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Khymer Rouge in Cambodia produced one of the more horrible genocides of the modern age,
whilst Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Mozambique were equally awful. In Rwanda alone, over
1,000 former child soldiers -simultaneously both victims and perpetrators - are languishing in jail
to be eventually charged with committing crimes against the civilian populace 1. In recent years,
children below the age of 16 have been made to fight as child soldiers in no less than 25 out of
about 40 countries that currently experience armed conflicts. In 1988 alone, approximately
200,000 such child soldiers were engaged in active combat on either side, be it government
troops and/or armed groups of different political leanings.
Because of their immaturity and lack of experience, child soldiers usually suffer higher casualties
than their adult counterparts. Even after the conflict is over, they are often left physically
disabled or psychologically traumatized. Frequently denied an education or the opportunity to
learn civilian job skills, many find it difficult to re-join peaceful society. Schooled only in war,
former child soldiers are often drawn into crime or become easy prey for future recruitment. Girls
are also used as soldiers in many parts of the world. In addition to combat duties, girls are
subject to sexual abuse and may be taken as “wives” by rebel leaders in Angola, Sierra Leone
and Uganda.
So there is great repugnance against involving children in war, but much less inhibition in
involving the youth. Indeed, young men and women, who are not children, are frequently in the
vanguard of civil struggles, and it is often the case that, without their involvement, many
important struggles for justice and liberty would not proceed so successfully.
However, there is also a sinister side to the involvement of young people in political struggle, and
this is in what has been termed “informal repression”. As described by one human rights report,
It describes a phenomenon which has no agreed name but one which has become
increasingly widespread across the continent in recent years. Governments secretly
employ surrogate agencies, such as ethnic or religious militias, to attack supporters
of opposition political parties or government critics. Thereby they perpetuate at a
local level the restrictive structures of one-party rule, while proclaiming their
fidelity to democratic principles at a national level 2.
Informal repression was widely seen during the time of the military juntas in Latin America,
where so-called “death squads” were responsible for the torture and extra-judicial execution of
left-wing opponents of the juntas. Denied by the governments, and certainly not investigated by
See HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH (1994), Easy Prey. Child soldiers in Liberia, NEW YORK: HUMAN RIGHTS
WATCH/AFRICA/HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH CHILDREN’S RIGHTS PROJECT.
2
See Article19 (1997), DEADLY MARIONETTES: State-Sponsored Violence in Africa, October 1997, LONDON: ARTICLE 19.
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