Child Soldiers..Global Report 2001

June 12, 2001 8:00 PM

Child Soldiers..Global Report 2001
"At any one time, more than 300,000 children under 18 - girls and boys -are fighting as soldiers with government armed forces and armed opposition groups in more than 30 countries worldwide. In more than 85 countries, hundreds of thousands more under-18s have been recruited into government armed forces, paramilitaries, civil militia and a wide variety of non-state armed groups. Millions of children worldwide receive military training and indoctrination in youth movements and schools. While most child soldiers are aged between 15 and 18, the youngest age recorded in this report is seven. "
posted by riley370 (6 comments total)

NPR's All Things Considered did a powerful report about this very issue on Tuesday June 12th. This incorrigible phenomenon is growing, as extremist groups are becoming more desperate for recruits. Often these young people are recruited after the opposing forces have taken out their parents, and are encouraged to join as an act of vengeance. Also young girls are forcibly taken from their families and used for slave labor and sexual favors. Or so the report says.

Warning, previous link requires the use of Real Audio. If it doesn't work, try searching for that date's program in their archives.
posted by ZachsMind at 11:39 PM on June 12, 2001

some of the reason for this is probably the cultural difference: i.e.- in the US and other first world contries we extend childhood to 18, where in non-industrial nations childhood ends much earlier for all walks of life.
posted by jackstark at 5:36 AM on June 13, 2001

we could solve this by banning children. sterilize everyone. no more children=no more child soldiers. also, there wouldn't be anymore school shootings in primary and secondary schools, since we wouldn't need the schools anymore, no more latch-key kids, child porn, child molesters, child labor and no more single parents. no more babysitters. heck, there'd be no kidnapping since there'd be no kids to nap (unless you're talking about goats, but that's a different matter entirely).

we'd no longer need to spend so much on daycare, or on feeding and clothing them. children are a huge drain on the economy, and they produce nothing! millions could be lifted out of poverty if they didn't have children sucking up all their resources.

don't give me all that crap about 'children are our future' and 'propagation of the species'. i'm talking about solving the problems we have right now. we'll worry about human extinction when we get there.
posted by tolkhan at 7:28 AM on June 13, 2001

makes you wonder why we have cub scouts.
posted by clavdivs at 1:09 PM on June 13, 2001

jackstark: "some of the reason for this is probably the cultural difference: i.e.- in the US and other first world contries..."

Other first world countries? I always thought the good ol' U.S. of A. was the only first world country, and then second world countries were defined as any country which could get David Letterman live via satelite. Then third world countries were any place without decent drinking water. ...But then I'm painfully ethnocentric and would be drawn and quartered outside of the US (and some places inside the US come to think of it..)

Tolkhan: "we could solve this by banning children..."

Hey this isn't funny. Just the other day I was talking with this friend who's co-writing with me on a few Projects Intended To Make Money Somehow But Will Probably Never See The Light Of Day about the idear of writing a screenplay called "Hamlin" which would be a modern twist on the Pied Piper. The tale would start at 3:42am on some near future Tuesday when all the children on the planet suddenly just disappeared for no explainable reason. And the movie would be about how the adults left behind would deal with that.

So quit readin' my mind, man! =)
posted by ZachsMind at 5:53 AM on June 14, 2001

thanks god that mr. kabila announced to release all child-soldiers from the congolese army and to stop employing new ones. forgot the number, i think it was a five-digit number.

i saw some years ago a documentary about child-soldiers in mozabique. rebels, supported by the old south-african regime, raided small towns, forced childs to kill their brother/sisters/parents and to join the rebel-army.

it's not imaginable what psychological damage these childrens had, sometimes not older than ten years.
posted by dogfood at 10:21 AM on June 15, 2001