When child soldiers grow up to be killers
Conviction of former child soldier illustrates the ethical quandary, writes Shelly Whitman.
Last week, the world saw the first conviction of a Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) leader by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The former LRA commander, Dominic Ongwen, was convicted of 61 crimes against humanity and war crimes, including abduction and use of children as soldiers.
The conviction of Ongwen is complicated and demonstrates how far the world still has to go in its protection of children from some of the most horrific violations during armed conflict. Communities suffer many consequences when the recruitment and use of children as soldiers is not prevented.
Justice is a complicated concept, and many would argue that justice may never adequately provide peace or security. This is especially demonstrated when you consider that Ongwen himself was abducted by the LRA when he was under the age of 14. He lived his childhood and teen years entirely exposed to a terrorist group that traumatized the children it abducted and educated them in extreme acts of violence. He was forcibly separated from his family and was forced to commit unspeakable acts of brutality or be subject to death or mutilation himself.
Like many of the armed groups that recruit and use children as soldiers, the
LRA promoted the children who demonstrated the most violent behaviour and compliance — a common survival technique for many children in such a brutal atmosphere. As he rose in the ranks of the LRA, it was also inevitable that he would become a perpetrator of the very same crime he was a victim of: recruiting and using children as soldiers, continuing a cycle of violence and trauma that was normalized in his formative childhood years.
Those who lived through the terror of the LRA's brutality in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan know all too well the horrors of children being used to commit unimaginable crimes. The LRA thrived on creating fear in communities. During the height of their existence, it became commonplace for children to be forced to commit murder, even against their own families; be subjected to gang rape; and be used as human shields in front-line combat. Joseph Kony, the infamous LRA leader, indoctrinated children to believe he had magical powers and abilities to read their minds, so even the thought of escaping was believed to be something he would know.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a child as “any person under the age of 18 years.” The
Paris Principles define a child soldier as any person below the age of 18 years, boy or girl, who has been recruited or used by an armed force or armed group as a spy, messenger, cook, porter, sex slave or front-line fighter.
Last week's verdict raises important questions around children's vulnerability growing up in conflict environments and the normalization of violence. This is something we see in our own country, in inner city communities afflicted by gangs and crime or with the long-term effects of the horrific residential school systems on Indigenous populations. There is a need to consider the effects of such violent socialization, not to forget the victims of the crimes committed, but to find more effective ways to prevent future violations and help societies break endemic cycles of such violence.
Holding the children who were recruited and used as soldiers responsible must never replace the culpability of the organizers and profiteers of war. If we are serious about a commitment to break cycles of violence, we need a more nuanced understanding of the effects of violence on children and new approaches to preventing this violence, but we must also recognize that there may not be a simple answer for where to draw the line between childhood experiences and traumas that translate into adult criminal behaviours.
Therefore, we call upon the international community to think back to the individual contexts that led to this trial and how we must do more to protect children from being recruited and used in violence, and from experiencing such traumas in the first place.
Dallaire Institute research confirms that recruitment and use of children can be an early warning indicator for mass atrocities and even genocide. If we could adequately respond with support when indicators of violence are recognized, we could begin to put in place early action to break these cycles and make sure children are educated in peace, instead of trying to pick up the pieces after they are educated in violence.
While we do not condone Ongwen's crimes as an adult, we do ask that mitigating circumstances in sentencing for these crimes be applied, understanding the effects of a childhood marred by violence and war. Our commitment to a better world has to see the clear need for prevention and early warning efforts through the eyes of the generations to come.
Dr. Shelly Whitman is executive director of the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace, and Security at Dalhousie University.