Siddharth Chatterjee discusses the role of UNICEF in the prevention of children in the military. (Tom O’Dell / Photo Editor)
By Glenn Eisenberg
Correspondent
The presence of children in the military is a problem seen throughout much of the world, according to Siddharth Chatterjee, a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) director and senior fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
The politics forum, “Demobilization of Child Soldiers in Sudan: A Story Change,” took place in the Business Building lounge on March 31. In his presentation, Chatterjee spoke of the need to eliminate the use of children as soldiers and the United Nations’ ability to help in that pursuit.
“These are the people who represent the future,” Chatterjee warned.
In 2000, Chatterjee served as a program manager with UNICEF in Southern Sudan in a mission to demobilize child soldiers involved with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).
The demobilization mission sought to convince the SPLA to allow as many children as possible to leave the militia.
Despite hesitations of the U.N. in the past, Chatterjee insisted on the need to negotiate with leaders of the SPLA.
“If you don’t engage with them, they will perpetuate misery and tyranny on their own people,” Chatterjee said of the SPLA leaders.
Chatterjee was able to negotiate with the then head of the SPLA’s military wing, and current president of the newly independent Southern Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayadirt.
According to Chatterjee, UNICEF avoided proselytizing. UNICEF simply informed Mayadirt that the use of children for military purposes was wrong and emphasized instead the potential political benefits of complying with U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Convention is signed by all countries except Somalia and the United States.
Mayadirt saw the demobilization as an opportunity to “accentuate (his) authority,” Chatterjee explained, and, as a result, over 3,500 children were demobilized.
The children were then transported to temporary “transit camps” for several months to protect them from the potential dangers of ongoing warfare at home.
At the camps, the children played games, put on plays and were provided with new clothing, cooking tools and mosquito nets.
When it was clear that conditions would be safer for them, the children were returned home.
Chatterjee emphasized that although the mission had been successful in demobilizing thousands of child soldiers, the first time such a feat had been accomplished with a guerilla army, the use of children for military purposes continues to be an ongoing problem.
In many parts of the world, Chatterjee said, indoctrination of children continues to be “enforced by sheer violence and punishment.”
According to Chatterjee, systemic factors, such as poverty and easy access to weapons, contribute to the exploitation of children for military purposes, with many youths seeing “guns as a meal ticket.”
Chatterjee informed the audience that in regions where economic, political or social strains exist, anger will build up, and there must be a way for youth to channel that anger into positive nonviolent movements rather than joining a military or guerilla army.
Chatterjee ended his lecture by stating, “If there is one serious malady in this world … it is using our children in conflicts.”
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Mayadirt saw the demobilization as an opportunity to “accentuate (his) authority,” Chatterjee explained, and, as a result, over 5,300 children were demobilized.
Hi Glenn could you please correct this number to read, 3,500.
Many thanks,
Siddharth Chatterjee
What a fine achievement. Congratulations to Siddharth Chatterjee. The Army or militias are no place for children.
Why cannot they do the same thing in other parts of the world..Congo, Northern Uganda, Burma , the list goes on. It needs out of the box thinking and action …that is what most of the UN does…lots of talk and no action.
I was one of the students present at this talk by Mr. Siddharth Chatterjee,one of the best talks I have ever attended. Thank God there are organizations out there which get young children out of the military. I am saddened to see that the US has still not ratified the Child rights convention.
Siddharth Chatterjee has done a brilliant job.
This is indeed an excellent example that demobilization of child soldiers is possible during a conflict. Why wait for a conflict to be over to demobilize them. If Siddharth Chatterjee from UNICEF can do it I am sure there are many others who can do it too. Here is a summary of facts that i have come accross in a website of an NGO working on stopping the use of child soldiers:
•The problem is most critical in Africa, where children as young as nine have been involved in armed conflicts. Children are also used as soldiers in various Asian countries and in parts of Latin America, Europe and the Middle East.
•The majority of the world’s child soldiers are involved in a variety of armed political groups. These include government-backed paramilitary groups, militias and self-defence units operating in many conflict zones. Others include armed groups opposed to central government rule, groups composed of ethnic religious and other minorities and clan-based or factional groups fighting governments and each other to defend territory and resources.
•Most child soldiers are aged between 14 and 18, While many enlist “voluntarily” research shows that such adolescents see few alternatives to involvement in armed conflict. Some enlist as a means of survival in war-torn regions after family, social and economic structures collapse or after seeing family members tortured or killed by government forces or armed groups. Others join up because of poverty and lack of work or educational opportunities. Many girls have reported enlisting to escape domestic servitude, violence and sexual abuse.
•Forcible abductions, sometimes of large numbers of children, continue to occur in some countries. Children as young as nine have been abducted and used in combat.
•Demobilization, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) programs specifically aimed at child soldiers have been established in many countries, both during and after armed conflict and have assisted former child soldiers to acquire new skills and return to their communities. However, the programs lack funds and adequate resources. Sustained long-term investment is needed if they are to be effective.
•Despite growing recognition of girls’ involvement in armed conflict, girls are often deliberately or inadvertently excluded from DDR programs. Girl soldiers are frequently subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence as well as being involved in combat and other roles. In some cases they are stigmatized by their home communities when they return. DDR programs should be sensitively constructed and designed to respond to the needs of girl soldiers.
Dear Signal Contributor,
We would like to invite Mr. Siddharth Chatterjee to our university too. Can you please share his e mail address with me. We are a group of grad students who want to raise awareness about the illegal use of children as combtants.
It is a shame that this practice still continues all over the worlld.
Thank you
Very impressive. Hope the world can get rid of all child soldiers forever. Hope Siddharth Chatterjee can go to Congo and do the same.
Fantastic work.
Wow.