the situation for HIV-positive Zimbabweans is more precarious than ever.

In war there are many weapons that may be employed and while the Kalashnikov or IED may be favored arms in modern warfare, there is one weapon all men carry and more often use. Men are choosing to use their bodies as weapons - in fact their manhood - to attack. The victim is raped in an effort to dehumanize and defeat the enemy, leaving an entire society with long-term suffering as victims cascade across generational divides. The scourge of rape as a weapon, affects not only the individual lives of the victims, but the entire family and community in which they live. Leaving their lasting marks on the entire country’s civil society, this in turn affects our globalized world.

The use of rape as a weapon is one of the most violent and humiliating offenses inflicted on the enemy, the brutalization of rape permanently scars the victim’s mind, soul and often body. Rape is often used as a predecessor to murder, where others survive only to serve as daily reminders to those around them of the tragedies of war. Victims are shunned by their families and communities and many become pregnant as a result of their rapes. Rape leaves a permanent reminder of war and of the enemy through the birth of a child, which places both the mother and child in continual victimization and isolation. Rape as a weapon of war affects not only the rape victim, but their entire family, village and community. While rape as a weapon of war continues today, many of the psychological effects have yet to be felt in many communities around the globe.

The situation in Sierra Leone highlights the long-term and lasting effects of the use of rape as a weapon of war. Rape as a weapon of war affects not only the victim, but places all women and girls in fear of sexual violence. Fear dominates the daily life of all woman and girls who are living in a conflict or post-conflict zone. This continual fear leaves victims in constant torment and mental anguish, which causes increased long-term psychological stress and damage. Many physiologists believe the fear alone can cause PTSD. A victim traumatized by the lingering threat of rape, is often too afraid to leave the home to work and lives in constant fear, as with one who is ostracized by their community. For many the war never ends, as the scars and memories of the violence of war haunt them for the remainder of their lives. However most do their best to move on and heal the wounds they can and grow in strength for those which they cannot heal.

The tolerance and standardization of rape as a weapon of war has lead to its international impunity, and thus increased its silence. Impunity regarding the increasingly brutalized use of rape as a weapon of war combined with its effectiveness, only provokes its use, for the perpetrators are less likely to be tried and punished for the use of this weapon, and if convictions do follow the punishment is disproportionate to the crime.

As Nelson Mandela stated:

“Safety and security don’t just happen: they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children – the most vulnerable citizens in any society – a life free from violence and fear. In order to ensure this, we must become tireless in our efforts not only to attain peace, justice and prosperity for countries but also for communities and members of the same family. We must address the roots of violence. Only then will we transform the past century’s legacy from a crushing burden into a cautionary lesson.” (The 2002 World Report on Violence and Health)

There is no doubt that the effects of the use of rape as a weapon of war are effects far-reaching regardless of time, place or culture. Short and long-term support and treatment for victims is substantially lacking, which will only serve to exacerbate the use of rape as weapon of war. Thus an end to the perception that rape is a common and unavoidable tactic of war must occur, making it unequivocally unacceptable. In order to do this there are three main areas of focus which must be in place:

•  One the issue of gender inequality and bias must be removed in all countries, when such programs are in place at peace time it will significantly reduce the stigma and use of rape and gender-based violence in times of conflict.
• Two, there must be a unified international response to ban the use of rape as a weapon of war once and for all, and thus strategies of prevention and awareness must be put into place, including in internally displaced persons and refugee camps and in times of post conflict.
• Three, impunity was come to an end, or victims will continue to remain silent and not seek medical, psychological and legal attention if they feel there is no retribution or care for which they are safe to receive.

If one is listening, victims will talk, thus if aid and government agencies step forward and ask victims to speak out, then they must be willing to not only listen, but provide them both the short and long-term care and support, including providing physical and financial access to services.

New polio threat prompts mass vaccination campaign, as seven million children in nine of the 11 provinces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are being vaccinated against polio, a disease thought to have been eradicated in the vast country. The campaign, which began on 19 June, targets children up to the age of five, the age group worst affected by polio. One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis, according to the WHO.

Condom use not catching on among youth, in spite of massive spending on efforts to counter HIV/AIDS, experts warn that many young Thais are still having unsafe sex. “Many people know HIV is transmitted by having sex,” he said. “We also know we should stand up and give our seat to old people on the bus, but we don’t do it,” Sittichok Chaisupasin, a 16-year-old peer educator.

Typhoon Fengshen death toll rises to 224, as it moved out of the Philippines on 23 June towards China, leaving at least 224 dead, hundreds missing and thousands homeless, according to the Philippine National Red Cross and Office of Civil Defence. Heavy rains and winds of up to 195km an hour caused landslides, flash floods and storm surges.

Landmines impede civilians’ return to volatile Arghandab, as dozens of landmines have been discovered in Arghandab District, in the southern province of Kandahar. It is estimated that some 60 people, many of which are children, are killed each month in the country by landmines. Millions of landmines were dumped across Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s, killing and wounding over 70,000 people so far, according to the United Nations Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan (UNMAC). In other news, insecurity, uncertainty stop return of Afghan refugees, from Pakistan. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has repatriated 3.3 million Afghans since 2002, including 120,000 from Pakistan in 2008, but some two million registered Afghan refugees remain in Pakistan. The number of unregistered refugees is unknown.

US accuses LRA of abuses, calls for a quick peaceful solution. “The United States condemns the recent LRA attacks on Sudanese Peoples’ Liberation Army forces at Nabanga, Sudan, and elsewhere, as well as the LRA’s abductions and other abuses of innocent civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Southern Sudan,” said a statement issued on 18 June. Along with four of his commanders Kony is charged by the ICC with carrying out abductions, killings, rape and conscription of Ugandan children as fighters among other war crimes. Some 30,000 children in northern Uganda have been abducted and forcibly inscripttion into the LRA. Government welcomes Kony’s “change of heart” but rules out more talks; “We only hope that he will put his pronouncement into practice. We note, however, that negotiations were concluded and there will not be a re-opening of the negotiations whatsoever,” Capt Chris Magezi, spokesman for the government delegation, said on 23 June.

Countries which are involved in conflict and strife are seeing an increasing use of violence against children, including kidnapping, torture and even murder. UNICEF issued a statement on the continued abduction, torture and rape of children around the world, saying;

“It is everyone’s duty to ensure children are safe from harm, and governments have a responsibility to enact and enforce measures that provide a protective environment for all children”.

Countries for which UNICEF has reported similar ochering incident in a number of countries including Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Iraq and Haiti.

In CAR armed gangs have profited from the conflict ridden countries vitality and instability, focusing on rural communities for which their terrorizing often includes kidnapping children and holding them for ransom. Earlier this month both CAR and Chad had agreed to the Release of Child Soldiers , however a number of armed groups continue to increase their ranks of child soldiers.

The DRC has seen thousands of children forcibly recruited by armed militant groups to be used as child soldiers, porters and sex slaves. UNICEF has estimated that some 30,000 child soldiers are in place in the DRC, many are girls and the situation has been noticeably on the increase as seen in my post, Child Soldiers in the Congo are Increasing

In Iraq the number of reports of children recruited and used by militias and insurgent groups are increasing, as is the abduction of girls who “are increasingly subject to murder, kidnapping and rape, or are being abducted and trafficked within or outside Iraq for sexual exploitation”.

UNICEF has paid particular attention to the Impoverished of Haiti, where kidnappings have become all too common. Since the beginning of 2008 alone more than 50 children have been abducted, more than half of which where girls. Earlier this month on June 4th UNICEF made a nation wide call to halt the kidnappings of Haitian children, the call came after a recent incident where a 16-year-old hostage was murdered and other hostages, including infants, where lynched and rape. The call from UNICEF was joined by Haitians demonstrating against the kidnappings in the streets of Port-au-Prince. UNICEF estimates that some 2,000 children are trafficked each year to the Dominican Republic, and another 1,000 are working as spies, messengers or soldiers for armed gangs in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

According to the Child Soldiers Global Report 2008 issued by the Secretary General of the United Nations, the number of armed groups and government forces using child soldiers increased from 40 in 2006 to 57 in 2007. The issues, such as poverty, disease and economic destabilization that face children in conflict countries are only compounded by the increasing violence against children. As the use of rape as a weapon of war, conscription of child soldiers, and other violence, including gender based violence, that directly targets children, not only exacerbates the conflict itself, but impedes the post conflict recovery for not only the children, but their entire community and the country on the whole. Therefore it is essential that individual states and the international community on the whole end the long running impunity of these violent crimes, and take greater steps to see that children are no longer used as the weapons and pawns of war.

Waging Peace, a British NGO, issued a report stating that between 7,000 and 10,000 Darfurian children abducted from refugee camps in Chad are serving as child soldiers. Please also see my other posts on Child Soldiers. The report comes right after the earlier report this month on the Release of Child Soldiers in Chad.  Please  also see my other posts such as, Despite Increased Aid Efforts We Are Still Failing the Children of Darfur

In other news on the situation Darfur international negotiators have called the prospects for new peace negotiations about Darfur “dim.” In an effort to revive the peace process, the UN and AU are working to appoint a joint mediator, which would replace the current negotiators. All of this comes right as the Sudanese government stated its readiness for a ceasefire and peace negotiations, so long as JEM is banned from participating. The JEM and SLM movements currently reject the idea of peace talks, while the SLM-Unity movement stated its intention to launch attacks on Khartoum. Additionally the civil war between the Northern and Southern regions of Sudan was nearly reignited due to a boundary dispute in the Abyei region. The dispute has left many of the residents of Abyei displaced and the town nearly destroyed.

It is painfully clear that the situations in both Sudan and Chad will not come to a clear peaceful resolution soon, and that the children will continue to be swept up in the ciaos until  a true peace can be found and stability finds its way to the region.

-Friedrich Nietzsche, The Twilight of the Idols (1899)

Millions of children are forced to grow-up in a conflict ridden nations, children from Afghanistan, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Iraq, Lebanon, Occupied Palestinian Territory/Israel, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda, to Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Colombia, all faces the daily challenges, violence and destruction of war. The UN estimates that more than 2 million children have been killed in armed conflicts; another 6 million permanently disabled; and over 250,000 children are used as child soldiers.

One can only hope that the children of war who survive its tragedies, those who witness it’s horrors will in truth be stronger adults. However the sad reality is that many children of war, do not survive, as war puts children at an increased risk for disease, hunger, and displacement. In addition many more do not grow in positive strength from the trials and tribulations of a childhood of war, as war makes them more prone to acts of violence.

For more information on children in conflict, please see the UN Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for the office of Children in Armed Conflict. Please also see my other posts on Children and War.

Chad has agreed to release all former child combatants held in detention, while armed rebel groups in the Central African Republic (CAR) have also committed to freeing any children in their ranks, a top United Nations envoy announced June 2
after a six day trip to the two countries. In Chad the Government has agreed to let UN agencies visit army camps and training centers to verify the releases and identify children, Coomaraswamy told reporters in New York, after completing her visit. A Government task force on reintegration of children will also be created. (UN News Service)

“I have been given assurances that parties involved in conflict have agreed to free children in both countries,” the UN’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy said in a statement.

Coomaraswamy also noted that despite this there still have not been any commitments made non-government armed groups, who continue to “recruit a great many children.”  Coomaraswamy, also stated that the UN was looking to get to the root of the issue of child soldiers in various countries where child soldiers are recruited.  An estimated 300,000 or more child soldiers are actively fighting in at least 30 countries around the world, according to both Amnesty International and UNICEF.


For more information see:
Early to War: Child Soldiers in the Chad Conflict (July 2007) - A 46-page report documenting how the Chadian army, its allied paramilitary militias and rebel forces have used and recruited child soldiers in both northern Chad and along the eastern border with Sudan’s Darfur region. The report is based on interviews with senior officers in the Chadian military as well as current child soldiers themselves.

From April 2004 and October 2007 child soldiers participated in armed conflict in Afghanistan, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, the DRC, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Thailand and Uganda.

The report also highlights the often forgotten use of girls as child combatants, cooks, porters and sex slaves, as does the report highlight that reintegration programs for former child soldiers are highly lacking, as children are continually left out of the demobilization and reintegration programs.

According to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers in the 2008 Child Soldiers Global Report the number of conflicts that use child soldiers has dramatically decreased from 27 countries using child soldiers to 17 in the last 4 years. However while the report may highlight the decrease of child soldiers it is no time for rejoice, as children continue to be used as the pawns of war. Children are the largest victims of war in any conflict, however when children pick up arms, they become the collateral of war, forever scared by the images of war and abuse.

Children in many non-conflict countries remain in danger of being drawn into conflict, as the fragility of many states continues to place children at high risk of recruitment and abduction. One reason for the continued use and vitality of children in times of conflict is the impunity that remains for those who use children as combatants and sex slaves.

Please see my previous post on Child Soldiers for more information and details on many of the current conflicts.

“Timoun se riches malere,” say Hatians: “Children are the riches of the poor.” (Skinner, pg.30)

Spring has begun to fill the air, the trees have begun to blossom and the city is a buzz with renewed energy. However there is a darker side to everyday life for many, and tonight a light in the darkness was lit for them. Amid the sound of espresso machines steaming and after work chatter at DC literary hot spot, Bus Boy’s and Poets, there was another buzz in the air…the buzz of freedom!

There are some 27 million people enslaved in the world today…men, women and children seen as nothing more than disposable people. People whose lives are sold for costs of unprecedented lows, often nothing more than a cup of coffee. However tonight one could witness the drive and passion of two men who have stepped forward to answer the call of freedom for each and every one.

“Like plastic pens or paper cups, slaves and potential slaves are so numerous that they can simply be used up and thrown away.” (Bales, pg. 14)

Two men, one goal, separate paths! Both Bales and Skinner have seen the horrors of slavery first hand, and both have witnessed the strength of the surviver. It is this pain and heart that has driven both Kevin Bales and Ben Skinner to dedicate their lives to the fight to end slavery. Skinner literally takes you ‘Face-To-Face With Modern-Day Slavery”, in his writing you can hear the slave holders, feel the suffering of the children, smell the stench of slavery and the distant air of freedom. Bales then takes you into the plan, the plan on ‘How We Free Today’s Slaves’, his passion has taken him to do what no one dared. Bales has molded his undoubted authority and berth of knowledge into a formidable plan to rid the world of this plague. In both books you will find the face of slavery, a human face…a mother, a father, a child; you will hear the voices of suffering, strength, courage and hope.

“You are now about halfway to Delmas, and slaves are everywhere. Assuming this is your first trip to Haiti you won’t be able to identify them….Some are as young as three or four years old, but they will always be the small ones, even if they’re older….” (Skinner, pg. 5-6)

Both books are a must read and once you pick them up you wont be able to put them down without becoming an abolitionist. They say that the pen is mightier than the sword, and it is unmistakably true with both Ending Slavery and A Crime So Monstrous. However what makes both of these more than just a book is the men behind them…true heroes who have risked their lives to bring the plight of the enslaved worldwide to light.

Our children are not disposable…let us not see the children of tomorrow enslaved! Read, learn, fight and let us end slavery once and for all!