FREETOWN - Abu Kamara rests his British self-loading rifle on his hip. You would call it a "Rambo-pose" if it were not for the fact that the 14-year-old's voice has not yet broken and the SLR is simply too heavy for him to lift to his shoulder.
"He'll grow into it," say his older Sierra Leone Army comrades, kitted out in British uniforms at Ropath checkpoint north of Freetown.
Abu is among thousands of child soldiers whose frontline presence on all sides in the nine years of fighting in Sierra Leone has contributed to ranking this war among the most brutal. Britain's decision this week to send more arms and supplies to the ragtag pro-Government forces creates the prospect of a growing number of gun-toting teens like him.
"It is British. It is a good gun. It fires accurately," says Abu who claims he has killed many men. His comrades tease him because his hand is too small to reach the grip on the breech of the SLR. When Abu holds the SLR vertically to his body, the barrel reaches his chest. He says he prefers the shorter AK47. He also says, quietly, that he would like to go to school.
But Abu and others like him know only war. In Sierra Leone, a gun is not just cool, it is a means of survival. There are no jobs, anyway. With a gun, you get food, respect and girls - whether you are fighting with pro-Government forces, or with the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF).
Charities attempting to rehabilitate the twisted minds of war children - a task which some of them privately say is impossible - estimate that at least 9000 children in Sierra Leone are in some way on the frontline, either as fighters, look-outs, porters or sex slaves. The British-backed pro-Government forces are no less prone to using them than is the RUF.
British military personnel in Sierra Leone shrug their shoulders awkwardly. One thousand five hundred of them came here, battle-ready, hoping to "finish off" the RUF. This, Westminster has not allowed them to do. So they see arming the pro-Government forces, shadowing their commanders and teaching "the law of armed conflict" as the next best option.
Lieutenant-Commander Tony Cramp said: "Child soldiers must be taken out of the pro-Government forces. This is a condition of our agreeing to train the forces. The issue must be addressed over the medium to long term when we would like to create alternative employment for them."
But Monique Nagelkerke, programme director for Save The Children in Freetown, winces at the mention of "the long term." She said: "The Sierra Leone Government takes the same view - let's first deal with the RUF then, later, with the child soldiers. We are upset at anyone supplying guns without looking at the consequences for children."
Britain has sent arms, uniforms and vehicles to Sierra Leone for years. These days - a shipment last year, a further 10,000 SLRs sent in February this year and the consignment approved by Parliament this week - British gifts to the Sierra Leone Government pass unnoticed because they are above board and officially sent for "training purposes."
But the result is that there are more guns in the country - more for the rebels to steal and more for the children, on both sides, to use.
Nagelkerke confirmed information from frontline commanders that children are highly prized in combat because they are ruthless and want to impress their elders. Among the pro-Government militia, sometimes known as Kamajors, young boys are considered to have "good juju" against approaching bullets. The smaller they are, the further up the front they are sent. They are rarely paid but they are given drugs, alco-pops and the freedom to use their guns to get food from villagers.
Jimmy, aged 15, fled from his RUF abductors nine months ago and tried to go back to his family. "When I turned up at home in Freetown, my parents said they were too scared of me. My father told me to go off to Unicef. He said that if he allowed me back into the house, I would kill everyone."
Jimmy, who has the letters RUF carved into his chest by razor blade, has lived for the past year at Lakka children's home near Freetown. The former tourist hotel has more than 100 inmates, girls and boys, former "wives" and "fighters," all here to relearn childish ways.
For Amadou, 20, who graduated from a British training programme last May and now proudly sports a British uniform and SLR, being a in pro-Government child militia turned into a ticket to an Army career. "I am now considered to be among the young British-trained elite. If I had not joined the Kamajors when I was 15, I would not be where I am now."
- INDEPENDENT
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.