Child in a rebel camp in the north-eastern Central African Republic (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

^{When I first saw this it broke my heart, shocked and angered me.  I have seen some articles that are attempting to paint this  war as Muslim against Christian.  Christians in this part of the world have been slaughtered mercilessly.  Yes there is a Christian militia, fighting and defending itself.  That’s like saying ‘The Lord’s Liberation Army‘ is Christian.  Couldn’t be farther from the truth. This use of children as soldiers has been ongoing.  The islamist rebels are using this more and more frequently.  However when I first saw this I remembered Viet Nam.  Those who are old enough will remember the riots, and demonstrations calling our soldiers ‘Baby Killers.’  What they failed to mention was the numerous American Soldiers who died because the Vietnamese sent their children into a camp with explosives attached to them.   This was horrendous and inexplicable.  But how would you like to see a child heading for you and not know whether you and the child would be blown to smithereens.  That’s what they faced, and not only them.  This is horrible no matter what way you look at , every Christian everywhere needs to be shouting from the rooftops to have it stopped.  The UN seems to be trying to address this, President Bush signed the ‘Child Soldiers Protection Act’  criminalizing countries that used Children, and then President Obama waived it!  I have found article after article about this practice, I will put a few links at the end.  We need to know this is not only still going on, but it’s increasing in practice!  Our children should be very precious to each society, each country, it is our future, and that’s just the secular view.  Children are very precious to God, Jesus said:  (Mark 9:34) And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.’}

 ^{Here is a list of countries that use child soldiers, compiled from Wikipedia:}

• Burundi
• Central African Republic
• Chad:  Child soldiers are fighting with the Chadian Military, integrated rebel forces – the United Front for Democratic Change (Front Uni pour le Changement, FUC), local self-defense forces known as Tora Boro militias, and two Sudanese rebel movements operating in Chad – the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the G-19 faction of the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA).
• Cote d’Ivoire

• Democratic Republic of Congo:  Nowadays the Democratic Republic of Congo has one of the highest rates of child soldiers all over the world.
• Rwanda
• Sierra Leone
• Somalia
• South Africa
• Sudan

• Uganda:  Over the past twenty years, the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army has abducted more than 30,000 boys and girls as soldiers. Attacks against Uganda’s Acholi people have resulted in severe trauma to civilians from extreme violence and abduction. Girls are often forced to be sex slaves.
• Zimbabwe

• Asia and Oceania

• Afghanistan:  A propaganda video of boys marching in camouflage uniform and chanting slogans of martyrdom was issued in 2009 by the Afghan Taliban’s leadership in Pakistan, the Quetta Shura, including a eulogy to a 14-year-old Taliban fighter who killed an American soldier.
• Iran

• Iraq:  Saddam Hussein‘s regime maintained ‘boot camps‘ of civilian youths between the ages of 12 and 17 that involved small arms training and Ba’athist
•  Kurdistan:  The Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) systemically recruits children as young as 7 according to the CSUCS. They have reported that the PKK even formed a battalion specially for this purpose, called Tabura Zaroken Sehit Agit. They counted the number of child soldiers at 3,000 in 1998.
• Lebanon
• Nepal
• The Philippines
• Sri Lanka:  Sri Lankan soldiers nicknamed one unit the Baby Battalion, due to the number of children in it. In response to widespread international condemnation of alleged children recruitment practices, the LTTE informed that they have made (taking effect in Oct. 2006) child recruitment illegal for its groups.
• Syria:  Children have joined the opposition.
• Israel and the Palestinian Territories:   Child suicide bombers in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
• Mandatory Palestine
• Yemen
• Chechnya
• Yugoslavia

• Colombia
• Haiti

Please write or call you Representatives, Senators, and the President and tell them this practice is unacceptable and must be stopped.  And to re-instate the ‘Child Soldiers Protection Act.’  Here are some phone numbers that might help:

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 224-3121
TTY: (202)-225-1904

And here is a link that will take you to the directories of your Rep. if you don’t want to call the main number.  http://www.house.gov/representatives/

White House:

Comments: 202-456-1111

Switchboard: 202-456-1414

Related Articles:

• Child soldiers swell fighters’ ranks in Central African Republic: U.N.(http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/22/us-centralafrica-childsoldiers-idUSBRE9AL0MP20131122)
• CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Fears Loom Over Child soldiers(http://humanrightssociety.org/2013/12/30/central-african-republic-fears-loom-over-child-soldiers/)

Credit to You Tube via CAR Conflict Unicef Says Children ‘Beheaded’ in Bangui – 31 Dec – YouTube.

More Related articles

• Video Shows Child Soldiers Fighting Among Rebel Ranks in Syria (israelnationalnews.com)
• EXCLUSIVE-Congo’s army accused of abuse as rebels regroup in Rwanda -U.N. experts (trust.org)
• Death toll in Congo attacks rises to 100: government – Reuters (reuters.com)
• Pope prays for child soldiers, peace in C Africa, S Sudan, Syria in Christmas address “Urbi et Orbi” (voiceofrussia.com)
• Children ‘beheaded’ in CAR conflict (bbc.co.uk)
• Numbers of child soldiers rise sharply in Central African Republic – UNICEF (trust.org)

Categories: Commentary by CJ, islamists, news, persecution of children in the middle east, Religion of Peace

Tags: Democratic Republic of Congo, Lord Resistance Army, Military use of children, Rwanda, sudan, Uganda, United Nations