About a month ago, Daddy D and I saw a presentation about the practice of using child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A Bukeni T. Waruzi Beck, the executive director of “AJEDI-Ka/Projet Enfants Soldats”, spoke about the military conscription of children and his organization's effort to rehabilitate those children. I admit that to being somewhat naïve about some of the evils that exist on our planet. Maybe I am guilty of closing my eyes to certain dreadful practices on this Earth. However, after seeing the informative presentation, I am saddened by the cruelty that we humans commit towards each other.
What can we do to help? First, read the April 4th entry by PT of Thinking About..., in which he discusses this horrific practice of the using children as soldiers. PT speaks eloquently about this crisis. After reading his entry, speak out against this practice, and implore your legislators to decry this war crime.
5 comments:
Sadly I'm very aware of this awful situation, as our coverage of world events isn't controlled by vested interests as it is in America, something alluded to in the article.
Unfortunately the Congo (and most of Africa for that matter) has very little that America wants and is therefore largely ignored by both the media and the current administration. But he is right in saying that the atrocities there far outweigh anything that Saddam Hussein was ever capable of.
I won't get all grisly and relate some of the first hand accounts that I've seen on both BBC and Australian documentaries, but I will tell you some of them have left me quite shaken for days afterwards.
As an aside, I wonder about the author's upbringing that he has so little knowledge of the Congo, surely he has seen a Tarzan film!
Kids being soldiers is very wrong. It is bad enough to have trained men fighting. What it shows is how cheap some people think someone elses life happens to be.
The world needs to act through the U.N. as a force for good human action.
makes me sick.
I've lost faith in the UN -- so much corruption in that organization as well.
My friends lived in Zaire at the beginning of that Hutu and Tutsi death rage back in the 90's
There are alot of countries closer to the Congo than the US. What are they doing?
Dear friend,
thank you so much for your comment on the electronic firefly. I have never been to the US but God willing one day I might have the priviledge to do so.
I have added you to my blog favorites - hope that is ok.
Bless you.
Erik
Hi there, thanks for your comment on my blog. You have some interesting things going on in yours. The last post made me laugh and laugh. Mainly that you put crap in brackets.
I used to work with refugee children from various war torn countries, Sierra Leone and Sudan being the 2 major ones. We ran a program for survivors of torture and trauma and I was the art teacher for a bit. What an eye opening experience! It is unimaginable the things that children go through in these situations. I'm amazed when rehabilitation slowly begins to happen.
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