The Psychological Impact of Child Soldiering

With almost 80% of the fighting forces composed of child soldiers, this is one characterization of the ‘new wars,’ which constitute the dominant form of violent conflict that has emerged only over the last few decades. The development of light weapons, such as automatic guns suitable for children, was an obvious prerequisite for the involvement of children in modern conflicts that typically involve irregular forces, that target mostly civilians, and that are justified by identities, although the economic interests of foreign countries and exiled communities are usually the driving force. Motivations for child recruitment include children’s limited ability to assess risks, feelings of invulnerability, and shortsightedness. Child soldiers are more often killed or injured than adult soldiers on the front line. They are less costly for the respective group or organization than adult recruits, because they receive fewer resources, including less and smaller weapons and equipment. From a different perspective, becoming a fighter may seem an attractive possibility for children and adolescents who are facing poverty, starvation, unemployment, and ethnic or political persecution. In our interviews, former child soldiers and commanders alike reported that children are more malleable and adaptable. Thus, they are easier to indoctrinate, as their moral development is not yet completed and they tend to listen to authorities without questioning them. Child soldiers are raised in an environment of severe violence, experience it, and subsequently often commit cruelties and atrocities of the worst kind. This repeated exposure to chronic and traumatic stress during development leaves the children with mental and related physical ill-health, notably PTSD and severe personality E. Schauer (B) Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany; vivo International, Konstanz, Germany e-mail: [email protected] Statements quoted in the text originate from the authors’ own work with formerly abducted children and former child soldiers during diagnostic interviews or therapeutic work in Northern Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the framework of project interventions of the NGO vivo. All clients have personally given written informed consent for publication of their experiences. Some have in fact urged us to tell the world what happened using their own words. 311 E. Martz (ed.), Trauma Rehabilitation After War and Conflict, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-5722-1_14, C © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 312 E. Schauer and T. Elbert changes. Such exposure also deprives the child from a normal and healthy development and impairs their integration into society as a fully functioning member. This chapter presents in detail the cascade of changes that prove to be non-adaptive in a peaceful society. Further, ex-combatants experience social isolation arising from a number of factors, which include host communities’ negative attitudes towards ex-combatants and their psychological problems causing difficulties in social interaction. The risk of re-recruitment is high when ex-combatants fail to reintegrate economically and socially into their civil host communities, which may cause substantial economic development issues, and a new turn in the cycle of violence becomes inevitable. We therefore conclude that the provision of extensive mentalhealth services needs to be an essential part of demobilization and rehabilitation programs. This will improve the individual’s functioning, it will build capacity within the affected community, and it may be designed to break the cycle of violence. In this chapter, we include formerly abducted children’s description of selected experiences of child soldiering. The reader might be faced with emotional reactions, due to the detailed first-person reports. All narratives originate from either clinical diagnostic interviews or testimony established during psychotherapy with NET (Narrative Exposure Therapy). All children, who are voicing their life experiences, have been part of an already completed or on-going mental-health project, implemented to psychologically rehabilitate the beneficiaries by the NGO vivo. Child Soldiers Characterize ‘New Wars’ In 2004, political scientists counted more than 42 wars and armed conflicts worldwide, almost all of them in developing countries (Schreiber, 2005). Observers of these current ‘new wars’ (Kaldor, 1999) or ‘complex political emergencies’ (Ramsbotham & Woodhouse, 1999) have noted that the main target of the warring parties is the civilian population, and the systematic atrocities, massacres, and bombings are often applied as rational strategies within current warfare. Never before in history have child soldiers played such a prominent role, constituting 80% of the fighting forces. This is one indication that we are witnessing a qualitative change in the way wars are waged and in the way organized violence is exerted; in other words, a transformation in the ‘culture of violence’ cannot be overlooked. Researchers have noted that the following are new characteristics or trends (Elbert, Rockstroh, Kolassa, Schauer, & Neuner, 2006; Kaldor, 1999): • Fighting is dominated by irregular forces, including paramilitary units, rebel forces, mercenary troops, and foreign armies that intervene in civil wars. As outlined below, a clear separation between civilians and soldiers disappears. Forcibly recruited child soldiers belong to the usual repertoire of most forces in the new wars. Parties to the conflict are frequently led by powerful warlords, with little or no power of the state. • Conflicts are justified by identification with ethnic groups, cultures, or religions, while actually the conflicts are driven by economic factors: warring parties get 14 The Psychological Impact of Child Soldiering 313 resources from supporting foreign countries and exiled communities, in order to control local resources, like minerals, oil, or drugs. • Warfare strategies include systematic atrocities, like massacres and mass rapes, to frighten civilians and to make regions uninhabitable for the group to be expelled. Another reason for the prevalence of atrocities in current wars is the assumption that they help to unite the group committing the atrocities. Easily available small weapons are sufficient for this type of warfare. Children have increasingly become victims and perpetrators of warfare (Redress, 2006). Crimes against humanity, like hunting humans, mutilations, and mass rape, are not an exception, but may be a characteristic of adolescent gangs that have gotten out of society’s control. Some have argued that the ability to be cruel is a way to exert negotiating power in this context, which may explain why there is little intervention of the ruling groups to prevent atrocities. Internationally agreed upon, undesirable, and prohibited war outcomes, which in fact are a hallmark of today’s conflicts, have been defined (Hicks & Spagat, 2008) and the phenomenon of child soldiering is one of them.1 The proportion of civilian casualties in armed conflicts has increased continuously during the twentieth century and is now estimated at more than 90%. About half of the victims are children (UNICEF, 2002). More than 2 million children have died as a direct result of armed conflict over the last decade. More than three times that number – at least 6 million children – have been seriously injured. Between 8,000 and 10,000 children are killed or maimed by landmines every year (Pearn, 2003; UNICEF, 2005). Of the ten countries with the highest rates of deaths of those under the age of 5 years, seven are affected by armed conflict (UNICEF, 2005). The World Bank reports additionally that the average mortality rate of children under the age of 5 years increased significantly as a consequence of war (Collier, 2003). War-related injury means wounds in the body and the mind. Traumatic stress can also occur from painful and frightening medical treatments and living with disability, especially in resource-poor countries. It is estimated that 4 million children have acquired disabilities after they were wounded in conflict over the last decade. For example, 75% of the injuries incurred from landmines in rural Somalia are to children between the ages of 5 and 15 years (ICRC, 1994). All of these samples include formerly abducted children and child soldiers. The lack of appropriate and timely 1According to Hicks & Spagat, 2008, others are high mortality to civilians versus combatants; increased injuries to civilians versus combatants; torture of civilians or combatants; rape or sexual humiliation of civilians or combatants; sexual humiliation of civilians or combatants; mutilations of civilians or combatants; kidnapping and hostage taking; disappearances; summary execution of captured prisoners; terrorist attacks; assassination of civilian leaders; attacks on religious and medical personnel and on medical units; use of particularly undesirable or prohibited weapons (e.g., landmines and booby traps); suicide bombers disguised as civilians; child death or injury; female civilian mortality or injury; elderly civilian mortality or injury; violence to non-combatant indigenous groups; use of human shields; initiating weapon fire from among civilians; locating headquarters or weapons storage among civilians; combatants taking civilian appearance during military operations (e.g., not wearing uniforms); combatants disguised as humanitarian, peacekeeping, or medical workers; leaving landmines or unexploded ordnance; destroying infrastructure essential for civilian survival (e.g., food, water sources, hospitals). 314 E. Schauer and T. Elbert medical assistance during child soldiering is an additional serious humanitarian issue. Among a number of at-risk populations, children of war and child soldiers are a particularly vulnerable group and often suffer from devastating long-term consequences of experienced or witnessed acts of violence. Child war survivors have to cope with repeated and thus cumulative effects of traumatic stress, exposure to combat, shelling and other life-threatening events, acts of abuse, such as torture or rape, violent death of a parent or friend, witnessing family members being tortured or injured, separation from family, being abducted or held in detention, insufficient adult care, lack of safe drinking water and food, inadequate shelter, explosive devices and dangerous building ruins in the proximity, marching or being transported in crowded vehicles over long distances, and spending months in transit camps (Barath, 2002; Boothby, 1994; Elbert et al., 2009; Karunakara et al., 2004; Mollica, Poole, Son, Murray, & Tor, 1997; Schaal & Elbert, 2006; UNICEF, 2005; Yule, 2002). These experiences can hamper children’s healthy development and their ability to function fully, even once the violence has ceased. Furthermore, destruction brought by war is likely to mean that children of war and child soldiers are deprived of key services, such as education and health care. A child’s education can be disrupted by armed conflict, due to abduction, displacement, absence of teachers, long and dangerous walks to school (e.g. landmines, snipers), and parental poverty (e.g. inability to provide school fees and uniforms and the necessity for children to contribute to household income). Schools can be caught up in conflict as part of the fighting between government forces and rebel groups or can be used as centers for propaganda and recruitment. Attacks on and abductions of teachers and students are a frequent phenomenon of global warfare. The same can be observed for hospitals, doctors, and nursing staff. Health centers often become a direct target, the medical supply is cut off during intense periods of fighting, and health personnels are frequently kept from accessing the sick and injured as a political strategy (Cairns, 1996; Sivayokan, 2006; UNICEF, 2005). The social consequences of growing up in shattered, war-torn environments include effects like alcoholism, drug abuse, and early unprotected sexual activity (sex for food and security), which can result in teenage pregnancy and the contraction of HIV/AIDS (Kessler, 2000; Yule, 2002). The increased likelihood of HIV transmission in conflict zones is mostly due to the breakdown of family, school, and health systems, with their regulatory safeguards that could counter these risks (UNICEF, 2005). During 1990 and 2005, an estimated 30 million children were forced by conflict and human right violations to escape their homes and are currently living as refugees in neighbouring countries or as internally displaced within their own national borders. During flight, families may become separated. More than 2.5 million children have been orphaned or separated from their families because of war in the past decade (Pearn, 2003; Southall & Abbasi, 1998; UNICEF, 2005). The poor living conditions, in which fleeing families find themselves, increase children’s vulnerability to malnutrition, diarrheal diseases, and infections (Toole & Waldman, 1993). In Africa, crude mortality rates have been as high as 80 times baseline rates among refugees and internally displaced populations (IDP) (Toole & Waldman, 1997). 14 The Psychological Impact of Child Soldiering 315 Often the period of exile runs into years and decades, and in such cases, children may spend their whole childhood in camps and displacement. Nowadays, there are entire generations of children who have never lived at home in Africa and Asia