Why Are Child Soldiers Should Not Take The Risk?
Do Not Take The Risk
For most people in America, the idea of war is far off, something experienced from a far. However, in many other countries across the world, war is an everyday life. Thousands of children from places like the Central African Republic, Chad, Somalia, Uganda, Myanmar, Sudan, Iraq, Colombia and Sri Lanka, fight in armies and battle every day. For them, killing is all they know. People have witnessed parents, siblings, and friends be gunned down by young, violent adolescents who were trained to devastate. Now that some of these age old wars are ending, the question of what to do with the many child combatants is becoming a hot debate. Despite some people believing otherwise, former child soldiers should not be given amnesty because the lives they go back to are not good, amnesty …show more content…
Without consequences to the soldiers’ actions, their commanders are free to give them any orders, knowing that the children will still be let free. In an article found on the website IRIN, it was said that “If minor children who have committed serious war crimes are not prosecuted, [it] could be an incentive for their commanders to delegate to them the dirtiest orders, aiming at impunity" ("Should child soldiers be prosecuted for their crimes?"). This means that the leaders will focus on what children are allowed to do without punishment, and specifically take these terrible acts to their extreme, knowing that it will not even matter. The article, “Sierra Leone: Child Soldiers”, specifically describes the orders children are given, before and after. Orders began with looting and stealing, but as more children were given amnesty, they progressed to raping women, performing executions, and even cannibalism(Wessels). Who knows what commanders will direct next. This is extremely dangerous, and the only solution is that former child soldiers cannot be given
For most people in America, the idea of war is far off, something experienced from a far. However, in many other countries across the world, war is an everyday life. Thousands of children from places like the Central African Republic, Chad, Somalia, Uganda, Myanmar, Sudan, Iraq, Colombia and Sri Lanka, fight in armies and battle every day. For them, killing is all they know. People have witnessed parents, siblings, and friends be gunned down by young, violent adolescents who were trained to devastate. Now that some of these age old wars are ending, the question of what to do with the many child combatants is becoming a hot debate. Despite some people believing otherwise, former child soldiers should not be given amnesty because the lives they go back to are not good, amnesty …show more content…
Without consequences to the soldiers’ actions, their commanders are free to give them any orders, knowing that the children will still be let free. In an article found on the website IRIN, it was said that “If minor children who have committed serious war crimes are not prosecuted, [it] could be an incentive for their commanders to delegate to them the dirtiest orders, aiming at impunity" ("Should child soldiers be prosecuted for their crimes?"). This means that the leaders will focus on what children are allowed to do without punishment, and specifically take these terrible acts to their extreme, knowing that it will not even matter. The article, “Sierra Leone: Child Soldiers”, specifically describes the orders children are given, before and after. Orders began with looting and stealing, but as more children were given amnesty, they progressed to raping women, performing executions, and even cannibalism(Wessels). Who knows what commanders will direct next. This is extremely dangerous, and the only solution is that former child soldiers cannot be given