Stories about children kidnapped or
forcibly recruited by guerrilla groups came back into focus in 2006 when
the Colombian government released a video confiscated during an army
raid. The video showed squads of young kids being trained as guerrilla
warriors in the middle of the jungle.
A recent study suggests that in the years after the video was
released, armed groups, including paramilitaries, guerrillas and drug
cartels, have not only continued recruiting children, but have increased
the number of minors in their ranks in a dramatic way.
The study called "Like Lambs Among Wolves" was authored by Natalia Springer, the dean of the law school at Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano in Bogota, Colombia.
Springer, who's also a political analyst and a
human rights activist, has found that in the last four years, 18,000
children have been forced to join guerrilla groups and paramilitaries in
Colombia.
According to Springer, some of the minors taken away by armed groups are kidnapped, but others, especially those who live in remote, marginalized, and impoverished areas of Colombia, are lured by the prospect of food and shelter.
The findings of her study are chilling. Springer says she found 69
percent of those captured are 14 years of age or younger, some as young
as eight. Ninety-eight percent reported they were abused or witnessed
atrocities.
Springer also says that guerrilla groups recruit children to do
"their dirty work" which includes extremely dangerous activities in
which their lives are constantly at risk. "They're installing land
mines, they're transporting explosives, they're kidnapping, they're
involved in all of the activities that the adults are doing," Springer
said.
- Springer says her team noticed what she calls an alarming new trend. Whereas in the past the vast majority of the children captured by the armed groups were boys, the percentage of kidnapped girls has dramatically increased to 43 percent. In addition to combat activities, Springer says these girls are subjected to sexual servitude.
- "For them it's a duty to sexually serve their commanders so by serving their commanders they identify a number of activities that for them were humiliating and difficult to accept," Springer said.
- The Colombian government does not dispute that children are being recruited in large numbers, but questions the study's statistics.
- Diego Molano Aponte, who's in charge of the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare, says he shares Springer's concern about the situation, but believes some data gathered for the study may be inaccurate.
- "We, the government, have some doubts regarding the total number of 18,000 kids. We believe that their sources should be double-checked, because the statistic should be less than that. But in any case, it's continues to be a problem," Molano said.
- Springer notes most of the children recruited are essentially illiterate - and indigenous Colombians are especially vulnerable. Among those who get recruited by the violent, armed groups, extreme poverty is the common denominator.
Sara Morales, the survivor, says she often thinks about the children
who didn't make it. "We were a group of 300 children and only 12 of us
were lucky enough to survive. We were 300 children who were subjected to
all kinds of abuses by the guerrilla," Morales said.
The rest, Morales says, succumbed to disease or died in combat. Many others were forever silenced by land mines or their own commanders.
Source: CNN
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