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Drafting and Experimenting:
User:Mdiamon2/article_notes Small Boys Unit
Overview
[edit]The Small Boys Unit (SBU) was a group of children who were forcibly recruited by the Revolutionary Untied Front (RUF) as militants during the recent civil war which ended in 2002. The SBU was made of over 10,000 children mostly between the ages of 8 and 10 who were notorious for their particularly cruel crimes against civilian population, including human mutilation and torture. Children were taken to special work camps, where the boys were trained for war and the girls were made into sex slaves. [1] The first weapon that most children were handed was an AK-47, considered a light weight gun that was manegable for their small size. [2]
Recruitment
[edit]Most of the recruitment tactics to get children to join the army were forced. Commonly, RUF members would raid local villages and capture children. After their capture, it was not uncommon to force the children to witness or participate in the torture and killing of their relatives. [3]
Actions of the SBU
[edit]During training, children were taught how to mutilate people. One common technique was the caughting off of civilians limbs. One Corporal told the chilren to get the subject on the ground and shove the gun barrell to the back of his neck. Once he was helpless, another boy takes the victims arm and lays it on a peice of wood the brings the machete down on it to make an amputation. At this point, the child soldier was free to do cut anything else, including lips, nose and removing internal organs and making the victim eat them. [4]. When members of the SBU came across a pregnant women, the children would agrue the sex of the child, then use a machete to cut the womb over to discover the sex. [5]
Survival
[edit]During their figthing years, children were often given drugs, spending a lot of their time high on marijuana or snorting cocaine. [6]
Rehabilitation
[edit]Psychological Effects
[edit]There were an endless amount of psychological effects that resulted from being part of the SBU. Specfically, flashbacks were severe. For some, the worst memory was the time the rebels came to her home. One child soldier cited how they poured petrol over the mother, father, two brothers and sister and set fire to them, watching as they ran around, burning alive before her capture. [7]
Recent Sierra Leone
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2010/08/07/blood-in-her-hands-the-shocking-story-behind-naomi-campbell-s-gift-from-african-warlord-115875-22470252/
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/global_crime_report/investigation/soldiers1.shtml
- ^ http://www.unicef.org/sowc96/2csoldrs.htm
- ^ http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/SierraLeone/sierraleone4.htm
- ^ http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/SierraLeone/sierraleone4.htm
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/global_crime_report/investigation/soldiers1.shtml
- ^ http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/SierraLeone/sierraleone4.htm
Strange, Hannah. "Inside the RUF: at Last the Child Soldiers of Sierra Leone Have Their Say." The Sunday Times, 16 June 2008. Web. 4 Nov. 2010. <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article4129610.ece>.
Wessells, Mike. "Sierra Leone: Child Soldiers." Pangaea Publishing and Design for Nature & Peoples of the Earth. Nov.-Dec. 1997. Web. 04 Nov. 2010. <http://pangaea.org/street_children/africa/armies.htm>.
Williams, A. B. (2001). Child soldiers in the civil war in sierra leone. Review of African Political Economy, 28(87, Civil Society, Kleptocracy & Donor Agendas: What Future for Africa?), pp. 73-82.
Beah, Ishmael, A long way gone : memoirs of a boy soldier / Ishmael Beah Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York : 2007 <http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0708/2006017101-s.html>.
Ali-Dinar, Ali B. "SIERRA LEONE: Background Report on Child Soldiers." University of Pensylvania African Studies Department. Web. 4 Nov. 2010. <http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Newsletters/irinw_71599.html>.
http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/SierraLeone/sierraleone4.htm