If a war breaks out, my child shall be protected," said Willson Khama as he lay dying from tuberculosis six years ago. 1 Willson was only thirty-five years old and had spent almost half of his life as a child soldier with a guerilla group in Liberia during the country's civil war from 1989 to 1996. He wanted to make sure that his son would never have to go through what he had experienced.
Willson Khama was known as Rambo to his fellow child soldiers. After escaping the life as a child soldier, Willson changed from a fearless, strong, and skillful killer to a man who tried to avoid confrontation.
Prior to the outbreak of the first civil war in Liberia, Willson enjoyed a quiet childhood in a small town called Ball Mines near Monrovia. His family was living in a gated community and was well off. Amidst the conflict, one day, a group of rebels barged into his home and slaughtered his parents. Willson, just fourteen years old, was forced to watch his parents murdered and all of his family's possessions taken by the rebel group.
Willson fled to Monrovia with his friends, all of whose parents were also killed. The ransacked town was left behind in flames, screams, and blood. Just outside of Monrovia, Willson and his friends were stopped by other friends who blocked the road and robbed civilians of their money and food. They assured Willson that if he joined their rebel group, it would mean security, safety, and food. Willson felt he had no choice but to join. His first job as a child soldier was as a compound guard for the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), one of the three factions engaged in the country's power struggle, and led by Charles Taylor.
Willson was asked to clean clothes and weapons, and to run errands for his seniors, some of whom were child soldiers themselves. He also spied on what was going on in the town. The information he provided caused people to disappear. Day and night, he received training on how to handle such weapons as the AK 47 and, as part of his training, was forced to watch the brutal torture and killing of the group's enemies.
When the NPFL took over Monrovia in 1992, Willson became a frontline child soldier. He was by then fifteen years old. Willson's guerilla "education" taught him to be heartless. Killing others became a means for revenge and to obtain justice against the rebel groups that killed his parents.
In addition to his famed fearlessness, drugs enabled Willson to commit atrocities. He admitted that almost 90 per cent of the time he was on opiates and marijuana. The rebel leaders made drugs compulsory for child soldiers in order to manipulate and control them, and retain their obedience.
After almost eight years as a child soldier, Willson found out that some of the people he had killed were his relatives. Moreover, many of his fellow child soldiers had lost their lives or limbs from gunfire, improper training, or carelessness when handling weapons. At the age of twenty-two, Willson finally laid down his weapons, knowing that the penalty for deserting his position with the rebel group meant death. He escaped by serving as a guard for a civilian group. To rid himself of his memories as a child soldier, he later moved to Malaysia, then to Thailand, and finally to China.
Willson's case is a dramatic example of the impact of war upon children. The civil war in Liberia, ended by the Abuja Accord in 1996, culminated in the deaths of over two-hundred thousand Liberians, including fifty thousand children. 2 Almost every youth in the country witnessed atrocities, and a good percentage of them committed atrocities themselves. About 21 per cent, or 4,306 of the disarmed combatants, were child soldiers under the age of seventeen. Although many of them remain traumatized and some still addicted to drugs, the situation is improving. Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy, the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, said in an interview that many United Nations and Liberian Government programmes were assisting former child soldiers. According to Dr. Coomaraswamy, the aims were to integrate the child soldiers better, get them back onto their feet, and send them back to school or teach them new skills.3 But she warned more needed to be done. In over fifty countries around the world, approximately 300,000 children have been forced to fight in armed conflicts. 4
There is still hope, however. The international community has been strengthening its efforts to halt the recruitment of child soldiers, and countries have ratified a variety of treaties and conventions towards this goal. These include: the Rome Statute which has defined as a war crime the enlistment of children under the age of fifteen into the national armed forces or using them to actively participate in hostilities; the United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Right of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict; and the Paris Commitments to end the use of child soldiers. According to Dr. Coomaraswamy, the United Nations has as an objective to eradicate the use of child soldiers within twenty-five years, with the help of governments and people across the world.
However, quitting the army does not automatically heal a child -- the impact of enlistment at such a young age is felt for life. Some former child soldiers worry about retaliation upon their present family, while others find it difficult to earn a living due to their lack of education and skills. According to Jane Ekayu, a Ugandan child trauma counselor and development worker, many child soldiers suffer discrimination in their communities because of the violent acts they had committed. Most of them were captured at a tender age -- as young as six -- and some spent up to fifteen years in the bush. By the time they were released, it was a tremendous challenge for them to cope with formal education. They had no homes to return to as their parents had been killed and their houses burned down. As a result, they lived in poverty. And on the occasions when the child soldiers returned home, they were in extremely poor health and required specialized medical services.5
A major psychological effect of war on these former child soldiers is their lack of trust in others. Agnes M. Fallah Kamara-Umunna, founder, and executive director of Straight from the Heart, a radio project in Liberia aiming to enhance the dignity of war-affected victims, said that one of the major challenges is making the child soldiers trust the professionals. "Everything that made them fight was based on deception. People they thought could never let them down, let them down," she said. As a result, "everyone looks like a liar to them."6 Many professionals, including Ms. Ekayu and Ms. Kamara-Umunna, are providing psychosocial support and medical care through various methods, including?one-on-one counseling; but they need more resources.
Despite the plight they have faced, many former child soldiers have acknowledged their difficulties and started new lives. Their bravery in the face of such adversity is highly admirable, and Dr. Coomaraswamy said that many of the rehabilitated child soldiers have shown resilience and strength of character: "They can overcome the experience and really rebuild their lives and become global citizens and advocates against these factors."
When Willson looked back on his childhood, he wished his experience as a child soldier had never happened. His tragedy should not be repeated. The world must work together to raise awareness about child soldiers, bring to justice those who recruit children in war, help fulfill the psycho-social needs of child soldiers, and ultimately make the world a safer place for all children.
Notes
1 The author interviewed Dr. Jerry Darwin on 4 October 2010. During the last months of his life, Willson told Dr. Darwin of having been a child soldier.
2 "Liberia -- First Civil War -- 1989-1996," .
3 Radhika Coomaraswamy, interviewed by author, 22 October 2010.
4 "Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone,"
soldiers/abu_story.html.
5 Jane Ekayu, interviewed by author, November 2010.
6 Agnes M. Fallah Kamara-Umunna, interviewed by author, 25 October 2010.
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