Military Aid and Child Soldiers

Jeffrey (Not his real name)

About three years ago, I was doing an interview with a lady for Grassroots Uganda - an NGO I was setting up at the time.  Half way through the interview, a young man - all of seventeen years old - came up to me, gently shook my hand, shyly introduced himself, and then walked away.

That young man was Jeffrey.  I got to learn more about Jeffrey over the coming weeks.  Jeffrey had spent seven years as a child soldier with the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army).  You can read about Jeffrey's tale of hope and death in a blog article I wrote way back in 2007.

A lot of child soldiers who escape the clutches of their captives end up as armed bandits or in other violent occupations.  All the know is violence, so all they do is violence.

Not so Jeffrey.  Jeffrey was busting rocks in a quarry with a rented (!) hammer.  All he wanted was an education, which he is now getting thanks to a generous sponsor in the States.

In 2007, the U.S. governed passed the noble Child Soldier Prevention Act which was designed to limit U.S. military aid to governments who use child soldiers.  On October 25 2010, President Obama waived the bill in respect to Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Yemen.  All four of those governments are known for their use of child soldiers.

There is some rhetoric bouncing around the White House along the lines of "national interest" and "reassessing our posture towards the governments" that are suppose to justify their actions.

As Tim Shadbolt once said: It's all bullshit and jellybeans as fas as I can see.

The bottom line for me is that the States is providing military aid to groups who use child soldiers.  That's a despicable act.

I think the world would be better off if people like Jeffrey were in charge.