IRIN focus on children with an uncertain future

Now that the disarmament of ex-fighters is underway in the heart of Revolutionary United Front (RUF) territory in eastern Sierra Leone, there is hope that more children forced into service with the anti-government group will finally regain their freedom. The children face an uncertain future, especially the girls. In fact, getting the RUF to give them up is no easy matter. “Negotiating the release of girls is a lot harder than boys,” Chris Robertson, who heads Save the Children Fund (SCF) in Sierra Leone, told IRIN in Freetown. Child exploitation RUF commanders have been using abducted girls as domestics and “wives”, even though the fighting has stopped. On the other hand, boy fighters are of little value now because they performed largely combat roles. Robertson said just 10 to 15 of the 591 abducted children released recently by the RUF in Makeni and Port Loko, north of Freetown, were girls. Sometimes RUF commanders form “strong” bonds with their female captives, telling child protection agents that they want to marry them. The girls, on the other hand, sometimes have a strong attachment to their children, rather than to the commanders. “The majority of girls want to go back to their parents,” Robertson said. However, another aid worker told IRIN, “families don’t want a rebel child”. Whether or not they were forced into service with the RUF appears to be immaterial to many adults. Children served as labourers and spies for the RUF. They were also the ‘shock troops’ who perpetrated many atrocities, sometimes against their own relatives. Many have been traumatised by these experiences and fear rejection by their families. However, UNICEF says help is available. Handicap International has been providing care for children with psychological problems under a programme started in 1996. UNICEF says it is working on the estimate that 5,400 children will need such help. So far, girls make up 10 percent of the 3,000 children who have completed treatment. After the children are released from captivity, child protection agencies try to trace their families, a difficult operation because much of the population is shifting constantly. In addition, some children or their parents many only have vague recollections of each other and when a child-parent match is made, aid agencies talk to both parties to see if there can be mutual acceptance. Family reunification It is only after this that reunification is possible. SCF says a child protection agency would usually conduct follow-up visits to assess the success of the reunification. Problems at this stage arise when former child combatants refuse to accept parental discipline. Those in interim care centres get help in adjusting their behaviour, through activities such as sports and drama that correspond to their age. Those whose parents cannot be traced are placed in foster homes. Group homes cater to children aged 15-16, who are often too old to accept parental discipline. How these children will act as adults depends much on the support they get from society and national socio-economic recovery, Robertson said. Aid agencies preferred to give direct support to the community rather than the former child fighters because that prevents resentment while allowing the community to recover, Robertson added. Government psychiatrist Edward Nahim told IRIN in Freetown that over 80 percent of the RUF fighters he treated were on heroine and cocaine. Commanders, he said, often injected their fighters with these drugs before operations so as to make them fearless and submissive to commands. Under such influence, he said, many committed war crimes and, as a result, now suffer post-traumatic stress disorders. Psychiatric problems The care Nahim provides includes detoxifying the addicts, administering tranquilizers to enable them to sleep, and treating skin disorders, worms, sexually transmitted diseases and anaemia. He also treats psychiatric patients and provides social counseling. “Many present their problems - war scenes - in song or drawings,” he added. The children steal from each other, remain violent for long periods and often resort to violence in solving their disputes. Many remain on drugs even in care centres but after six months of rehabilitation they are released into the community where aid agencies teach them tailoring, carpentry and auto mechanics and other skills so they can become independent. “They did very well until rebels came into Freetown when many rejoined RUF” in 1998, Nahim said. The RUF Party chairman for Kailahun District, Eric Senesi, told IRIN they took up arms because of political instability, economic degradation and social malpractices. If these and other conditions that encouraged young men and women to take up arms against the government do not change, observers said, Sierra Leone could return to its bleak past. “Some who have committed crimes and think about what has happened, can become the strongest advocates for making sure it doesn’t happen again,” Robertson said, “but if there is no economic development some might fall back onto what they knew.”