The Hindu : International : Plight of girl soldiers in armed conflicts

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 26, 2005

International

International

Plight of girl soldiers in armed conflicts

Jonathan Steele

LONDON: A hidden army of more than 120,000 girls is working or fighting with armed groups around the world, and international programmes to help them often fail or make things worse, Save the Children says in a report published on Monday.

Girls as young as eight are abducted and forced to live with armed groups. Some carry weapons, others serve as porters, cleaners and cooks.

Almost all are forced to be sex slaves or ``wives'' of commanders, Save the Children says in the report, entitled Forgotten Casualties of War: Girls in Armed Conflict.

While the horror of child soldiers is well known, the report says the focus of international concern is usually on boys.

But out of roughly 300,000 children estimated to be living with armed groups, about 40 per cent are girls.

Special problems

Disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programmes are usually initiated after a conflict by the U.N. and the World Bank but the report says they often ignore the special problems girls face.

Their homecoming is often as depressing as their departure. They are ostracised by their family and community because of their ``immoral'' experiences.

As a result, they are trapped between recrimination from the armed group if they leave and from the community if they return home.

A DDR programme's success is often measured by the number of weapons collected rather than the successful reintegration of former combatants. Children's programmes are ``invariably under-funded.''

In Sierra Leone, more than 20,000 children were entitled to a DDR package, either money for a school uniform and three years of fees or a skills training course.

Experience

At first, it was given to children who had spent one year with an armed group.

As money dried up, it went to those with two years' experience and finally only to children who could show they knew how to dismantle and fire a gun.

Girls told Save the Children they were put off by the military orientation of the DDR process.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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