Their stories are all too shocking, yet all too familiar.
In Sierra Leone, boys as young as 10 were turned into bloodthirsty soldiers through an injection called “brown brown,” a mixture of cocaine and gunpowder used to induce fits of rage and violence. In Sri Lanka, rebels strapped suicide bomb belts to children on the assumption that police would never suspect an innocent child.
Globally, child soldiers like these have been forced into combat. From Congo to Colombia, some 300,000 kids are at war, often against their will. Their exploitation is among the most severe because physical, emotional and sexual abuse forces young boys and girls to do unimaginable things.
The world acknowledges their plight and recognizes that a child’s mind is far too impressionable to withstand the forces of hatred and manipulation. That’s why multiple international treaties call for child soldiers to be rehabilitated, not imprisoned. It’s a standard upheld even in the deadliest war zones.
Then there’s Omar Khadr. …read more
