wfn.org | All Africa News Agency April 14 2003 (c)

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

AANA BULLETIN No. 14/03, April 14, 2003 (c)

ALL AFRICA NEWS AGENCY
P. O Box, 66878, 00800 Westlands, NAIROBI, Kenya.  Tel: 254-2-4442215,
4440224
Fax: 254-2-4445847, 4443241; Email: aanaapta@insightkenya.com , 
aanaapta@hotmail.com
AANA Bulletin	Editor - Elly Wamari
Bulletin APTA - Editor - Silvie Alemba

FEATURES  SECTION

Child Soldiers: Easy To Make, Hard To Break

The use of minors in armed conflict has been a case for concern for years. 
Despite ratification of international conventions and protocols to contain 
the practice, the number of children in active combat around the world is 
as frightening as the experiences of those forcefully abducted to fight. 
Efforts to re-integrate former child soldiers into society hardly bear 
fruits, reports Geoffrey H. Kaiza.

With new lightweight weapons that are easy to fire, children are today more 
easily armed and recruited in active combat.

UNICEF statistics indicate that there are an estimated 300,000 child 
soldiers, including girls, in some 30 countries around the world.

In the past two decades, child soldiers have played roles in countries such 
as Angola, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Congo, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Iran, 
Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Somalia and Uganda.

Since 1990, as many as 10,000 children, some as young as eight years, boys 
and girls alike, have been abducted from their homes and schools in 
northern Uganda, and forced to join the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

LRA abductions are an outstanding example of deliberate targeting of 
children, in war situations. The lives of these children are at absolute 
disposal of the rebel commanders. They are tied together and forced to 
carry heavy loads, without food or water, in the rebel camps.

Those who protest or who cannot keep up to demands are killed.	Many die 
along the way from fatigue and illness. Boys and girls are forced to beat 
and hack to death other captive children who are caught trying to escape.

Since the beginning of the conflict in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) 
in 1998, recruitment of children has increased.

An official communiqui aired on DRC national radio on August 7, the same 
year, called for children and youth aged between 12 and 20 years to enrol 
with the armed forces, in response to insurgency.

In addition to , Kinshasa, DRC capital, recruitment reportedly took place 
at an airport in Mbuji-mayi and Kamina towns in central and southern parts 
of the country respectively, and Manono in Katanga Province.

A Forces Armies Congolaise (FAC) or Armed Forces of Congo commander in 
Kinshasa, who had carried out an informal survey of troops stationed there 
in November, 2000, found that one out of every fourteen FAC soldiers was 
under the age of 13.

In the same way, rebel groups in DRC have recruited children, whom they 
refer to as Kadogo (little ones), to support their military campaign 
against Kabila government. Some are aged only seven years.

In mid 1998, the national television featured a parade of what the 
government claimed were 5,900 FAC child soldiers in Mbuji-Mayi.

The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which entered 
into force in November 1999, prohibits recruitment or direct participation 
in hostilities,  of anyone under the age of 18 (Article 22).

The widespread availability of modern lightweight weapons enables children 
to became efficient killers in combat. Child soldiers are often used for 
special tasks, such as to commit atrocities against their own families and 
communities.

"I would like to give you a message. Please do your best to tell all the 
world what is happening to us children, so that other children don't have 
to pass through this violence," states a 15 year-old girl in Global Report 
2001. She is a former abductee of Uganda's LRA

The report states that the problem is most critical in Africa and Asia, 
though children are also employed as soldiers by governments and armed 
groups in many countries in the Americas, Europe and the Middle East.

Observers say armed groups use children because they are easier to 
condition into fearless killing machines.  In addition, they are often less 
demanding soldiers.

They are cheaper to keep as they eat less.  They are also easier to 
manipulate. Some are sent into battle, high on drugs to give them courage.

In training, children undergo a brutal initiation, mostly involving killing 
or maiming those among them who either attempt to flee or are just not able 
to cope.

The West African nation of Liberia is still picking up the pieces after a 
brutal 7 year civil war, which left 150,000 people dead and displaced 
almost half the population.

It is estimated that 20 percent of the combatants in Liberia's civil war 
were children. They were among the most brutal fighters.  Many of them 
killed, raped, tortured and even practised cannibalism.

The international labour Organisation (ILO) has defined child soldiering as 
one of the worst forms of child labour (ILO Convention 182, Article 3).

On 25 May 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus, 
an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, on the 
involvement of children in armed conflict.

The Optional Protocol came into force on 12 February 2002, and has to date 
been signed by 101 states and ratified by 22.

Article 32, of the Convention requires states to protect children from "any 
work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's 
education."

According to observers, military service jeopardises the health and safety 
of the children. Training can lead to death, injury and trauma, 
particularly during live-ammunition exercises and physical endurance
programs.

Power relationships in the military camp makes young recruits particularly 
vulnerable to bullying, harassment, abuse and sometimes even rape.

A number of programmes for rehabilitation of child soldiers exist across 
Africa, such as in Mozambique, Angola and Somalia. However, it is not an 
easy process. The children have been brutalised and have carried out
killings.

It is difficult for them to be re-integrated into society.  "When I get 
older, I will organise a gang and seek my father's revenge." says Asif 
(12), a Sierra Leone ex-army soldier. This defines the picture.

Cross-Border Cattle Raids That Perplex Authorities

For years, Pokot, Marakwet, Turkana, Karamojong, and Sebei communities 
living along Kenya-Uganda border, have engaged each other in cattle 
rustling wars.	The practice, which presently involves use of sophisticated 
weapons, has led to deaths of thousands of people and destruction of 
property.  AANA Correspondent Herman Kasili, who recently interviewed a 
Kenyan Member of Parliament from the region, reports that cattle rustling 
may not end soon, unless Kenyan and Ugandan authorities empower the 
communities economically.

The Pokots are a pastoralist ethnic group living about 600 kilometres 
north-west of Nairobi.

Since time immemorial, they have indulged in cattle rustling, as a cultural 
practice, with neighbouring Karamojong and Sebei communities on the Ugandan 
side of the border, as well as with Kenyan counterparts, Turkana, and 
Marakwet.

Lately, the practice has turned into a full scale conflict. The Luhya 
community from Trans-Nzoia district in western Kenya, who never engaged in 
the activity, have found themselves being dragged into it, after being 
raided and their animals stolen several times.

Much of the area in question stretches from Trans Nzoia, West Pokot and 
Turkana districts in Kenya, to Karamoja district in Uganda.  The region is 
semi-arid, with majority of the population being pastoralists.

 From time to time, communities raid neighbouring villages and make off 
with many heads of cattle. The feat spills across Kenya-Uganda border, when 
either the Karamojong and Sebei or the Pokot and Turkana team up to engage 
each other in cross-border raids and counter-raids. The activity causes 
many casualties, with women and children suffering the most.

AANA interviewed Kapenguria Member of Parliament (MP), Samuel Moroto, last 
month, soon after he had arrived from Uganda, where he had gone with other 
Kenyan officials to negotiate return of cattle allegedly stolen by Uganda 
Peoples Defence Force (UPDF) from Pokot herdsmen.

It had been reported elsewhere that over 3,000 heads of cattle belonging to 
the Pokot had been stolen by UPDF, after the herdsmen crossed over to 
Uganda to search for grazing fields for their cattle.

"With this kind of scenario," the MP paused, "do you think the Pokot will 
sit on the fence watching, while their cattle, which is their only 
livelihood, are being taken away by other people?"  Moroto was explaining 
why cattle rustling had become a die-hard habit.

According to him, there had been an agreement between Kenyan and Ugandan 
authorities to allow herdsmen from either country to graze their animals on 
whichever side of the border was greener.

The Pokots have been at the centre stage of cattle rustling, with their 
neighbours often accusing  them of stealing their cattle.

Moroto responds to this saying, "It take two to tango.	These other 
communities should not exonerate themselves from blame as they have also 
taken part in cattle rustling."

He goes on: "When Pokots are up in arms to retrieve their cattle, they are 
referred to as cattle rustlers."

A former minister in the previous government, a defensive Moroto says 
accusing his community alone is quiet unfair.

He explains that the government should carry blame for not taking any 
initiative to develop the area, for communities to change their attitude on 
cattle rustling.

The practice has become more sophisticated.  Unlike in the past when 
teenagers used traditional weapons such as spears, bows and arrows in 
village raids, today, opposing cattle rustlers engage in gun combats.

It has often been alleged that both Kenyan and Ugandan governments armed 
communities living along their common border with guns sometime ago, 
ostensibly for self-protection.

After realising this was a mistake, operations to disarm them have not 
borne fruit. According to Moroto, the  villagers simply acquire guns from 
the black market.

"Pokots deserve to protect themselves from any intrusion by hostile 
communities around them. They acquire sophisticated machine guns that are 
available in the black market," he says.

"The guns are available if you have money, since they are found in all 
northern frontier districts in Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya," 
he adds.  Prices vary between US $ 50 and 300.

The MP recalls that the government has conducted over 30 disarmament 
operations in the region to no avail, because it has not employed a 
multi-dimensional approach that would also tackle causes of cattle rustling.

He singles out drought and hunger as a major factor instigating the 
practice. Currently, areas experiencing serious dry spells are Kongelai, 
Kosoi, Sook, Cheperia, Alale, Kachelebai, Chesikon and Sokor and Moroto 
towns in Kenya.

"With all cattle dying because of drought, and you need to feed your 
family, will you resist being tempted to steal," wondered Moroto.

For cattle rustling to be contained, the MP suggests that the government 
should devise ways of starting irrigation schemes to encourage the 
communities to supplement livestock rearing with farming.

He says that the many rivers in the West Pokot district such as Suam, 
Muruny, Weiwei, Okilim, Kotoruk and Lyon, could be harnessed to provide the 
necessary water.

He also suggests that infrastructure, especially roads, be improved so that 
security agents can access trouble areas.

Moroto is convinced that, if these, together with intensive promotion of 
education in the area are facilitated by both Kenya and Uganda governments, 
cattle rustling will die a natural death.

A Community That Has Nothing To Count

Despite the free education policy, pastoral nomads in north-western Kenya 
find it hard to enrol their children in schools as hunger continues to 
bite.  A 12-year-old girl could as well fetch a few cows for the starving 
community,  writes Susan Mwangi.

As Kenyans mark 100 days of a new government and the free education that 
came with it, patoralists of Kapenguria in West Pokot district in 
north-western Kenya have nothing to count.

The region that last had mild rains last November is currently experiencing 
the worst drought, as far as they can remember.

There is no hope either, as confirmed by the meteorological department 
towards the end of last month. Weather forecasters had said the expected 
long rains would not come.

To the nomads, free or no free education, little seems to have changed for 
better in the education sector, more so to the girl child.

"Girl child education is still a problem in this region owing to the 
traditional belief that a girl is born for marriage and that settles her 
life." The District Commissioner (DC) for West Pokot, Mr. Abdulilahi 
Leloon, revealed during an interview.

Right at age eight, the girl's mother or other family members begin to 
engage her into marriage talks.  At twelve years, she is circumcised, as 
initiation into womanhood, ready to be married off.

"To such a tradition, education is considered much less in the present 
situation of uncertainty caused by the drought and cattle rustling, both 
within the district and from the Karamajong of neighbouring Uganda," notes 
the DC.

With all the government's effort to fight FGM, the practice is still done 
underground.

It is no easy task to convince a nomadic father to take his daughter to 
school instead of receiving cows as dowry for her marriage. The more cows 
one has, the more respect one commands within the community.

"Until FGM, which initiates girls into womanhood making them ready for 
marriage, is overcome, we are not likely to witness many girls going to 
school even with free education," says the DC

The provision of free primary education in Section 7 of the Children's Act 
2001 (Cap 586) states that every child is entitled to primary education, 
which shall be the responsibility of both the government and parents.

According to Leloon, the whole issue of lack of education due to gender 
difference should be addressed urgently.

He opines that for Education For All to be achieved, a lot have to be done. 
Social marketing and advocacy has to be applied to educate parents and 
society at large about free education.

"The government and civil society through local NGOs (non-governmental 
organisations) working with the community have a responsibility to 
sensitise communities on the importance of education," observes Leloon.

The district has 250 primary schools and only 15 secondary schools, of 
which majority are in poor conditions.	Some classes are taken under trees.

At the announcement of free education in January, the schools realised 
great increase in number of students, especially boys.

"Headmasters requested for more food as the previous portions provided too 
little for the increasing number of students at the beginning of the year," 
said Rev Samson Lekipuria, chairman for relief project at the Evangelical 
Lutheran Church Centre in Kapenguria.

"Currently the numbers in schools have gone down, succumbing to drought," 
Samson noted.

When families move in search of pasture, the children abandon school to 
follow the rest of the family to whichever destination, not sure whether 
they will enrol again.

"The only solution to the nomads' children is a nomadic boarding school 
where children will have to stay even as their parents travel miles in 
search of green pasture," Lelool recommends.

In the whole of West Pokot District, there is only one nomadic boarding 
school. A good number of students are missing and the few in class return 
poor performances.

"Famine in the region has hit its climax. We are grateful to WFP (World 
Food Programme) for the maize and beans, but it is not enough nutrition for 
the growing children. They are malnourished and as the future generation, 
the district is in danger," says the DC.

He says that frequent cattle rustling in the region has made the situation 
worse noting: "The people are living in constant fear of sudden attack at 
any time."

"This hinders the district from progressing, as residents can't settle down 
to any meaningful development," he adds.

The DC however confirms that the government has long term plans of 
constructing stores for agricultural produce and canned beef industry to 
boost the economy of the district.

Meanwhile, people have resorted to eating Loma, a wild berry that has to be 
boiled for about 12 hours to kill potency of  poison contained in it.

"We are in need of special assistance from every one, to recover from the 
present calamity," points out Lelool.

But Peter Mbae of Nowergian Church Aid (NCA) in Kenya, does not see much of 
international humanitarian assistance.

Speaking last month to officials of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 
Kenya (ELCK) involved in relief aid, Mbae said he was concerned that Kenya 
did not feature in this year's, WFP donation map.

"To the international community, which includes the donor, this shows that 
the country does not need much support, yet the situation is dire," he 
observed.