FEATURE: THE IMPACT OF VIOLENT CONFLICT ON CHILDREN: ESPECIALLY CHILD REFUGEES

By Dollin Holt

Tragically, children are at the receiving end of the world’s violent conflicts. They are increasingly becoming victims. The on-going Iraqi/Syrian/Yemeni conflicts may clearly exemplify this claim. Almost daily in the news media, we see heart rendering videos/photos of children who drown at sea as they flee from violent conflict, we see children caught in crossfires and are gravely wounded, and are carried away in ambulances. We see children whose lifeless bodies are cradled by weeping parents. We are also shown traumatised children in refugee camps who are unable to come to terms with their displacement, and experiences of conflict. These images speak glaringly of what happens to children in the midst of war. And there may be deeper consequences.

My aim, in this piece, is to highlight what some of the dangers or consequences are, arguing that children, mostly refugee children, who have experienced or are experiencing violent conflict are very likely to be adversely affected, socially and psychologically. This may also apply to children who perpetrated atrocities in the duration of violent conflict, like child soldiers. In concluding, I will call for a paradigm shift on how this issue is conceptualised and dealt with.

My viewpoint hinges largely, if not entirely, on a report commissioned by the United Nations under the headship of Graca Machel, in 1996. Sadly, the findings in that report strongly resonate today. The report was instigated by a concern that not much is done to protect children from the dangers of violent conflict; and its after effects. In other words, there is a lack of concerted effort on the part of the international community to act. The report was based on field visits made to a number of countries in the midst of, or emerging out of conflict, in Asia, the Pacific, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East; where children directly affected, family members and health officials were interviewed. According to Machel, it provided an opportunity to learn about not just the brutality of conflict, and how children are affected by it, but also, the destructive elements at work, that prolong it or trigger new ones. 

Violent Conflict and the Experiences of Children: Historical Context

From the 20^th century onwards, the world has witnessed the most violent  conflicts (in human history) in which children have become both victims and perpetrators. Violent conflicts, whether as war between nations or between armed groups, or between states and terrorist groups, gang warfare, including movement of large numbers of people displaced from their homes, all occur on a daily basis across the world, and affects the lives of children. Close to 191 million people have died or continue to die directly or indirectly from conflict and over half of these were civilians; most of whom are children. Most violent conflicts now occur between government-backed military forces and heavily armed insurgents contesting territorial control or between hostile forces and armed civilians in same neighbourhoods and towns, thus the distinction between armed combatants and innocent civilians can become blurred, with adverse consequences for children who are often caught in the middle. In the contest for territories, combatants, according to research, use indiscriminate violence in areas outside their control, but tend to use selective force in areas where they have partial control. Thus the civilian casualty in the former which often involves children can be very high.  In 1992 alone, 500,000 children under five years of age died from conflict. In some cases, children are deliberately targeted. In the Chechnyan war of 1990s, 40% of the civilian casualties were children. According to the accounts of the International Red Cross, quoted in the Machel Report, they were ‘systematically executed with a bullet through the temple.’ The report states further that almost one in every four children in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina conflict were casualties of the Bosnian crisis.

The highest rate of conflict-related deaths which is 32.0 per 100,000 happened in Africa. Besides the thousands who lost their lives yearly in violent conflicts, there are a huge number of others who suffer from physical injuries including those who are permanently disabled or mutilated. Most of these are children. Rape and torture are used to terrorise and humiliate communities. The exact number of children who are victims of rape and torture are hard to determine as most people prefer to conceal the trauma suffered. Besides, parties to conflicts often hide evidence of torture and rape. Children are not just victims of violent conflicts, but are in most cases witnesses of atrocities, or are themselves perpetrators of violence, as coerced child-soldiers.

The involvement of child-soldiers is a worrying trend in the changing dynamics of conflicts. The 1996 report describes it as ‘one of the most alarming trends in armed conflict.’ Child soldiers, as the report states, are favoured because they are more obedient, do not question orders, are easier to manipulate than adult soldiers, and do not demand pay. The involvement of children in armed conflict has been helped, arguably, by modern technology as heavy and complicated weapons are replaced with lighter and easily operable ones. Throughout history, children have been involved in conflicts, serving in non-combat roles as cooks, porters, messengers and spies. But this has changed. They are increasingly being recruited into armed combat in defiance of International instruments that prohibits this practice. Government and opposition forces are both implicated, but often deny involvement. The 1989 convention on the Rights of the Child clearly states that childhood is below the age of 18 years, although this has been watered down. The minimum age for voluntary or compulsory recruitment is now 15 years. However, children under 15 years of age, according to the report, are serving in at least 25 war zones amongst government or opposition forces. As the report states further, close to 200,000 children under the ages of 10 were involved in armed violence in Liberia, Sri Lanka and other conflict zones around the world.

In Guatamela, Sudan and Ethiopia there are known cases of children below the ages of 12 that were rounded up or removed from homes, churches, streets and from schools at gun point for recruitment into conflicts. The report states also that children are deliberately brutalised to harden them for violent conflict. In some cases ‘they are forced to commit atrocities against members of their own families.’ In Sierra Leone for example, children proceeded to neighbouring towns to slaughter people, having dealt same atrocities to family members and neighbours. There were cases of children given drugs to dull their sensitivity to pain. The report also states that some children become soldiers in order to survive. Deprived of food and other basic amenities, children are forced into the battlefield. Parents in some cases come to depend on money paid to their child soldiers.

The problems faced by female children, including those recruited for combat, can be worse. In terms of gender difference, the Machel report revealed that girls, including those recruited into conflict, are affected in different ways from boys. They may become sex slaves and victims of multiple rapes. In Uganda for instance, abducted young girls were shared and allocated to soldiers as ‘wives’. This, according to the report, epitomises the experiences of female children in most war zones.      

           

How are children affected or changed by their experiences of violent conflict?

According to World Health organisation report, children are among the groups most vulnerable to diseases and death resulting from conflicts. The impact on children’s health can be very serious in terms of mortality, morbidity and disability. Moreover, there can be a number of psychological and behavioural problems, including depression and anxiety, suicidal behaviour, alcohol abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder. For those directly involved in violent conflict, according to the report, the psychosocial effects can be devastating and may haunt them through life, particularly when they are attacked by those they have considered as neighbours and friends; and trusted.

Demobilised children are far more psychosocially affected and may experience difficulties reintegrating into society after peace settlement. Having been physically and sexually abused by members of their own forces, having seen their loved ones tortured and murdered, sometimes in the most gruesome manner, and having themselves been forced into perpetrating murder, rape, torture, they may suffer some of the conditions mentioned earlier, including the lack of social skills for cohabitating in peace times. Moreover, they may become accustomed to getting their way through violence and crime. They may well become the instigators of future conflicts having known nothing else than violence.

Conclusion

In concluding, the writer calls for a paradigm shift on how this issue is conceptualised and dealt with. A concerted effort on the part of the international community, including governmental and non governmental organizations, other interest groups and the media to intervene vigorously is now more needed than ever before as children becoming increasingly affected.. Where there are observed cases of abuses of children, the above mentioned must condemn the impunity of those who exploit or take advantage of children. The international media can be sensitised to take this campaign more seriously. Moreover, in our age of technology, the deployment of the resources of the internet can be mobilised to generate awareness and bring an end to this practice. The future of children affected by conflict is lamentably in jeopardy.

The Child Rights Act with its many provisions seeking to protect children from all abuses is, like most international instruments, a rhetoric gesture. The international community must begin to demonstrate that it is committed to the subject of child rights by implementing the Child Right Act, and by establishing the necessary conditions for abolishing the murder, torture, rape of innocent children facing violent conflict, including the exploitation of children as child soldiers.

Children affected by violent conflict whether as victims of brutal acts or as child soldiers require urgent intervention in health and education for rehabilitation and general safety. Their human rights are violated along with being adversely affected by violent conflict. Societies that degrade children in this manner suffer enormous loss potentially; considering the reduction in their capacity to compete in the future. There are also the social consequences in terms of peace and stability, productivity, health and crime. 

Source: Graca Machel UN 1996 Report

Dollin Holt is a writer, essayist, poet, development and humanitarian consultant and Founder/Director of Caprecon Development Foundation. He can be reached on dollinholt@aol.com and Holt.dollin@gmail.com