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Africa: East
Somali War Children Explore Life Without Guns
2003-10-09
It’s an insult to ask Somali teen-ager Mohammed Ali whether he can use a gun. "What are you talking about! Ask me instead how many people I have killed!" he replies.
Mother must be so proud...
His reaction reveals something of the enormous challenge facing teachers trying to wean Somalia’s child warriors away from weapons. Ali, 16, is enrolled in a U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) course to rehabilitate some of the many children used as killers, thieves and kidnappers by turbulent militia barons. For children raised to think bad behavior means refusing to kill or rape, sitting still in class is no ordinary challenge. But six weeks into the six-month program, teachers are noticing the kind of improvements that might be familiar to their counterparts in successful inner city schools in rich countries. "They were awful in the first two weeks of the course," said teacher Fatuma Aden Oble. "They would smoke in class, steal the books and pens, sometimes they would fight each other. We would threaten to expel them or withdraw their transport allowance."

Gradually, her turbulent charges settled down. "They changed the way they dress, the hair became tidier," she said. "Now they do not feel comfortable smoking in front of me. The boys began to show an interest in practical things like electrics and mechanics. We counseled the girls on rape." The bubbly inmates of her classroom have begun to focus on her lessons about handling conflict, one of which is: Do not react angrily in a crisis or "things will explode."

The youths are among 180 children drawn mainly from militia checkpoints around southern Somalia being trained by UNICEF experts in Mogadishu, Kismayo and Merca. Teachers recruit them from the checkpoints by using go-betweens to conduct tricky negotiations for their release with militia commanders: A typical requirement is that the child leave his gun behind at the barricade for others to use. The children are motivated by a desire to change their lives and in some cases by incentives in the form of an allowance that covers their travel to and from the downtown school. Some graduates from a previous course are running small businesses and the hope is that the current intake follows suit.
Instead of holding them up...
But there are 60,000 militiamen in Mogadishu and thousands elsewhere in the country, which has been without a government since former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991. "It’s a drop in the ocean," UNICEF child protection officer Abdullahi Eyow said of the program. Experts say the course has importance as a demonstration to donors of what can be done by patient, expert teachers to erode the grip of militia "glamour" on young minds. "The militia becomes like a family for the children," said Eyow. "Until you take them out of that environment they do not realize what they have done." Many parents struggling with basic survival either tolerate or encourage their children to join militias since it is often the only way of making a living. The results are disastrous. "These children have committed horrendous crimes. Going back to the community will be very difficult and so we have outreach workers who will help them with that," Eyow said.

Ali stood on a checkpoint for a warlord called Osman Ato, working the barrier and helping loot the corpses of passengers killed when his comrades shot at vehicles that failed to stop. "The older boys were my heroes. They were brave. I wanted to be like them," he said. "Now I know I learned no good thing in the militia. Only stealing." Ali, who looks more like an 11-year-old, says that in fact he only ever killed once, by mistake. It was a friend, aged 20. "We were playing with our guns and one went off. I was shocked. I threw the gun down and ran away. But I was caught and the Islamic court jailed me for a month. I was whipped."

Nassero Abdi Jama used to cook and clean for a militia run by a warlord called Muse Sudi in another part of the city. Now a demure 17 and planning to become a secretary, she says that at the time she saw her comrades’ atrocities as normal. "I liked them. I felt they were good and brave and ours was the best (militia) team in the country," she said. "They did not interfere with me (sexually) because I was from the same clan. But they would rape girls from other clans and I thought that was normal. I thought it was what they were supposed to do." Abdi Jama also acted as a look-out, spying on cars traveling on the approach roads to her militia’s checkpoint and informing the gunmen which ones looked worth robbing. "I saw people dying when our checkpoint shot at their cars. I thought it was normal. I thought it was good."
Somehow the picture of her own blood on the ground, her own eyes glazing over, her own breath of life turning to frothy red bubbles didn't occur to her. That's why they call them children.
Posted by:Superhose

#2  crickets chirping

Awful quiet about the Somalia children shooting and raping, but you spank a Canadien kids and the comment board lights up. Jesse Jackson will have something to say about this.
Posted by: Super Hose   2003-10-9 4:42:03 PM  

#1  The editor locked up. Meant to made the following observations:

The kids version of "normal" in Somalia would surprise many Americans - if they cared to pay attention. Was our total withdrawal in the face of resistence in our own or the Somali's best interests. The soldiers from the task force that got bloddied seemed to think otherwise.

Unicef is negotiating for the release of a 16 year old gunman, but they leave the AK-47 with the militia so that a 12 year old can be conscripted to replace the 16 year old.

Is training the 16 year old not to defend himself a healthy solution in a society that resembles the Old West?

Note - I am not against what Unicef is doing. I agree that somebody needs to do something. Isn't that what we said more than a decade ago.
Posted by: Superhose   2003-10-9 12:47:24 PM  

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