IRIN Web Special on child soldiers

Francois Bivugire, 16, was on his way home from school when his own cousins abducted him. Within minutes the sixth-year primary school pupil had become a rebel recruit trudging through the bush alongside other frightened conscripts from his village in central Burundi.

They went through much hardship as they received military training in Kibira Forest in the west of the country, but what remains imprinted most strongly in his mind is having to spend two months without a shower and without seeing or feeling the heat of the sun, hidden by the thick canopy of the forest. "We were shivering the whole night and day as the sun could not pass through," Francois told IRIN.

The lack of sunlight also left him with a skin disease from which he was still suffering months after he left the rebel group.

Francois said he was never happy with the rebels. "From the start, I knew I had to run away, because I could not stand killing or looting people's property," he said.

He escaped two months after his abduction, but only spent one week at home before he was forced back into the rebel ranks. This time, they threatened to kill him if he ever tried to desert again, but that did not deter him and in July, he slipped away again as the rebels prepared to attack the capital, Bujumbura.

Now Francois dreams only of going back to school. However, going back home is out of the question, he says, because the last thing he wants is to be abducted again. In the meantime, he gets help from an NGO that normally assists street children.

Thousands of children face an uncertain future after serving in Burundi's armed groups. Some were forced to join up. Others volunteered because they felt they had no choice. Francois is one of many who signed up for rehabilitation. A number of others are still with the rebel factions or the government army.

UNICEF has provided money and technical aid to the Ministry of Human Rights to help it restore to these children their right to life, liberty, happiness and education. Various organisations and the Burundi government are working to demobilise and reintegrate the children into their families and communities, and thus increase their chances of leading normal lives.

The government has set up a three-part demobilisation programme targeting children in the regular army, pro-government militias called 'Youth Peacekeepers', and rebel factions that have signed peace agreements with it.

Burundi had two rebel groups: the Forces Nationales de liberation (FNL) and the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie - Force pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD). Each split in two. Three of the four factions have signed agreements with the government, while the fourth has not yet done so.

As a first step towards the implementation of the demobilisation programme, all military units and administration officials in the country's 17 provinces have had to count the child soldiers under their command.

UNICEF Information Officer Sara Johansson told IRIN in September that about 1,000 child soldiers were thought to be serving in the regular army, 1,500 in the pro-government youth militia and 500 in the rebel movements.

Desiree Gatoto, in charge of the demobilisation programme at the Ministry of Human Rights, said the figures were preliminary estimates because officials overseeing the census might have had reasons to conceal the exact number of child soldiers in their units or were not sufficiently informed of the importance of these numbers. Moreover, the census did not include children serving in the two rebel factions that are still active at the time, one of which later signed a peace agreement with the government.

In a report on human rights in Burundi in 2002, Iteka - a local rights group - said that, based on figures from the Ministry of Social Action and the Promotion of Women, the various belligerents had recruited 9,000 children all told.

Johansson said the exact number of child soldiers would only be available when the demobilisation programme was implemented.

While some of the children were press-ganged into armed groups, some 'volunteered' to become soldiers because they saw military life as the only way out of poverty, according to military officials. The head of the army's demobilisation programme, Col Gédeon Karibwami, told IRIN that most of the children with the army were not in combat units. He said they had gone to nearby military positions in search of food or clothes and had simply stayed on. These children were more often used for domestic chores and as porters.

However, such work did not exempt them from injuries, psychological trauma or other dangers of war, which was why they needed to be properly demobilized, according to Karibwami. He said other children - mostly school dropouts - enlisted in the army by forging their ages so they could support themselves and their families, but their physical stature betrayed their youthfulness.

One of the major components of the demobilisation programme is rehabilitating the children, returning them home, and supporting both child and family. Johansson said the nature of the support to the household would depend on the needs of each family. According to Gatoto, it could take the form of school material for all children in the family, food, clothes, access to health care and counseling. She said families identified to take care of demobilised orphans would receive different kinds of support.

The demobilisation programme also proposes alternatives for the former child soldiers: formal schooling, professional training or informal training in their communities.

It provides for special attention for children who are living with HIV, suffer from psychologically trauma or are handicapped. Sensitising the community to ensure that such children are not segregated is a major focus. Other forms of support include medical care and counseling. The programme will work with other national institutions such as the National Council for AIDS control (CNLS) to ensure that children continue to get support after the project ends.

However, organisers say the demobilization effort cannot become effective if the community is not made sufficiently aware of the need to welcome the children. The programme has identified partner NGOs and church groups that will help sensitise communities and make sure the children are rehabilitated.

So far, a number of "focal points" have been trained. These are people who will help in the demobilisation of the children. The training lasted two weeks and focused on all aspects of the child soldier phenomenon. A plan of action was also developed, and the focal points have started implementing it.

So far, they have begun verifying existing lists of child soldiers, coordinating family training and preparing families for the reunification and reintegration of their children.

Nevertheless, even if all the child soldiers were demobilised, others would likely be recruited so long as the war continues. The prevention component of the demobilization programme, therefore, seeks to alert the public to the harm done by using children for war. This effort targets communities, civil society, the army and rebel high commands, and the government. Another thrust of the prevention programme is advocacy aimed at getting all parties to the conflict to abide by international conventions.

Burundi has ratified an African Charter that bans the use of children under the age of 18 years as soldiers.

The director general of the Ministry of Human Rights, Jenje Emmanuel, told IRIN Burundi had also ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, but had not yet signed the optional protocol banning participation of children under 18 in armed conflict. He said the text had been submitted to the National Assembly for approval during the current session, which ends in December.

[ENDS]

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