Children in Armed Conflict: A Horrifying Image from Asia

http://www.ahrchk.net/solidarity/200005/v105_02.htm | Chitralekha Massey

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CHILDREN'S RIGHTS

Children in Armed Conflict: A Horrifying Image from Asia
Chitralekha Massey

[Ed. Note: Recently a United Nations agreement reached in Geneva determined that the minimum age for both conscription and voluntary deployment into battle be raised to 18. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, adopted in July 1998, makes the recruitment of children under the age of 15 and their participation in hostilities a "war crime". Chitralekha Massey, Indian human rights activist and member of the Asian Network for an International Criminal Court (ANICC), is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Nottingham Law School (UK). Massey portrays a horrifying image of children in Asian armed conflict. She also argues why it is important for Asian countries to ratify the Rome Statute to stop recruiting child soldiers.]

As we stand on the threshold of the next millennium, there are more than 300,000 children participating in armed conflicts all over the world today. Some of the reasons attributed to this are the common problems of social injustice, poverty, and insurrection. 

In Asia there has been an unfortunate use of children in armed conflict. Why? Why use children at all? Children are used as they make good fighters. They are dependable; obey orders; don't make demands; dangerous, as they seem harmless; are effective spies; and can be used to sabotage and lay mines. Given the availability and lightness of weapons such as the AK-47 or the M-16, easy to master and use, children are deadly on any frontline.

In Afghanistan, the difficulty of accessing information means that not much is known currently. Modern Afghan misery began in 1978. Eighty-five thousand Soviet soldiers invaded Afghanistan. The Mujahedin put up an unexpected and bitter resistance to the new government. The fighting was bloody, and both sides settled into a war of attrition, not unlike the United States effort in Vietnam a decade earlier. 

The Taliban continues its fight for control over the country and children in Afghanistan continue to be devastated by the war. Some fight for revenge, for others, it's the only means of survival. On 20 August 1999, the UN called on the Taliban and all opposition forces in Afghanistan to stop recruiting children in the civil war. The UNICEF representative Louis Georges Arsenault has been quoted by the BBC as saying, "We know it's increasing and that's why we are worried. There are more fighters being recruited and there are more students under the age of 18, that's why we are making it an issue much more now." 

In Burma (or Myanmar), another Asian State, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC - formerly State Law and Order Restoration Council - SLORC) has child soldiers in its ranks. The official conscription age is 14 years. The recruits are designated "Ye-Nyunt Youth". They are given political training and taught to be loyal to the government and the army. UNICEF has identified one such camp run by SLORC in the Shan State where children of seven years and above are being indoctrinated. Children are forcibly conscripted, unwillingly separated from their parents and families, kidnapped, tortured, killed, forced to kill, torture and rape and they are either underpaid or not paid at all. They suffer drug abuse, ethnic discrimination and sexual exploitation. 

A Burmese boy testified, "sometimes I fell asleep when I was on guard duty, I was beaten by my corporal. He beat me like a dog, like I was an animal, not a human being. There were two or three suicides during that time, of boys who had been hospitalised and finally shot themselves." 

What is it like in the opposition forces? Almost all-Burmese groups have child soldiers in their ranks. The treatment, recruitment and conditions of service vary from group to group. The phenomenon of child soldiers in Burma can be understood only within the context of militarisation of the society as a whole. 

Children grow up in an environment where they are fighting for resistance and to be a soldier is to be a hero. On the other hand, for many, joining the armed forces is the only means of survival: even their only chance of a meal. 

In Sri Lanka, most children are reportedly fighting for the Tamil Tigers (LTTE). There have been reports of forced conscription by the liberation fighters. Families that were in a position to pay for their children to leave the country have paid up, and protected them from the fighting. But for the poor this is not always possible. Life for these rebels is hard: they fight, kill, torture and are tortured. The LTTE claims that young recruits are volunteers for the cause. Most parents feel that their children are attracted by the rambo-esqe image of the LTTE or the promises made by them. One soldier stated that he had run away from home to join the LTTE because he believed he would be able to learn to ride a motorcycle and have special glasses for motorcycle riding! Others join for reasons of revenge, or as a measure of security. 

According to an Images Asia report, these children on the frontline do not really have any choice and besides, "they make the best fighters." Fear is the major determining factor in their obedience and performance. They only have the option of murder or suicide. 

Child soldiers interviewed by the Images Asia team report feelings of fear, despair and horror when they were compelled to beat, torture and rape, or witness such crimes as part of their initiation into the forces. Unfortunately there exists very little understanding of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in these countries, and hence both the mental and physical scars of these children remain. Research has established that children exposed to violence grow up to be violent adults. As Mahatama Gandhi said, "if we are to make peace in the world, we have to begin with the children".

Protecting Children: International Legal Regime

In the examples used above all three countries are parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 (CRC). According to Article 38 of the CRC, State Parties "undertake to respect and to ensure respect for rules of international humanitarian law applicable to them in armed conflicts which are relevant to the child". They are also under an obligation to take "all feasible measures to ensure" that anyone under 15 does not take direct part in hostilities. In fact, it is expected that states would not recruit children under 15 years old and when presented with a choice would opt for the older over a younger. 

Article 38 has the infamous reputation for being the most controversial of all articles during the drafting of the CRC. It has been described as the "most shameful", the reason being that military feasibility has been accorded greater importance than children's lives. 

Today the drafting process of an Optional Protocol (OP) to the CRC has similar problems. Since the CRC came into force it has received almost universal ratification, the exceptions being the United States and Somalia. Yet despite this we know that children as young as seven are on the battlefields, kidnapped and brutalised, drugged and forced to fight. Children have been forced to commit atrocities. Rwanda offers the unique example of children being tried for the crime of genocide! The international community has spoken of its moral outrage at this abuse of children but not enough has been done. As we can see from the above examples, though these countries are under a legal obligation to protect their children from the effects of armed conflict, the reality is that children are fighting and suffering extreme violations of their rights. Article 38 of the CRC, which is the most powerful and all-encompassing legal protection available to children today, fails them in times of armed conflict by not having stronger standards and in-built implementation of Article 38. It is not enough to simply have good laws: ensuring the implementation of good laws is imperative. Since the CRC has come into force, the international arena has seen the beginning of some positive developments. ILO Convention 182, for example, has described a child as every individual under the age of 18, a first in any international legal instrument and has described the recruitment of children as one of the "worst forms of child labour". 

Article 8 of the Rome Statute: A Good Beginning

Furthermore, Article 8(2)(xxvi) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Rome Statute, though not yet in force, makes the recruitment of children under the age of 15 and their participation in hostilities a "war crime". It is a very positive step forward in ensuring protection to children forced to fight in conflicts like in Afghanistan, Burma or Sri Lanka, because it means that the person responsible for recruiting them will be punished. Like any international treaty this is a negotiated outcome and there was much disappointment in Rome that "18" was not the age the international community settled for. While disappointing, it is good beginning and given the potential of the ICC in supporting world peace and promoting justice by ending impunity, this article offering protection to children is a positive step forward to world peace. A step that all countries aiming for world peace should seriously consider accepting.

(Adapted from ANICC News Bulletin)

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