Dallaire fights to get children off battlefield

Romeo Dallaire found the two teenage deserters at a remote United Nations outpost in the northeastern corner of the war- torn Democratic Republic of Congo. They were from opposing militias but shared a few things in common. Both were kidnapped and forced into war. Both had escaped, and neither wanted to be a soldier anymore.

But the clock was ticking. Dallaire knew it would not be long before the teens’ commanders showed up to reclaim them. If they came in force there would be little the few UN troops could do, so he rushed to get the boys on a departing UN helicopter.

Sitting on the copter with Dallaire awaiting takeoff, it seemed they were home free. Suddenly the pilot ordered the boys off the aircraft to make room for two UN soldiers.

“Absolutely not. They’re coming with me!” Dallaire replied, bristling with outrage. He made the pilot back down and got the boys out of the war zone.

Dallaire tells us it is his most vivid memory from his return to Africa last year, filming a new documentary to raise awareness about child soldiers: They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children — based on his book of the same name. We spoke with Dallaire and director Patrick Reed about the film and Dallaire’s crusade to end the recruitment of child soldiers.

More than 250,000 children under age 18 are involved in at least 17 conflicts around the world today. Forty per cent are girls who serve as soldiers or sex slaves. Child soldiers are abducted from their homes, often put through brutal initiation rituals and forcibly addicted to drugs.

In 2008, Dallaire, a Canadian senator, founded the Child Soldiers Initiative to raise awareness, pressure world governments to take action, and train police and military forces from around the world to protect children and prevent them from being recruited.

Dallaire saw child soldiers first- hand while the then- general of the Canadian Forces was leading the ill- fated mission in Rwanda in 1994. He tells of one encounter that almost cost him his life.

Dallaire’s UN convoy arrived at a makeshift checkpoint manned by militia soldiers — all of them young boys. The moment he opened his truck door an AK- 47 rifle was pointed at his face.

“On the other end of the rifle I saw a quivering, wide- eyed young boy, sweating as his finger danced with the trigger,” he recalls. With a mix of bravado and terror, the boy pressed the muzzle against Dallaire’s nose.

Certain he was about to die, Dallaire slowly pulled a chocolate bar from his pocket. The boy’s eyes fixated on the candy, and his finger eased off the trigger. He took the peace offering. To this day, Dallaire believes that chocolate bar bought his life.

In Rwanda, South Sudan and the DRC, Reed says he saw what makes Dallaire unique in his approach to the issue of child soldiers. He says he saw militia commanders and child soldiers talk to Dallaire because he approached them first as a fellow soldier.

He filmed Dallaire playing a game of verbal cat- and- mouse, trying to make a DRC militia commander admit his use of child soldiers. Dallaire was unable to force a confession but did get a shot past the commander’s defences. Dallaire said as a general himself he would feel less of a soldier if he relied on children to fight for him. They left the commander in a stunned and shamed silence.

Canada led the world against landmines. There is no reason Canada cannot lead again on child soldiers. Not simply rehabilitating former child soldiers, but preventing the deployment of children on the battlefield and making it easier for them to escape through measures such as training for peacekeeping police and military forces in the protection of children. Dallaire’s initiative is providing this training in countries such as Ghana and Botswana, and right here at home at the Canadian Forces Camp Aldershot in Nova Scotia. Canada can also push the UN to improve policies and procedures to protect children, and prevent incidents like what happened on that helicopter.

They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children will be appear in Canadian theatres starting in May.