http://org.newtrier.k12.il.us/academics/faculty/hjelmgren/africa09proj3lev.html

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Angola Child Soldiers

 Shana Khamis

    "Tanzi Bakonzi, 15 and about four feet tall, was on patrol. He stood in front of a burned-out
vegetablemarket in Faradje, a town in northeatern Congo, wielding a rusty machete."(Jeffery Gettleman, Armed & Underage, New York Times). Tanzi is put in the same situation thousands of kids are put in daily all over Africa, including Angola. This kid could have been anyone, a brother, son, husband, or even a father. Child soldiers are becoming more of a problem as the days go by, child armies are growing and more and more innocent children are losing hope, education, and more importantly, their lives. These kids aren't born with the mentality to want to fight. They are being brainwashed. Also, this takes away every right that children have and affects their everyday life. Child soldiers should be banned from Angola, and the rest of Africa.

    " 'Child soldiers are ideal,' a military commander from Chad told Human Rights Watch. 'They don't complain, they don't expect to be paid- and if you tell them to kill, they kill.' " (Jeffery Gettleman). Children can be imprinted on very easily, and what these military commanders are doing is showing children the wrong way of thinking. They are drugging these poor innocent children and then telling them that killing is okay, "Beah was 13...'Killing became as easy as drinking water,' he recalls" (Jeffery Gettleman). Killing people should not be a neutral effect for children, or should not be, "as easy as drinking water". "I was involved in the fighting and in the action. At first, I was used to carry goods and help make food, later I was trained to fight. At fourteen, I was the youngest boy in my unit, although there were others of fifteen and sixteen. I saw people with their arms being blown off." (Luiz J., former UNITA child soldier). This is absolutely ridiculous, no one at the age 14 should be exposed to this kind of traumatizing thing, which leads into my next point of child soldiers taking away the rights of children and affecting their everyday life.

    Children need to be free, able to play and not have a care in the world. No child is deserving of a beating, or to be sexually harassed at such a young age especially."UNITA soldiers regularly beat children for infractions and assigned them hazardous duties. UNITA combatants also sexually abused girls and assigned them as "wives" to soldiers." (Africa News Service). "Waging war is not generally considered child's play. And yet, at the end of the 20th century, as wars between nations and civil strife within nations persist, millions of children are affected throughout the world. Although they do not start the wars, children experience the negative consequences of conflict as their lives are disrupted, shattered, or lost. And in a number of countries, children serve as combatants." (CHARLES MACCORMACK). This does so much damage mentally and physically. It is plainly unconstitutional and needs to be stopped. "War violates every right of a child: the right to life, the right to be with family and community, the right to health, the right to the development of the personality, and the right to be nurtured and protected. Violence of conflict interrupts a child's healthy growth and development. In more severe cases, the physical impact of war on children is extreme, including disease, injury, sexual assault, disability, malnutrition, and death. In poor countries, where children are already vulnerable to malnutrition and disease, armed conflict can increase death rates by up to 24 times." (Graca Machel, liberation leader during the independence struggle with Portugal in Mozambique).

    All in all, having child soldiers is wrong, disgusting, and horrific. These kids have done nothing in their lives, but yet are kidnapped from their families and put into the nasty situations that will haunt them for the rest of their lives, if they make it out alive. Children are being drugged and brainwashed. By doing this, it is taking away every right a child has to grow and become a successful adult. "I was with my family, we left because of the war- the fighting came and we had to flee. I was sixteen years old. For our work, we had to carry heavy things. Mortar shells for example. There were other children in my group, we were a group of between thirty and forty children aged fourteen to sixteen. Our main job was to carry ammunition from the bases in the Alturas (heights) to the front lines. It was difficult work because the loads were heavy. We were often hungry and without proper clothes and sometimes it would happen that people would 'disappear.' " (Carols B., former UNITA child soldier). This is not the life children deserve to have, which is why child soldiers should be banned in Angola.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work Cited

 

"Child Soldiers Forgotten in Angola." Gale Cengage Learning. 30 Apr. 2003. 12 May 2009 <http://find.galegroup.com/gic/printdoc.do?contentSet=IACdocument>.

This website gave me information on all different stories of child soldiers who have survived and are now sharing what has happened to them,



Gettleman, Jeffery. "Armed & Underage." New York Times Upfront 20 Apr. 2009: 1-4.

This artivle gave me stories of child soldiers and told how the commanders thought of the children.



Maccormack, Charles. "Children of Conflict." Questia. 1999. 18 May 2009 <http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=KSTpVgLYXCPcvRBQwn2dzQFVHTmLdGnxvmfm8f1PZQT0BmdzGxl0!-1912888143!-1633707706?docId=5001885250>.

This website article showed me point of views of some leaders and told how the rights of children were being violated.

 

  http://org.newtrier.k12.il.us/academics/faculty/hjelmgren/africa09proj3lev.html


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Last updated May 22, 2009 By Shana Khamis