On February 22, 2004, the leader of All Nepal National Independent Students’ Union - Revolutionary (ANNISU-R), the Maoists’ students wing, Kamal Shahi, stated that a decision had been taken in their January 10-11 party annual meeting to raise a children’s militia of 50,000 by April-May 2004. According to a report released by Child Workers in Nepal Concern Centre (CWIN), two-dozen children have died in the past six months of conflict in the country and around 950 children were abducted by the Maoist insurgents and taken to their various training camps. Since the collapse of the cease-fire between the Nepal Government and insurgents in August 2003, the country has been witnessing an increased frequency of abductions by the Maoists, of young school students along with their teachers, for ideological indoctrination and military training of the children in the conflict-wracked Kingdom. Some reports indicate that over 30 per cent of the Maoist militia and army comprises children below 18 years of age. Most tragically, they have been used as cannon fodder and human shields in engagements with the state’s Forces.
| Yas, get 'em before they're twelve and they're ours for life. |
The intensified conflict between the Maoists and the Government’s Forces has resulted in large numbers of child soldiers being trained in camps in the Maoist strongholds in mid-Western Nepal. Reports suggest that the abducted students have been inducted into the Special Peoples’ Military Campaign, which is being implemented in the Maoists ’model districts’ of Jumla and Jajarkot in the mid-Western region, where the state’s power and presence is almost non-existent.
The training for child soldiers comprises three phases, which are conducted in ’base’, ’model’ and ’special’ areas controlled by the Maoists. After selecting the target school in their stronghold areas, the Maoists first encircle the school after the students have gathered in large numbers. Generally, the Maoists invite ’volunteers’ to their training camps, and then select students aged between 12 and 15. Ordinarily, these students are initially abducted for the Maoists’ political meetings, annual conferences or any other special occasions, such as the announcement of the formation of an autonomous region or of a ’People’s Government’. At the same time, students aged between 14 and 18 are required to undergo military drills and arms training under the supervision of top Maoist leaders at the insurgents’ training bases. Though most of the abducted students are allowed to return to their homes after a couple of weeks, the trauma of the forced ideological and military training they undergo continues to haunt many of them. They are, moreover, on call for operational duties, as and when required, and are often directly attached to the main operational force in their areas. The Maoists variously use these young recruits as soldiers, sentries, messengers, cooks, porters and suppliers. The preliminary training is sufficient for these children to handle light weapons including .303 and .22 rifles, country-made socket and pipe bombs, etc., the weapons most widely used by the Maoist insurgents.
Maoists have intensified the recruitment of children in their armed cadres to fight against the security forces, and to create ’revolutionary zeal’ among the young participants in the People’s War. Observers suggest various reasons for children being preferred for soldiering: recruitment and maintenance of a child militia is relatively cost effective; children can more easily be used in hazardous tasks like laying and clearing landmines; children are also more psychologically malleable, easily motivated and manipulated, and display a high level of dedication and obedience.
| As I recall, the Khmer Rouge did the same thing. |
At least 300 children have been killed in the Maoist insurgency since 1996. Young children in large parts of the country have simply stopped going to school, as the Maoists increasingly bring their activities into the school premises. On February 18, 2003, two students were killed and another injured during a ’firing demonstration’ by the insurgents in a school in Baglung district. There have been repeated calls by international human rights organizations and concerned citizens’ groups to declare the school areas as ’zones of peace’, and to leave the students and children outside the bloody sphere of the current conflict. These pleas have, however, apparently fallen on deaf ears, and present indications suggest, if anything, a further intensification of the ongoing Maoist campaign to mobilize children - voluntarily or otherwise - for greater participation in their ’peoples’ war’. There are reports of large numbers of schools closing down all over the country, creating long-term risks of declining quality of human capital, greater unemployment, and a burgeoning army of the unemployed which will keep the manpower supply lines to the Maoist cadres alive.
| How strange: you mean the Maoists aren't listening to the "international human rights organizations"? |
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