Terrorism in International relations

Terrorism is defined as the recurrent use or threatened use of politically motivated and clandestinely organised violence by a group whose aim is to influence a psychological target in order to make it behave in a way which the group desires, Harmon (2000).  In the beginning it was a device of the state and was intended to strengthen the authority of the new found radical government, shielding it from elements thought to be subversive. Terrorism has evolved since the time of the anarchist to the current which is based on religion. It has further undergone through various transformations as technological advancement is being experienced world-wide.  This development has further made terrorism of today more complicated than ever and hence the impact on international relations as it has brought suffering to innocent citizens, loss of lives and property and above all uncertainty among states.  Terrorism in international relation is indeed not a new phenomenon as it has been there since time immemorial as evidenced by the terrorist activities that have taken place since the 13^th century.

According to Rapoport(1984) early origins of terrorism stretched from the 14 to the 18^th century.  From the time of the assassins in the late 13^th century to the 1700s, terror was widely used in warfare and conflict but the key ingredients to terrorism were lacking in aspects of motivation, organisation, targeting and goals.  Until the rise of the modern nation state after the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, the sort of central authority and cohesive society that terrorism attempted to influence barely existed and communications were inadequate and controlled.  By the time kingdoms became nations they had sufficient means to enforce their authority and suppress activities such as terrorism.  Terror is exactly what Robespierre brought to the people of France. Following the execution of Louis XVI, Robespierre was made the de facto leader of the French government.  He was a member of the Jacobins political party and used his new found power to attack his political enemies, the Girondins. Thousands of people were executed at Robespierre’s request and it became one of the bloodiest times in French history. Most of the victims were beheaded using the guillotine which was often referred to by the title “The National Razor”.  Any opposition to the power of the Jacobins was immediately squashed and people lived in fear of punishment.This period of time was referred to as the Reign of Terror. After nearly a year the terror came to an end and Robespierre was overthrown and executed. When it was over, people started to use the word terrorist to describe a person who abuses power through the threat of force. A journalist in the United Kingdom wrote about the Reign of Terror in The Times newspaper and created the word terrorism as a way to describe the actions of Robespierre, (Hoffman,1988).

States as well as non-state bodies have used fear as their weapon of choice for a very long time and as a historical process the use of fear may have its own dynamic and regularities.  However the modern era 19^th century saw the escalation of modern terrorism which was as a result of radical political improvements in weapons technology thereby spurring the formation of small groups of revolutionaries who effectively attacked nation states. Rapoport (2001) classifies international terrorism into four broad categories, the four waves of terrorism.  A wave in this case is a cycle of activity in a given time period. The cycle is  characterized by expansion and contraction phases. A crucial feature is its international character similar activities occur in several countries, driven by common predominant energy thatshapes the participating groups’ characteristics and mutual relationships, (Rapoport, 2004: 47).

The waves illustrate the general ideological trends in terrorism over the past 130years. It is important to note that each wave reflects the dominant but not the only ideology of the wave. Nationalist groups, for example appear inall waves (Rapoport, 2004: 47). The origin of the first wave, which is generally also seen as the origin ofmodern terrorism is set around 1880 in Russia. The wave wasanarchistic in character and was the first global terrorist experience (Rapoport,2004:47).Their goal was to force those defending governments to respond to terror in ways that would undermine the rules which governments claimed to respect. In order to achieve the disproportional response of governments, terrorists targeted various high ranking officials and even heads of state. In this way excessive force used by authorities would polarise societies and uprising would follow. The weapon of choice of these first terrorists was the use of the dynamite bomb.

One of the main characteristics of the first wave was the political assassinations. The most important group was the People’s Will. The group expected that targeting specific political representatives would trigger a popular uprising. This led the group to choose its targets very carefully, ultimately killing Tsar Alexander II (Richardson, 2007:56-58). The wave that started in Russia soon swept Europe and eventually reached the United States. Anarchists killed, amongst others, the President of France Marie Carnot, the President of United States William McKinley, the Prime Minister of Spain Antonio Castillo and later also Prime Minister José Canalejas, Elisabeth of Bavaria the Empress of Austria and Umberto I the King of Italy and hence it is not a surprise that the period is sometimes called the “Golden Age ofAssassination” (Rapoport, 2004: 52). The wave of anarchist violence that swept the world led President Roosevelt of the United States to ask in December 1901 for international treaties among all civilized powers to make anarchism a crime against the law of nations and to empower the federal government to deal with this crime (Jensen, 2001). This was a callfor an international battle against anarchist terrorism.  The first period of international terrorism also witnessed the first attempt by states to tackle terrorism globally after the assassination of the head of states however these attempts failed as states were unable to forge consensus for joint action.As the first wave eased or folded another would already been established because the terrorism trends followed the political path taken by states at each particular time.  For example the end of the First World War also brought with it another wave.

The second or anticolonial wave of terrorism began with signing of the Treaty of Versailles ending the First World War. The principle of self-determination used to break-up defeated empires provided a foundation for aspirations of anew kind of terrorist organisation.  For example, the Irish Republican Armyand various Jewish organisations that operated against British forces in the Palestine. The terror campaigns of the second wave were fought mainly in territories where special political problems made the withdrawal of forces by the colonial power a less attractive option. It was in Palestine where Menachem Begin, the leader of Jewish organization Irgun from 1943 to 1948, described its members for the first time as freedom fighters fighting against government terror, Hoffman (2004).The second wave of terrorism received extensive support from various diasporas who also backed financially and hence the bank robberies that were witnessed in the first wave were minimalised.  They resorted much less to assassinations. The strategy ofthe second wave of terror was more complicated.  The primary goal of terrorists was the elimination of the local police force and achieving its substitution by occupying military forces that were expected to be too clumsy indealing with terrorists, but powerful enough to cause grievance among the population through their disproportionate responses to the actions of terrorists. During the anticolonial wave of terrorism it became a common practiceto call terrorists fighting against colonial powers freedom fighters, Rapoport (2004:51-52).  These waves interlinked building on the state of international relations prevailing during a particular period.  The Vietnam war brought with it the third wave of terrorism.

The third wave, known as the New-Left meaning international terrorism emerged in the 1960s out of discontent with the western political climate that was characterized by the Vietnam War and had the Cold War as broader context (Shughart, 2006: 21). Terrorist groups were active in Europe, Latin America and the United States and were often aided by Palestinian organizations, most notably the PLO and state sponsors for example Libya, Iran and the Soviet Union.  The end of the Cold War in 1989/1991 and as a result the decrease ofstate sponsorship of terrorism, as there was no longer a need for destabilizingWestern Europe, were the main reason behind the demise of the third wave, Rapoport (1984:) states that the occurrence of new left terrorism was stimulated by the VietnamWar which was seen to prove that modern states were vulnerable to relatively unsophisticated weapons and tactics. Many young people became deeply dissatisfied with the existing system and they gave rise to terror organizations such as the Red Army Faction in the West Germany, Italian Red Brigades and French Action Directe.  The third wave ran from the 1960s to the 1980s and it witnessed much more international cooperation in counter terrorism activities.  The United Nations adopted major conventions that outlawed hijacking, hostage taking and financing terrorists. The target selection of the third wave of terrorists was remarkably similarto those of the first wave of international terrorism as prominent targets becamevery popular again. According to Robison (2006) the new left wave of terrorism produced some700 hijackings, there were 409 international kidnapping incidents involving 951 hostages from 1968 to 1982, assassinated high-ranking officials included the prime ministers of Spain and Jordan, the former prime minister of ItalyAldo Moro and others. However, while anarchists in the first wave assassinated officials withthe aim of provoking disproportionate response, the new left terrorists rather punished their targets for various reasons. It is significant that one third ofall targets of the third wave of terrorism were United States of America targets.

The third wave of terrorism witnessed much more international cooperationin counter terrorism activities. The UN adopted major conventions thatoutlawed hijacking, hostage taking and financing terrorists. Freedom fighter was no longer a popular term in the United Nations. Paradoxically, the Palestine Liberation Organization that had used terrorism to promote its policies receivedofficial UN status and was recognised by more than 100 states. As in the first wave, states cooperated openly and formally in counter terror attacks. For example the United States of America with British aid bombed Libya in 1986 because of its perceived role as a state sponsor and the European community imposed an arms embargo.  These developments slowly culminated to the current wave of terrorism which is the religious wave.

The religious wave began in the same decade.  In the three earlier waves, religious identity was always religious and ethnic identities often overlap however religion has a different significance in the fourth wave.  Islam is the most important religion in this wave. The fourth, and for now last wave has its roots in the Iranian Revolution and the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union in 1979 (Rapoport:2004:52). Although religion has always played an important role in some terrorist organizations, for example in the IRA and Irgun, it was typically subordinate to other main causes. The IRA, for instance, wanted to liberate and unite the whole of Ireland, while the Irgun aimed to create a Jewish state. In the fourth wave religion became the ideological justification for perpetrating terrorist attacks. While terrorism violence associated with Christianity has been relatively low, other religions including Hinduism and Judaism played a greater role in this fourthwave. Ultimately the wave is predominantly characterized by fundamentalist Islamist terrorism (Rapoport, 2004: 52). This wave is further characterized by specific trends like suicide terrorism, the decline of the numberof terrorist groups and the targeting of softer targets (Rapoport, 2004: 62-65). Terrorism motivated either in whole or in part by a religious imperative, where violence isregarded by its practitioners as a divine duty or sacramental act, embraces markedly different means of legitimization and justification than that committedby secular terrorists, and these distinguishing features lead, in turn, to yetgreater bloodshed and destruction (Hoffman, 2006: 83).  This wave has proved to be complicated and has changed the face of international relations as states the world over are struggling to eradicate this new form of terrorism.  The world has further been divided by the intensification of the current wave of terrorism thereby compromising on international relations.

It is important to note that the waves and the trends that took place since the 13^th century are an indication that terrorism has existed for decades.  Generally the waves stand for general trends in terrorism that have occurred over the past century and hence are evidence that terrorism is not a new phenomenon but has been there since time immemorial, however the dynamics of terrorism keep changing since the first wave.  This is due to the technological advancement in the world as well as political factorsfacing the world today.

In conclusion terrorism is not a new phenomenon, its history dates back to several millennia and includes all kind of groups, states and motivations.  Each era, in the past and present has taken its colour from the existing deprivation, inequities and injustice in different scenarios to build its own case of legitimacy.  The terrorist groups have borrowed knowledge from the past experiences and present technologies.   

References

Fight Against Suicidal Terror InTerrorism and Political Violence, Vol. 17, No.

1/2, pp. 245-264

Crenshaw, M.(1981) The Causes of Terrorism:Comparative Politics, Vol. 13, no. 4,pp.

379-399

Hoffman, B.(2006)Inside Terrorism. New York: Columbia University Press.

Hoffman, B. (1999), Terrorism Trends and Prospects,Countering the New Terrorism, Santa

                                  Monica.

Hoffman, B. (1998) Inside Terrorism, New York: Columbia University Press

Hudson, R. (1999) The Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism: Who Becomes a

Terrorist and Why?, Report prepared by the Federal Research Division of theLibrary of Congress, September 1999.

Jensen, R. (2001), “The United States, International Policingand the War againstAnarchist

                               Terrorism,1900–1914,” Terrorism and Political Violence, 13(1), 15-46.

Richardson, L. (2006) Democracy and Counterterrorism: Lessons from the Past, Washington,

                                     D.C.: United States Institute of Peace

Rapoport, D.C.(1984) Fear and trembling – terrorism in 3 religious traditions:American

                                    Political Science Review 78 (3) : 658 – 677

Rapoport, D.C. (2004) “The Fourth Wave: September 11 in the History of Terrorism,”

                                       Current History:, pp. 56–65.

Rapoport, D.C. (2003) Generations and Waves: The Keys to Understanding RebelTerror

Movements, Paper presented November 7, 2003.

Rapoport, D.C. (1982) The Rationalization of Terrorism, Maryland:

                                      University Publications of America.

Shughart (2006) “International Terrorism: Causes,Consequences and Cures,” World Economy,

                               31(2), 15-20

Child Soldiers in Africa

The Scourge of child soldiers in Africa.

Human Rights Watch (2006) reports that as many as 300 000 girls and boys between the ages of 8 and 18 serve as child soldiers, either in government forces or armed rebels groups, in 33 countries around the world. Also, according to the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNCEF) (2014) survey in the current conflict in South Sudan, an estimated 9 000 children have been recruited into armed forces and groups by both sides in conflict in the country. While many children participate in combat, others are used for sexual purposes, as spies, messengers, servants, or to lay or clear landmines. Besides that, these children can be injured or killed, uprooted from their homes and communities, and can be internally displaced. Worse still, they are deprived of basic needs such as shelter, food and medical attention which consequently lead to a severe and lasting impact on their development. Graca Machel summed it all when she asserts that, “war violates every right of the child - the right to life, the right to be with the family nurtured and respected.” (UN, 2006). The African Charter on The Rights and Welfare of the Child defines a child as every human being below the age of 18 years (Article 2).That being the case, concerted effort should be put in place to establish causes of child soldiering in conflict zones of Africa.

Situational analysis

Article 22 of the African charter prohibits the use of children for the use of war. However according to the new African the June 2011 edition approximately 300 000 children were participating on conflicts of the continent. It is estimated that 1 in every 10 solders is a child. Thomas Lubanga was prosecuted by the ICC for the abduction of 14 000 children for the purpose of war in DRC. Joseph Kony was wanted by the ICC for abducting 30 000 children for the purpose of war in Uganda. In Angola both the largest opposition group, National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), and the government used child soldiers in the war. Children's rights groups have estimated that as many as 11,000 children were involved in the civil war. Some children received weapons and arms training and fought in the conflict. Many others acted as porters, cooks, spies and labourers. In South Sudan, an estimated 9 000 children have been recruited into armed forces and groups by both sides in conflict in the country. While many children participate in combat, others are used for sexual purposes, as spies, messengers, servants, or to lay or clear landmines. In Liberia, for instance, 10 percent of an estimated 60,000 combatants in the civil war that began in 1989 were children.

  

 The reason why the problem is eluding all these international legal frameworks is because the causes of child soldiering are complex and structural and that most of the time communities would try to deal with the symptoms of the problem. The major contributory structural cause in child soldiering is poverty (Cahn, 2005) which transcends through almost all other causes of the problem.

 However, other causes could cover failure of regionalism, failure of enforcement systems of enacted regional policies or laws and the collapse of government systems in a conflict afflicted country.

All children have the right to be protected from violence, exploitation and abuse.  Yet millions of children worldwide from all socio economic backgrounds across all ages, religions and cultural suffer such abuses especially in conflict zones.  The most prevalent child abuse in conflict zones is child soldiering where motivations are wide and spread, though this essay will mostly dwell on structural ones. The Machel Study (1996) showed that in some countries, children constitute a significant percentage of the combatants. In Liberia, for instance, about 10 percent of an estimated 60,000 combatants in the civil war that began in 1989 were children.

The most common structural cause of the menace of child soldiering is poverty (Zack-Williams, 2001).  This happens to be the primary cause of child soldiering.  Poverty is prevalent in Africa owing to a number of factors but mostly poor development policies.  This poverty is most predominant in rural areas where the largest chunk of Africa’s population lives and worse still where most of the conflicts are fought (Cahn, 2005).  Most of the time the rural people depend on substance farming such that the eruption of civil war would invite absolute poverty to communities.

Poverty could be at national level whereby a government is not able to provide the basic social services that would guarantee a better future for the youths (Singer, 2001). One such a social service is education. As the children are often not attending school they are in effect limiting their future chances of actually improving their situation and are more likely to continue a cycle of poverty through to the next generation (Hope, 2005) that would force them into child soldiering.

The circumstances of education have a very immense impact on young children as they help in forming their morals, values and goals for later life (Hughes, 2000).  Access to education and the content that is actually taught in schools are of equal importance. The relevance of education to employment, the way in which children are treated in their schools, or the way the school operates as a recruiting place are also important when studying the relationship between education and the recruitment of child soldiers. Likewise, the lack of education is a perilous trap because children will find armed violence as the only possible solution to their unappeasable boredom (Singer, 2001).

Whilst studying the significance of education, the link between education and employment is also very important. In many of Africa’s unstable countries, this connection is very fragile and as a result children often find themselves thrown into a world of poverty and unemployment where education has no value. A consistent cycle of poverty leads to one course for its children that appears to offer economic protection and that course is that of armed involvement (Cahn, 2005). As poverty increases in third-world countries the connection between education and employment is rapidly eroding and tragically a child coming to the conclusion that education is not very important in their lives.

Weak state systems also allow child soldiering to thrive in conflict zones as monitoring becomes ineffective (UNICEF, 1997). The ‘state’ is often virtually non-existent due to corruption or conflict and thus not able to provide sensible economic policies that may encourage industrial development or any social safety nets. The result is that there would be simply insufficient jobs; the only organization is that of the army or rebel group and therefore child soldiers in Africa do not exist exclusively for ideological reasons, but rather reasons of survival and escape from abject poverty. There is need to address weak state systems to deal with child soldiering.

Failure to relocate from the conflict zone due to poverty would render families or clans defenseless (Singer, 2001).  As a result children are forced by their elders to join the war to defend their tribes or families.  This is prevalent in tribal or religions conflicts as is the current case with the South Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR) conflicts respectively.  In South Sudan the conflict is mostly between the Dinka and the Neur tribes with the latter led by President Salva Kiir and his former Vice President Riek Machar. In CAR the conflict is mostly between the Moslems and the Christians.  At times in such circumstances the children join voluntarily to protect their religions, beliefs or their relatives.

Motivations that may lead to a child ‘voluntarily’ choosing to become a child soldier often stem from a view that the armed force will provide various opportunities not available at home. Additionally they are seen as providing a sense of adventure, survival in the case of an orphan, revenge against killed family members (blood revenge) and escape from an either oppressive or abusive home (Cahn, 2005). In Ethiopia, families have encouraged sons to join opposition groups as a means of avenging the deaths of family members (Matthew, 2008). Psychologically, people who have been victims of violence are at great risk of becoming perpetrators of violence. Families may also encourage sons to join the military for economic reasons, seeing the salary from soldiering as the most likely route to survival. Some boys join the military for adventure or to win fame and the respect of other males, others bask in the praise of mothers who express pride in seeing their sons in uniform.

However, assertions that children join armed groups voluntarily are debatable. Coomaruswamy (2013) argues that it is difficult to measure the extent of voluntary intention of the child in joining the struggle.  She argues that children are not capable of making such a morale judgment.  As such she believes that any decision by children to join the armed group is either through direct coercion or through indirect coercion by way of bad conditions that exist in the local environment. At times the young soldiers are hardened through drug abuse (Hughes, 2000). Nevertheless the quest for national identity, liberation, and a secure homeland animates many armed conflicts. Typically, identity conflicts are saturated with an ideology of liberation struggle that draws a sharp line between Us and Them, glorifies the in-group while denigrating the out-group, and honors high levels of commitment to the cause (Cahn, 2005). Particularly in conflicts influenced by strong religious ideologies, youth may view the cause as having divine sanction, making it a clear-cut struggle between Good and Evil. Conflicts bordering around religion and ethnicity usually recruit child soldiers due indoctrination or identity/ideological issues. In Rwanda during the early 1990s, the Hutu-dominated government used radio to spread hatred of the Tutsis, who were demonized as murderous outsiders (www.savethechildren.org). This helped prepare children for roles as killers in the youth militias in the 1994 genocide. Such conflicts usually lead to martyrdom which feeds into child soldiering.

Children could join armed groups through direct coercion or mandatory conscription (Singer, 2001).  In such an environment children are threatened with death or they would witness those resisting being shot to death and resultantly fear is instilled into them.    Well known targets for this repulsive behaviour are schools, children walking home from school, refugee camps and from the home, often during the night. Militias often use brutish methods to weaken resistance to forcible recruitment. The case study of Uganda reports that people who resisted attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army would be cut with pangas (machetes) (Matthew, 2008). Quite a number of victims had their lips and ears chopped off in macabre rituals. Some are severely beaten or dragged by armed group elements. In Ethiopia, armed militias would surround a public area such as a marketplace, order every male to sit down, and then force into a truck anyone deemed "eligible." At particular risk of abduction were also teenagers who worked on the streets selling cigarettes or candy.

Another contributing factor is that of ‘displacement’. Children that are separated from a family due to a variety of different reasons and the children will not have any reference for guidance, support or education. These children’s displacement may be the result of past wars that have created a generation of orphans as well as other children that are dislocated (Coomaruswamy, 2013). Often these times children may identify with an armed group and possibly even volunteer their services to an armed group. However many children most likely initially move to either live on the streets in urban areas or possibly be able to access an orphanage for protection and shelter, although many will end up in refugee camps for displaced peoples. It is from these places of ‘safety’ that these special risk groups are often forcibly recruited and as they are especially vulnerable and feel defenseless they will usually come to acceptance of promises that a powerful armed group will also provide them with protection, shelter, food, and other basics of survival (Save the Children Federation, 2001).

Failure of regionalism is another contributory factor that has led to child soldiering.  Regional blocks have failed to come up with specific protocols that are enforceable to deal with child soldiering. Some Governments have not ratified and implemented pertinent regional and international treaties and incorporate them into national laws, for instance, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which, upon entry into force, should have restricted the age of 18 as the minimum age for recruitment and participation in any armed force or armed group as enunciated in the Charter’s Article 22 (http//treaties.un.org). The ACERWC (2012) notes that, more than ten years after the entry into force of the Charter, its ratification has not yet been completed and observes that there has been slowness in the reporting of its implementation as required by Article 43 of the Charter. The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) bemoans that more than ten years after the entry into force of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, only forty-six (46) of the fifty-four (54) Member States have ratified it, and only fifteen States Parties have fulfilled their obligation of submitting reports on the implementation of the Charter to the Committee. Regionalism has also failed to stop wars in DRC, CAR and South Sudan for instance. Such a situation has provided fertile ground for child soldiering. 

Most African states do not have national laws that specifically deal with child soldiering although they have ratified the ACRWC. However, it is generally difficult to regulate fighting groups outside the government.  This is the reason why the world has failed to capture Joseph Konny of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes that include child soldiering (Matthew, 2008).  It is naturally difficult to expect terrorist groups like LRA or the Boko Haram of Nigeria to effect laws to protect children’s rights. Singer (2001, p. 45) attributes the expansion of child soldiers to the proliferation of light weapons

            “Rarely mentioned in analyses of world threats, which typically focus on the most complex and expensive systems, light weapons (rifles, grenades, light machine guns, land mines, and other “child-portable” systems) are the weapons most often used in contemporary warfare and produce 80 to 90 percent of all the casualties. Technological and efficiency advances in these weapons permit the transformation of children into lethal fighters”.

After the Cold War there were enormous amounts of small arms in surplus throughout the world. Until recently, the weight and technicality of small arms precluded the employment of children in front-line positions. The proliferation of simple, light arms such as the M16 and AK-47 assault rifles has meant that they are now easily handled and carried by the child. This is due in part to lighter weight, less moving parts, which allows for easy stripping and reassembling even for a child under the age of 10 (Faulkner, 2001).

Failed Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) also lead to former child soldiers opting to return to become rebels. This is mostly due to the fact that the ‘gun’ would have given a sense of power to the former child soldier (Honwana, 2002). One thing that is hate by former child soldiers is that the process takes long and difficult in many cases and will require feasible and special programs to achieve rehabilitation and reintegration (Zack-Williams, 2001; Malan, 2000). The most intriguing situation in the DDR programme is the reintegration of the former child soldier into a community he/she would have committed atrocities. In Mozambique, for instance, recruiters from RENAMO forced boy recruits to kill someone from their own village (Machel Study, 1996). In such a scenario the former child soldier will opt to remain in the bush than to return to a village where there is an uncertain future.

Finally it must be understood that war in some societies, after it has existed for some time, is a “growth industry” with its own logic and trajectory (Matthew, 2008). The supply of arms, control of resources through force, the recruitment of fighters all become part of the political economy. Arms dealers acquire vested interest in perpetuating the war, as do local commanders and local warlords (Malan, 2000). In such context children are socialized to accept as a part of life and to seek advancement within the structures that are created.

Such an industry grew because of the impunity that has been characteristic of most perpetrators of child soldiering (Singer, 2001). However, recent development are encouraging as twelve (12) high profile individuals publicly indicted by the International Criminal Court at The Hague, seven have been charged with war crimes against children such as using child soldiers. They include Lord’s Resistance Army leaders Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti (since deceased) and Okot Odhiambo (Matthew, 2008). Also on trial or in the pre-trial stage are cases against Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a militia leader from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who is on trial for recruiting children under 15. The ICC also has open cases on DRC commanders Bosco Ntaganda, Germain Katanga and Matthieu Ngudjolo Chui for their crimes against children. Liberia’s Charles Taylor has already been convicted and sentenced in The Hague over crimes against humanity that includes child soldiering.

The rehabilitation of child soldiers

The process of rehabilitation of child soldiers is divided into three categories

1.      Disarmament and demobilisation

This is the process of removing child soldier from the ranks of military groups. This may come as the result of the end of the conflict or the development worker, must negotiate for the removal of children from the ranks of military groups. Jimmy Carter tried in Sudan, Betty bigobe in Uganda negotiated with Joseph Kony.

Once the children are removed from the ranks of the militia groups , there must be given immediate basic needs in transit and an interim care centre in the place of arrival.

2.      Provision of the rehabilitation ideals

NB This step involves working on the child’s physical, mental ,spiritual and economic wellbeing.

Physical aspect

This involves instituting the treatment of physical injuries, the treatment of STIs, drug rehabilitation, disability training and a focus on nutrition.

·         Mental and emotional aspect

Upon return from the trenches former child soldiers suffer from physichological and emotional disturbance like extreme aggressiveness, with-drawl insominia, feelings of guilt and high turned anxiety. It is important to start solutions like Team building activities i.e. sports , counselling memory book and memory box programs the re-establishment of normal daily routines the resumption of education and exposure to the normal forms of leisure are methods by which the development worker can rehabilitate the child and physichologically and emotionally.

·         Economic aspect of rehabilitation

In some cases it is necessary to expose former child soldiers to vocational training and provide the children with the start up kits upon re-integration. The final step of the process of rehabilitation is re-integration.

3.      Re-integration

The process of tracing the child’s parent or guardians or the child’s community of origin. The aim is to reconcile the child soldier with the above named institutions.

 NB to this end it is a process that involves counselling of the child and the probable recipients of the child.

NB In the some cases there is a need of the development worker to facilitate spiritual cleansing of the child and other rituals for example in Angola where cleansing rituals are done. When the child gets re- admitted into their community the development worker will continue to undertake Monitoring and Evaluation.  

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