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The emotional and physical effects of soldiers at war
Long term and short term effects of child soldiers
The emotional and physical effects of soldiers at war
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How would you feel if you were taken away from your family, only to be forced to fight? How would you feel if you were forced to kill others? Would you accept if this was your only access to food, money, and shelter? This is often what child soldiers go through. I believe that child soldiers should be granted amnesty because they are forced to join, they are given drugs, making it hard for them to quit, and because of rehabilitation. Those who are forcibly recruited are forced to fight and they get taken away from their families. Those who joined willingly probably didn’t join because they want to, but because they wanted to escape hunger and poverty. When they are forced to join, they have to follow orders, and in some cases if you don’t do what you’re told to do, you get killed. They get recruited because they can easily be intimidated, and since most lack mental maturity, they tend to be manipulated easily. Others …show more content…
Also because they have been taking drugs and alcohol and they’ve now become addicted, maybe they don’t have those things elsewhere, so they need to stay because they might not be able to function properly without the drugs. With everything going on around them, such as killing, it could scar them mentally for a really, really long time. With that being said, it can be hard for them to develop friendships and it can be hard to socialize. Although there could be some advantages to joining for them, there are disadvantages to the situation, but as people say, desperate times call for desperate measures… In the article ‘Child Soldiers, prosecution’ it says “the aim should not be punishment of child soldiers but rehabilitation” and i agree with that because it can be hard for the child soldiers to come to terms with what they
The first reason these kids shouldn’t be prosecuted or punished in any way is because it wasn’t their choice to be a soldier to begin with. According to Child Soldiers, Prosecution, most kids were forced to fight and had no choice of weather to enlist or not. There are about 200,000 child soldiers worldwide state's Armed and Underage, (Gettleman) and these kids are doing things their adolescent brains
...t they are easy to access; they are low cost, and easy to manipulate. When children are on the battlefield fighting for their lives, they become more violent and tend to do more killing than usual, raping girls, and torturing others. The armies, militia, and rebel groups recruit the children and separate the community to resist the conscription. The child is being forced to commit murder and turn against their family and friends because this proves that the child is recognized and implicated in the violence they have created. Child soldiers are known to be criminals, traitors, or even terrorists, so they would be held in military prisons. When either girl or boys are captured they go through abusive interrogation procedure, torture, isolations, rape, and death threats. These are the consequences of children being on the battlefield and shortly after being captured.
Children at such a young age don't have the mental ability to think long term about their actions, especially when they are being forced or drugged. Some may argue that if child criminals get punished for their actions, then child soldiers should too, but that is just not the case. The difference being, child criminals choose to commit their crimes, child soldiers are forced to commit crimes. As an example, in the article Child Soldiers it states, “More often than not, children have no say in whether they enlist or not and once recruited the children have become brainwashed through the use of drugs and alcohol” (Child Soldiers).
The civil war of Sierra Leone lasted from 1991 to 2002. In this civil war approximately fifteen thousand kids were forced to become soldiers. Either by being kidnapped or by having their lives threatened. The situation was an extremely sad one. They had no choice weather they wanted to be soldiers or not. Like Ishmael said in A Long Way Gone, “It was either kill or be killed.” This situation is one where most people would not even be able to imagine themselves in. Ishmael Beah was a boy who suffered, because of the civil war. His family was killed and he was forced to become a soldier for the military. He eventually was rescued by UNICEF and eventually moved to the United States. For a decade, there has been a war between Mexican drug cartels and the Mexican government. There have been an unacceptable number of kids that have been used as soldiers in this war. Approximately, thirty thousand youngsters have been forced into becoming soldiers. In contrast to Sierra Leone, the soldiers here are only for the drug cartels, but in Sierra Leone even the government made the children become soldiers too. Just like the children of Sierra Leone, the children of Mexico are also kidnapped or threatened into becoming soldiers. Once captured, they are transformed into belligerent
First of all the child soldiers/suicide bombers are located in many different continents all around the world. The majority is based in the Middle East and Africa: Burma, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Congo, Liberia, and also Sierra Leone (British Broadcasting Corporation World Watch). Being poor, disconnected from their families, or get a poor to no education make them more likely to become victims (Human Rights Watch). Girls make up an estimated 10-30% of the child soldiers in Uganda and Nepal (Do Something). Some join because they are too young to realize the consequences that war may bring upon them, and want to be a part of the army because of the weapons they use and uniforms they wear. Being bathed, fed, and properly clothed is another reason for them wanting to be a part of these groups, in which they would not receive during their every-day lives (British Broadcasting Corporation World Watch). The children that survive the war are captured by the rebel groups and are then converted into child soldiers, along with the kids who had just...
They are just kids. Only, they are not normal, they have lost everything they love and need to feel safe. Their family, a reliable food source, and their shelter- all gone. These kids are left completely stranded. Searching for the things that were taken from them. This is terrible because when these kids see others around their age fighting with these commanders, that are around the age of their parents or older siblings… the kids must think that now they have a chance getting the things they are searching for. Although now they are trapped, they are going to fight with these people no matter what, and some of these commanders have children as young as nine years old fighting for on their front lines. As told in the article “Armed and Underage” by Jeffrey Gettleman. Also, it is not just boys who are joining and fighting. Girls will join too, because they are looking for the same thing. But it is even worse for them. They are forced to be cooks, messengers, spies, and sexual slaves. This comes with sexual abuse, and rape. The sad thing is, this is only my first reason as to why child soldiers should be given amnesty, and a guided path to
Child soldier is a worldwide issue, but it became most critical in the Africa. Child soldiers are any children under the age of 18 who are recruited by some rebel groups and used as fighters, cooks, messengers, human shields and suicide bombers, some of them even under the age of 10 when they are forced to serve. Physically vulnerable and easily intimidated, children typically become obedient soldiers. Most of them are abducted or recruited by force, and often compelled to follow orders under threat of death. As society breaks down during conflict, leaving children with no access to school, driving them from their homes, or separating them from family members, many children feel that rebel groups are their best chance for survival.
“Compelled to become instruments of war, to kill and be killed, child soldiers are forced to give violent expression to the hatreds of adults” (“Child Soldiers” 1). This quotation by Olara Otunnu explains that children are forced into becoming weapons of war. Children under 18 years old are being recruited into the army because of poverty issues, multiple economic problems, and the qualities of children, however, many organizations are trying to implement ways to stop the human rights violation.
These are the words of a 15-year-old girl in Uganda. Like her, there are an estimated 300,000 children under the age of eighteen who are serving as child soldiers in about thirty-six conflict zones (Shaikh). Life on the front lines often brings children face to face with the horrors of war. Too many children have personally experienced or witnessed physical violence, including executions, death squad killings, disappearances, torture, arrest, sexual abuse, bombings, forced displacement, destruction of home, and massacres. Over the past ten years, more than two million children have been killed, five million disabled, twelve million left homeless, one million orphaned or separated from their parents, and ten million psychologically traumatized (Unicef, “Children in War”). They have been robbed of their childhood and forced to become part of unwanted conflicts. In African countries, such as Chad, this problem is increasingly becoming a global issue that needs to be solved immediately. However, there are other countries, such as Sierra Leone, where the problem has been effectively resolved. Although the use of child soldiers will never completely diminish, it has been proven in Sierra Leone that Unicef's disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration program will lessen the amount of child soldiers in Chad and prevent their use in the future.
They may also be selective because of lack of evidence or an overloaded justice system, so not every child soldier will be prosecuted. It is better to have a comprehensive rehabilitation program so that all child soldiers can be re-integrated into society and rehabilitated. I agree because they don’t want to do whatever they make them do as a child soldier it’s not their fault they drugged them also they got traumatized with all the killing and blood they were seeing at war they don’t know who to trust anymore.
Many people believe this and I recognize why, but on the other hand, child soldiers should not be locked away and actually be put into rehab so they become less of a danger. Many citizens also think, child soldiers should be locked away since all of their actions as an illegal soldier were indeed, illegal. This would make sense if they chose to join as an illegal soldier, but what they didn’t choose though was whether they were forced into doing all of these illegal crimes with drugs and alcohol stuffed in them. So why lock them away for doing something they had no control over doing? Finally, it has been said by many people that child soldiers are exact replicas of child criminals. For example, “Child soldiers are no different from child criminals. Child soldiers have been responsible for some of the most brutal and violent acts in wartime. In Sierra Leone child soldiers committed acts of rape, mutilation and mass killings of civilians” (INSERT author). To reinforce what was said before, these kids had no control over what they were doing! They were just trying to defend their drugged, abused, and unprotected bodies from getting injured in battle. Imagine you were a child soldier in battle. They drugged you up before hitting the fields. You see a large man with a gun bigger than yours. Do you fight back, or just stand there and let him kill
They are getting so much taken away from them and forced to give it all up and given weapons to kill and fight. “Some children who participated were detained or killed in battle” (Ashawi, 2014). All these children go into war and some are killed right on the spot. ¨Not prosecuting child perpetrators could indirectly expose child soldiers to greater risks¨ (Leahy, 2009). The children could become scarred and mentally ill from experiencing all of these tragic moments as
Imagine playing soccer with your friends, you score a goal "ahhhhhhh!!!!!" Your team celebrates after you score the game-winning goal. You pack up and since you were so busy celebrating everyone was on there way out. “Yo Dmitriy wewe kuja bro(Yo you coming, bro)?” “ndiyo.(Yes)” As you are walking down the road, you are suddenly picked up and thrown into a truck. Not knowing what just happened you start crying. As you reach the camp they cut your wrists, put a drug inside of you and wrap you up so you don't bleed. Once able to move you are then manipulated and tortured. This is the life of a child soldier. There are over 300,000 child soldiers all around the world. Many people debate if they should receive amnesty or not. but I believe that
Once the children are recruited into the military, they become dependent on their commanders for food, alchohol, drugs, and money. Child soldiers are easily manipulated emotionally by the military commanders. Once they are drugged, they are not in control of their actions. Sometimes they were also forced under threat of death to commit atrocities. In brief, children are unaware of their surroundings, the environment, and the decisions they make due to the fact that they are
Unquestionably, children from all ages are being manipulate and force to become a soldier. They are mainly use form 8 to 18 years old. They are being use as guards, fighters,etc. They abducted or recruit them. Others join of desperation of finding a better life. This mostly is happening in Afghanistan, parts of Asia and Africa. In conclusion is not fair that children from our country are having the time of their life while the others are being forced and killed to be a soldier.