Child Soldiers in Uganda

712 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Human rights violations against children in wartime

Child Soldiers in Uganda How would you feel if you or your child was forcibly kidnapped or abducted by the savage Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda? Where your only option that you are given are to kill or to be killed and the only thing you get in return for risking your life is five dollars and maybe another week to live well this is a sad, but true reality for most Ugandan children. Almost 300,000 child soldiers within the last couple of years have been recruited As well as being forced to fight; children are often used as spies, couriers, cooks and cleaners. Girls are often forced into sexual slavery or taken as wives for male combatants as of today 45% of Ugandan child soldiers are made up of mostly girls, another reason why Ugandan War lords use child soldiers for their armed groups are because they are renewable resource of war and because children are a lot easier to manipulate and train than man. They don’t need as much food, and they don’t need to get as paid as much since they can always fine a new kid to replace another they also say since they and don’t have a highly developed sense of danger yet, it makes all too easy to send them into the line of fire. Which in my opinion is dumb because not only do they kidnapped these children at very young aged they are paid crap for risking there lives for there pathetic war these war lords don't even see these kids as living and breathing people they seem them as a replenishable resource that they can go get more of if they run out of or if they get sick or injured. Most people know about Joseph Kony just for his kidnapping and making ordinary Ugandan kids into child soldiers, but mos... ... middle of paper ... ...tting him know who has bad intentions towards him, and that the spirits of those who the fighters have killed will return to kill their perpetrators if the fighters attempt escape. These spitirual lies and superstitions create deep-rooted fear in soldiers that impel their cooperation. Lastly the way Kony keeps his soldiers inline was the promise of power and wealth once LRA has succeed in overthrowing Museveni’s rule, LRA fighters will be rewarded with government positions and wealth. Also some former long-term abductee recalls that: “They used to tell us that if we fight and overthrow the government then we shall get wealth and even the young soldiers would get high ranks in the army.” The promise of future prosperity and the perceived importance of overthrowing Museveni’s government appear to keep them motivated to continue on fighting for Kony cause

Show More
Related

  • Child Soldiers In War

    824 Words  | 2 Pages

    In a significant part of the world, there are many countries that recruit child to become soldiers against their will. Child soldiers are being utilized to commit horrendous actions that people would not believe could be done by just kids. The United States should intervene in wars where child soldiers are being used ,because they are transformed against their will,being killed and the ones who survived are more likely to become psychopaths.

    Read More

  • The Military Use Of Child Soldiers In Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland

    1596 Words  | 4 Pages

    There is no exact known number of children currently being utilised in warfare worldwide. The issue of the military use of children is so widespread that no figure can be calculated, although it is estimated that there are currently over 250,000 child soldiers across the world. Many are drugged and brainwashed into murder, many are forced to sever all ties with their family or watch them die. Most are faced with a simple choice: kill or be killed. Although the notion of child soldiers is vastly alien to contemporary Australian society, it is a reality in many parts of the world. ISIS have been known to employ the use of children in warfare and over 30,000 children have been abducted into the Lord’s Resistance Army for military purposes. It

    Read More

  • Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers

    1826 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...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.

    Read More

  • Western Culture and Child Soldiers

    763 Words  | 2 Pages

    After achieving economic dominance following the events of World War II, the United States and its allies in Europe began to spread their influence. Commonly referred to as “the West”, these nations impacted people all over the world through music, propaganda, and relief efforts. The United States, as a free superpower, is morally obligated to promote democracy around the world (Evinger and Montanez-Muhinda). This can easily be observed in the stories of two children, Mariatu Kamara and Ishmael Beah, whose lives are changed by a brutal civil war. Despite playing a large role in both tales, the effects of western world are much more prevalent and impactful in A Long Way Gone than in The Bite of the Mango.

    Read More

  • The Effects of War on Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone

    2374 Words  | 5 Pages

    These conditions, caused by structural violence and weakened social systems, had severe consequences for all, but more so for children the children of Sierra Leone. Children make up the mass majority of the population of Sierra Leone. Because of the war, children had even less access to standardized education, they suffered immensely because of the unemploy¬ment of their parents, and thousands of children resorted to the struggle of surviving on the street (Zack-Williams, 2001). Children were preyed on by “thugs”. Soon children were unknowingly recruited as “child soldiers.” (It must be known that the term child soldier ...

    Read More

  • Child Soldiers and Suicide Bombers: The Brave and Courageous

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    Children are usually viewed as young people that do not have very much to think about, or have much responsibility. That is not the case for these individuals. In fact, child soldiers/suicide bombers are almost the exact opposite. A child soldier is defined as “anyone under the age of 18 who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity” (Human Rights). They are put through hardship in which they do not deserve. Kids should not have these images in their head this young. They should not have to go through this abuse either. Children are abused and mistreated all around the world, and child soldiers/suicide bombers are one of the worst circumstances.

    Read More

  • Uganda's Child Soldiers

    1253 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mark, Monica. "Joseph Kony Child Soldier Returns to Terrorised Boyhood Village." Guardian News and Media, 23 July 2013. Web. 20 May 2014. .

    Read More

  • Wendy Glauser's Northern Uganda

    266 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Wendy Glauser’s Northern Uganda Cautiously Courts Freedom as Peace Talks Progress (http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/1675/northern-uganda-cautiously-courts-freedom-as-peace-talks-progress), negotiations between the Ugandan government and the LRA are discussed. Time after time, Joseph Kony has been given opportunities to sign peace treaties but he has denied. Now that these negotiations have been going on for quite some time now, more and more people are willing to give in to Kony’s conditions to ensure peace than they were before.

    Read More

  • The Conflict Diamonds of Africa

    1039 Words  | 3 Pages

    The acts of violence that were performed by rebels in Africa were horrific. Adults and children were murdered, mutilated, tortured, and raped. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone performed despicable acts of cutting off a people's body parts with machetes to instill fear in the community. If you were working in the diamond mines and not performing up to the standards of the rebels you would lose a body part as punishment. Rebels would continue to do this from one village to another in order “to take control of the mines in the area” (Hoyt). It is estimated that in Sierra Leone that over 20,000 people suffered mutilation. The acts that the rebels performed to these innocent victims was clearly a violation to their human rights. The RUF collected 125 million a year to fund their war on the government and the people of Sierra Leone.

    Read More

  • Kill or be Killed: Child Soldiers

    581 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Children, you call them? They can pull a trigger just as well as veterans …” (Colonel Marcus Cullen, War Hammer 40,000). People should question the world in which they live when a child is forced to become a soldier. Especially when the children are under the age of 18, they should not be required to fight. Many children who are demanded to fight are taken from their families. These young adolescents are mistreated; malnurtured, abused and the girls are usually used for sexual purposes.

    Read More

  • Child Soldiers in Africa

    803 Words  | 2 Pages

    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 aged 10 when they are forced to serve. Physically vulnerable and easily intimidated, children typically make 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 no access to school, driving them from their homes, or separating them from family members, many children feel that rebel groups become their best chance for survival. Others seek escape from poverty or join military forces to avenge family members who have been killed by the war. Sometimes they even forced to commit atrocities against their own family (britjob p 4 ). The horrible and tragic fate of many unfortunate children is set on path of war murders and suffering, more nations should help to prevent these tragedies and to help stop the suffering of these poor, unfortunate an innocent children.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Child Soldiers

    1092 Words  | 3 Pages

    Child soldiers are a prevalent issue in the international community and must be stopped. Whether kidnapped, enslaved, or volunteered: child soldiers are a clear violation of human rights. The United Nations are actively working to eradicate the issue by creating programs such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which is a treaty that contains three Optional Protocols, the first of which is aimed at protecting children’s rights.

    Read More

  • Child Soldiers

    2240 Words  | 5 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • Child Soldiers In A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

    1105 Words  | 3 Pages

    Capturing children and turning them into child soldiers is an increasing epidemic in Sierra Leone. Ishmael Beah, author of the memoir A Long Way Gone, speaks of his time as a child soldier. Beah was born in Sierra Leone and at only thirteen years old he was captured by the national army and turned into a “vicious soldier.” (Beah, Bio Ref Bank) During the time of Beah’s childhood, a civil war had erupted between a rebel group known as the Revolutionary United Front and the corrupt Sierra Leone government. It was during this time when the recruitment of child soldiers began in the war. Ishmael Beah recalls that when he was only twelve years old his parents and two brothers were killed by the rebel group and he fled his village. While he and his friends were on a journey for a period of months, Beah was captured by the Sierra Leonean Army. The army brainwashed him, as well as other children, with “various drugs that included amphetamines, marijuana, and brown brown.” (Beah, Bio Ref Bank) The child soldiers were taught to fight viciously and the effects of the drugs forced them to carry out kill orders. Beah was released from the army after three years of fighting and dozens of murders. Ishmael Beah’s memoir of his time as a child soldier expresses the deep struggle between his survival and any gleam of hope for the future.

    Read More

  • Child Soldiers Amnesty

    819 Words  | 2 Pages

    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).

    Read More

More about Child Soldiers in Uganda

Open Document