Child at war

In March last year, a short film entitled Kony2012  created by Invisible Children, Inc. – hit the web. Its viral spread online was of “pandemic” proportions and, according to TIME Magazine’s sources, it was viewed more than 100 million times within a week of its launch. The video aimed to expose the atrocities of the Ugandan rebel leader indicted in the International Criminal Court, Joseph Kony of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

While accused of many crimes against humanity, one of LRA’s most villainous acts has been the forced recruitment of child soldiers to use as pawns in battle. This terrible practice however is not restricted to Ugandan strife but is a real concern in other parts of the world as well. Indeed, in times of armed conflict, it is often the weak and the defenseless who are most victimized.

The United Nations has recognized this problem and has sought to address it. The 1990 Convention on the Rights of the Child was supplemented in 2002 with an Optional Protocol specific to the issue of the involvement of children in armed conflict. It condemned not only the “targeting of children in situations of armed conflict” but also recognized the “harmful and widespread impact of armed conflict on children and the long-term consequences it has for durable peace, security and development.”

Under the 2007 Paris Principles on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, a child soldier is defined as “…any person below 18 years of age who is, or who has been, recruited or used by an armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to children, boys and girls, used as fighters, cooks, porters, spies or for sexual purposes.” Furthermore, under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, conscripting or enlisting children under 15 into the national armed forces or using them to participate actively in hostilities is considered a serious violation within the established framework of international law and deemed a war crime.

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Last month, the UN Secretary General issued a special report (covering January to December 2012) on children and armed conflict. This report came with an annexed list of “persistent perpetrators”, i.e., groups which have been included, for at least five years, in the UN list of parties that recruit or use children. Lo and behold, Philippine groups made the disreputable cut. Identified as persistent perpetrators (“pasaway” in the vernacular) were the MILF, the Abu Sayyaf, and the NPA.

What is perhaps more disturbing is that our own armed forces have also been cited as using children as guides and informants in military operations, thereby exposing them to danger and jeopardy. The report mentions a verified case wherein the 57th Infantry Battalion forced two boys aged 12 and 13 years to serve as guides to locate an NPA camp in North Cotabato. Another cause of concern, according to the report, was the continued practice of our military in releasing the names and pictures of children to media, tagging them as members of armed groups.

All in all, there were reportedly 26 incidents of recruitment and use of children in the Philippines (in the context of armed conflict); 23 boys and 3 girls between the ages of 12 and 17. Aside from the 2 minors used as guides by the AFP, 11 were reportedly recruited by the NPA, another 11 by the Abu Sayyaf Group, and 2 were used by the MILF.

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What motivates children to risk their lives and agree to join these groups? There are those who posit that most of these children join of their own volition; that they are not coerced against their will but are following their parents or elders into the movement either because it is the only reality they know or because of some misguided filial or communal loyalty. While we may not fully grasp the psychology of child soldiery, several factors play a part. For instance, push and pull factors such as poverty, discrimination, false sense of patriotism and a romantic notion of martyrdom may drive children to participate in armed conflicts.

Whether these children are forced into doing things “for the cause” or whether they enlist “voluntarily” (usually because they see no other option), the common denominator is that these children, our society’s valuable charges, are robbed of their childhood and placed in situations rife with peril.

Whatever the motivation or the reason on the part of the impressionable child is, what cannot be denied is that there are adults who should know better–those who actively recruit, those who passively allow such recruitment, those who are complicit in keeping the vicious cycle going. Regardless of the voluntary or involuntary nature of a child’s recruitment, these adults must be held liable for their acts in enlisting underage combatants.

Even in war, there is still a line in the sand that must not be crossed. It is a line that separates the freedom fighter from the terrorist; the martyr from the murderer. When someone’s desire to win crosses the “at any cost” threshold, they pay for the passage with their very humanity.  Indeed, use of germ warfare, genocide, and suicide bombings should be deemed too terrible – the cost too high – to use in armed conflict. So too is the use of child soldiers. It is said that our future is what we make of it, yet I would argue that our future is what we make of – and for – our children.

Using children in armed conflict may lead to the winning of battles, but it will ultimately lose them more than the war – it will strip any cause they may be fighting for of any semblance of honor. In this sense, any victory would be pyrrhic at best.

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“If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.” – Mahatma Gandhi

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