Colombia's Child Soldiers

by Yadira Ferrer

On Jan. 3 "I turned 16, and they made me a birthday cake. That day I was happy, but I missed my mother and sisters," said Carlos, whose real name is not provided due to security reasons.

Carlos was living in El Castillo, in the department of Meta, with his mothers and two sisters until May 18, 1999, when he was recruited by the 15,000-strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's largest and oldest guerrilla organization.

Along with 17 other youngsters, he was taken to a guerrilla camp, where "all day long I was trained how to shoot and camouflage myself in an attack, while I was given classes on communism. Then we went to war," he said.

The last fighting he remembers took place in Puerto Lleras, in Meta, where he survived army bombs by hiding in the underbrush. After the rebels left, he turned himself in "with rifle and all" to soldiers still in the area, who enrolled him in the Reinsertion program.

The Colombian Institute for Family Welfare estimates that around 2,000 minors are still active in Colombia's insurgent organizations, while around 3,000 participate in right-wing paramilitary groups, despite repeated calls by human rights groups and international bodies for an end to the use of child soldiers.

Until July 1999, the armed forces continued to recruit youngsters under 18. At that time, around 4,000 youngsters finishing high school were doing compulsory military service.

The guerrillas refer to them as "little bees," the paramilitaries as "little bells," the 'milicianos' or young urban guerrillas call them "little carts," and the army, which also had minors within its ranks at the time the study was conducted, labelled adolescent soldiers "steel kids" and the younger children "steel chickies."

One case of "steel girls" emerged when the National Liberation Army (ELN), the second largest rebel group, held nine girls under the age of 18 for several weeks in the northwestern department of Antioquia.

The girls, who were wearing military camouflage fatigues -- a criminal offense under International Humanitarian Law -- while supporting the army in community actions were accused by the ELN of carrying out intelligence work for the army.

According to the report by the Office of the People's Defender, 18 percent of the minors interviewed admitted having killed at least once, 60 percent had seen people killed, 40 percent had shot at someone, 13 percent had participated in kidnappings and 28 percent had been wounded.

One-third of the child combatants in guerrilla groups said they joined because of their attraction to weapons and uniforms, a similar percentage did so under the pressure of poverty, while 16 percent joined because as they were growing up, they frequently saw guerrillas and heard their ideas and proposals, said the study.

People's Defender Jose Castro told IPS that the participation of children in Colombia's decades-old civil strife ran counter to "the highest ethical values supporting the contemporary development of humanity."

The pyschological and emotional impact of the war on children and the difficulty in reinserting them into society led the Office of the People's Defender to call on the armed groups and the government to sign a humanitarian accord banning the recruitment of minors under the age of 18.

That same call was issued by the special representative of the secretary-general of the United Nations on children and armed conflict, Olara Otunnu, who visited Colombia last June.

Otunnu met with President Andres Pastrana, representatives of local non-governmental organizations and FARC leaders, who he urged to include in the peace talks the question of protecting child victims of the war.

A report by the U.N. children's fund (UNICEF) states that the first form of victimization of children by war is their participation as combatants. The U.N. agency points out that a lack of options and pressure from armed groups are two key factors leading children to take up arms.

According to psychologist Roberto Pulido at the private Javeriana University, child combatants carry a much heavier burden of violence than adults.

He pointed out that while 80 percent of child combatants say they would like to start a new life, when they run up against a wall, they tend to turn back to the route of arms.