NationStates Jolt Archive

From allAfrica.com (http://allafrica.com/stories/200712150002.html):

Congo-Kinshasa: UN Mission Says Recruitment of Child Soldiers is Surging

UN News Service (New York)
14 December 2007
Posted to the web 15 December 2007

Hundreds of under-age boys and girls are being forcibly recruited by rival armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and sent to the front lines of the escalating conflict in North Kivu province in the far east of the country, the UN mission reported today.

The mission, known as MONUC, has identified the Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP), the group led by the renegade General Laurent Nkunda, and the Front Démocratique de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR) as the two main groups responsible for the forced recruitment of children into armed conflict.

The groups deliberately canvass sites such as schools, camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and other venues to recruit children, leading to the closure of several schools and the noticeable absence of young children among many communities in the volatile province. Families which try to resist the recruitment often face retaliation.

Many of the estimated 8,500 former child soldiers who have been rescued by the UN and other humanitarian organizations since 2004 have been re-recruited in the last few months or used as sex slaves, according to the mission.

MONUC pledged in a press statement released today in Kinshasa to redouble its efforts to protect children and prevent their forced recruitment into the armed groups, and it issued a call to those groups to immediately end the practice.

The warning comes amid mounting UN concern about the overall humanitarian situation inside North Kivu, where tens of thousands of people are on the move again after some of the worst fighting since the DRC civil war formally ended in 2003.

An estimated 800,000 Congolese are now internally displaced within North Kivu, including 170,000 who have been forced to flee in only the past four months since fighting escalated between Government forces (known as FARDC), troops loyal to Gen. Nkunda and rebel groups such as the FDLR.

The security situation is so difficult that UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) teams and other relief workers are unable to reach many areas of North Kivu, which borders Rwanda and Uganda. More than 4,500 MONUC troops have been deployed to help ensure the defence of Goma, the capital, and the key town of Saké.

In a related development, UNHCR António Guterres was today in the national capital, Kinshasa, to meet with senior Government officials at the start of a five-day visit to assess the deteriorating situation in North Kivu and nearby areas.

If anyone deserves peace, it's the people of the DRC. :(

And in Chad. (http://allafrica.com/stories/200712140895.html)

Damn. The conflict and suffering must just seem endless to people in the DRC.

And for the most part, Western media are uninterested. How many people in the West have even heard of North Kivu?

Damn. The conflict and suffering must just seem endless to people in the DRC.

And for the most part, Western media are uninterested. How many people in the West have even heard of North Kivu?

Precious few.

That sounds sad, but i suppose at least they don't have annoying celebrities, and i bet they haven't even heard of the "glasgow kiss" basically you say hello then headbutt them on the head..

Bump

Oh well...

Oh well...

Do you ever post anything in international news threads other than "Oh well" or "Why is this newsworthy?" or "This is happening in a country I know nothing about so I don't care"?

That sucks. I guess their war isn't settled after all.

Do you ever post anything in international news threads other than "Oh well" or "Why is this newsworthy?" or "This is happening in a country I know nothing about so I don't care"?
Yes, I do.

On the other hand, there's very little to discuss about this, and also very, very little that one can actually do to sort the situation out.

There are child soldiers being used in what is essentially a civil war. I think we can all agree that this is a bad thing. On the other hand, in the last 20 years, there haven't been many wars in Africa which haven't involved child soldiers, so it's not exactly a new phenomenon, nor is it really something that the UN can do much to stop.

Damn. The conflict and suffering must just seem endless to people in the DRC.

And for the most part, Western media are uninterested. How many people in the West have even heard of North Kivu?

It's covered quite a lot here, but that probably has to do with Congo being an ex colony of Belgium.

It's covered quite a lot here, but that probably has to do with Congo being an ex colony of Belgium.
Not at all. It's to do with a rogue Rwandan general who's been holding out for the last 10 or so years. He's pretty well dug in, well armed, as you might imagine, and has quite a degree of support with the local population, which is why the DRC's army hasn't taken care of him yet.

Not at all. It's to do with a rogue Rwandan general who's been holding out for the last 10 or so years. He's pretty well dug in, well armed, as you might imagine, and has quite a degree of support with the local population, which is why the DRC's army hasn't taken care of him yet.

I know, but I meant that it was probably well reported because congo used to be a colony, and my country still has strong ties with it.

I know, but I meant that it was probably well reported because congo used to be a colony, and my country still has strong ties with it.
Oooooh OK, sorry. Heard about it a couple of times on Euronews and once on BBC News 24 myself.

First I've heard of it. Australia's press is usually pretty good about overseas events, but I think they've given up on Congo as a bad deal.

No one gives a fuck about Africa. AIDS epidemic? Awww, that's too bad. Civil war, genocide, blood diamonds? Interesting for an hour or so on the silver screen but Paris Hilton is much more newsworthy.

No one gives a fuck about Africa. AIDS epidemic? Awww, that's too bad. Civil war, genocide, blood diamonds? Interesting for an hour or so on the silver screen but Paris Hilton is much more newsworthy.

Pretty much, sad but true. For the most part, the major media only gives a shit about ratings. And bubble-headed brats like Paris give them higher ratings than the stories that really need to be told. Why people care more about that bitch than about a people who have suffered worse than almost any other people in the world is beyond me.

How the fuck do they get kids to fight? Do they tell them it's 'bullet tag'? Hide and go Seek and Destroy?

:confused:

How the fuck do they get kids to fight? Do they tell them it's 'bullet tag'? Hide and go Seek and Destroy?

:confused:

They force them at gun-point. Those who refuse are killed (or worse).

Pretty much, sad but true. For the most part, the major media only gives a shit about ratings. And bubble-headed brats like Paris give them higher ratings than the stories that really need to be told. Why people care more about that bitch than about a people who have suffered worse than almost any other people in the world is beyond me.

Degree of seperation. Africa is too far away, and too easy to forget about. It is also so out of the range of what your average North American can understand, that it probably doesn't seem real to most people...myself included sometimes. There is also this general feeling of hopelessness when it comes to Africa. What can we do? I mean...really? So people hunker down and flip through their cable channels.

Degree of seperation. Africa is too far away, and too easy to forget about. It is also so out of the range of what your average North American can understand, that it probably doesn't seem real to most people...myself included sometimes. There is also this general feeling of hopelessness when it comes to Africa. What can we do? I mean...really? So people hunker down and flip through their cable channels.

Good point.

How the fuck do they get kids to fight? Do they tell them it's 'bullet tag'? Hide and go Seek and Destroy?

:confused:

Hop them up on drugs, teach them to hate their family, sometimes they force them to kill their families. In Sierra Leone, they call it 'heating the hearts' of the children, teaching them to be warlike by threatening them, AND offering them sanctuary. Like the worst form of gang imaginable.

Pretty much, sad but true. For the most part, the major media only gives a shit about ratings. And bubble-headed brats like Paris give them higher ratings than the stories that really need to be told. Why people care more about that bitch than about a people who have suffered worse than almost any other people in the world is beyond me.Because seeing Paris makes them feel self-righteous and seeing starving children makes them feel guilty. People love feeling self-righteous and hate feeling guilty.

Hop them up on drugs, teach them to hate their family, sometimes they force them to kill their families. In Sierra Leone, they call it 'heating the hearts' of the children, teaching them to be warlike by threatening them, AND offering them sanctuary. Like the worst form of gang imaginable.

Yup. Or in other cases, children orphaned by the war join because they are lured by the chance to avenge their families, or because the group they join offers a surrogate family (albeit a brutal one).

How the fuck do they get kids to fight? Do they tell them it's 'bullet tag'? Hide and go Seek and Destroy?

:confused:
From British experiences in Sierra Leone, it's mostly due to drugs, or threats against their family.

You also have to keep in mind that most child soldiers are about fifteen or older, it just makes the situation sound a lot more newsworthy if it's 'child soldiers' fighting. If you can somehow squeeze in one given example of someone about 10, that makes things even better.

Hop them up on drugs, teach them to hate their family, sometimes they force them to kill their families. In Sierra Leone, they call it 'heating the hearts' of the children, teaching them to be warlike by threatening them, AND offering them sanctuary. Like the worst form of gang imaginable.

I don't approve. :mad:

I don't approve. :mad:
I don't think that anyone does, it's just that when civil wars get into their 10th or so year, people start to simply not care about who fights any more. A shame, really.

It's funny, you'd think we'd be closer to the problem (being closer physically to Africa, just across the Indian Ocean), but Australia is the same as the US in this regard.

Then again, apparently so is Europe, and they are closer still.