Uganda's Child Soldiers

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A child soldier is a child who has been abducted and forced to fight in a conflict in which they would not typically be involved in. Child soldiers have their relatively normal childhood taken away if they are abducted. Instead of playing with the other children, they are forced to murder them. Many are forced to watch the people they once knew be tortured and they may even take part in the act. Child soldiers are internationally banned, yet many countries still utilize them to this day. Uganda is one country in which they are used. The use of children in armed combat in Uganda sheds light on the fact that the concept of power is indeed a double-edged sword. The country of Uganda is a struggling nation and has adversities with their living conditions, economy, and politics. Uganda uses a republic form of government. It has a mixed legal system of English common law and customary law. The country has a plethora of natural resources “including fertile soils, regular rainfall, small deposits of copper, gold, and other minerals, and recently discovered oil” (“CIA World Factbook”).The country itself has the potential to become wealthy and more powerful, but before you can access and use these resources, you first need to improve the living conditions for the people of the country. In order to do this the country is currently attempting to stabilize the economy by undertaking an economic reform. However, “unreliable power, high energy costs, inadequate transportation infrastructure, and corruption inhibit economic development and investor confidence”(CIA World Factbook). Once again, many small things need to be changed and fixed before the achievement of the final goal of improving the economy is remotely possible. Overall the... ... middle of paper ... ...2%2580%2599s-resistance-army>. Mark, Monica. "Joseph Kony Child Soldier Returns to Terrorised Boyhood Village." Guardian News and Media, 23 July 2013. Web. 20 May 2014. . Storr, Will. "Kony's Child Soldiers: 'When You Kill for the First Time, You Change'" The Telegraph, 2 Feb. 2014. Web. 20 May 2014. . "Studies Explore Effects of War on Former Child Soldiers." Science Daily. Web. 6 May 2014. . "U.S. Relations With Uganda." U.S. Department of State, 08 Oct. 2013. Web. 20 May 2014. . "The World Factbook: Uganda." Central Intelligence Agency. Web. 8 May 2014. .

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