CHILD SOLDIERS - HEAR THEIR STORIES

an 11-year old from Sri Lanka

  I started a page called CHILD SOLDIER today. When people roll their eyes at these tough issues or get that glassy 'feigned interest' stare that barely hides their impatience, I turn to my website and write as if people do care; as if people might actually read this. 
 
  I know beneath the layers of our western culture, of what can arguably be called a life of great over indulgence and self absorption, people could care. Believing they could, means it's possible that they will. (Certainly some do.) And I know most people would stop bad stuff from happening if they felt like they could. I get that the world's ills are overwhelming. We all react differently when we are confronted with such bigness. When I feel overwhelmed, it makes me want to learn more.. 

  My frurstration today comes from feeling the pain of these child soldiers. Please understand that I don't mean to aim it at "the people." It's just that the answer to stopping atrocity ultimately lies "with the people". But first people have to care enough to learn some crummy things. Crummy, of course, describes atrocity about as well as 'a bad guy' describes Hitler. My point is this. Before anything changes, people must know what atrocities exist. The fact that children are forced into killing or be killed wars is surely one of the world's greatest atrocities.  

 Straight from www.wip..net  is a story needing to be heard, because like I just explained, without knowing about this stuff, how will it ever change?
 
Jasmine, a 16 year-old young woman with a four month old baby explains the process of incorporating girls into armed groups in the DRC. In a testimony to Amnesty International she declared, “When the mayi-mayi (community-based militia groups in the DRC) attacked my village, we all ran away. In our flight, the soldiers captured all the girls, even the very young. Once with the soldiers, you were forced to marry one of the soldiers. Whether he was as old as your father or young, bad or nice, you had to accept. If you refused, they would kill you. This happened to one of my friends. They would slaughter people like chickens. They wouldn’t even bury the bodies they slaughtered – they would even feed on their flesh. I even saw a girl who refused to be ‘married’ being tortured.” READ MORE

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