The Children of War: Child Soldiers as Victims and Participants in the Sudan Civil War 9780755618958, 9781780760179

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In loving memory of Jim Andrew Maddock and To the former child soldiers of Southern Sudan; May your voices be heard.

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 0.1 Map of Sudan Figure 2.1 List of Organisations Interviewed Figure 3.1 Undetonated Missile from Aerial Attack. Juba, Southern Sudan Figure 3.2 SPLA Tank. Juba, Southern Sudan Figure 3.3 Bullet Holes through an Army Tank. Juba, Southern Sudan

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Figure 0.1 Map of Sudan1

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INTRODUCTION

‘The military recruitment of children (under-18s) and their use in hostilities is a much larger phenomenon that still takes place in one form or another in at least 86 countries and territories worldwide.’2 ‘On the ground, the consensus would appear to be reflected most clearly by a decrease in the number of conflicts in which children are directly involved – from 27 in 2004 to 17 by the end of 2007 . . . this downward trend is more the result of conflicts ending than the impact of initiatives to end child soldier recruitment and use.’3 The increased use of child soldiers has been marked as a new ‘phenomenon’ of modern warfare by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and bodies of contemporary literature. This rise has been particularly observed in Africa, where the increase of child soldiers has been attributed to both the shifting military landscape, notably small arms proliferation, and to the widespread poverty found in most African countries. Dire social conditions have been further compacted by the onset of AIDS, which has also shifted the demographic landscape by decreasing the able-bodied adult population.4 Today nearly 50 percent of Africa’s population is under the age of 18; this in turn leaves only a small pool of the population to be of legal recruiting age, while at the same time, a never ending supply of children to recruit.5 Every conflict in Africa uses child soldiers to some degree; however, the severity of treatment and level of involvement differs between areas, conflicts and armed groups.6 This book focuses on child soldiers by considering one specific fighting faction and conflict that has been recognised for its wide use of child

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The Children of War

soldiers: the Sudan People’s Liberation Army during the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005). Even if children are not involved in war as a child soldier, they are involved as a junior citizen and could be even more vulnerable. The acceptance of children as a part of war brings up the issue of their lacking a role in political involvement and peace resolution. These preliminary questions below serve as themes to this book and it is not my intention to answer them directly; however, I hope to offer suggestions as to how they may be approached and inform necessary academic debate on these issues. • If child soldiering is an accepted/normal part of African warfare then why do some children risk their lives to avoid military participation? • If there is no element of coercion to conscription, then why do some children choose to enlist in armed forces? • Can the use of child soldiers be seen as a positive individual political step of involvement (an imperfect beginning perhaps?), or is the use of child soldiers negative however you look at it? The debate over child rights on an international level began in 1924 with the Declaration of the Rights of the Child by the League of Nations.7 While the contested use of children in warfare bubbled beneath the surface through the twentieth century, an international agreement on the issue was not reached until 1990. The United Nations’ (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), put into force in 1990, ruled that ‘State parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that persons who have not attained the age of fifteen years do not take a direct part in hostilities’.8 This has since entered into law with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), put into force in 2002, stating that ‘Conscripting or enlisting children under the age of fifteen years into the national armed forces or using them to participate actively in hostilities’ is a war crime.9 The age of conscription was later raised from 15 to 18 with the ‘Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict’ ratified in 2000 and entered into force in 2002.10 Today Sudan is counted amongst the signatories of the

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Introduction

3

Optional Protocol, having ratified it in 2005 – some six months after the end of its Second Civil War.11 Much of the debate surrounding the issue of child soldiers focuses on the age of conscription, which has put into question the lines that are drawn for what constitutes an adult or child. It is argued that since the boundaries to age groups are formed on a cultural basis rather than scientific, the limit of 18 years of age outlined by the UN is from a Western perspective. In order to test the validity of such standards put forward by the UN and international organisations that are determined to stamp out the ‘problem’ of child soldiers, further research and informed debate is essential.

Child Soldiers The humanitarian community has defined a child soldier as one involved in conflict under the age of 18.12 Children have participated in many of Africa’s civil wars, including those of Mozambique, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda to name a few.13 Although child participation in conflicts is not restricted to Africa, it is seen as an area of the world that holds a higher risk for the continuing and possible increased use of child soldiers.14 A debate within the issue of child soldiers is the claim that there has been an increased use since roughly the end of the Cold War.15 In considering the difficulty of proving such a claim, many authors have opted for more generic language, such as the ‘increased awareness’ of child soldiers. One observation of historical importance is that child soldiers have always been present in conflict; therefore they fail to be a new ‘symptom’ of contemporary wars.16 Another pre-existing condition to consider is that children participate militarily not only in times of war but also in times of peace.17 It is suggested that lightweight weapons are the cause of the increased use of child soldiers.18 Furthering this debate it is claimed that small arms are partly to blame for the increased use of child soldiers and that the design of the automatic weapons of modern warfare facilitate use by children.19 In support of this argument is

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The Children of War

the observation that weapons have reduced in weight and size, and therefore have become more utilisable by children. Rosen, a leading academic on child soldiers, quickly dismantles the suggestion that weapons have been a main contributor and draws on many historical examples to conclude that there is no direct link.20 As it is claimed that the changes in arms have not contributed to a greater degree of child participation in conflict, one consideration is that many of the killings in the Sierra Leone conflict were done with common objects such as machetes.21 The issue of small arms proliferation does not necessarily incorporate the issue of child soldiers;22 however, some support the idea that small arms are contributing to the increased use of child soldiers in Africa.23 Another motivation identified as causing the participation of child soldiers is self-protection.24 Children find themselves in a position where remaining as an unarmed civilian would be more dangerous than joining an armed faction.25 Within these predicaments it is difficult to quantify a child’s free will of choice. In analysing the motivations for participation it is necessary to consider practical motivations, such as safety and food, as well as personal motivations, such as political beliefs. One child soldier could have many possible motivations for becoming militarily involved. There are economic reasons, as well as reasons regarding personal safety, as to why children have chosen to join the military.26 The military serves as a way to access resources and of securing personal safety from rebel groups or government forces. It is important to look at the transitional elements that created the context for war. Specifically, the need to look at the conditions in which children were living prior to the outbreak of conflict. Violence prior to a conflict includes such things as slavery, human rights abuses, discrimination, and exploitation. It could be argued that the international community ignores the exploitation and political violence that children existed in before a conflict.27 Evidence that children have historically participated in conflict in many capacities contradicts the assertion that child soldiers are a new ‘phenomenon’.28 The historical account of children’s participation in war is not meant to justify their participation in modern-day warfare.

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Introduction

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In generalising historic examples, this could result in ignoring the possibility that although there can be found historic examples of child soldiers, the extent of the participation might be considerably more in modern conflicts. The conceptualisation of the ‘child soldier’ across cultures and through time must also be explored and at times the occupational and honourable status that being a child soldier has had.29 The attention the issue of child soldiering has received over the last decade may be due to a change in Western perspective rather than an increase in children’s participation. The boundaries and perceptions of childhood are altered in times of conflict.30 In demonstrating how modern conceptualisations of childhood have mythologised the past role of children in conflict, this may also overshadow any differences between the military roles children have played in conflicts over the last 300 years and those of the last two decades. Regarding the simplification of the issue of child soldiers and the international-law perspective, Duffield notes that the Declaration of the Rights of the Child allows humanitarian groups to civilise the South by passing judgement on how a country treats its children.31 The issue of taking away children’s rights is not limited to the child soldier nor contained within the declaration of war. An aspect of the international law perspective that is challenged by academic debate is that emphasising a child’s weak position actually encourages them being targeted. As in the case of Sudan, children were presented as innocent bystanders used for liberal peace agendas.32 Although children were used for political rationales, their political agency was not brought into the liberal debate. In tracing the history of the image of the child, it was through the Middle Ages that children were breaking away from adults, becoming their own category. The perception of the child has continued to change and it is not always the case that the humanitarian community acknowledges or considers this fact in their policies. Criticism has focused on the humanitarian community for not possessing self-awareness regarding the historical roots of the modern day construction of the child and the concepts involved with childhood.33

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The Children of War

Humanitarian agendas are ignoring the historical continuum of the soldier and the role of the child in conflict.34 Traditionally there has been an element of heroism and bravery associated with defending oneself or one’s family in armed conflict. It is thought that the way modern conflict is conceptualised juxtaposes the traditional image by criminalising those involved with military life.35 It is not that modern warfare has changed per se but rather the international political environment that has shaped conflict in the developing world, as well as its interpretation.36 An observation is that there has been a change in the international community’s attitude towards liberation movements and a move towards portraying them as full of apolitical bandits who abuse children.37 There is a need for awareness of the political lens in measuring the characteristics of warfare. Contrary to the humanitarian dichotomy of military membership, there exists a wide range of participation in a conflict. Attention is called to the attempt made by humanitarian groups to reduce the complexities of the child soldier down to a Westernised infant-like version. It is therefore dissatisfying how the humanitarian community describes children as incapable of critical thinking and at the same time places them far removed from a normal life experienced by ordinary soldiers.38 Accepting the infant-like description of children thus removes credibility from any political decisions a child makes. Humanitarian-inspired theory ignores the fact that to create the image of the ‘child’ automatically creates a juxtaposed image of the ‘adult’. These two categories thus exclude any overlapping characteristics, while at the same time separating children and adults as opposites in assuming that what the child is the adult is not, or what the child lacks the adult does not.39 Not enough credit is given to the rational choices executed by children and their ability to weigh consequences versus benefits. The debate also entails questioning the motivations and incentives of the humanitarian groups involved with child soldiers. Considering the lack of empirical evidence humanitarian theory uses for its claims, Rosen finds it worth questioning the context and environment in which these groups are making their claims. The issue of child soldiers has become a new ‘phenomenon’ only in part to their rise in conflict

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Introduction

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participation.40 Humanitarian groups are enmeshed in the political realm and their policies cannot escape this reality.41 Humanitarian groups’ core beliefs are drawn from a set period of time and culture’s values. Once this has been realised and considered, one can begin to problematise the universalism of human rights as an agreed body of norms.

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CHAPTER ONE SUDAN CONFLICT HISTORY

It is important to summarise the extensive conflict history of Southern Sudan from its independence in 1956 to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005 in order to present a backdrop and context to the former child soldiers’ testimonies. South Sudan refers to the area covered by the country’s three most southern regions: Bahr el-Ghazal, Equatoria, and Upper Nile (see figure 0.1). While the boundaries of these territories have changed over the course of the last 50 years since independence, the area known as Southern Sudan has remained constant for hundreds of years. As one travels south up the Nile River, it splits into two main sources: the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The Blue Nile heads east to Ethiopia, whilst the White Nile travels south to the Ugandan border. South of Malakal there is an area along the Blue Nile known as the Sudd,42 swamp-like conditions that were only penetrated by Western explorers in the 19th century.43 These conditions made for one of the most isolated regions in the world, even from other parts of Sudan. The original formation of the Northern and Southern territories of Sudan can be viewed as a convergence of two regional areas: the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. This offers some insight into the ‘Arab vs. African’ dichotomy often cited today – indeed even in the meaning of the medieval Islamic name, Bilad al-Sudan, or ‘land of the blacks’.44 Such divisions were further accentuated by dissimilarities in colonisation between North and South. While Britain maintained arbitrary control over the whole country, the management of the North fell

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Sudan Conflict History

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under the control of the Egyptians. The South was treated as a separate region, detached from the rest of Sudan as a result of ‘closed door’ policies, which barred northern Sudanese from entering or working in the South. The British colonial administration discouraged the spread of Islam, the practice of Arab customs, and the wearing of Arab dress, while making efforts to revitalise African customs and tribal life that the slave trade had disrupted. As far as the British were concerned the region and its people were distinct from the North and the region was to be prepared for eventual integration with British East Africa.45 This uneven pattern of colonisation, and the policies adopted by the colonisers, manifests today by divisions along lines of ‘colonial’ religions and languages. Beyond demography, natural resources are also a key distinction between the two regions, and one that is becoming increasingly important. Much of the Northern Sudan Government’s revenue is derived from oil money; however, 85 percent of Sudan’s oil is taken from the South. While many commentators attempt to explain Sudan’s conflict on ethnic lines, the economic arguments cannot be overlooked. The divisions used to define the Northern and Southern regions are manifold, based on religion, culture, history, lineage, geographical characteristics, and language. However, to construe the South as a homogeneous entity, would be incorrect. One quarter of Sudan’s population inhabit the Southern territories, and it contains over a hundred different ethnic groups and the majority of the 114 languages spoken in Sudan.46 While the main religion is Christianity (in contrast to Islam in the North), there are also numerous indigenous religions.47 According to authors such as Jok, the government of Sudan had an agenda of genocidal proportions in its conflict with the South.48 Speculation as to the North’s desire to culturally eliminate or convert the South has been supported by the manifestation of their polices, such as the targeting of the family unit. In moving towards independence many promises were made to the South in an effort to gain its support. In 1946, in a reversal of its previous policy, the British colonial authority decided to integrate North

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The Children of War

and South Sudan under one government with a common administrative authority situated in the North. There followed the implementation of ‘Sudanisation’; however this was a Northern-driven process of homogenisation.49 Its purpose was to create unity but this unity was soon argued to be one based on Islamisation and Arabisation.50 Independence was declared on the 1 January 1956. At independence, the South faced not only losing the realisation of their own vision of political power within their territory, but also faced surrendering to the North’s vision of Arab and Islamic domination.51 For Southerners, Sudanese independence did not fulfil their expectations and instead only supported fears of Northern dominance.52 With widespread discontent in the Southern provinces, the First Civil War is believed to have begun in response to actions taken by the Northern government, namely their rejection of federalism for the South as well as their overall lack of political involvement. Signed in February 1972, the Addis Ababa Agreement allowed for the Southern region to commence self-government and ended 17 years of conflict. This period of peace could also be considered a time of suspended conflict, as most of the agreements reached were not upheld.53 The South, as a united territory under the Addis Ababa Agreement, would be more capable of having a united political voice, posing a greater balance of power for the government in Khartoum. Such advantages for the South were seen in the North as threats to the status quo.54 President Numeiry also faced internal pressure from those groups that supported the implementation of Shari’a law throughout the country.55 Where the Addis Ababa Agreement assured the South religious freedom, this would be undermined if Shari’a were imposed. Further tensions emerged with the discovery of oil in the Southern region in 1976, four years after the Addis Ababa Agreement was signed. The Southern government was not involved with the decisions concerning oil exploration and was left out of the negotiations with the international oil companies, Chevron and Total.56 Numeiry’s power to control the economic benefits of the production of oil in the South, and therefore in

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Sudan Conflict History

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Sudan, was greatly limited by the Agreement and he decided to override the provisions.57 Accordingly, many commentators consider it was the discovery of oil that led to the dissolving of the Addis Ababa Agreement in 1983 and continued to be a motivation for violence thereafter. Oil was not the only resource that became an issue in the 1970s. The scarcity of water was causing anxiety for both Sudan and Egypt after experiencing the lowest levels of water ever recorded in the Nile.58 The Jonglei Canal was proposed in 1974 to the High Executive Council and was pitched as a necessary measure in order to meet agricultural needs in both Sudan and Egypt.59 Construction on the project began in 1978 in the Southern area of Jonglei on the eastern side of the Sudd, the area of swampy conditions in the White Nile.60 It was already apparent to the South before construction began that the Jonglei Canal would be a catalyst for imposing Northern domination.61 Contention built on a lack of Southern representation to the opposition of the canal project. The North’s full intentions with the Jonglei Canal were under suspicion, as well as why Southern officials approached the canal project with passive agreement.62 The desire for control of the South’s natural resources, oil, and water, justified fears of Northern exploitation.63 Aside from imposing Northern domination, the oil revenues have also allowed the government of Sudan to further finance the conflict with the South.64 The 11 years of the Addis Ababa Agreement did not bring much needed development and reconstruction to the region.65 It was to this economic underdevelopment that many parties were arguing for the disablement of the Addis Ababa Agreement. As Duffield notes, ‘it must also be realised that ending the war will do little to change the violent political economy that characterises Sudan and the subordinate and exploited position that Southerners occupy within it’.66 While ending the war may have brought an end to immediate violence, it did little to address the root causes.

Second Civil War 1983–2005 In June 1983 Numeiry decided to dissolve the Addis Ababa Agreement, seen by many as the direct cause of renewed hostilities as the start of

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the Second Civil War.67 In dissolving the Agreement, the Numeiry government was able to proceed with their ‘decentralisation’ plan for three regions of the South in June 1983.68 Shortly after, in September, Numeiry cut short promises of religious freedom implementing Islamic law throughout the whole of the country.69 Numeiry did this without the consent of the South and in doing so went against the Addis Ababa Agreement.70 In an effort to strengthen the implementation of Shari’a, Numeiry put into action a state of emergency in April 1984, closing the University of Khartoum, jailing opposition leaders, and banning protests.71 The enforcement of Shari’a in the whole of Sudan brought to the forefront the issue of religious difference and further complicated the relations between the North and the South that many considered a political one.72 These political policies only added fuel to the fire for the war starting again in the south.73 July 1983, shortly after the dissolution of the Addis Ababa Agreement, saw the start of the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement and Army (SPLM/A) by Colonel John Garang.74 He outlined the goals of the movement as focusing on the unity of Sudan and stressed that the movement was not a Southern movement towards independence.75 In response to the government’s Jonglei Canal project as well as the exploration for oil in the Southern region, the SPLA specifically targeted both of these Northern initiatives. By 1984 both endeavours were brought to a halt as the SPLA launched their attacks.76 Although the South was blessed with these natural resources that could possibly allow for further development, these resources instead complicated the South’s stride towards peace by attracting international interference.77 As Egypt had invested heavily in the Jonglei Canal and Western governments were interested in Sudan’s oil reserves, the South had little control as these parties continued to negotiate with, and further legitimise, the government in Khartoum.78 In contrast to the First Civil War, the Second Civil War involved many areas outside the three southern provinces of Equatoria, Bahr el-Ghazal, and Upper Nile.79 As grievances with the central government spread to other regions, so did the support for the SPLA.80

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Sudan Conflict History

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Through 1988–9 the SPLA were able to achieve significant and farreaching victories as their popularity grew.81 Nigeria and the government in Khartoum convened the May–June 1992 Abuja talks in hopes of declaring a ceasefire but the issue of self-determination was not on the agenda.82 The primary issues for discussion were those associated with identity, and guaranteeing equal rights.83 The more Khartoum insisted on an Islamic state, the more the SPLM was pushed towards the option of self-determination.84 Although the Abuja talks produced little progress for the SPLM, they were able to gain international sympathy.85 A year later in April 1993, the Abuja II conference continued the talks started the year before; however during that year the war had escalated. The SPLM still argued for a secular state and maintained that the government’s policy of Shari’a was unacceptable, claiming that if it was declared the supreme law by the government, then it would override all other policies of religious freedom.86 Even if Shari’a was limited to the North, Southerners who moved north for economic opportunities would not be free from its application.87 While peace talks were taking place in Nigeria, the fighting continued. Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that from the years 1992–4 both the government of Sudan and the SPLA violated rules of war in their conduct. HRW found that the government of Sudan carried out killings, the burning of villages, looting, and indiscriminate bombing.88 In an effort to take control of SPLA-held areas in Bahr el-Ghazal, the government of Sudan used these tactics against civilians.89 Witness testimonies claimed that the government bombed Kapoeta and Torit in 1992, not in an effort to target the SPLA, but to target the Dinka and those who supported the SPLA.90 ‘Resort to tribalism, starvation, indiscriminate bombing, and other atrocities against Southern civilians revealed anew the hollowness of the Northern parties’ nationalist pretensions.’91 Growing from Southern suspicion, the North’s intent on mistreating the South became internationally recognised. The SPLA were also found in violation of the rules of war by participating in targeting civilians, including those of the South.92 A report issued by the HRW found that the SPLA engaged in pillaging in order to sustain themselves, as well as the destruction of civilian property.93

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Ultimately, the Abuja talks were a failure, and war would continue for another decade, making it the longest civil war in African history.

Causes of the Second Civil War While the immediate catalysts leading to the Second Civil War are apparent, its underlying causes and the reasons for its longevity are less straightforward and are hotly debated. Although Collins has the opinion that the half-century of conflict between the North and the South was largely historic and cultural, he attributes the onset of the Second Civil War to the implementation of Shari’a law and the disregard for the Southern government. Whilst others would summarise, ‘underlying the South–North conflict therefore are two broad and opposing political principles: that of the absolute national uniformity demanded by the Muslim–Arabicised elite and that of a democratically decentralised government, reflecting the diversity of the country, held primarily by Southerners’.94 How these factors played out in forms of power and development fuelled the continuation of the Second Civil War. In a 1995 UN report on human rights in Sudan, it was observed that slavery and abduction were in operation under the authority of the Sudan government.95 The issue of slavery continued throughout the Second Civil War. Beyond economic issues, the motivations of slavery are to integrate and overpower the culture of the south as well as to reinforce their subservient position.96 Jok claims that, different from the First Civil War, since 1983 the Northerners have used the tactic of forced slavery in Central and South Sudan.97 The use of slavery he claims was not an accident of war but an intentional tool used by the North in order to unravel the South’s cohesion and stability.98 Humanitarian Engagement Throughout the 1980s many humanitarian groups became involved with providing aid to Sudan; including OXFAM, United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), World Vision, and Doctors Without Borders (MSF).99 Operation Lifeline Sudan began in April 1989 to provide humanitarian aid to help those southern areas

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experiencing famine. Although Operation Lifeline Sudan was initially successful, the Islamic military government led by Brigadier Umar Hassan al-Bashir were in opposition to allowing any humanitarian agencies to operate in the South.100 In considering the role of humanitarian aid, Duffield’s view is not that the involvement of aid is itself the issue, but rather the attitudes in which the assistance is carried out. ‘In the case of Northern Sudan, the evidence presented here suggests that during the course of the 1990s, UN agencies, donor governments and NGOs, albeit largely unintentionally, complemented state aims and facilitated the desocialisation and subordination of displaced Southerners.’101 In other words, by not focusing on the social and political needs of the Southerners, the international community simply undermined their position further. By 1992, the government expelled the UN and many international humanitarian groups out of parts of the Southern region. It was evident that the government of Sudan was increasing its suspicion and control over aid agencies. The government of Sudan expelled the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 1992 under suspicions that they were assisting the SPLA and helping them recruit.102 Subsequent aid involvement with the former child soldiers was limited up until 2005.

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed on 9 January 2005 brought to an end Africa’s longest running civil war and granted South Sudan a large degree of autonomy, with a referendum for secession scheduled for 2011.103 Under the terms of the agreement, oil wealth from the southern districts would be split fifty-fifty with the North, while Islamic law is restricted to the North and is then voted on by each assembly. The support for this peace treaty came from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and a consortium of donor countries. Even following this agreement, North–South tensions still remained. In October 2007, the SPLM withdrew from the government

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of national unity, accusing the central government of violating the terms of the CPA – particularly its failure to withdraw over 15,000 troops from southern oilfields. Following an agreement on a timetable for withdrawal of troops across the border, and the provision of funding for a census, the SPLM announced on the 13 December 2007 that it was rejoining the government. The withdrawal of troops finally took place on the 8 January 2008. The subsequent state of politics in Southern Sudan is outside the confines of this book.

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CHAPTER T WO NGO s ASSISTING CHILD SOLDIER S IN SOUTHER N SUDAN

This chapter explores how Southern Sudanese child soldiers are conceptualised by those working to assist them. This chapter will examine the testimonies of humanitarian workers, government officials, as well as community leaders, in an effort to deconstruct both their perceptions and preconceptions. By understanding such conceptualisations of child soldiers, this chapter will be able to draw out any inconsistencies. This will then be used as a platform for considering any weaknesses or gaps in the approach taken by the NGO community towards child soldiers. In the 33 face-to-face interviews conducted with NGO workers, this research sought to investigate the opinions these groups and individuals had on the experience and beliefs of the child soldiers of Southern Sudan (see figure 2.1).104 The pool of interviewees encompasses groups ranging from UNICEF to the Diocese of Rumbek and the University of Juba; however they will all be referred to using the term ‘NGOs’ in order to simplify the referencing.105

Critique of the NGOs’ Approach In order to consider new methodologies we first need to qualify the faults of current approaches. From field observations, and documented testimonies of former child soldiers, this research found that child-oriented

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The Children of War

Organisation

Priorities

Interviews

Save the Children (United Kingdom)

Child rights (based on CRC), child protection, education

2

Save the Children (Sweden)

Child rights (based on CRC), child protection, education

4106

World Vision International

Advocacy: child rights, peace and conflict, education, economic justice

2

Pact

Livelihood, natural resource management, and peace building

1

International Rescue Committee

Protecting human rights, postconflict development, resettlement services, advocacy, rehabilitation

2

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

DDR, Child protection

7107

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Crisis prevention and recovery, DDR

1

United Nations Mission in the DDR, human rights, gender Unit: Sudan (UNMIS) DDR for female combatants

3

University of Juba

Centre for Peace and Development Studies

1

Southern Sudan Disarmament Demobilisation Reintegration Commission

Sudanese personnel working with DDR

6108

Southern Sudan War Veterans Association

Assists veterans over the age of 18

2

Diocese of Rumbek

Elevated in 1974

Total

2 33

Figure 2.1 List of Organisations Interviewed

development programmes take on a greater protective and dominating role, which often binds children into a muted, victimised role. This research documented a gap between the agency exercised by the former child soldier during the conflict and the level of agency assumed by NGOs working on the topic, as well as a gap in their understanding of the former child soldiers’ motivations for joining the struggle. The methodological approach researchers take is linked and structured by their theoretical approach. If a researcher does not embrace the value of the input of a child to their research then the methods to their research are stunted. How one conceptualises a child will

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NGOs and Child Soldiers in Sudan

19

determine the approach of their research. Equally, the method must align with the goals of the research. So in practice, if an organisation’s goals were to value and help children, it would be conflicting for their programmes not to actively engage children. To value a child is also to respect their individuality, ideas, and political agency, so if an organisation views a child as someone who is capable of possessing valuable insight, then the organisation should put in place the necessary structure to involve children. The conceptualisation must go beyond the victim, irrational, helpless child in order to form an interaction with the child that is rich, valuable, and multi-dimensional. Sometimes the best solution to a problem is the simplest. And the same is true regarding innovations in child-focused research. The most important method is to actively engage children in the research conducted on them. The most valuable source of knowledge or insight into the research on children is children themselves. This does not work to discredit the benefits from the involvement of adults but calls for a more harmonic partnership between the two. Limits of an ‘International Approach’ What is thought of as an ‘international approach’ or ‘international policy’ is not necessarily the healthiest way to go about dealing with children from conflicts originating from around the world. The level of uniformity in the international approach is far too high to allow any deviation or exploration of alternative approaches. To agree on international principles, such as ‘children should be valued’ or ‘children should not serve in armed conflict’, is a much looser level of cooperation than to spell out each strategy of the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) process in an area of conflict. Admittedly, international NGOs and the UN must work together and maintain communication; however, this research found that the end result of the DDR implementation has suffered because there is not a high enough level of independence among the international NGOs. Furthermore, the exploration into the issue of child soldiers should be taken to the level of the field worker in order to facilitate the production of effective policies. Once the policy for a country was developed, those implementing it on the ground felt shut out from contributing their ideas.

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As well as involving the NGO worker in the development of a programme, an organisation should also be asking the children what input they have about the interview processes or research they are involved in. This serves to constantly update and refresh NGOs’ approach to the DDR process. It might be obvious, but just to ask ‘what questions do you think a researcher should ask a former child soldier’ might yield some insight into how to best research children. Although the international community marks the age of 18 as the age of adulthood, the average age that the former child soldiers interviewed felt that they had reached adulthood was 15 and some as young as 11. Many determining factors came into play when they determined at what age they felt they were adults. Most felt like an adult at about the time they were responsible for themselves or other children younger than themselves. This research does not necessarily bring into question which age is most appropriate to be the legal age limit nor should that be the focus of discussion. Rather, this research argues that when an age limit is set, it brings a host of preconceived notions to those who fall below it. The assumed characteristics of children include victim, helpless, and underdeveloped intellectually and emotionally. While it is acknowledged that childhood is about development, to assume specific limitations removes the possibility that children are able-minded individuals who have their own interpretations, observations, and input. Physically taking a child out of an armed conflict does not require nearly as much involvement or interaction with children when compared to taking armed conflict out of the mentality of children. The research methods used by an NGO, whether superficial or extensive, can determine how successful children are in their rehabilitation. Research that is extensive serves both the researcher by enabling them to better serve their subjects with a greater understanding and also the children by being given the opportunity for self-expression. Programmes that result from extensive research will be tailored, historically and geographically appropriate, and involve children in their foundation. To research children who have experienced war, this research had to keep an open mind and not let preconceptions about child behaviour

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dictate perspective. As a researcher, it is important to know one’s limitations and acknowledge where input is limited in understanding the situation of the child. The interpretation of the interviews also involved the researcher remaining aware of their limitations as someone who has not been in war. The research collected in Sudan can be used to inform not only other former child soldiers on what they all went through but also to educate the population as a way to prevent child recruitment being used in future conflicts. Research should be thought of as a way to communicate, not to gather and store information for a select few to utilise. This research’s contribution to theoretical innovations is to take a holistic approach to dealing with children. We should serve children with complete care and consideration of their psychological, physical, as well as emotional needs. A holistic approach should be taken regardless of whether it is within a research setting or an NGO role. Working with children, and not on the topic of children, should be the main focus of reconstruction strategies. Involving ‘future decision makers’ so that they can be a part of the social and political development of their community is fundamental, especially in a war-torn environment. The evidence provided demonstrates that political engagement was a vital part of former child soldiers’ experience, development, and participation. Furthermore, this finding should be incorporated into reconstruction strategies. Much of the literature on child soldiers in Southern Sudan groups together countries and issues, causing the conflicts’ individual natures to blur. The omission of context or multi-dimensional stories causes a lack of understanding and distance between the reader and the child soldiers’ experiences. What results is a sense of reporting rather than engagement. Therefore, it is argued that in order to develop a higher quality of analysis, the existing literature needs to conduct in-depth research similar to the testimonies in this book. Motivations There were a wide range of responses from the former child soldiers regarding if they felt they had been forced to join the SPLA

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or not. This wide range of responses is not demonstrated in the literature on child soldiers in Southern Sudan. There were several sources that claimed that the child soldiers were forced but failed to explore the issue further.109 These sources do not establish what is implied with the term ‘force’ from the perspective of the child soldier, and lack the exploration of other circumstances to joining. Furthermore, words like ‘kidnapped’,110 ‘warehousing young boys’111 or ‘abduction’112 are used without direct testimony and create one-dimensional accounts of the child soldier experience. The example below demonstrates not only the blurring of countries and points in time, but also the motivations of each group of child soldiers. Sweeping statements, such as the example below, do not serve to increase the understanding of any one case study or to reveal their specific complexities. ‘They are now or have been coerced into joining government armed forces, for example, in Burma, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Ethiopia; or opposition movements, as in Mozambique, Angola, Sri Lanka, and Sudan. Forced recruitment is practised because of shortages of soldiers, institutionalised discrimination against certain sectors of society, a perceived need to control the population, or ideological vigour. Some groups also have discovered that young, impressionable children can be turned into the fiercest fighters through brutalisation, exposure to and involvement in violence.’113 The motivations of the child soldiers in Southern Sudan have been reduced to the issue of force in the excerpt below. ‘Child soldiers in Africa may hold the responsibilities of an adult, and think of themselves as taking on adult roles if military obligations come into force at an earlier age then is usual. In 1992 UNICEF reported that in Sudan, 12,500 boys aged between nine and sixteen were kidnapped by rebel fighters to be trained as soldiers. In this case the conscription criterion was two molar teeth.’114

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Relationship NGO Workers Have with Their Organisation This research begins with a consideration of the relationship the NGO workers have with their organisation. In an effort to conceptualise the NGO worker, this book examines how they are limited by their organisation and in what ways they interact with its power structure. The testimonies will reveal whether or not the NGO workers feel that they have the power to create change within their role or within their organisation. ‘And the figures being told to me, I’ve never seen a document that substantiates it, but the whole approach is supposed to be eighty percent reintegration by the local authorities and twenty percent as a top-up by the NGOs. It’s very much the other way around at the moment and that’s the thing that we’ve got to fight off. We get pressure from the donor side to do more, but the more we do the less the local authorities are going to take on that responsibility. There is already a huge level of dependence in Southern Sudan on the international community from the people and that has got to be broken.’115 Some NGO workers felt that at times their work as an organisation was actually ‘doing more harm than good’.116 Many of these issues, although existing within organisations, are actually patterns in the greater NGO community and should be addressed as such. The flaws observed cannot be pinned to individuals, but rather what needs to occur is a paradigm shift within the entire development community. Some NGO workers who were unhappy with the way they conducted their work believed that their suggestions would be ignored and overlooked by their superiors. They explained that with their NGO, being as large and controlled as it is, it was difficult for one person on the ground to make a difference. One such example was Frank Kashandof, a consultant DDR officer who had been working for UNICEF for three years and in Sudan for six months.117 When asked if he thought he could make any changes to the system at UNICEF regarding the policies on child

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demobilisation, he said that he did not feel his recommendations would be heard or implemented within the organisation. Despite this, Frank, and the other respondents, came to the conclusion that if there was no way to change the system, all they could do was to be a part of the system. When asked about the process of programme development within the NGOs, the majority would explain how their organisation did not have its own but simply adapted and followed those policies and procedures outlined by UNICEF. For example, UNICEF developed the national DDR process and its procedures were followed by other organisations. The non-UNICEF NGO workers felt that it was outside their control to participate in making changes to the procedures. At the same time, UNICEF employees such as Frank felt powerless to influence central policy. There was an inherent marginalisation of NGOs, which consequently caused some apathy on the part of the NGO workers. An important issue is whether or not policy is effective on the ground. However, NGO workers are preoccupied with the clarity of the CPA as a legal document, rather than the details of its implementation in the field. As long as the CPA is clear and simple then further analysis is not needed. ‘I don’t think the policies themselves are what needs to be changed, I mean if we’re talking about the CPA it’s just clearly defined that they need to be demobilised and that’s the point that we need to focus on is implementation and it’s the will and support.’118 Although further research was cited as necessary on the topic of child soldiers, especially in the area of reintegration, many NGO workers did not see how their organisation was pursuing this. When questioned about how their organisation could improve the policies in place, many could not identify a weakness. This view was clearly articulated by Victoria Ngali, of the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS): ‘Everything on paper right now is very clear and very straightforward in the best interest of the children.’119

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When asked ‘what has been neglected to be researched about the topic of child soldiers,’ she responds: ‘No, no, there’s so much written about child solders.’120 Victoria goes on to list reports and resolutions produced by the UN. After claiming that there was plenty of literature on the topic of child soldiers, she later admits: ‘I think for the specific case of the Sudan is the realities on the ground. Like I said before, there’s some fantastic strategies that have been developed and they worked perfect out there but the case of Sudan is a bit peculiar with things . . . what I’m calling peculiarities of Southern Sudan, these are things that we need to focus on developing for policies, working with modalities, the whole DDR process and the social reintegration of children in particular.’121 With four years of experience working on the issue of child soldiers, Emmanuel Riko of Save the Children UK further elaborates on the challenges: ‘Very limited has been done I would say to the child soldiers and then the thing is you find that at the national level . . . ah . . . we have the commission, yeah, for the demobilisation and organisations also are working to see that done properly but still . . . you find that . . . coverage is not given when demobilisation is done. For example, the media . . . or international community, community doesn’t know much about when it is carried out for example and the community the Sudanese first of all when it happens it happens in certain barracks and somebody in Juba he will not know and at the same time somebody outside the world doesn’t know also in South Sudan while to me its supposed to be given much publicity and yeah when the process is carried out.’122 Placing the focus on the organisation’s standpoint regarding what publicity they are lacking, removes the priority of focusing on the child soldiers.

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Policy Formation and the Role of Child Soldiers Are humanitarian actions necessarily based on the needs of children? Do some actions of NGOs serve publicity more than they do the children? These are the questions the research arrived at after interviewing former child soldiers who were involved as adults with helping NGOs in their campaigns to educate the world on the situation in Sudan. There was an impression made on some former child soldiers that the NGOs were there for employment and notoriety of being in a high profile location, rather than the effectiveness of the programmes. The research noted that many NGO workers in Sudan were spending most of their days within either the compound of their office or their accommodation. Their exposure to the Sudanese people was often limited to those employed by their organisation. This gave the impression that NGO workers were not there to serve the Sudanese people but rather to serve their employers. Even if this observation is only a false impression, it is still crucial what impression organisations make on the local population and should be addressed.

Policy Formation An understanding of how NGOs form their policies, helps us to appreciate how their engagement with child soldiers is framed on the ground. Tim Hayden-Smith, Project Manager for Pact, offered some insight on how this could be done: ‘I guess ask the children what they want, which is a very broad thing to say but rather than perhaps designing a program without involving the children at all, without asking them “is this what you’d like us to do”, so you are not just imposing on them some framework you’ve developed in some office somewhere or that you’ve taken from another country or context that may not be specific to Southern Sudan. So I think if they could engage in developing a programme or policy as much as they can with the children when it comes to rolling it out then everyone’s on the same page.’ However, the reality is described differently below: ‘UNICEF is doing a lot of work with child soldiers and they’re trying to link together with the DDR Commission, the Southern Sudan DDR Commission. And I think when you hear about the policies they have

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on paper they sound great, there’s been problems and obviously they’ve developed them over the years in other countries and from other experiences. The problem here though is actually translating that policy into action and in a Southern Sudan context things take a very long time here, things are very slow, things often go off track and I think that’s where the problem lies, so its not necessarily the policy but its in how the policy is actually implemented and carried out.’ ‘I guess I come back to what I was saying before the impact or the influence of trauma on children. I don’t feel that that is being adequately addressed, I don’t feel that people are including that in part of their programme focus, its all about getting the children out and providing alternative livelihood opportunities for them and almost pretending once they are in some kind of rehabilitation program and the whole thing never happened but I think that trauma is a long term problem, it requires a long term sustained engagement to solve it, which isn’t always there.’123 In my discussions it became evident that many of the policies being implemented towards child soldiers had been designed outside of Sudan and in varying contexts. ‘We have policies designed let’s say all the way from Stockholm, Sweden and the Chairman, of course there’s a lot of contribution from other regions, I mean Save The Children Sweden is working in very many parts of the world and most of this it has the program of working with children who have been child soldiers before and so a lot of materials have been designed, a lot of, much of the policy has been developed before.’124 ~ ‘There’s some fantastic strategies that have been developed and they worked perfect out there but the case of Sudan is a bit peculiar with things and what necessarily works out there need not necessarily work in here.’125 In addition, there was also a real question of how engaged the policy makers had been with their subject matter, child soldiers, during the policy-making process.

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‘We see there is a lack of child participation in the policies that are being designed. Some of the policies are being designed at the higher level, which has very little participation of the community from where the child even comes from. So you will see a policy put in place and it is not addressing the problem that are facing the children.’126 There exists a disconnect between the discourse used in their organisation’s goals and the realisation of those goals on the ground. On the most basic level, the phrase, ‘to help a child,’ could be interpreted in so many ways, and it could even be interpreted in ways that actually hinder the children it is trying to ‘help’. Although the whole point of organisations working with children is to declare that children are a part of society who should not be ignored, by not involving them in how they are cared for, organisations are marginalising their social and political voice. An analogy that comes to mind is the story of Guatemalan mothers running into the hills with their children during the civil war to seek refuge from armed attackers. When the children would cry from fright, the mothers would try to quiet them by holding a hand over their mouths tighter and tighter until no sound could be heard by the attackers, and in doing so, some children died of suffocation. In trying to protect them from harm, the mothers were taking away the very thing that they were trying to hold sacred, their life. In dealing with policies it is too easy for NGOs to lose the focus that what is being handled are people’s lives. Development programmes often view the ‘big picture’ of the child soldier issue as an international issue, but in focusing on the big picture, they lose sight of the importance of it being addressed with a programme developed locally. When asked about the level of participation that children have in creating the policies in operation by NGOs, some NGO workers would often make reference to the 2004 UNICEF Youth Forum in Egypt. The workers interviewed had not attended the forum nor did they know of any other forum since then. They seemed quite satisfied that because there once existed a forum that incorporated youth, that justified the policies of today and qualified as having involved children

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in their programmes. Their participation with children did not seem an important part of conducting their job, nor did they express much interest in pursuing the answers to many of my questions regarding the perceptions of children. ‘And besides UNICEF has been supporting a lot of youth forums around, so there are youth, a lot of children forums who have been travelling a lot of other countries like they went to Cairo, some also went to Switzerland to see the process of other youth and children.’127 ~ ‘I know for example just before the UN summit on children in 2003, there were big process in different parts of the world. To bring together voices of children, to let the children speak with the high level ministries for example, the process happened, the thing is we cannot say that it’s a perfect process because so many things happening and I understand also that in many cases its just for the publicity, for the media but at least people are trying their best, thinking that this is not only adult’s work this is related to the children, this is for the interest of the children.’128 Although each organisation has a unique purpose, motto, or mission, as demonstrated above, each relies heavily on UNICEF to guide its policies. For all of them to resort to the same plan as UNICEF is for them to surrender their uniqueness and purpose. This also creates a controlling, stifling environment for DDR operations. This in turn limits the amount of exploration to test which approach operates most effectively. If the implementation of DDR is solely left up to UNICEF, this limits the growth and progression of a better operating system. It also serves to limit the independence of NGOs, and their involvement with the children, since they are deterred from doing youth forums or their own research. This structure encourages passivity as well as a lack of NGO involvement in the development and interpretation of policies. What appear to be an ethos of cooperation and a sharing of information is actually an environment of control.

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As the following testimony demonstrates, such approaches result in challenges to the positive impact NGOs are able to achieve. ‘Let me say that’s one of the main issues that we have, we as a mission but I think the UN mission has the political mandate without the resources to implement the project. At the UN agencies including UNICEF and other, including other NGOs have got mandates and the resources to implement projects in particular benefiting former child soldiers. We’ve shifted from a, the NGOs and UNICEF in particular are promoting the community based approach to reintegrating former child soldiers and without necessarily digging more to find out what does it mean for a single child soldier who has been demobilised. Of course the community based approach means they will build the schools in the community where children were chased, to prevent children from feeling isolated, former child soldiers from being isolated but there have been rarely little evidence to show that children are benefiting from that, to the contrary, we have evidence of former child soldiers becoming street children and returning to the army because they don’t have reintegration opportunities and so there is really little change that has been done on children and morally it becomes a problem.’129 Critique of NGOs’ Purpose or Goal An analysis of the ‘international approach’, conceptualised as the practice of blanket policies to address widespread issues, will be used as a way of demonstrating the role, or lack thereof, of the organisations interviewed. An examination of the NGOs’ relationship with the former child soldiers will reveal the effectiveness and appropriateness of the ‘international approach’ in addressing the child-soldier issue. This research will assess the opinions regarding the value of researching the former child soldiers of Southern Sudan. What is thought of as an ‘international approach’ or ‘international policy’ is not necessarily the healthiest way to go about dealing with children from conflicts originating from around the world. To see an approach as interchangeable between countries and conflicts is to wrongfully paint them with the same brush. As staff are transferred from one conflict to another, there is a

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reliance on the familiarity of the international policies like the CRC. This familiarity in turn creates an allowance for the level of field knowledge these organisational workers are demanded to exercise. Consuming the agendas of the workers is not the individuality or historical context of the child soldiers, but rather the adherence to international guidelines. This led the research to question the very role of NGOs themselves. Timothy Kilimo, of Save the Children Sweden, believes the role of the NGOs is to ‘teach’ communities in Southern Sudan that children should not be in the army. ‘The NGOs pushing in of course the standard, the international standards in child rights and there is also a community that has also beliefs, cultural beliefs and other things and there is the political will of the people of each and every country like now in Southern Sudan and if all the players come to an understanding that children should not be involved and child soldiers who have been forcefully put into the army should be demobilised with an immediate urgency.’130 To assume that children were systematically forced into the army by their parents or communities is baseless and simplifies the complex nature of why children were in the army in the first place.

Relationship NGO Workers Have with Child Soldiers In order to comprehend how former child soldiers are theoretically and methodologically approached by NGOs, it is necessary to explore the relationship between the NGO workers and the child soldiers. I examine the relations between the NGO workers and the child soldiers they seek to assist, and assess the attitudes and beliefs expressed towards the pertinent issues. This research refers to the NGO workers’ limited viewpoint and knowledge of the former child soldiers as a stunted conceptualisation. The analysis of their stunted conceptualisation focuses on its causes and subsequent effects on the relations these individuals have with child soldiers. Through this the research will explore the

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awareness of civil society with respect to the context of war and the environment children experienced during wartime. Understanding of Child Soldier An inaccurate portrayal of the Southern Sudanese child soldiers’ experiences inhibits the understanding of, and consequently the care provided to, the child soldiers. The statement below is from a DDR Officer at UNICEF: ‘Children went into slavery and the families kind of encouraged it because they would have one less mouth to feed, they would go into slavery for six months or one year, come back, instead of being fed, and then they can come back home. Everyone’s a winner.’131 Such a view cannot be supported by the testimonies gathered or the literature written on the Second Southern Sudanese Civil War, and thus reveals a troubling understanding of the children of Southern Sudan. A key motivation of child soldiers to join the SPLA, often cited by NGO workers, is the issue of poverty. Although there is a claim that these child soldiers were living in poverty, the cause of the poverty was not acknowledged. ‘A lot of these children are coming from such impoverished backgrounds whereas the SPLA represented a higher economic standard than where they had actually come from before they had become child soldiers.’132 When the NGOs spoke of child poverty, its influencing factors such as the Northern government stealing livestock or burning down villages were not raised. This simplistic view of ‘poverty’ as the NGO worker sees it strips the context of any political grounding. This lack of context highlights an area of concern. The research noted a tendency of NGO workers to revert to either their past professional experience with former child soldiers in other countries or to a generalised ‘international’ concept of what a child is regardless of context. From this observation, it was found that generalising among

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groups of children, such as ‘child soldiers,’ has limitations to serving as a methodological approach to researching children. In the interviews, many NGO workers simplified the thoughts of former child soldiers by describing their ideas as heavily influenced or completely forced or involuntary. For example, Bishop Mazzolari describes children as being ‘followers’ who follow blindly.133 This consequently takes away the former child soldiers’ possession, ownership, and motivation to have these ideas, all aspects fundamental to their agency. Several NGO workers described situations where a child would simply follow their friends into joining the struggle. They would describe how children might want to join out of revenge and label this desire as irrational. This sheep-like or irrational mentality assumed by the NGO workers attempts to remove the complexity of a child’s experience and interaction within the context of war. This serves to create a popular view of the child soldier as a ‘victim’, an image that often stifles what decisions a ‘victim’ might make in their life. Any attempt to explore the decisions a child might make is overridden by the fact that they are both a child and victim. As the research will demonstrate in the next section, this can have serious practical consequences. Reccurring theoretical patterns in the research have focused around the issues of rational and irrational thought, and age versus adulthood. When NGO workers were questioned on the difference between the motivations of a child and an adult to joining the struggle, most responded by mentioning that adults had a well developed sense of rational thinking, whilst a child lacked the ability to think logically. It is difficult to judge what was irrational under such traumatic conditions, especially from the perspective of an NGO worker or researcher who has not experienced a war environment. ‘I think adults have the sense of reasoning and know the right from the wrong they know why they are joining the military probably its because they are going for personal wealth I think. Children if they are not recruited and they just join the military voluntarily it’s because of maybe peer pressure or the way they see things going. Children get attracted to

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things, so maybe they see people in the cars, running up and down and they think it’s something good they need to do.’134 When asked about the differences between the motivations of an adult to join the struggle and the motivations of a child, the interviews revealed a severance between what a child would experience and what an adult would experience. As many NGO workers would describe what forces or influences a child to join, there was denial that an adult would have susceptibility to such things as social or peer pressure, or situations that would force a child to participate in the struggle. Experiences such as social pressure and basic needs were ignored as issues that an adult might have and overridden by ideas such as ‘political choices’, self-awareness of reasoning, or personal gain. It was clear that the adult was described as having rational thought while the child lacked the ability to think rationally. Another motivation mentioned for a child to join the army was an attraction towards the army as an exciting image or the thought that war was a game. The perceptions expressed in these interviews represent an oversimplification of what a child is capable of intellectually or emotionally. Furthermore, another contradiction that was revealed in the interviews was over the issue of maturity. ‘As a child, a child needs somebody to make decisions for him/her because a child below the age of seventeen has not reached a certain standard of trying to decide for him/herself and this is why the SPLA Government decided to demobilise them from the military because they are not mature enough to decide for themselves, so they need people to decide for them.’135 If the argument is made that children are immature enough not to want to leave the army, then at the same time it could be argued that the lack of maturity also applies to the adults placing them in the army or keeping them there. A contradiction that often came up was that children were capable of choosing education but not being mature enough to choose the

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army. The capacity to choose was often measured by the lack of awareness of what war or the army is like. The research hesitates to suggest that many who join the army, regardless of their age, could imagine what war is like before they enter it. NGO workers failed to acknowledge the constant exchange of interaction that children have with the world around them. ‘As children they just get what the elders are telling them and they just follow their elders as such is what I would see is what are their motives.’136 As all of the NGO workers interviewed were employed by organisations that promoted noble goals and set out to generally better the lives of children, it leads this research to question why these goals have not been realised by the employees on the ground. Sometimes it is forgotten that the former child soldiers had grown up in the context of war, witnessed violence, injustice, and racial hatred. In the opinions of the NGO workers, the former child soldiers’ political awareness is often limited to witnessing a specific event rather than an accumulation of thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Commenting on when children experience the war environment around them, NGO workers assumed a lack of understanding and ability on the child’s part to associate meaning to what was witnessed. When NGO workers summarise the experiences of children in war it is often limited to their father or relation dying, thus ignoring an entire community that the child engages with. ‘He looks at a father or a brother who is going to war and he’s supposed to support that person you see in a way it becomes like an enforcement agent to that person or to the brother or other relative. These are the two differences here. But at the end of day he comes and does the same thing that that person who he has been following to the bush is doing.’137 There is a limited awareness of former child soldiers’ experiences in relation to the struggle as well as their conditions during childhood.

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NGO Engagement with Former Child Soldiers ‘I have very minimal contact directly. We have staff on the ground that are doing their project implementation who work directly with the child soldiers on a weekly basis.’138 Although in the field, and therefore in close proximity to their subjects, many NGO workers often resorted to statistics when asked about child soldiers. They based their knowledge on reports in order to acquire enough information to serve in the field. The level of knowledge on the subject of child soldiers did not necessarily correlate with how long an NGO worker had been stationed in Sudan. The research found it commonplace for workers to maintain their perception of former child soldiers months after being stationed in Sudan. This was a result of not having any direct regular contact with the former child soldiers, not pursuing any knowledge on their own initiative, and not being given any guidance from their organisation as how to acquire a better understanding. It might seem unrealistic that every NGO worker would be conducting their own field research in order to gain their expertise, but the issue of disengagement and lack of direct involvement with the former child soldiers must be addressed and corrected. The problem with NGO workers assuming what a child might think or feel is that they are basing it on very limited exposure or none at all. They assimilate child with victim, irrational, and incapable. When the NGO workers have to operate with policies that they have no ability to critique, they are removed from making their policies more appropriate for children. The assumed perception of children that NGOs took on in the interviews does not help to understand children but rather works to create more distance to understanding. The less the child is involved in the research to develop policies, the less appropriate those policies will be for the children they are geared towards. There was an apparent lack of direct contact and involvement on the part of NGO workers with the former child soldiers. The total time spent in Sudan for NGO workers was often very short, which created a lack of understanding of the history, conflict, and cultural

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issues. A solution would be to have a course of introduction into the county in order to give context to their role in the development programme. However, a course should not work to communicate oversimplifications of history and culture but rather to create a springboard for further knowledge to be obtained. NGOs and the Context of War NGO workers’ limited perceptions of the context of war are not limited to the child soldiers. NGO workers’ conceptualisations regarding the environment of war limit their ability to create accurate judgement. Policy related to children in war is seen in a simplified nature: no war = no child soldiers. Without the chance of the first requirement, there is no possible resolution to the second. If children are motivated to fight because there is a struggle then the challenge for the NGOs is to end a conflict rather than to remove children from war’s environment. What are the chances for the international community to successfully ban children from war if the existence of war invites the use of children? However, if the motivation for children to participate in war was poverty then the ban on child soldiers is not going to remove these children. So what and who is the ban on children in armed conflict for? Is there any chance of it being adhered to in the context of war in an impoverished country? Q: What thought process do you think children go through in order to become a soldier? Whether forcibly recruited or they choose to do it. ‘If you go back to the -90s I think it was very simple. They were roaming the bush and “I want protection”, “I want to go the SPLA”, “I’ll get fed, I’ll get a roof over my head”. Simple thought process. “I want to be safe.’’ ’139 Q: So what would you say, a former child soldier might say was their first motivation, their primary motivation (to join SPLA)?

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‘Then again, I haven’t talked to enough child soldiers to actually know, I would like to talk to a child soldier to know.’140

Children’s Contribution ‘I’m glad you are raising very interesting questions because we need to explore more the area of the perception of the child soldiers themselves and I think that is very crucial if you really want to know more about the in-depth understanding of why children tend to go and get recruited as child soldiers, why they do that.’141 In order to address some of the gaps in knowledge regarding child soldiers, not only in academic literature but also out in the field, this research suggests that first we admit there is such a need for further research. Additionally, it argues that with gaps in knowledge this consequently influences the appropriateness of the policies regarding child soldiers. ‘Very little I’ve heard being said about the child soldiers in the SPLA or SPLM and even child soldiers recruited by the government forces during the war in Southern Sudan and I think that’s an area where I think a lot of people need to do a lot of research.’ ‘Most of the young people go and join simply because that’s the source of revenue for them, for earning their salary, for livelihood because many of the young people may not be able to get proper employment so the military becomes a sort of recruitment agency so long as livelihood are concerned but on the other side those guerrillas side again that little monetary incentive because they are volunteers and probably they may be forced because of the circumstances during the guerrilla warfare.’142 ~ ‘I don’t think we have done enough research. Specialised groups have come to search here and there. I think you’re making a much deeper study

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but some people have taken advantage of the situation maybe to write a nice book but to face the situation in many aspects of the life of Sudan is difficult.’143 ~ ‘The topic is actually neglected, that is why we fail to find more recommendation on how reintegration is to be handled even facing education. If many people had done research on it they should have actually informed various agencies and the government on the best practice that need to be done.’144 Despite all the support for further research to be conducted about the issue of child soldiers in Southern Sudan, the interview with Stuart Kefford, a Child DDR Officer for UNICEF, revealed an entirely different opinion. Before the interview questions were asked or the research was explained, Stuart commented that this research cannot add to the body of knowledge present on child soldiers and that he would not have time to read this report anyway. He said that the child soldier topic has already been fully explored and researched enough. This view was also echoed by others spoken to, as demonstrated by the testimony below: ‘I don’t think so far there’s been any study in regard to how the demobilised children actually got recruited in the first place.’ However, when I asked what has been neglected to be researched she goes on to say, ‘No, no, no, there’s so much written about child soldiers.’145 The discussions also highlighted a need for research to be case specific, as emphasised by the comments of Alpha Chabari below. ‘We are very interested in this and we get some information about child soldiers and demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration and rehabilitation and the pictures we tend to get are mostly from Western Africa not from Southern Sudan because very little has been documented about Southern Sudan and because of the nature of everything politics, infrastructure, all that and we need to develop very tailor-made, very locally

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decided programs and we need information for us to do that and sometimes we come in to implement and we don’t have the system to be able to get all the information that is available either in a more digestible manner and so this research if we could get feedback from you it would be perfect, it would be one of the things that we need to have the information and make better use of it.’146

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CHAPTER THR EE CHILD SOLDIER S OF SOUTHER N SUDAN

In reading through documents published by child-focused NGOs and books written about children’s experiences during warfare, I felt I was missing the voice of the child. I wondered how someone could publish a report about children and not quote them or even document coming into contact with their subject? The contradiction seemed glaring. The communication between the children who I wanted to research and me was hindered by the texts between us. By exploring Southern Sudanese children’s experiences during wartime, this research was in search of their perspective and capturing their participation with the SPLA in a holistic analysis. This chapter engages the 76 face-to-face interviews conducted with former child soldiers, of whom one was female.147 This research did not involve interviews with former child soldiers whilst they were under the age of 18 due to issues of sensitivity pertaining to the child soldiers and those responsible for them. Instead, this research involves interviews with former child soldier, who were over the age of 18, regarding their childhood. While this approach does not provide us with the raw ‘voice of the child’, it has allowed time for reflection, time for interviewees to process their trauma (or not) and to be able to articulate without direction. The experience of being a child soldier is something that continued to live with the interviewees – it does not go away at 18 and nor does

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their need for support. This research believes an investigation into the past experiences of the former child soldiers is a fundamental part of child-oriented research and programme development. The Grouping of Countries and Issues The literature on child soldiers in Southern Sudan lacks countryspecific accounts and instead delivers a list of countries that a particular problem applies to. Examining many issues and countries at once without specific comparisons does not help in understanding the distinctive nature of each case study of child soldiers. By grouping together many countries and issues, the literature is undermining the individualistic qualities of the child soldiers in Southern Sudan. The lumping of many countries into a single paragraph makes it difficult to distinguish which issue applies to which country.148 Addressing many countries at once creates a lack of in-depth examination into any one country and also obscures the distinguishing characteristics that each group of child soldiers has. Furthermore, the use of ‘Sudan’ as an example of a country that has child soldiers does not suitably separate the North and the South of the country, let alone further armed-group distinctions.149 The passages in this section also bring together different issues whilst addressing many countries at once. For example, the issue of force is different from drug use and should therefore be addressed separately if they are not being related to each other. The excerpts below demonstrate the blurring of issues and countries thus creating confusion between countries as well as a lack of country specific analysis. ‘An estimated 120,000 of 300,000 children worldwide fight in armed conflicts in Angola, Burundi, Congo-Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Uganda. Some children are recruited, others are abducted, and yet more are recruited once their caretakers have been abducted or their family structure has broken down.’150

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‘Instances in which children and youth are or have been coerced into joining government armed forces, for example, in Burma, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Ethiopia, or opposition movements, as in Mozambique, Angola, Sri Lanka, Sudan, are obvious examples of victimisation. But children and youth are not necessarily driven into conflict. Sometimes, as in Liberia, they are among the first to join armed groups; at other times, as in the Palestinian intifada in the Israeli occupied territories, they are primary catalysts of violent strife.’151 In addressing the issue of ‘victimisation,’ the insertion of Sudan on the list above does not serve to distinguish each case study of ‘victimisation’, thus oversimplifying the issue of ‘victimisation’ to its detriment. ‘Over the past decade, government forces in El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala and Myanmar, among others, have all conscripted children. In the 1980s, the Ethiopian army would kidnap boys of fifteen or younger from the villages and the poorest quarters of the cities, as well as from schools. Opposition movements in many countries have also seized children – as in Angola, Mozambique, Sri Lanka and the Sudan.’152 The listing of countries above removes the social and political context in which children were ‘seized’ by the opposition movements. It also fails to address how widespread, accepted and encouraged this ‘seizing’ was. The quote below brings to light the lack of distinguishing characteristics each case study is given and serves to overshadow the complex nature of the Sudanese civil war. Furthermore, the entry also removes political agency as a motivating factor for the child soldiers whilst failing to indicate which case study this applies to. ‘Use of the colonial boundaries that grouped different and sometimes antagonistic ethnic groups under the same flag and with unequal power and opportunity created the fodder for civil war and political instability. Notable civil wars broke out in Nigeria in the 1960s, Ethiopia in the 1970s, Sudan and Liberia in the 1980s, and Sierra Leone, Somalia, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1990s. Civil wars hurt children in many ways. They suffer psychosocial trauma

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when parents are killed. Children witness violence and suffer posttraumatic stress disorder. They also undergo forcible induction into armies as porters, cooks, prostitutes, and even soldiers. In nearly all of these cases, children become committed to these conflicts due to poverty and inequality, and not because of political ideology.’153 The entry below does not distinguish between the Northern government and the SPLA with the use of ‘Sudan’. In addition, who is committing the ‘abduction’ is not clear, whether it is the SPLA abducting their fellow Southerners or the Northern government. ‘The abduction of individuals and communities in conflict-torn societies such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Sudan has been common, leaving in its wake an epidemic of orphaned children. Some of these children are abducted themselves, and many others are recruited as child soldiers or forced to provide support to the war effort.’154 ~ ‘I have seen children in Sarajevo – beautiful children – whose lives have been transformed by the three-year Serb siege and constant shelling that started in the early 1990s. And in Mozambique, I’ve spoken to boys as young as nine – called ‘institutionalised children’ – who were captured by Renamo guerrillas and trained as assassins to kill their own parents. But as a group, Sudan’s Lost Boys are among the most badly wartraumatised children ever examined.’155 ~ ‘Ethnic tensions and power struggles over natural resources or wealth have led many sub-Saharan African countries into civil war, in which children suffer from the loss of production and some even become soldiers or workers to aid the war effort. Over 120,000 boys and girls in sub-Saharan Africa are estimated to be involved in armed conflicts, working as soldiers, porters, cooks, or sex slaves. Going back to the early 1990’s, international observers have noted children’s involvement in conflicts in Angola, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Democratic

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Republic of Congo, and Sudan. Children’s involvement in these conflicts has often blurred the lines between soldier and civilian, and between adult and child. Some children are forced to fight, such as the group of two hundred students who were abducted by a rebel group from a boarding school in Burundi in December of 2001, even after a new coalition government incorporating Hutus and Tutsis came to power one month earlier. In an environment such as Liberia, some children have lost their family members and volunteer to fight in order to eat. There are few alternatives. Child soldiers are often drugged to steel them for battles and to commit atrocities. Drugs become a reward and then a habit for these child soldiers.’156 What all of the entries above have in common is the lack of political engagement within not only the case study of Sudan but also with the issue of child soldiers. One of the main weaknesses of the literature was the depth of examination, which did not serve to strengthen the readers’ knowledge. This research found a lack of a case-specific approach with regard to Southern Sudan. The literature presented generalisations spanning countries, conflicts, and groups of child soldiers, specifically their circumstances and experiences. When referencing ‘Sudan’, the literature blurred the distinction between the Northern government and the SPLA. This research found little distinction made between the two groups’ objectives and motivations during the war. There was also an apparent lack of distinction between the two groups’ interest in the children of Southern Sudan. The relationship portrayed between the child soldiers and both the SPLA and the Northern government was a simplified dichotomy of victim and aggressor. Assumptions about child soldiers in the literature pertained to their limited role as a victim and the effects of their trauma. The literature on child soldiers in Southern Sudan did not focus on an interpretation determined by the child soldiers but rather the author. Representation of SPLA The accounts of the child soldiers’ experiences as well as the surrounding judgement are lacking context. Present in the literature is a

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dichotomy, setting an aggressive, premeditating SPLA against vulnerable children, which removes the interaction or relationship between the two. Below are some examples of how the SPLA are represented in the literature. ‘It was speculated that they had been removed from their families at a very young age by Sudanese rebel forces, the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), trying to ensure a future supply of fighters. The criterion for selection into this children’s militia was said by some reporters to be the presence of two molar teeth. Other reports said that the boys had been used as advance troops, to clear minefields.’157 There is also a mixing of the Northern government and the SPLA’s motivations and objectives.158 Furthermore, the relationship with the child soldiers is also not differentiated between the two groups. This point also relates to this chapter findings on the isolation that NGOs maintain within the community as well as with the former child soldiers. This perpetuates the lack of specific contextualisation in the literature and demonstrates how detailed knowledge is needed on the ground. ‘In conflict, children may be particularly susceptible to abduction and use in the slave trade. For example, since 1989 the Sudan People’s Liberation Army and the National Islamic Front (the militant Islamic regime in power in the South until 2005), have both abducted young boys aged from nine years from their families and schools. Army soldiers and militia keep child slaves, described as being coercible and at the complete disposal of a master. Christians from the South have been given Arab names, ‘converted’ to Islam, branded with hot irons, and kept in houses in the North. They perform unpaid labour or are later exported to the Gulf, Libya, Chad and Mauritania. Few escape to tell their story and many may be being trained to become child combatants. They have also been used to donate blood for Northern soldiers fighting the Sudanese civil war.’159 ‘The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) is the main insurgency force, but there are others. In this war, Arab/Muslim governmental forces from the north, supported by Khartoum, fight against

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non-Muslim rebels in the south of the country. This conflict has more than two sides, because since 1989 a few northern Muslim groups have found shared interests with the southern rebels and have entered the war as a part of an antigovernment alliance. Soldiers pillage towns and abduct women and children. Many children have been enslaved or forced to join warring groups. Credible sources also report that government and associated forces often abduct children for forced labour and soldiering.’160 ‘The Sudan government has systematically recruited children by force to the army. This young one are trained in less than fourteen days and sent to the war front either in the South, east or newly to the west of the country to fight the rebellions. Hundreds of thousands lose their lives in the war front. However, forcing children to the army is not only from the government alone. The Sudan people liberation Army (SPLA) has been reported by many organisations to posses a sizable numbers of ‘Child Soldiers.’ In 1999 some of these children were free. UNICEF were engaged in reintegrated these Sudanese children with their parents. However, the different between the SPLA and the government is that, the Khartoum government has not only been engaged on recruitment of child Soldiers, but has been busy selling slaves as well, most of whom were from South Sudan and other marginalised Areas of the Sudan. Read story about slavery in Sudan. This practice is not only child Right violation, but a human Right violation to which the State Sudan has committed to.’161 The literature oversimplifies and decontextualises why or how the SPLA took on child soldiers.162 From the interviews presented in Chapters Four and Five, there is evidence of a variation as to how the former child soldiers came to join the SPLA. This research reveals that the interaction and relationship between the child soldiers and the SPLA at the time of conscription was more complex than ‘abduction’ or ‘kidnapping’. The excerpts below present this one-dimensional relationship: ‘The practice of using children as fighters, as cannon fodder or as slaves behind the front lines, was so reprehensible that even the SPLA seemed

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to have recognised how damaging this image of these boys under arms could be.’163 ‘Some 12,500 young Sudanese boys, many of them kidnapped from their families and forced to join a rag-tag children’s army, sought refuge in Kenya after wandering for five terrifying years across Sudan and Ethiopia.’164 ‘In the late 1980s, more than 17,000 southern Sudanese boys were separated from their parents, most of them lured to rebel “refugee” camps in Ethiopia for ‘education’. The exodus of boys from Sudan became routine and was promoted by the SPLA.’165 The Child Soldiers The vast majority of the literature on child soldiers of Southern Sudan recounts the situation the national politics or humanitarian effort experienced during the war. Very little attention in the literature is focused on the experience through the eyes of child soldiers. When the experiences of the child soldiers are involved, the literature starts at the point of abduction and continues with a narrative that is limited to their victimisation. This is in contrast to the testimonies presented in this book where their stories and interpretations of events were central to the analysis. The observation below exemplifies the literature’s limitation and inadequate attempts at incorporating the child soldier’s voice. ‘Already they were well-stained travellers whose capacity for affection and other human traits had often been left behind, somewhere on the road. They had nothing, fled with nothing, and knew nothing of love nor hope.’166 This research casts a new light on and problematises the literature by giving a voice to the former child soldiers’ political awareness, struggles, and motivations. This research explores overlooked issues such as the perspective of the former child soldiers on the issue of child soldiers in Southern Sudan at large. By using face-to-face interviews and welcoming feedback on, for example, what should further be researched about the issue of child soldiers, this research places the former child soldiers in a constructive and participatory role. This research also used the method of engagement and re-engagement,

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which allowed the interviewees a chance to expand on their responses and time to develop their ideas. Furthermore, this research on Southern Sudan reveals the disparities between the former child soldiers’ accounts and those of the NGO workers. The testimonies presented bring to the fore the different interpretations of what the child soldiers had gone through in Southern Sudan and provided a point of comparison. They explore issues such as the motivations of the child soldiers as well as the political capacity of the child soldiers. This research brings to light the limitations of the current body of research available on the child soldiers of Southern Sudan and further serves as an example of the thoroughness that is lacking in the literature. The detailed nature of the field research highlights the depth of analysis that is missing from the literature. This book contextualises the child soldiers’ experiences by providing a sense of the extent to which the former child soldiers were aware of the struggle before they were conscripted. The research also helps to contextualise by revealing the complexity of the relationship and interactions the children had with the SPLA.

Age The conceptualisation of children through the child–adult dichotomy serves to limit the exploration of age’s significance or lack thereof. Since the NGOs and government bodies are operating under the CRC, it is for this reason that the CRC is taken as a benchmark in this book when analysing the former child soldiers’ testimonies. Although the Optional Protocol to the CRC stipulates that a ‘child’ is categorised as anyone below the age of 18 years of age, the respondents felt that they had become an adult at a variety of ages.167 The average age beginning adulthood, for those who felt that they were younger than 18 when they became an adult was 15 years.168 There is a perception that the age of adulthood is culturally determined for Sudanese children. Although the issue of cultural age for manhood did arise, it was not a dominating factor in the former child soldiers’ transition into adulthood. Since many of the former child soldiers joined

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before they received traditional initiation rights into adulthood, such as facial scarring, their experience of transition was individually determined. The testimonies in this section demonstrate the significance of deconstructing preconceived notions of children and the limitations of childhood. The former child soldiers had many reasons for why they felt that they had become an adult. Determining factors of adulthood included: physical abilities, responsibility over themselves and others, surviving harsh conditions and mental strain, and making decisions that an adult would make. Put into a position of living without their parents or family before and after joining the SPLA, many respondents mentioned their independence as a factor for feeling like an adult. Some of the respondents felt they had reached adulthood because they were faced at such a young age with the responsibility of life decisions. Similarly, their knowledge of ‘adult’ issues, such as the military and survival strategies, created distance from their childhood where they had lacked that knowledge. As child soldiers were amongst each other in the military, many of the respondents took on supervision roles of younger child soldiers. This experience of responsibility caused the respondents to feel mature enough to take on adult roles. Culture This section considers the significance of cultural factors in determining adulthood in the lives of former child soldiers. In the testimony below, Marial Kuol Aguto raises the issue that adulthood, as determined by Southern Sudanese culture, can conflict with the international standard of 18. ‘What the international community misunderstands is the way actually, is our culture actually that is not understood in my opinion because culture overlaps as I was mentioning that children or at what age exactly because our societies are more or our communities are more, communities whereby age a child is seen but if you reach secondary you’re considered an adult. When the international standards are quite high to wait for somebody to be eighteen but in our community maybe your manhood had already begun.’169

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While culture is evoked in this instance, as the following testimonies will show, this cultural appreciation itself needs to be viewed in relation to the context of war. ‘Ok culturally male children are trained to actually take role of manhood so in the absent of the adult people you actually assume the role of an adult although there are circumstances where you are physically challenged because of your age.’170 ~ ‘No at the age of seventeen I felt that I was not necessarily a child, you see going back to what I was arguing before, the concept of a child in Africa and particularly in South Sudan, depending on the kind of responsibilities you have, we have what you may call children at the age of sixteen and because perhaps their parents died, and then they become the head of the family with that responsible, so that [they] don’t feel as being children, but they are children, but they don’t feel as being children. So at the age of seventeen to me I didn’t see anything wrong with that, I had felt I was responsible enough. I think I don’t know whether its in Britain the age of consent is about seventeen, if I’m not mistaken, but the international definition is normally eighteen, quite a number of places and a number of countries it’s seventeen and perhaps it’s a personal thing changes in the world, the education, and the exposures etc.’171 Independence The circumstances of war brought about a higher level of independence for the former child soldiers. They had few options but to depend on themselves and each other for survival. This in turn affected their level of adulthood and advanced their life experiences. ‘Because at thirteen years I was responsible for myself because when I went to the training nobody with me, I was just with my colleagues and I didn’t allow anyone close to me except my friends at the training, so I am responsible for myself by that time.’172

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The individual realisation that, having developed specific life skills, they had become an adult was apparent to Nuh Jacob Mayendit, ‘I came to realise gradually because at first I could not make my own bed out of woods because I could not catch some woods, I could not make a proper bed, I could make a small thing but it collapsed at night when I’m trying to turn around. But age when I grew I realised by making a very good bed, I realised that I was grown now and I could lift my gun it could not be so heavy as it was in the past.’ ‘I was a man sure. I could handle a gun, I could kill if I need and I could look for my own food and cook for myself so what do I need from anybody else to call myself a child?’173 The testimonies below reveal that beginning their life’s journey without the accompaniment of their parents and family made them realise that the responsibility for their safety and welfare rested only with them. ‘Yes of course. I felt that I become an adult faster because of lack of parents and parents support all these things were not with us. We were special Red Army supporting each other. We don’t have anybody anyway, it was only those we were together as a Red Army and we support one another until we become an adult.’174 ~ ‘It was the time I went to the bush, I left my mother, of course its only me and the mother the survivors of the family, so when I left my mother she told me you are going to be on your own and that you must be strong, she said so many things so I really felt a weight of responsibility and especially that of my life was entirely on my hands. So it was that very moment when we went to the bush that I really felt that I have a big responsibility.’175 ~ Q: So at 16 did you feel independent? ‘Yes because wherever I go it is me alone in that I am responsible for myself.’176

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Q: What age did you feel you became, you changed from a boy to an adult? ‘Fifteen.’ Q: And why did you feel like that? ‘Because I was very responsible and take a decision myself, I get training from the SPLA, military training, woodshop training, soldier training, I was ready to fight.’ Q: What were you responsible for? ‘Me, myself I was . . . military company and military combat.’ Q: Can you tell me did becoming a child soldier change your ability to make decisions? ‘Yeah because I’m independent, I’m cooking alone, I sleep alone, I take a decision to go and fight, I take people to take people to die, I also take decision to kill the enemy, I was very happy.’177 The Ability to Make Decisions One aspect advancing interviewees’ feelings of adulthood was their growing ability to make decisions and obtain knowledge equal to, or surpassing that of, an adult’s. ‘When I know how to defend myself and how to defend others I know that I am already an adult. You know the definition of adult somebody who has lived the youngest age who goes from the upper age, from primary to upper class. So with that age of fifteen years I know myself that I was in the upper class of knowing what was the primary adult age and what was the secondary adulting age. So from my side I think I was in the secondary adulting age that I come to know.’178

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In the following two testimonies, the interviewees believed they became adult because of their ability to decide right from wrong, ‘So because this is the way it can make boys change [them]self to become an adult and to know something bad and something good. I’ve got change like that because the way an adult you can know something bad and you can know something good, so that is change, the way that you are still a child and you become as adult.’179 ~ ‘I was independent, when I was alone I can make my own decisions, I can think of what is good for me and what is bad.’180 Many of the interviewees believed that this ability to determine between good and bad was important in taking the decision to become a child soldier. When asked, Sergeant Major Atem Abuoi Atem, who had himself become a child soldier at 11, whether he would let his son follow a similar path: ‘No, I cannot allow him because he’s still young, I have to tell him if you want to join you make three years more to make it sixteen is better because he will know what is bad and what is good.’181 As the following testimonies will demonstrate it was not only the ability to know right from wrong that marked a transition to adulthood. The taking of important decisions itself was an important landmark. Napoleon Adok felt that at the age of 11, ‘Once I made a decision to leave from my village and leave my parents, I made a decision on pretext that I am old enough to make judgments for myself so I never made a landmark for being an adult.’182 ~ ‘Yeah so far now I can make decisions because we started making decisions when we were very young at an age whereby no one can decide anything and we started making decisions so these were I can decide what

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to do or I can decide what the other guy can do so this it changed our ability of making decisions and here someone who is in the village or in the cattle camp or someone in town maybe if you’re with your parents no one can give you that to make a decision and for us we find ourselves you can make your decision alone it has been like a process that you can keep on making decision until now you can make your own decision.’183 The ability to make decisions therefore had a purpose, a purpose that is most clearly evident in the decisions made to ensure safety and survival, which was a test of both knowledge and judgement. ‘Of course, what happened was when I was in the army I find myself thinking more than any other adult because hardship you know teach people a lot, you have to make decisions to survive, you have to, ok let’s say the mind had actually grown faster than the body.’184 ~ ‘Yeah of course when I knew what is wrong and what is good it show me that I am already an adult. When I know how to defend myself and how to defend others I know that I am already an adult. You know the definition of adult somebody who has lived the youngest age who goes from the upper age, from primary to upper class. So with that age of fifteen years I know myself that I was in the upper class of knowing what was the primary adult age and what was the secondary adulting age. So from my side I think I was in the secondary adulting age that I come to know.’185 Experience or Role The former child soldiers gained experiences and took on roles that surpassed their age. The testimonies in this sub-section demonstrate how these experiences and roles brought about feelings of adulthood. The experiences they gained from participating in the conflict is what made the following interviewees feel they were an adult. ‘Yeah. I grew up faster in the mind actually because I was in the situation where I should think of what an adult would be thinking about

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then my mind, my brain was subjected to that high level thinking and then immediately actually improved my thinking capacity to make decisions and to see the importance of this thing and that thing.’186 Philip Malok felt that his experience with war made him a man at the age of 13, ‘because every area you hear the gun sounds even they came and bombed our village with artillery so you don’t have a place where you can store yourself because you are not a woman though when you know yourself that you are a man . . . fight this one you can even go, even me I go for myself nobody cornering me.’187 The harsh conditions of being in the bush caused Benjamin Bol to feel his life had developed beyond that of an average child’s. ‘See that was the time I reach the age of fourteen this was the time, but before that you know when you are in hard situation you need to rely thing, you think deeply even though you are young so you cannot compare as accurately with somebody who grown up in comparable life, for instance. Now in some other country a boy of twelve years old, even sixteen years, he doesn’t mind because you got everything is ready but for we people who are in sad, well you will think even at the age of five if you miss food. This is where the time you’ll think there is something missing in your life so this is what it means to rely this thing at the age of twelve years because of due to the difficulties in the bush sometime you sleep without food other times you miss even water so this was, and if you ask you’ll be told that you are missing this because of so and so, so this was the time we realised that there was something going on in this country.’188 Taking on a role usually assigned to an adult, Zalson Khor Zal felt that he was a man at the age of nine. ‘Yeah. Of course traditionally in Bor, in Bor community for example if a person of my age dies I would not be allowed to see the body or even an elder at that age but when we went to the bush it was quite opposite, if

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your friend dies or one of the family members, then it is you the young one to bury that little one. So you know it went that far. So we become courageous and you feel you have a lot of responsibility to do.’189 The testimonies below demonstrate the range of experiences the interviewees deemed significant in their transition from child to adult. ‘Yes I started actually taking care of my own property, my gun and everything when I was already sixteen and then at the age of sixteen I couldn’t go very far away because some distance some people cover some distance on foot I couldn’t go very far away but when there were missions around I go and then exercise it and come back so I felt that up to the age of eighteen I became a man actually that I could do my things alone and then reason and that was when I was commissioned as an officer in the SPLA after going on several series.’ ‘Yeah with that point of grow up actually it seems to me that through this movements I don’t recognise myself that I’ve been growing and up to know even I when I felt that I become a man and then I’m taking the responsibility of my colleagues and the rest of my people that I even became more surprised how quickly have I grown through all this sufferings that I’ve been in.’190 ~ ‘Yeah because when I was eleven years now, I’ve seen I’m powerful and I was given some position because what the SPLA do, if you are young so that you cannot be feeling bad or leave the army they give you a position like you can be a sergeant, something like that, so now I was holding some position I was already taking care of the other young ones who have eight years, seven years, nine years. I was also taking care of them so I become motivated now, I feel a big person and also a soldier at the same time so I was very happy with the way they were treating me, not like before.’ Q: When you joined at what point from nine to 17 did you feel like you changed from a child to a man? ‘When I hold a gun and shoot and fight.’

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Q: So that was at age eleven? ‘Yes.’ Q: How did the conflict change your perception of yourself? Did it change how you think of yourself or your power? ‘Well it didn’t change anything, it changed physically, thinking, its changed mental thinking because I have become now see now if I am now eleven and I am holding a gun like other boys fifteen years, so I’m now man I said to myself, I’m not a child any longer.’191 ~ ‘To become a man it was like when you are responsible for yourself that was when I was twelve, because when I was twelve I can find myself I’m leading the other boys like what to do, like go and wash, some who cooked and our daily process this is the time I found myself I was a big man although I was young . . . and by then we were ahead of someone who is thirteen years old who I can even see . . . and we can find ourselves leading the other boys to do their causes, the daily causes that’s how I can find myself but when I went to school I can find myself I am a grown up because the experience I got from the army and the school can show me the discipline I have being in trouble any other things, I can find myself I was better.’192 ~ ‘Because we went for training and I leave my family and I go and stay somewhere with other peoples even going through obstacle course, crossing rivers, it rained on us . . . and then that what make me . . . when you got used to it, you’re no longer a child.’193 ~ ‘I actually get into army at age of the nine so one year later, the time I was caught when I was eight my body took me to be in the middle of the other soldiers because they group us with age, if you’re eight you’re eight, if you’re stronger they said you ‘you are able to hold a gun so

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you just have to join the army’, so I was maybe a little bit bigger or something like that and I’m able to hold a gun so they usually just take you to the army. So with the encouragement that you fight . . . with the eldest guys you think that you are a man so that’s how we take it, so you don’t say, ‘I’m a teenager’ or ‘I’m a kid’ because you can hold a gun you can go in frontline and fight and chase some people that’s how it was so we consider that we are they call that warriors you are just a man, you are not a teenager, if you die you die like a man that’s all it is.’194 ~ ‘I consider myself a man at that time because things that we were doing at that time a child of my age at that time in any other part of the world can not do it because I was responsible for myself since I left my home area in 1984. I took my position and left for, and from there walking from Aweil a distance to Ethiopia was three months footing from home to Ethiopia. So since I took that position I was responsible for myself and I considered myself to be an adult at that time I don’t consider myself as a child, I faced difficulties and I always try to overcome them because I know that I have to do it.’ ‘Indeed because us talking today I have a child myself, my first born is thirteen years old and I think it’s almost his age that I took decision that time but the way I see him today, I see him very weak and I cannot even allow him to do some other things but joining the SPLA that time at that age made me strong and from that time I consider myself that I can even lead the entire country let alone taking care of a small family.’195 Being forced to assume the role of protector expedited the onset of adulthood for many of the interviewees, as exemplified in the testimonies below. ‘During my age I was fifteen years, I feel as a man. I feel, as I am a man. I can do something for my people. At the age of fifteen . . .’196 ~

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‘I saw myself as an adult, as somebody who was proud having undertaken a course in the military and proud of myself for having defended myself and my people. At that time I was sixteen when I left.’197 Not only were the interviewees given the responsibilities and experiences of adults but also when they were able to mix and converse with their adult colleagues, they felt equal in maturity. ‘I felt it at the age of fifteen. I felt it because, by then, when I was back in the bush, my age limits were not they are, so that we share our talks with them but I was now used to the elder people so I used to get what they were telling me and from there I got matured from that time, because when you sit with the elders and you listen to them, you not hear like someone who’s less age.’198 ~ ‘I was feeling because I was fifteen years and those who were twenty-five years what they do I used to do with them. So that’s why I myself I look myself I’m a man, I cannot say I’m a child.’199 ~ ‘Yeah I just felt because even the behaviours, even the way I talked to people and I reasoned it shows that I am already an adult not the way that I joined the Red Army where I can say anything and I can behave the way that I want, now its like I’ve changed a little bit that shows that I’m an adult. At least I can be with different people, people of age of forty, I still talk to them.’200 Diing Bol Arok felt that his developing relationship with women became a changing point in his life to make him feel that he was an adult. ‘I think a man is a man when he gets developed attitude naturally. So before that I was a child actually. 1992, ‘91 was the time I was a man so nothing missing to me.’

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He felt that he became a man at the age of 16. ‘I was feeling like engaging in relationships with other people, behave like a responsible person, I understand situations yeah that’s why like naturally you go you can find a lady you can talk to her so I think this thing and even change in my voice was changing.’201 The issue of age has been demonstrated above as complex and individualistic in its manifestations of adulthood.

War Context The aim of this section is to begin examining the child soldiers at the start of their journey. In order to better understand a child’s rationale for participating in armed conflict, the context in which the decision took place is essential for gaining a better understanding and deepening the level of analysis. Within Sudan’s 22 years of war, a vast array of experiences emerged. This section will provide a brief look into the context in which the former child soldier was living before they joined the SPLA. This section begins to reveal the perspective and context

Figure 3.1 Undetonated Missile from Aerial Attack. Juba, Southern Sudan.202

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from which the Southern Sudanese former child soldiers emerge. In examining the wider circumstances, this section hopes to illuminate the high level of awareness experienced by the former child soldiers before they joined the SPLA. Regional location, year, political environment, and family dynamics were just some of the many elements affecting the personal situations of the former child soldiers before they joined and whilst they served. This section focuses on the general conditions that former child soldiers were facing before they joined the SPLA and also the lack of options that led to a ‘life or death’ line of thinking. The conditions that the former child soldiers experienced were not straightforward conditions of poverty or lack of resources; the poverty that they were in was highly politically linked. The conditions before joining the SPLA for some former child soldiers had a normality of high risk and threat to their livelihood. Mabior Garang de Mabior is the eldest son of Dr. John Garang, ‘When I was younger I had an appreciation for what you are saying because it’s all I have ever known, you know. I could not take myself out of it so. I’ve known nothing but the responsibility, those responsibilities.’203 The price and risk of life weighed heavily as options narrowed, ‘Life was miserable and coupled with unprecedented series of bad events, which involve emotional distress when trying to describe them. The journey which took us three months to reach Ethiopia was deemed dangerous and unsafe to take but the risks were justified taking because it wasn’t safe at home and dying while looking for weapons to protect oneself and the lives of innocent civilian and properties was deemed appropriate.’204 ~ ‘There were no way to deny it or to run away. Either Khartoum government kill you or you be with the SPLA.’205 ~

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‘I think that was a very good option, I didn’t have an otherwise. I could have stayed behind be captured by the government or I could have done anything else. That was the better option at that time.’206 ~ ‘I would be killed but I joined ‘cause when I stay in the community I would be killed by Arabs.’207 Even without the prospect of receiving an education before joining the SPLA, many of the respondents had the ambition as a child to go to school. Education was not necessarily given up in order to join the SPLA; paradoxically in many cases the SPLA was seen as the only hope of getting an education. Whether education was not available because of a lack of resources or children felt that they were ostracised from the Arabic/Islamic system, education was not often an option for the respondents prior to joining the SPLA. ‘I of course, some of the children that did not join the SPLA especially in my home village were abducted, some of the children were also killed so if I had not gone to Ethiopia I would not be alive or I would have grown up in the village and just becoming an adult without education.’ ‘I do not think of any opportunity because initially when the war broke out there were not any opportunity of education, we just remain in the village as a farmer or you can be recruited into the army and you do not have an opportunity to go to school. Initially when I went to Ethiopia I was small so I went to the school then when I came to the SPLA for two years, the policy also came that anybody underage has to leave the army that is why I left the army in 1992.’208 ~ ‘Yeah now why they are taking them out from that one, you know by that time things were not in good conditions, things were out of condition and people were also in bad condition, there was no way for us to settle so that we separate small children out from the bigger ones so they get education, there was no priority because people do move every now and

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then that is why it was difficult but now our government is ok, they’re a good organisation now so there is a certain age that is picked for a guy to join soldier now but those who were there before they are now with the drawn back to be cancelled and taken back to school and be taught how to stay good and with other people, not to disturb them.’209 ~ ‘We were not given the chance by our current brothers this Arab so to give chance to us, to give freedom to us and in fact the Shari’a law was being enforced and when you go around to this Rumbek town you will not see people wrapping their heads with the clothes of the Arabs.’210 ~ ‘That time, when people were arriving it was during night time, so people were scattered, so we are not in the same place for them, so I decided we went together to my Grandma who’s very old, then from there I see that people are still following the Arabs running with them together, may get lost, so the only thing, we have to go back home and stay and see whatever is going to come.’211 Prior Knowledge of SPLA At the time the former child soldiers were recruited, each had a different level of previous knowledge and interaction with the SPLA. Some had been listening to Dr John Garang speaking on the radio or had relatives already involved in the war before the SPLA came to their village. ‘You know you are not comfortable when you are in Khartoum and you have been hearing by then they were having SPLA radios, something you know, they were having a channel where by every Sudanese have to run home at three and listen to the radio, what Dr Garang was saying, what SPLA was doing, how many times they have been captured. You know they don’t give people motivation like “I have to be part of this”, because that’s what we want actually and people decided to join the SPLA.’212 ~

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‘What I may not agree with is there is a little bit of what we call a political gimmick probably normally when you have your people and you are not paying them everybody is a volunteer to keep them from you, you always depict a picture that you are . . . strong, although the situation is declining that’s what I may say may not have been a true picture of what exactly did, like for instance some of like in 1992 most of the towns of the SPLA were captured due to the lack of nation due to the division between and most of the guys who were still on our side still think that we are still strong and not to despair other so that’s a small political gimmick to keep your forces I don’t see it’s brainwashing this is just try to consol yourself in time of crises that thing happened and compared with the . . . of the North it was clear these people must give us the freedom that we need . . . you’ll find us like most of us who participated in the fighting you lose so many men and then we ran away, the few who survived we’ll still say we wish on the war regardless of us being finished, let them finish cleared us then they take the land then when we just surrender in so that one we consol one another, so this is what I have seen and as for the young ones who join . . . or the ones who are joining as young as us they are told you their wars are political mobilisation, they were sent to the field the chief to the people control area . . . if they had to leave the children to go instead of staying with them being chased all the time the Arab is killing them, killing them, killing everybody, is not sparing them, they have no school, they have no cattle to look for, why are you keeping the children? Allow them to come, those who survive, will survive, those who don’t survive they will be a part of the struggle.’213 ~ ‘That’s the kind of information because Arab were mistreating Southerners and what was going on between South and North most of the people were aware about it because some people may get a serious maybe should be killed for no reason if you are a South. If you are a Southerner you should be killed with no reason and some people might be jailed and then when SPLA come to understand Arab were mistreating and the Southerners they come to inform people in the village what was going on.’214 ~

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‘Indeed there was general feelings of Southerners that they need to be liberated, they need to liberate themselves from the central government or the government of Sudan which centralised everything in the North and most of our people always they go to Khartoum or to Northern part to go and work to get . . . and come back home with it but in Southern Sudan there is nothing as you have seen, it’s now after three years, Juba is great now, if you came in 2004 or early 2005 here it would have been difficult for you to get something to eat. So there was a problem people were aware that there is a problem because when they go to Northern Sudan they . . . and when they come back home there’s no even hospital there’s no schools, there’s nothing but with the orientation from the SPLA that’s where this problem need to be addressed because most of the people they were angry they don’t read and they don’t write they don’t listen to news but the SPLA has to orient them and tell them this is what is going on and with your full participation you will liberate yourself to become like the other part of the country which is good. So there was general problems, there was general feeling, everybody knows that there’s a need to liberate themselves but SPLA did a bigger part of mobilising children.’ ‘My impression was informative because the SPLA in the first place when we joined the SPLA children were sorted out from the others and most of the children were put in refugees camp were they went to school and some of the children were sent outside the country only few were sent outside the country so the SPLA as political organs not everybody who was doing it was a political organ of the SPLA who was doing orientation telling people what they already know because most of the Southerners they know that there’s a problem, they knew that there was a problem so SPLA was telling them of what they knew already and how they can solve that problem and what the SPLA was telling them was that we have a solution, we have arms, and this problem could be solved if you joined the SPLA and you get arms, you fight for your right, this problem could be solved. So there was not much force in recruitment.’ ‘Indeed, in a way that maybe because when I did not join the SPLA in the first place, I did not know there was much problem but when I joined the SPLA during the training when we were in the military training

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camp there was political orientation telling us of all the problems that we have in Sudan and what are the solutions and how can they be solved and if they are not solved what should we do. So it changed my perception of all the country that I was born in and the system itself.’215 ~ ‘It was not brain washing because they were telling the fact of the matter about the South and us, our rights; this is what they were telling the community. So the community were in a position to send their boys to join the army, so that we support the movement.’ ‘Yeah, they are doing the right thing because it was not that you will be forced to use maybe a strange force but they are telling you the fact of the matter, now we need people for this kind of thing they probably think by yourself what is . . . they saying - is it true or not? Then come up with a decision.’216

Conscription This section demonstrates the variety of experiences the former child soldiers had during their time of conscription and the lengths they went through to join despite some having objections from their parents. The testimonies in this section exemplify the active and self-driven decision that some former child soldiers took to join the SPLA. The issue of force will be examined in the section following. The moment of conscription involved many emotional states; fear being only one of them. Some feared what would happen to them if they did not join and some feared what would be their destiny if they did join. Some of the respondents recall such a desire to join the SPLA that they attempted to conceal their age and appear older in order to be chosen for enlistment. A significant number of the respondents, including the one female interviewee, were in the position of needing to convince their parents or communities that joining the SPLA was what they wanted to do. These interviewees recall moments before their conscription when they attempted to run away from their

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homes because their families did not grant them permission to join the army. This section begins with testimonies exemplifying determination and confidence, ‘Well when I joined the movement it was me who approached them because as I told you before when you see things are going wrongly to your side it will lead you to feel there is something missing in that community so it forced myself on the things going on around to go and approach them it’s me who went to them and said ‘my brothers I have come and I want to be part of you’ so they accepted me even though my age was not actually good for that then I insisted because I saw there’s not much man power then I should help where I can help maybe doing simple job which need me to help on that, then I went straight and start helping.’217 ~ ‘Yes in fact in the first place I was not forced but I ran out for my dear life when I reached Ethiopia this is where, it was sort of tempting because it was a beginning I doesn’t know “who are the SPLM” in fact, but when I reached Ethiopia, I said and I know the SPLA “what are they doing” and this is where I joined the SPLA it was not a force. I joined the SPLA as a member to liberate my country or to liberate my people from the violence of the Northerners.’218 ~ ‘I come to Juba here in 1983 in April I left from Juba here I crossed the Jonglei, I crossed the Upper Nile I go to Nasir. I come to Nasir and join the SPLA. I joined the was before SPLA formed, the SPLA formed 31st of June/July 1983 and so I joined the liberation struggle, and on 17th of July 1983, July 31st everybody come together to form the SPLA they also did Anya I, Anya II, the students, the teachers and we join come up for the SPLM, the SPLA is the branch of the SPLM forces. We met in Juba but also we communicate with letter and we agreed on home state in Nasir and those of us with training joined the militia struggle.’

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Q: So you mentioned you joined with over 100 other students can you tell me what their background was? Did they all come from Khartoum? Did they come from Juba? ‘Another from Juba, another from Khartoum, another from Malakal, from Malaneil, another group come from Wau, from Bar el Ghazal and two from Nubia.’ Q: So you all met in Juba? ‘We met in Juba but also we communicate with letter and we agreed on home state in Nasir and those of us with training joined the militia struggle.’219 ~ ‘I must say it is a must for everyone who joins the SPLA to know the details of joining the SPLA because you cannot while you have nothing to achieve at that place.’220 ~ ‘I was very young and I was recruited, that was in 1988. I was around ten years old but that was on my own will and inspiration from my dad and what I was seeing from other commanders or those in charge of military, it was really an inspiration for me.’221 ~ ‘Because I have seen now I am not going back, I have nowhere to go seeing I don’t know where my parents are and I know I am small I cannot sleep from the army, so I feel good I feel I have to fight, as I am fighting I also fight and see what will be good at last.’222 ~ ‘I pick up a gun around thirteen years because I went and stayed two years in Ethiopia, then we were being demobilised not to join the army but I thought I was being the same, when I was being controlled not to hold a gun because what I was told when I was living here, I was told

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that you go and get the gun and you come and fight. Why you come and fight? It is your cow that is being taken by the Arab your home has been destroyed; your relatives have been killed by the Arabs. So we went with that experience to go and make revenge to Arab because it was the source of the more destructor in our village. So the commander of the camp said ‘no, you are not going for the war, you are going back to school’. So we thought we were being the same and we reject it but it was being put compulsory. So after two years then we were given a gun to control ourselves from militia, so those guns were protective guns.’223 The experience of the conflict by the interviewees brought about greater determination to join the SPLA. In the sub-sections following, the topic of conscription is discussed further by revealing to what lengths the former child soldiers were willing to go to in order to join. Tried to Appear Older Since some of the former child soldiers at the time of joining were very young, and therefore small in size; they attempted to bulk up or gain height by standing on boxes in the crowd during recruitment so they would appear old enough to be chosen. ‘When we were also there when they come and select people to go to be trained and go to war, everybody was happy. Even if you’re short, you put a stone so that you are selected, people got motivated holding gun, fighting.’224 ~ ‘I think I was not ashamed about my participation because I was feeling that what I was doing was right, even if it may be to others it was not right because it was not the right time for me because I recall one time when we were trained, when they were trying to look among us, those who were child soldiers, among us there were people that were grown up those who were above eighteen years old, they were taking them, and I remember one of witness a speaker . . . I was very small and I was very excited and I need to join, I need to go to the fighting, so what are you

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going to do, I used to put on two uniforms I can even remember . . . , I put one and put another one so that I will become big and make a . . . a sack and sit on it so that I become taller than others so that I will be picked, but my face could not, my face could tell me no, they will just look at my face and say “no you are very small”.’225 ~ ‘I didn’t see myself as a child because we were categorised in ages therefore every age has its own category, therefore I see myself as a man like other man around me, so I didn’t see myself as a child. I had to jump to the other side because I was in four those who were in four were among the biggest and I had and my age I’m supposed to be in the middle years. So I felt not very good so I had to join the bigger one that’s why I came down in 1991, otherwise I would have remained in Ethiopia.’226 Ran Away or Convinced Parents The testimonies in this section demonstrate the determination the former child soldiers had and what they went through in order to join the SPLA in opposition to their parents’ and communities’ advice and wishes. Q: Did your parents support you joining the SPLA? ‘My father they didn’t want me [to go]. What they told me by then they were saying that “no you stay” but me with my own age mates we went and decide ours and then we sneak ourselves without . . . from the parents. Yeah of course I volunteered because it was volunteered. There was nothing to be afraid by that.’227 ~ Q: How did your family feel about you going into the SPLA, did they support you or did they want you to stay home? ‘Yeah, because when we’re taken like this then I went back home and convinced them . . . I convinced my family, and tell them the truth of the matter. So they decided to agree, that is why I am staying here’

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Q: You had to convince them to let you join? ‘Yeah because they were worried that I was still very young and ought to be. What I told them is that ‘a man is a man, even if under age’, but the fact of the matter is that I’ve heard more about the Arabs, only thing I am going. Let them free me to go. So the whole clan sat down and agreed. Yeah.’228 ~ ‘By that time the parents don’t need us to go because we are still young and, but we say that we cannot stay because we have to go and join the army and fight for our right.’229 ~ ‘They did not want me to join the army because you see going for the war it worries the parents, seeing your good child going to fight the war, mostly all the parents would oppose it because what comes to the mind is when you go to the war you may get killed, that was the simple reason why they actually did not want me to go but I made it to go alone.’230 ~ ‘I was volunteering myself; even I did not tell my mother that I was going to join the SPLA. I went by myself . . . they didn’t know me that I’m going. My mother and my father they don’t know they hear me when I’m about seven days out that’s why they know that I joined the SPLA.’231 Despite being completely relieved of his obligations to the SPLA, Dut Jacob Dau still joined at the age of nine: ‘Yeah even at that time my father went and talked to the administrators that I was having a problem because at that time my leg was injured by the snake so my father could convince them using such but and I was released not to go to Ethiopia but because I know that all the children were going there I did not intend to remain at home, so I insist and then my father released me.’232 ~

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‘Well in the beginning my mother could not understand fully why I was so much interested in the war and not to go for studies. But as time goes on she begins to understand I was doing the right thing and so many people too. The problem was I was young by then and so whoever objects me to come into Sudan in order to be engaged in the frontline was giving that excuse of me being young. Well it was a commitment; it’s an obligation that I must do. Sometimes I feel bad about it but sometimes I convince myself that I was doing the right thing especially when some of my friends went to America, some went to Australia and they begin writing to me that “look if you are not crazy enough to have gone to Sudan you would be here with us now”. And my answer to them was very simple, that I might have been very crazy, but I think you too are crazy because you have run away from the right cause that we were participating in. So during those times, the hard times sometimes you feel you’re left out, but again the right cause is there, you have joined the movement for the right cause and so you must continue the struggle, so I’ve never regretted it, I’ve never.’233 ~ ‘We were try[ing] to get from somebody’s field and then the owner came and found us there and then we were tired we couldn’t run. So when we were captured we were taken to the police station and then we were asked “where are you going to” then this elderly boy said we were going to Mundri because they come from that area now these boys knew exactly where they were going to, the idea was for us to go to Mundri county and then from there they had already links with their relatives who were already in the SPLA. Now for us what we knew was in the bush you find the SPLA there, so we were taken to the police station in Lanya and guess what in the process of asking us our names I was surprised the two elderly boys were giving different names. When I was asked I told them “my name is Africano Mande”. “Who is your father?” “My father is Joe Mande.” And the guy said “You’re the son of Joe Mande, I know your father, you must go back to him” and there we were picked, we were put in a vehicle and taken back to Yei. So that was a failed attempt to go to the SPLA. And my mom was so upset, my mom like what are you doing. I told my mom I was just going to Mundri. To do what? I was

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just going to Mundi and I didn’t tell my mom about the reality of that adventure until 1998. I met my mom and we sat with my mom chatting and I was telling her many stories about, and then I told her I said mom you remember that time when we were arrested and disappeared for a week and so forth, I said I was going to join the SPLA. And mom said “I knew, I knew it but I wanted it to come from your mouth.”234 ~ ‘My father persuaded me to go to another to go Sudan and continue my education but it happened that time the SPLA came to the area and they were doing mobilisation for the people to go and get arms to come and defend themselves. So I refused, I told my father there’s no need of education I better join these people and come and defend our people. My father tried to persuade me and I skipped, so that’s the time I joined the SPLA and that year a bigger number from my area, more than ten thousand people joined the SPLA that year in 1984. So it’s a problem that I have seen which motivate me and which is still going on as I’m talking to you today, they’re still fighting in that border and it will never be a surprise that one day this CPA might be in a bigger problem because of that area because that area our problem never stopped, there’s always a problem there.’235 ~ ‘First when I go to Ethiopia I was going for school that was the first because by then my father had already joined the SPLA, he was a soldier and by the time I was leaving I had school in Ethiopia, so I went to Ethiopia. Which in Etong, that was the refugee camp, stayed there I joined the school actually in Etong and then when the SPLA was now trying to take people to the training I got a motivation when I see someone, it was nobody told me to, I just kind of escaping and join the people so I end up I went to Ponga, I was trained as a soldier.’236 ~ Q: Was your family supporting you joining the SPLA? ‘Of course they were not supporting it. I was put in a school and when I escaped and fight the one who put me in the school, my uncle who put

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me in school was with me in Etong, the time I escaped I went and got in Ponga and he asked me “you have come here”, I told him “yeah I have come”, so he went and looked for me shoes [otherwise] I will not be able to get some.’237 Other child soldiers had more luck in convincing their family to let them join. One such interviewee was Taban Charlie Juma. ‘I went back home and convinced them . . . I convinced my family, and tell them the truth of the matter. So they decided to agree, that is why I am staying here.’ Q: You had to convince them to let you join? ‘Yeah because they were worried that I was still very young and ought to be. What I told them is that ‘a man is a man, even if under age’, but the fact of the matter is that I’ve heard more about the Arabs, only thing I am going. Let them free me to go. So the whole clan sat down and agreed. Yeah.’238 In order to convince his family, he told them he was ‘already in the system’ and that he wanted to participate in the struggle because he had wanted to fight against the Arabs. He felt that in the back of his mind he desired a future career in the SPLA. Such behaviour from the former child soldiers’ testimonies above reveals a great determination to exercise political participation. The Experience of a Female Former Child Soldier Rose239 stands out from the other former child soldiers as the only interviewee who is female. She represents the voice of the female former child soldiers since there were so few who served in the SPLA. Her testimony has been kept together on various issues in order to highlight her unique experience and her ability to comment on so many issues. Although her experience as a female sets her apart from her colleagues, her desire to join is indistinguishable. Her experience is articulated below through the use of a translator.

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Before she joined the SPLA, she was already aware that her mother and extended family objected to her joining but despite this she ran away at the age of 12 with three other females. She waited until her mother was away from the village and left to join the SPLA in 1996. Her mother sent a message to her that she should not join but she refused to return home. Her main motivation was that her father was killed by Northern troops after he was accused of being an SPLA spy. After this incident she felt oppressed and that she had no freedom. She felt that her joining the SPLA was completely voluntary and during her conscription she kept on thinking of her repression. She knew she was a child when she joined but her anger was too great for her to ignore. She felt that nobody should stop her just because she was a girl or a child. What they should understand is that her family surrounded her, so to her, it is obvious that she fought harder against her family to join the SPLA than in the SPLA. Her reason was so important that she defied her family to join. Whilst serving in the SPLA she was forced to marry three of her superiors and has had three children from those marriages. She feels the ‘marriage’ was to justify being raped by these men. She is currently in the SPLA and is adamant that her political motivations remain strong and her support for the SPLA continues. Despite the trauma she experienced from being forced into marriages and raped by her SPLA superiors, she still feels very strongly about wanting to serve in the SPLA and is able to not allow her trauma to affect her desire to do so.240

Forced Conscription At first glance the issue of forced conscription appears to be straightforward; a yes-or-no answer. The majority of respondents did not feel that they were forced to join the SPLA. These respondents believed that despite their age, their choice of conscription was their own. The respondents were able to recognise their influences or inspirations towards this decision but maintained responsibility for the final decision. Even when the answer is ‘yes’, and interviewees believed they felt forced to join by the SPLA, the causality is not straightforward and

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respondents revealed a high level of complexity in the interpretation of ‘forced’. In these cases, what forced the child soldiers to join the SPLA was a matter of circumstances; if war, and its consequences, were not present they would not have been motivated to join. In such testimonies, ‘forced’ conscription was seen as a result of the presence of war, the lack of food and shelter, the threat of being harmed or taken by the northern government. The choice as they saw it was between life and death and therefore they were forced by the lack in choice. For those respondents who felt that they were forced by the SPLA they added that the SPLA were themselves ‘forced’ to recruit children because of the presence of war and lack of manpower. Circumstances A significant concern within the topic of child soldiers is the issue of force. The testimonies below demonstrate how complex the issue is and how this complexity lies firstly within its definition. ‘No, “forced” means you’re forced out of your area by the government troops. Then when we went to Ethiopia we were put in camps . . . camps where our schools were built by the elder army and our houses we stayed there and then there was another camp where there was military training, so those who volunteered, go for military training volunteered and go. When you don’t volunteer you stay in the camp. That is the difference.’241 ~ ‘Yes there are two compulsory conditions: indirect and direct. So there is indirect force with the Arabs whereby if your home was being attacked, your cattle were being looted and robbed and you have nothing to eat, you have no room to stay so you better join the SPLA that was not your will, it was for the fact that your home was being destroyed, you have nothing to eat so you better join the SPLA.’242 There existed a great degree of understanding among the former child soldiers as to why their superiors used force. This understanding

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showed an awareness of external circumstances because they considered what limited options their superiors had during the war. ‘What I only came to know later on as the NGOs work, like for instance sometimes you assume so many things, most of us who were child soldiers they assumed that we were forced to join the SPLA, they assumed that we were forced to fight, and what happened in Southern Sudan is that the war was continuous, the problem was everywhere and what actually angered the youngest youngsters, even if there was no school and our cattles and cows are left alone, I would be going after the cattle without education that’s what they would assume that the young ones have no education because of the war but since we are left with no job, we are left with nothing to do and so the young men we move, so what has been assumed is that maybe SPLA come and take the young ones go to the SPLA, no it was because of the anger and then because of the possibility that because actually we were mobilised myself I went during the mobilisation period when the UN would open the camps in Ethiopia and the children will get an access to education since they don’t have it now, so most of the chiefs told the sub-chief, and the sub-chief told their assistance and . . . the all the child they are ready the only thing you have to be assured is that the road is tough, the child can die on the way so it has to be voluntary if you really want to do it, then we did it. The SPLA by then those who had gone and come back most of us were accompanied by our cousins who were older than us, who gone to the SPLA and they were already soldiers, so they accompany you as your security as you go but the road actually was tough, most of the children who left . . . didn’t reach all of them and . . . some of them reached the destination and died at the destination because the UN takes time also to respond so that was the whole thing.’243 The circumstances of war compounded the interviewees’ needs and desire to be involved with the SPLA. ‘I was not feeling so, you know when you are in a problem always you don’t what you will do, anytime you will be killed so it is better for you to go and fight in order to revenge before your turn comes so I was not

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forced but I was also knowing that even though I stay without fighting I will be killed so would be better to go and fight. If I kill and I will be killed so I will not be having no blame. But if God start to give me this is why now I am alive so I was not forced but because of the circumstances which has taken place this is why I decided to take arms in order to defend myself and defend my own people.’244 ~ ‘I’ve joined in purpose because as I’ve told you I’ve joined it so that I can defend my society and defend my community, I joined it volunteering not by forcing. If I didn’t join, I would not feel good, I could not feel good because some of my community have been abused by Arabs and you see by that time my father also is an educated man, he went to school and he finished secondary school, he’s working, and he cannot get a good job because the good job only the Arab are getting so we black people they don’t give us the opportunity so that we can get a better job and work also in the government and work also in some other departments, they don’t give us that opportunity, they give this opportunity only to the Arabs. I would not feel OK unless I have to join and fight for our right.’245 ~ ‘Some of them were not forced because you can just feel whatever you are seeing and experiencing, you can volunteer you can just go and be volunteers and join.’246 ~ ‘I didn’t want to generalise it as such but the concentration on the child soldiers has been a victim of forced conscription to me, it’s not generally true. There are element of forced conscription but there are also other factors that contributed to the child soldier and I use that metaphor of two million people killed in Southern Sudan by war or famine and those two million are definitely generating orphans that have no, it has broke the families that were left under-age children but these people had no shelters many of them who are underage have gone to school if they were girls they would go in prostitution and the SPLA seemed to be the only shelter in the army where children could go there and find feeding and work

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as porters or whatever they do. To me I think I wanted to be very firm there are, its not only forced conscription, there are also children that are a part of social neglect ended up in the army and I think this is what I wanted to make clear.’247 ~ ‘It is different because when you see your people are dying and you have good heart to participate so that you save them from danger, you can’t be forced, you can join alone, if your domestic animals are taken and all your houses are burnt in the village, there is no need to be forced. Especially me I was not forced to join SPLA, it was me who joined it to participate fully.’248 ~ ‘That wasn’t the case. You know politicians sit from Nairobi, from Kampala, or from Khartoum and they make allegations that children are forcefully put into the army, that is like a political pulling rope, like if I’m against you I will say that she is taking children into the army by force but that’s not the real scenario, the real scenario was that there was not any other option, no schools, other than join the army so that you get protection from the enemy and you get material support.’249 ~ ‘It was not a personal choice. I didn’t have a choice to become a soldier. There is nothing interesting in the army. It was the circumstances that dictated it. Because if you have an attack on this side you have to run to safety it was more secure at that time to be associated with the army especially the SPLA. The government could not come and attack the SPLA, they feared. It was always the SPLA who went to attack the government, so to be on the safer side and to feel at least you can protect yourself and other people and you can work in the army there was no other option or much motivation but first it was because of fear and the age that I had. I could protect myself or run with other civilians. Secondly there was an issue about education, basic education so I thought I could go to school.’250 ~

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‘It was actually circumstances that were forcing people. Initially there was nobody forcing people, people were joining voluntarily but it came to the point when you are trained, you have the gun, you are now abide by the manifesto of the SPLA so if you want to leave it was not possible, but it was possible for you to leave when you are not trained, but after you are trained you are now within the ranks and the rules of the SPLA.’251 Circumstances – SPLA Respondents In order to highlight any differences in the responses with the former child soldiers who are currently in the SPLA, this section singles out their testimonies. The similarity between the testimonies of the former child soldiers not currently in the SPLA and those still participating revalidates how widespread their beliefs are. ‘Yeah they said all child soldiers are forced to join army and this is not true because I was one of them. People willingly because of what they see happened around, they became annoyed, they became interested to join the army with the end of only to revenge, to revenge the deaths of their relatives, the death of their fathers, of course as a young teenager your father killed, you see life is very useless there’s no need to live, only to go and have a gun so that you avenge the death of your father or the death of your relative.’252 ~ ‘The topic that you need to know is that we child soldiers we have been neglected but we cannot blame our SPLA or SPLM because we are left out, we were forced by war but we need to fight for our rights because without us we cannot achieve this freedom.’253 ~ ‘Well situation forced me to leave my parents, so when I leave my parents I have no choice but to join the army.’254 ~ ‘I was saying there was no intimidation it was the truth because they were the killers, the Arabs they killed my father.’255

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~ ‘When I was with the SPLA of course there was no any single relative there and we were moving from place to place, we’re moving from place to place so there was no any relative so my only relative was my immediate boss, my commander who is in front of me my immediate boss who takes care of all my needs, health needs or any other needs, the hunger situation, many other things, clothing.’256 ~ ‘Yes children did it voluntarily, especially in my home area most of the children did it voluntarily they were not . . . or anything else because they’re facing the problem they don’t have anything to do there always people Arab come always and burn the area and kill the children and they don’t have option, they only see the SPLA as alternative because most of the people who join the SPLA, they come with a gun and they defend people but because they are few they are always overcome by the enemy. So majority did it voluntarily some during 1980’s SPLA had a problem of mobilising children and send them to school so that the mobilisation was done in some areas especially in Upper Nile, but in Northern Bahr al Ghazal the majority of the children who joined the SPLA, joined SPLA voluntarily.’257 ~ ‘I’ve never seen a case at least to the best of my knowledge, I’m not saying it’s hasn’t happened, but I’ve never seen a situation where the SPLA went and started collecting a batch of boys and girls, arresting them and taking them to be recruited, no. All of a sudden you discover around yourself there are like fifty children here already, what do you do with them? Do you chase them away? If you chase them away, twenty meters from where you are they may step on landmines, they will be attacked by the enemies, so you keep them, you tend to go with them where you are going, you give them what you get. When there is any engagement with the enemy, you tell them to run in a particular direction and you’ll meet them there. Eventually, you’ll find many children grew up into the military and then eventually if there is an attack

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and you say “you children, you better stay here” and we are going to contain the enemy and then in the course of fighting you discover that the enemy managed to do what we call plan attack, detoured the opposition and came and you see children are under fire. What do you do? Next time your going to do that and stay here, in case these guys come after you, here are the guns, protect yourself. So you start teaching them also the drills, you start teaching them how to handle the gun, and believe it or not, teaching children how to handle the gun it that kind of situation it’s not to go and fight. It’s because these children are sleeping next to guns, if you don’t tell them about the safety mechanism of the gun they will hurt themselves so teach them the basics about the gun. Guns this is how you handle it, don’t point at your own colleague with a gun it’s dangerous, make sure that when there’s a gun next to you that the safety catch is always closed, make sure that don’t play with the bullets near fire. You start teaching them that and that in itself these are the basic military drills that we are all trained to do. So in a way the only person who is a danger to the society once he or she has a gun is a civilian who has not been trained. Once you’re trained you know how to handle the gun. Now we cannot afford to have children around, who are very excited, their hands are all over the guns and then we can’t keep them away because of the insecurities around, the only choice is to train them on how to handle the gun, there are many explosive ordinances around, you have to teach them that this means this, this is very dangerous, when you find them don’t step on it, you have to start teaching them what does this mean. You are teaching them military drills. Of course we have got some nasty field commanders who have always taken advantage of these children and used them for this, but the bottom line is that the children got involved . . . in the military because of the points that I mentioned here.’258 Relationship with the SPLA This section explores the relationship between the former child soldiers and the SPLA. In order to avoid simplifying the contact between the two groups as a matter of victim and aggressor, this section is presented as a way to diversify their portrayal. The portrayal of this

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relationship is not intended to be limited to this section, as it resonates throughout the book. However, this section is meant to call attention to the core aspects of the relationship. ‘When I join the SPLA I take permission from Dr John Garang. I will go to school and he allowed me to go, I am no longer to be a soldiers.’259 ~ ‘Actually, some. It’s not by force. The SPLA commanders asked the people if possible to give the children to them. And then chiefs, headman and so come and gather, sit down, discuss everything, after discussing they will bring the children and give to the SPLA. Not collecting by force house to house no.’260 ~ ‘Exactly, that. After they understand even in politics because at the beginning it would be difficult for you to understand why you have been forced to do that. After a while you analyse and you understand that situation, you’ll be interested and you will understand more to do that.’261 ~ ‘Someone who was already away like me there was no force being done to us because I have already absorbed myself into the army and I’ve never think of coming back to the place of my parents, so there was no force for us, for the young boys there was force for them.’262 ~ ‘Well at that moment the SPLA never forced anybody to join, they never do that one of Kony in Uganda, they just come, they talk and they stay with people if you like to join them you go with them, if you don’t want, you remain. The SPLA never forced anyone, they never abducted any child from his or her parents by force no, if you wish to go you go with them and they take care of you, if you don’t want, you stay there but they never call anybody and say “you come with us”.’263

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Conscription As the testimonies below will reveal, the environment and situation in which the former child soldiers joined were individual in nature. ‘I was never completely forced. As much as many people object to me coming back to be engaged in the front line, I have never thought of staying in a refugee camp and continue my studies. For example, I used to be the best pupil in my school to the level that when my headmaster heard that I had gone back to Sudan to be engaged in the front line, he had to tear all the papers of the school when he was announcing the results after having discovered that I wasn’t around, that I had gone to Sudan. Many people tried when I was in Kenya to ban me from coming back to Sudan but I tried all the possible ways. I came to Sudan; I escaped from Kenya to Southern Sudan in order to be engaged. So I was never really forced to join the SPLM.’264 ‘I would explain it that I was not forced because first when I was going to Ethiopia, I was going with my aunt, uncle’s wife, with children with other children, so he was already in Ethiopia, so we went and we were being guided as children so we were reaching Etong and I saw some of my, when I reached he came and met us and he put me in a school isn’t it and then I escaped from the school because I see other children of my age in the army so I end up there, so I was not forced.’265 Q: A lot of the NGOs that I have spoken to claim that the number one reason why children join is survival; specifically they mention situations where children lack basic needs, food, clothes, and so they say ‘ok the SPLA, I can get food and clothes’. That’s how they portray [many] of the child soldiers, would you say that’s accurate? ‘Well that’s not accurate. That is not accurate because first of all the way our communities work, I can survive anywhere I go. If I went to any corner of this country in Southern Sudan, I’ll be given food and our communities have very strong responsibilities towards children. So that is not a reason, that’s not a reason. At the same time, children know the

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hardships that people get when they have instability. We have walked long distances under stress, hungry etc; children know that. So that may not be an accurate reason for children actually joining the army. They know the difficulties . . . so to me food and survival is not at the top of the list.’266 ~ ‘I initially liked how soldiers dressed, that was the best thing and then when we were told what was happening down in our area, how people are being killed massacred, like the 1991 massacre. That was at the very time that I joined, the 7th of Jan 1991 I joined the SPLA and I straight came to somewhere in Mangala and we met the Machar group and they invaded in May, we had to fight and fight and fight, and I was motivated to continue fighting because it was like now nature, we didn’t know anything good but protecting than fighting, until we went to Kenya when we saw a different world.’267 ~ ‘I can encourage my child, I can do that but the children have their own position, like what I told you my father was against my decision to join the SPLA because I was still fourteen years old but I took decision myself but the children of today they have their own way of doing things because they are born, especially my kids they are born in free world where you cannot force a child to do whatever you want them to do. But if it is my wish I can encourage him to join because their life is at stake because if we don’t liberate this country we cannot have future anywhere in the world.’268

Motivations In order to challenge the assumption of some respondents regarding the lack of rational thought possessed by the former child soldiers, presented in this section are the former child soldiers’ motivations for joining the SPLA. Emerging from the context of war, introduced above, are the former child soldiers’ motivations for participating in the armed struggle. The motivations for participation came from different

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levels: community, individual, as well as peer groups. In some cases, the motivation for joining was external, driven by the community, whilst in others it was internal, the feeling of courage or adulthood. In most testimonies, there were both elements of internal and external motivations. As mentioned in the testimonies of some NGO workers, the perception of revenge as a motivation for joining the SPLA was interpreted as an irrational lashing out of anger. Although revenge for the violence committed against their family is mentioned as a motivation in some of the former child soldiers’ interviews, it has a high level of complexity. The testimonies presented below demonstrate that violence and murder against the former child soldiers’ families or communities did provide a motivation for joining; however this motivation is not lacking rational thought. In contrast to the NGO perception, although experiencing violence started them on their path to joining the SPLA, there existed thought processes leading from one to the other. For example, the experience of a parent’s murder or a community’s destruction facilitated thoughts of seeking justice, of protecting those who survived, of preserving themselves from the same fate. So what is defined by broad stroke by NGOs as revenge, is in fact a series of rational thoughts supporting self-preservation. This space between the anger and vengefulness described by NGOs with that of the self-preserving thought processes of the former child soldiers demonstrates the gap in understanding. This section breaks down motivations into five areas: protection, defence, access, support and future career. Seeking protection as a motivation for joining the SPLA did not exclusively involve the former child soldiers expecting the SPLA to provide them with protection. Those who joined for protection also saw the SPLA as a way to gain means to protect themselves or their community, such as a gun or training. In processing the offences committed against them and their community, many former child soldiers became motivated to defend their rights as they saw them. Since the conflict created situations of separation or restriction of movement, some respondents saw the SPLA as an opportunity to move about the country freely in order to access their family. Joining the SPLA for some meant an opportunity to support their families and communities who were already involved in the

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war. The last motivation presented in this section for joining the SPLA is viewing the SPLA as a future career or skill. Some respondents mentioned that they wanted to begin their future career with the SPLA by joining whilst they were below the age of 18. ‘Well the point which affected me right now to be a soldier was not because I feel like being a soldier but the first point I explained to you that what actually led me to be a soldier is situation was really it was really badly off and things were not going right.’269 ~ ‘If there was no war then if there was equality in Sudan the better thing I would have finalised my education, built my own house and bring up my children in a stabilised country but there was no[ne of] those things in the first place. So joining the SPLA was better than remaining in Sudan or at home in the first place.’270 Protection When the child soldiers sought security during the war, their rationale went beyond immediate self-preservation. They express an awareness of what harm could have come to their communities, whether it be physical, emotional or economical. ‘Gun, liberation, self-defence, protecting of my relatives or peoples and properties.’271 ~ ‘Yeah I was very happy because I joined the SPLA to protect our country and to protect our mother and my father.’272 ~ ‘Because with the war that had been dragging on in Southern Sudan it was also rather even the children themselves when they joined the army they find it better rather than sitting at home or maybe living in the village because still when they remain, when they remain at home they

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would be abducted by the Northern Islamic regime those days. So it was also as being done by the authorities in the SPLA, they convince the parents of the children because leaving your child at home without giving them to the government can still again be abducted by the Northern government. Later along it would be developed into a different person and perhaps you will not see that child again like most of the children who were abducted with most of them we know they are no longer with us now, most of them are our cousins. We just know them when we were young but right now where they are we don’t know whether they are with Arabs, whether maybe again they are recruited as child soldiers on the other side and then they were sent to come and fight here killed, no one knows. And perhaps that is what have happened.’273 ~ ‘Of course age also matters at the time, before at the age of ten maybe my family was definitely responsible but eventually we are typical African societies communities are also responsible for securities and protection. Then as we became older at fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, we started realising some of the gaps that existed in the security establishment. The police at the time could not provide adequate protection for us, the police was more of a paramilitary, the military could not provide protection to us, so we thought maybe since the SPLA has been fighting for a cause and some of these fundamental elements are the mismanagement of the security institution of the government of Sudan so we would rather go to the SPLA and seek the very security that we are looking at. So basically our security progressed from family to communities and then to the SPLA as a bigger institution.’274 ~ ‘Joining the armed forces, one thing you should know is that as much as you’re older, you’re like protecting the nation that’s the first thing courage for every male is that you’re protecting the nation, number two you are holding the land to your hand as a protector as the, that’s the first thing every male kid thought of in Southern Sudan and number two getting the protection or getting other necessary things easily as a guy who is in the army or something like that, a lot of it’s petition but all of them turn

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up sometime negative or positive, they are not having guarantee, maybe you don’t end up in those things but just in a different world, in a very own situation where you’ll just need to quit the army and go.’275 ~ ‘Well my point of raising mostly the point about my community was that was what was within my surrounding and when I go around it was the entire village that was completely crushed and as such finding that children were just taken and thrown into fire, some were beaten against a tree and you find a pregnant woman sometimes they say that they want to know the child in the stomach, in the woman and then they open the woman and by opening it they find whether it is a girl or it is a boy and then at the end both of the two die. So all this indeed shown that we are staying in a dark room where we have to fight out and get a clear light to ourselves.’276 ~ ‘Yeah, that’s what I mean. Because the Arabs themselves they used to go in our village and they burn village and they kill women, they rape women and they kill old . . . and they take our cows and all the properties in village, they take them to town and if you follow them they come and kill you. So that is why I joined the SPLA to get gun and to protect my village or my small town like Rumbek here.’277 ~ ‘As I said before that the first priority to let me join the army is to protect myself and to defend my people and the community at large not to revenge. If we have to revenge then we would not have known what is called peace and reconciliation that would have been known what is CPA at the moment, we would have said let’s fire until the end of the war and when the end of the war come. So it looks like those people who says we fight to revenge their hearts, which have been . . . but it’s not the real reason. It was because we wanted to defend and to protect with innocent people, to protect him or her.’278 ~

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‘I wanted to protect my land, to protect my people, even my mum, my mum is here.’ Q: What did you tell the kids that were younger than you when you were in Ethiopia or when you were in Southern Sudan, what did you tell them about your motivation? ‘I told them why they should fight, I told them if they fight their mom will be protected, their father will be protected, their property will be protected. If they don’t fight they will be slave either they’ll be slave in the . . . scheme or the cotton plantation or in European or other American country like that a slave like that, so being a slave something bad, nobody wish to be a slave even if you are poor, poor of the poorest nobody push you to be a slave. So you believe if you don’t fight don’t protect your mom don’t protect your father, they even attack your sister in front of you, your mom in front of you, someone will take it. So when you look at it that’s hell, you have to pick arm and then you fight.’279 ~ ‘At the moment you might be a child and if in case you get somebody beaten on the way and you don’t know exactly why he or she was beaten then you can make it annoyed and think if they can do this . . . I might be next, I will be the next target of their interests, so before I fall a victim then I should actually get my position whereby I can be trained and protect myself and protect the whole country, so I don’t think we are forced and I don’t think child soldiers should be abolished because they’re still young because you can see a reason why some children go to the bush, you see things are not good and the way things are being taken is not good, the rule of laws are taken in hands you know sometime military, different military groups they take laws in hand, so when they take their laws in hand and they do something bad to people so I don’t stop and discourage that child soldiers should not be there.’280 Defend The possessions former child soldiers spoke of defending were not limited to personal or close possessions but rather, included perceived

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obligations to social structures ranging from the local community to the state. Their alignment with the self-less and empathetic issues facing their country and communities demonstrates their developed level of maturity at such young ages. ‘I joined this struggle to struggle for my land.’ Q: This was your thinking at 13? ‘Yeah to go and fight for my people, to permit my people to have freedom.’281 ~ ‘What I want to gain is this you know the most important human being always just to know your dignity where you are, by then we Southerners in Sudan we were not knowing ourselves we were just staying life foreigners as you see now how South Sudan is, so this is why people, our grand people was decide to go and fight so when we come up we children who have been told that now this is the situation that we have and the people to make us leave are these certain group who come and took our land by force so the only option is just to go and fight because you can’t live as somebody to come and take your land while you are there so you are better to die from your own land.’282 ~ ‘What I had feelings of the problem was anger. That’s also after the schools were closed I was feeling bad about that, when you reach the villages in 1985 they introduced this looting of the cattles and the things that’s why we feel more angry and then we say let me join even if, if I get a gun then I’ll have to defend my place and maybe sure make stop these things of looting my properties.’283 ~ ‘Protection of life and dignity.’284 ~

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‘I think I was motivated because our house was burnt down in ‘86 by the Sudan government, so I felt like if I have a chance then I should go and vengeance or to that was one of the motivation that I had and it was also because others like me were joining so there was no way I was to be without everybody.’285 ~ ‘I could see people . . . I saw them, the only thing I can think of is to fight, to fight, to fight them and that was people were fighting now that’s why I felt that and I was say like ok ‘we have to fight and you have to join the SPLA’. I was already in the SPLA so I can feel we have to fight because there is a reason we have to fight.’ ‘Yeah that’s the reason now we feel very angry, I can feel like ok if our hometown is being destroyed then I could find myself I fight because we have to get our town back that’s how I felt, I felt very angry because of my younger brothers with my mom, and my mom was at home and if our town was being done like that the Arab then I felt bad about it and most of the guys would say ok mostly that’s why we’re fighting because Arabs . . . because we have been in the bush they want to destroy us, destroy our families, destroy everything in the South and then they’ll take it’s now the way we felt we have to fight.’286 ~ ‘Me I never thought I would be a soldier, when I went to Ethiopia I had intention to go to school but we were told how people are suffering and even by ’87, ’86 is when my father was killed, so when I said my father was killed I said this is an enemy if my father is killed then I have to look for an enemy who killed my father, so I have to join the army. So I did not have any motivations, the only motivation is that when my father was killed, ok when there’s a problem and it has not reached you, you may not say it is a problem you may say it is community but when it has reached you personally this is when you understand it is a problem, so when my father was killed I say “oh this is an enemy”, so I have to follow up, I have to follow up and see why they killed my father.’287

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~ The correlation between their perpetrator’s actions and their available options as a result were clear before they joined the SPLA. ‘Actually the government came and destroyed all our, everything, therefore there was no other option only to carry a gun.’288 ~ ‘Internally in your heart or in your soul why not I to go and support my people if they are doing such things to elderly people, if young kids being beaten or beaten with sticks or killed then it might be me so that’s why most of us started to go to the bush simply because you feel the pain in yourself, you feel that pain in yourself it might be you.’289 ~ ‘The aim of my being trained was that I had to fight back, the pain that had been inflicted on me because my parents were killed for no reason and then our future were all that ruined and luckily enough that after I joined the SPLA, the leadership of the SPLA never neglected the struggle and then they opened some small schools where that we had the chance getting this little bit of knowledge that we are working with now.’ ‘Actually my primary reason was that I as a child seen my parents killed in cold blood. It was something very painful and then I wanted to know exactly why were my parents killed. And up to now, I personally sees into it I have not got the exact thing that made the enemies to go into our village and kill our parents. I have not found any important thing and then secondly what I have been getting from other sources that we are all rebels, we are all SPLA but at the age of my father, my father was about sixty or seventy and working with the government and then I never saw him associating himself with the SPLA at that time.’290 Access The former child soldiers’ motivations, in relation to accessing their family or resources, exemplify how they conducted an evaluation of the benefits and disadvantages of joining.

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‘Well what I want to gain because I was fighting for the access to give me chance, to see my parents there was no any alternative, only to fight, if I got chance like what I have got this month I have to travel I have to see my parents and my brothers and sisters that was the logic behind and that is what we are looking after to have chance of access.’291 ~ ‘My first motivation was to take gun and come back to the South where my mother and my relatives were running away in different directions, I have to come and find them. That was the first motivation because one day you can move free with the SPLA but if you don’t go with them SPLA say no this is east, you cannot go this way. So that was the first motivation and another motivation they were using the same, you take your gun, you come back you see where your father your relatives all this and then they are.’292 Support Another mark of maturity in the former child soldiers was the level of support they could offer and were willing to offer their family and community. ‘Actually when this thing erupted . . . we started school at an abrupt time whereby nothing was actually available and when our parents and grandfathers and great brothers, sisters, cousins and you see them joining the movement for what you see them talk and that’s what we feel that we are being neglected we saw the SPLA was their proper cause where we should go.’293 ~ ‘Because we were fighting a long time ago our elder brothers they were fighting, and even the child can grow if you see your father was not happy, even you also you would follow that one, that’s why we go also to support our elder brothers and fathers.’294 ~ ‘My mood was only to fight against the Arab not against my brother and sisters, because when we join hand like with the other people you can do wonders, that is why I join and we team up and do something and the

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little we did that time was also engraved by the elders and they have now done it until now there is peace. If we had not joined, you would have not been peace now because the way those people were seeing us, doing that, clearly the end of the war and the community leaders were seeing that we were looking for our freedom and peace actually now has come.’295 ~ ‘OK in fact that time until now I feel proud about it. I feel proud about it. That is what my people are doing. So I think that I have to participate, I have a role to play in that particular time.’296 ~ ‘At the age of eleven I was seeing people doing that one and then my mind tell me you should have to join . . . but I joined really to participate and help my people also and it can also give me experience in fighting, when I see people fighting I can’t run away, when I see guns I can’t get scared because I was used to it.’297 ~ ‘Yes I feel politically powerful because I can be able to share with some members of my community the situation that is going on first of all in my county, which is Juba County, the state, which is Central Equatoria, and Southern Sudan as a whole.’298 Future Career Some respondents viewed joining the SPLA at a young age as a means of beginning their military career. They saw it as an investment into their future and a strategic move to develop their career prospects. ‘You know what makes me to join at that age in that day all my colleagues they joined army so . . . to go to join army and also in my future because in future when you be in army to be as a army you have something in the future that’s why I joined the army as I was now a captain yes because I started when I was a child.’299 ~

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‘These are soldiers they have guns and they are protective at some point I’m going to get protection and then when I grow old I would work with the government at some point, that is the thinking that I have . . . that I would love to be a soldier, so those are the few things as a kid, that’s not the way I think now but that was the way I was thinking the time I was a teenager, life would be fun something.’300 ~ ‘Manhood. It’s like an assertion of my manhood. Social reasons, status, whatnot, it is part of what makes you somebody, like going to school and getting a degree so, it’s like a skill you know, the army is like a skill you know the military, I see it as one of the skills like carpentry and other things.’301

The Benefits from Joining the SPLA This section addresses what the former child soldiers wanted to gain from the SPLA before they joined. The idea of gaining something from participation is expressed on a community level as well as an individual level and overall has a wide range of responses. Some former child soldiers joined for their community’s protection, dignity or justice, whilst others joined for individual prestige, personal security, or the pursuit of their own freedom. The interviews with NGO workers revealed the assumption that children were joining the SPLA for immediate, self-benefiting reasons such as poverty alleviation or personal security. Although some sought these gains, they were not representative of the majority of former child soldiers’ experiences. The most reoccurring item that the former child soldiers wanted to gain by joining the SPLA was an education, which was not mentioned by any NGO respondent. Individual Although some former child soldiers felt that they would benefit personally from joining the SPLA, by possibly gaining education or

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protection, they also expressed a community or state-wide concern, which is evident in all of the sub-sections. ‘No that was separate, it’s on different levels. On one level it’s a skill, on one level its prestige and people respect you more and can’t just send you around and boss you around because now you are an army lieutenant. Like an uncle of mine whose a civilian will now choose to give those kind of chores and those kind of activities to someone who is a civilian in the family. I’m a soldier, you can’t just.’302 ~ ‘Of course I want to be somebody, I want to be a leader and I want to be army commander and I want to see my people are defended and I want to say that my parents are defended, I want to say that people of Southern Sudan have their own president, their own ministers, like what we have now and this make me very happy and we are looking forward for the referendum, that day if we reach that goal then I will me personally be more free.’303 ~ ‘Freedom. That’s the most important thing that I wanted to gain; I want to gain freedom. And at the same time, I want to gain a part of the history that is in the making. Three, security and my own protection these are the key issues. Of course I don’t have to start expanding on what freedom means within our context but at least these are the key issues that I want to gain.’304 ~ ‘Well freedom is one of the issues that I wanted to gain and be a master of my own destiny because in these military of violent affected areas you need to be in the military or else, I have seen a lot of people as we talk now who are even . . . successful they have their attachment to the military ranks that they have.’305 Education A preconception held by some NGO workers of the former child soldiers was that before the NGOs introduced the opportunity of

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education to their area, the children did not have any such ambitions. As a way of challenging several of the ideas of NGO workers on children and education, this research pursued the topic of education in the interviews with the former child soldiers. In the testimonies below there is a high level of awareness as to the importance of education as well as it being an ambition, regardless of its opportunity. The issue of education was emotive for many of the former child soldiers. Those who believed they could have been served a better if not longer education by the SPLA expressed bitterness and remorse. Some former child soldiers felt that receiving three years of education in Ethiopia did constitute in their mind the education that the SPLA had promised them. Whilst some felt their lack of education greatly held them back in their adult life; whilst others believed it was a substantial stepping-stone to what they have achieved today. ‘What was in my mind was that I was going to get an education, that I’d go to school and get a better life of . . . because we live in another life where there is no school or a traditional lifestyle in the community. So what I was hoping [that] I would get from them, which even make me go with them, is that I’m going to school. In fact, that’s what they told me that you will be going to school so that’s convincing. And not only me too many other who are younger and older than me.’306 There were those former child soldiers who acknowledged that without the three years that the SPLA provided, they would have remained in their rural communities where there was no education being offered. Those who had accepted the limitations and circumstances of the SPLA at the time of their schooling did not hold the SPLA accountable for their lack of education. There were also those respondents who turned down education in order to join the SPLA. They felt that an education in Arabic was not what they wanted and that an education, which they could not benefit from in the future, was not worth anything until their country had freedom. ‘Yeah, I could have go[ne] with my further study, I could have received but it seems like it’s taking me no where, so I have to join the other side.

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For my better future I know I’ll have a future joining the Red Army one day, one time that’s what I believe until today, I still believe in this.’307 In contrast to the NGO workers’ portrayals of child soldiers not knowing the value of education, below are testimonies to support the degree to which the former child soldiers had desired to go to school but, because of the conditions of war, did not have that option. ‘My personal motivation first of all it happened during the time when the war in 1982 started at the village where I was schooling, ok it erupted first where the government soldiers came and burned down our school saying that some of the teachers were suspected to be rebels and therefore that school doesn’t need to exist. So we were chased away and that angered us because even if there are some of us who were soldiers they should find ways of getting them and leave our school alone. But is was everybody that looked like it doesn’t be need to know the need for the school wasn’t there and therefore we also felt very angry, if I was actually allowed at that fifteen to go and fight, I would have gone because I was so angry at that moment.’308 ~ ‘I was willing to go to school, but since there was no school that’s why I have to join the army.’309 ~ ‘They need to be demobilised and sent to school because many of the people were yearning for school, even myself I joined the SPLA at the age of fourteen because I’ve seen a lot of problems especially in my home area and I had no alternative at that time that’s why I joined the SPLA at an early age.’310 ~ ‘That time was dangerous; there was no thinking about the future. We think about death, when the war broke out the next minute you die. Ok in the future putting we know what they want we come to town, we get

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ourselves, we go to school, then I leave the army. That was the future we were thinking about.’311 ~ ‘Well I hated when I was young and I hope and I keep on praying, keep on praying god will help me actually I need not to be too much politics but I was actually interested to be a doctor somewhere, to be other things somewhere but because of the conditions and because of what I’ve been seeing it forced me to be in the army and not I’ve been forced to join army but conditions forced me to be in the army so I think after all what the war finish and I pray it will get finished for all day, I go for my opinion maybe going as a lecturer somewhere being a doctor doing doctrines in all the fields which I think are going to be useful to me.’312 ~ ‘The little salary that I am receiving, I am helping with my family so when I think of my education I need somebody who will also try to support me, so you find that indeed I feel that I have to go continue with my education but financially it’s becoming difficult.’313 Some former child soldiers see education as the path for future opportunities: ‘I feel like I have to leave the SPLA and go back to school with my studies because I believe education can make a lot of changes in somebody’s life and I was also encouraged by my father you know and my family and also I was impressed and I was motivated by the education because most figures who were in the SPLA who managed to rise up in the top leadership most of them were educated and the only way they make it through was through education and that’s why I felt like I have to go back to school, study, come back and help reconstruction and development of the South.’314 ~ ‘That is my first cause those days my purpose was to study ‘cause I know the goodness of school that is to better of my life again, to change

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the life of my community cause I would bring in the new things that I have learned of course because I’ll be in touch with the world when I’m learning. So still I would be telling my community more of what I have learned outside my community.’315 Growing up without an education created more determination for the former child soldiers to provide that opportunity for their families and communities. ‘Actually we have to control them anyway, this child we have to take them, like me now I cannot, I am regretting now to waste my time in the SPLA instead of following my education therefore we are trying now to control the situation, that no child should be going through this one again.’316 ~ ‘My brother now is supposed to study and leave the army because now I’m growing up so my young brother the one who come after me must go to school and study to be somebody in future and leave me to be just a soldier.’317 After two years of fighting at the age of 12, Khang Chol Khang felt that he became an adult after deciding, ‘That was the time I realised I want to go back to school now. After that time I feel going back to school.’318 Guns and Self-assurance From the perception of the NGO workers, children were attracted to the SPLA because of the shininess or toy-like element of a gun. A gun was seen by the former child soldiers as a way to protect themselves or their community rather than a toy. The respondents also saw a gun as a way to achieve their goal of obtaining freedom, protection, power over their lives, control over their destiny, or defending their rights. ‘Yeah these were my thoughts because . . . the damage is done, done by someone who is carrying a gun, so if I had a gun, trained and given

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a gun I have to protect our people and to protect myself. So that was a primary political objective that I went for training.’319 ~ ‘I had political thought. The political motivation that I joined the SPLA is that I need a gun to defend my cattle that was the whole majority.’320 ~ ‘Ok I could say two things, it argued more that being a man and a man with a gun you can make a decision and you can do anything, you think gun is the protector of everything so that’s one side. Secondly it effect your decision because you don’t think, you think only one way, either you survive or you kill something, you’re always thinking that you are the right person are you’re always right when you make a decision because you have a gun. So it gives you some feeling that you are the only one, you cannot die, other person with no gun is like nothing. So which are the negative thoughts that being in the army or holding a gun imposing to you, it make you it’s like a courage but its not a courage its just a danger that is in you which need to be avoided in a way that’s why its not even good for young people to be in army because that’s the first thing they learn, that’s the first way they are trained, that’s the first how they will behave to anybody else.’321 ~ ‘Ok in the first place there were two things, I was overjoyed because having a gun was like power and protection and another thing was the fear of unknown because when you are in the field you may expect death or injury or anything like that. So when I was trained and got my gun I was overjoyed because of having the gun and the power but later on when I was in the field I developed a sense of hopelessness and fear because you know anything can happen from that time.’322 ~ ‘When you feel that you are in need of something to do, it does not deal with age even if you are five years when you are seeing actually somebody is doing something wrong for you can go where you can get the power actually, and that was one of the reasons force me to go and

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get the power, to get the gun, this why I joined the SPLA when I was seventeen years old.’323 ~ ‘Even at the age of fifteen when you don’t have a gun, its like you have a gun because even the way you are being taught its already like you know what’s happened, its like you have already carried a gun, its like you have gone to fight. So people live in different camps even at the age of fifteen or ten we are already given our rank. And you know who is number one responsible for this group, so all of us by then you know what you are doing. Even if you are small you know what you’re doing. So given a gun, its like you have already been given a gun simply because you didn’t see it, so they give it to you its simple. It’s just a gun that you have been dreaming of.’324 Escape Poverty Although it was often mentioned in the testimonies of the NGO workers, poverty did not arise as a prominent factor in motivating former child soldiers to join the army. The issue of poverty was complex in the lives of former child soldiers since much of the ‘poverty’ experienced was the result of looting and vandalising. There was a strong political and immediate cause to their poverty, which was not explored or addressed by NGOs who mentioned poverty as a motivation for joining the SPLA. This lack of understanding by the NGOs fails to connect the former child soldiers’ childhoods with the surrounding war context. ‘My family’s life was based on cow’s milk and local produces. Their lives became miserable when they started running into the bushes to save their lives from government backed militia who were looting and burn house down.’325 ~ ‘There was not any non-political motivations, I was not going there for survival because if it is survival I was not going to go out of Juba because I have relatives they provide they take care of my basic things for survival, so that one was not the reason, the reason was basically for political purpose.’326

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Influence of Dr John Garang Was Dr John Garang a leader of a political movement or a political entrepreneur? It became apparent through the interviews with the NGO workers that some had a negative image of Garang. Some NGO workers went so far as to label him a ‘brainwasher’ to the children of Southern Sudan. In contrast, the topic of Garang did not play a major role in my interviews with the former child soldiers nor did they express that he had posed a negative influence. It was only through the interviews with the NGO workers that assumptions kept reappearing about what influence the leader had on motivating the former child soldiers to join the SPLA. The former child soldiers’ portrayal of Garang is presented below. ‘In fact the conflict never change so much our perception but the SPLM and our late leader John Garang he teach us about how we are going to transform the life of the Southern Sudan. And the life of Southern Sudan should not be transformed through the barrel of the gun it’s going to be transformed through many style of leadership, through the education system, through policy making, through making foreign relationship to our neighbours. So these were the parts of the perception that our leader gave to us.’327 ~ ‘The reason I joined the army is not because of John Garang but I joined the army because of the community of my country so that I myself, I want to be independent in my country.’328 The former child soldiers’ portrayal of Garang was of someone who valued children’s education but also recognised that the children’s support for the war was necessary for uniting a country. ‘So they were telling us, then later Garang was even telling us now you are still young, you have to stay with the studies but for us as a small boy we don’t feel like it, this is what happened. I remember in 1991 he was addressing us in Bongo. So he brought out the pen and said you youngsters this is the war that we are going to fight for and now we can’t go to the war all of us even though we’ll liberate this country and we have not yet the people who are going to learn later on we will . . . that

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we are fighting for to come and take over. So we will not make even he bring example because I forget the country that such a case has happened. So they were interested to do that but because of that feeling of being a child the only option that you see around is to have a gun. So they were supporting education but due to the difficulties of some of the children he don’t feel to do so because we want to go and fight.’329 ~ ‘The other motivation was when the late Dr. Garang was the Chairman, he came for visits, to see how youths dressed up, how they are in uniform, how they speak to people, how they were training people and that was another role model who motivated me to be a child soldier.’330 In the interviews with NGOs, Dr John Garang was mentioned several times as a significant motivation to join because he ‘brainwashed’ the child soldiers or that the child soldiers simply followed his orders to join the SPLA. However, the testimonies of the former child soldiers did not mention Dr John Garang as one of their motivations to join the SPLA and when I asked specifically about his influence, the former child soldiers recognised him as the leader of the SPLA and a great inspiration to their people but did not see him as someone who had a part in forcing them to join.

Experience of Fighting Essential to understanding each former child soldier is their individual experience on the battlefield. This section takes a look into the violence they witnessed or participated in, which reveals their thought process, coping mechanisms, evaluation of themselves or the conflict, and the degree of their exposure. In addition, the conditions that the former child soldiers fought under serve to contextualise their experience and put into perspective their willingness or unwillingness to continue with their participation. The testimonies regarding the relationship dynamics between the former child soldiers and the SPLA whilst they were serving is another vital part to challenging the idea of mistreatment and forced participation.

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Violence The violence in the lives of the former child soldiers took place in many forms. In some circumstances they were the perpetrator, in others they were the victim and bystander.

Figure 3.2 SPLA Tank. Juba, Southern Sudan.331

Figure 3.3 Bullet Holes through an Army Tank. Juba, Southern Sudan.332

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‘You find that every dead body that you find on the ground is in the area of where the enemy goes are people who were tortured and killed or were shot with a gun, that one shows that the same thing that had been happening in my village it was the same thing that is happening in all the areas that I had been moving in.’ ‘Actually I started observing that when I was fifteen years, when I immediately went to the battlefield. And that is when I, there was an area that we secured and then went, we stayed there for three days the enemies tried to come back again we started killing from a distance our people from far away so all that distance when we went and tried to save the lives of the people there, we found people were covered in the room and then set on fire so that one I started experiencing it so actually yeah.’333 ~ ‘No, no I saw things, I saw bad things happening even I remember thing that was happening when I was young and I saw when I went to the bush for example we captured some villages we find civilian being killed by the Arabs and when we reached the people thank us, it is good that you have come, you have saved our life, it make me to be annoyed.’334 ~ ‘There are places where you, in the beginning you feel enthusiastic because it became a model for bravery and some kind of prestige at certain time and also at certain time you became you realise it is not a game play when you see your colleague die and something happen to them, you know you begin to feel that actually it’s quite dangerous what you thought was fun. So then you begin to think of ‘is this really the right thing, do I die like that person or, I didn’t come up for this.’’335 Q: Did you kill anyone? ‘Oh that issue, you don’t know because it is a massive fighting, massive fighting you are just shooting and they are shooting, you don’t know

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whether you have killed but provide there are dead bodies lying on you so you cannot say I was the killer and we were not murderers, we were freedom fighters, we were fighting to liberate the area but it was not our interest to kill the people but to get freedom that was our aim during the war.’336 ~ ‘Well you see before you come to Southern Sudan of course you have the excitement that now I am a soldier, I am serving, you know you have this patriotic consumption in your body, you feel very happy, you don’t feel you are risking yourself that in fact if you have not gone to combat you feel very embarrassed because you look like this coward who’s just leaving behind but when you come to Sudan you have a sea of relief that at least finally my contribution is recognised no matter how small I am, I am contributing and when you come and you like some of us like myself did not go for combat but I fell into ambush and we had to fight for survival. In the logistical route where we supply ammunition and food to people in the front line, they’re always interrupted and you see that and personally when I saw first time people shot you begin to ask yourself is this really what it means. It was not just nice uniform and nice food but then you realise and as a human being you feel scared and you feel shaken but what shaken me more my older brother was killed in 1989 when I got the news that he was killed in a place called Kubook in Blue Nile and that of course brought home to me a lot of thing and decide other close friends also who died in operations. And you begin to count losses and then you begin, it’s not about killing it’s also that you are in the line to be killed.’337 Conditions The context for many decisions or actions was within the conditions in which the former child soldiers were in during their time with the SPLA. ‘When I was at the area of Bar El-Ghazal actually I could say I witnessed in the north our people had been suffering a side of when it is in

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crisis like this there’s no food and there is nothing, cattles die, people die form hunger, and all this has given me that motivation that I have to strengthen up, give a clear strength in order to struggle in order to free these people. So all this had are other things that we had been witnessing at that time, that was my first experience that I started witnessing, seeing people dying in the random and no medical and the rest of those things, mostly small children so it were the kids that had been dying it was very painful indeed because there were no medications or something like that.’338 ~ ‘I think there wasn’t, ok there were different things, we think that all guys have advantage at some point, they are brave, they are able, they don’t have problem as a teenager, you think like “this guy is better off than me” and you are just down here, have a lot of problems, small sickness kill you, you got malaria, you got anything, you’re just a weak kid you know, you are hungry, you are not able to do anything much, so we think that all guys are better off than us politically and having more reason of fighting than even us ourselves.’339 ~ ‘Well when one participates in something that is actually regarded as a ‘bad thing’ at the time, one is not conscience to know whether your age is the right age for that, well the only thing that I will say is that perhaps participating in a struggle when one is underage you are deprived of your childhood life, you cannot oversleep during the weekend and wake up when you want to, you cannot have enough balls to play around with, because you know you start behaving like a grown up person. So one is deprived and then sometimes you kind of feel bad because you have lost that childhood life which at whatever point you can never go back to it but at the same time it gives an element of pride also that at least I am able also to make a contribution to this cause whether it’s a good cause or a bad cause at least I’m able to give my own contribution towards that.’340 ~

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‘If a child has adopted the discipline you can be discipline then sometimes the adults are the more discipline because they can think sometimes they think and sometimes they become crazy and when he’s a child he’s adopted to the situation he can be neat so children can be sometime better in terms of ok discipline if someone else is disciplined well.’341 ~ ‘No, no, no it was my worst state to join, it was even worse because I was taken from my parents, life was hard, no food, no nothing, things are just getting worse and you don’t love it at all, it’s a life that is so dangerous, no sorry, no saying ‘are you sick’, no nothing, it’s just everybody on their own and you cannot as a young man of eight years or young little boy you can’t survive in that situation for eight years or seven years just living in a harsh situation, being beaten around all the time, you’re taken here, you’re taken there, no good house, no good shelter, no food, no nothing. So I regret it wasn’t cool enough, I’d rather stay with my parents then being in that army. At the end of the day, you have to just pack through either dead or alive so there’s two ways and I don’t have a choice because I can’t escape that, I don’t even know what direction my parents was so.’342 ~ ‘I was the mobile headquarters, his mobile headquarters that was my primary assignment.’ ‘That they are in some kind of suffering. Yes there are hardships and all those kinds of things but its not as bad as people want to make it seem, humanitarian organisations and all that, it’s not that bad.’343 Relationship with SPLA In order to contextualise further the experiences of the former child soldiers, the testimonies below explore the relationship they had with the SPLA. ‘They were politically informing they were not brainwashing because the reality was on the ground, people could see the marginalisation that has

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happened and when you look at it there is a big difference between brainwashing and political organisation. Because there was nothing in the villages, people were desperate and they only see SPLA as the only solution to freedom.’344 ~ ‘Well a rebellion is something very tricky to understand, when start the movement you might be lacking medicine, you might be lacking all these things because at that age you’re still young you think you have been mistreated because sometimes there’s no food, sometime you move for sometime there’s no water, you move for some time there’s no clothing, so with that age, your age you’re having maybe ten maybe fifteen at that age you think you have been mistreated but actually the way I look at it because they were not mistreated, we were not mistreated by then. We have no support we have no finances, resources, money, power so it look like we have been mistreated but because we cannot actually at that age you may think you are mistreated but the way I look at it you are not mistreated simply because no man power no medicine no food so they cannot bring food from no where to be given to you and the food we depend on is the food collected from the indigenous people we ask them and they give us food and if they give us enough food then we keep on doing and if there’s no food don’t blame them because this is the system and they give the food sometime they don’t dig supposed to run somewhere very far so if there’s no food at that particular time you as a child soldier or you as a child by then you may think you are mistreated but that is not mistreatment.’345 ~ ‘It was very good up to now; it is still good in my heart, that’s why I’m still in the SPLA.’346 ~ ‘There is a tough question because I didn’t have a task or any knowledge of how my security the government of Sudan could provide. I trusted the rebels who could be on my side and was working with them. In every condition I could see always see them as the nearest people who could work with me. As I was a soldier, at that tender age

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a little bit of assets like being given some education materials and in month you could go studying some alphabet and another month studying numbers so I saw it to be a positive side to be with rebels than the government.’ ‘Actually it made me very secure because the moment I just see elderly soldiers, who could at times play role of being parents, they tell you do this or don’t do this, give you instructions, and I felt very secure when I was with them. Then when I had my gun I say ok fine, I don’t have a problem, whatever comes I will know how I will take care of myself and the children. Maybe in any case people run away and they don’t know where they are running to. If in any case I run and disappear into the bush I will know how to defend myself because I have a gun. So that gave me a lot of pride, that gave me a lot of I can look forward to security for myself.’347 ~ ‘Yeah you see with every system there are immediate reasons why you join that particular system but as time goes by there are more reasons that can imagine as to whether you should continue or not. Every time you progress you’re discovering more and more reasons that can make you either continue or leave, like in any system of employment. So you find that you become more and more excited about the progress you are making, you are given some status there, you’re also like in the army we say you salute millions of people but there are also millions of people who salute you so you discover that you are also recognised. So these are strong reasons that keep you going at the same time you see yourself getting involved with progress, like you capture towns and you see what has been preached the concept of the New Sudan, you are creating it, it’s there, you are controlling a town which you are calling New Sudan. So it keeps you making more and more informed decisions. Basically as you gather momentum you keep enhancing the decisions that you have been making but at the same time if for example you realise that maybe you had a lot of expectation and they are not being met and you feel you want to leave, again the reasons that make you leave, at the time you consider them rational reasons, I mean these are reasons, you reasoned them out,

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you rationalised them and finally said well I think I’ll have to leave, and then you leave.’348 ~ ‘It was only when I came back from Ethiopia when the government of Mengistu Haile when it fall down and then the sudden new government took over, I saw by then either people have to group themselves according to group, either they join the SPLA or the Sudan government and there was some other countries who were backing the SPLA and there were some countries backing the country. So it was very good to belong to a particular group of the political system but by then ours was not a political system it was an army wing, so it was recently this formed the political part of the SPLA/SPLM was not there.’349 ~ ‘Well the opportunities I had because when I went to the bush actually I don’t know English what I’m speaking so the opportunities I had I was taken to school and I studied and I graduated from form six so I plan to go ahead because of the opportunities a good part of the SPLA they brought me up to be who I am today because if it was not SPLA I might have not been where I am today so at the same time at the same point I appreciate SPLA to bring me at this time and later on they’re still developing me because I don’t know I’m still young, some years to come I might be somebody different.’350 ~ ‘When I was training at that age that was still when I was fourteen so I became more involved in SPLA political motivations was presented to us at that point.’ ‘The way I would like my community to deal with it is, it’s a local approach actually because it’s . . . it’s not insured by the outsider, it has to be in built so that people understand it better about people are integrated better than the way it is being done now.’351

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Taking the relationship beyond the aggressor–victim dichotomy, the testimony below describes many positive attributes to their interaction with the SPLA. ‘Yes of course most young men and women get so excited with a gun and one feels that you first of all gain the confidence, you also gain some sense of pride that you are being given such a responsibility, that means the SPLA values you. The nature of our operations particularly for myself I was more involved in a lot of covert actions even around Juba etc. even before I officially got trained in the SPLA we were involved in a lot of these covert actions so you feel possible the pride that finally you are doing what is really yours for the cause of the people, so as an individual there is that element of confidence, there’s that element of pride, there is that element of hope because we saved the New Sudan that has been promised by the SPLA, you know I’m a part of that creation of the New Sudan so I’m going to do it, so it gave, and that’s what kept me at least going on actually at the end of the day, and perhaps that’s what kept quite a number of people going in those difficult terrains, in those difficult conditions etc. What kept us moving is that individual selfconfidence you started gaining and claiming your identity, you know that finally you can also be a free man and woman or a free young boy and girl in this land.’352 ~ ‘Well when I joined the army at age of sixteen at first I don’t want to join the army for some time, first time to see people dying, see people falling, friends are going and all of this, you may get scared but if you know exactly what took you to the army and you know you’re fighting for something which later help you or help the whole generation I think you’ll be happy because if something actually happened to you the new generation will get a good part of it, so I was not feeling so that sad, I was really excited because I was excited to be an SPLA soldier and I was excited to fight to liberate and to be free from dictatorial rule, so up to now I’m excited and I know until tomorrow I’m excited about the SPLA and I’m very excited for what has happened, I think there’s not much . . . sad about the SPLA.’353

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The testimonies below describe how the war conditions created a bond between SPLA members serving together. ‘And mostly in the SPLA the discipline is a kind of torture and it does not go like a rule of law, like someone can decide to do anything to you so in that process we just you find yourself you’re just going with the rule of law and our characters were changed. You can see how can you be with your brothers or maybe your colleagues, how you can cope with the situation like in difficult times whereby there’s no food then you’ll find yourself whoever can help whoever can find food. This is the time you feel that we were like a family although we are from different places so we can care ourselves properly and in terms of discipline we felt we were good.’354 ~ ‘Since I left my home area in 1984 I have no other community or parents apart from the SPLA or my colleague who I knew in the SPLA at that time under leadership of the SPLA because our guidance that time was the leadership of the SPLA who are ahead of us and not the community because I myself since I left my home area in 1984 I only seen my home area in January 2007 since 1984, so twenty something years I’ve been away from my home area and I was only serving the SPLA, so all our guidance and everything is from the leadership of the SPLA and the colleagues like my age mates who are with me or my leaders who are with me they are the ones who always help me in case I have problems and I help them, we don’t have community or parents its now . . . but before there is nothing of that kind. We are comrades and we always help each other.’355 Returning to Civilian Life Many of the former child soldiers took years to return to their families. The time that had passed since they last saw their families made some feel distant and unattached, whilst others said the dynamics of the relationships remained largely unchanged. Some respondents were not recognised by their parents and others had to be told who their parents were because they had aged significantly since they had last seen each other. The recognition between the former child soldiers and

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their parents was not always immediate and often needed prompting such as the sound of their voice or the feeling of their affection. Returning to civilian life also brought about feelings of insecurity due to their lack of a gun or uniform. The transition also brought about temperaments, which did not fit well into civilian life, such as aggression. Other former child soldiers found that leaving the military began a process of entering a peaceful time. They feel that since they are sharing national peace because of the CPA in 2005, this has supported their desire to live conflict free. Reunion The reunion between the former child soldiers and their families and community was complex in nature. Some of the former child soldiers felt that they had found a new community within the SPLA and therefore had little desire to return home. Some respondents waited many years until returning to their families, and did so with mixed feelings of attachment or familiarity. Overall, their reunion was not straightforward nor was it something that all the respondents felt was needed in their lives. The complexity to reunification, demonstrated by the former child soldiers’ testimonies below, was not present in the NGO workers’ discussion of DDR. ‘My father died unfortunately but when I met my mother she didn’t recognise me and when I took off the cap she could not recognise me. When I said ‘hi mum it is me’ she fell down.’356 ~ ‘Oh, well when I went there I was a stranger because those people who I got there I don’t know them. Even my mother I have forgotten her, even my father, so somebody who knows me was the one who directed me and said “this is your father”. And then I wonder “my father is old”. “This is your mother”, and I wonder also my mother is also old. So I was strange to them and they were strange to me because it was my first time to go there so they don’t believe whether I’m the one, even me I don’t

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believe they’re my parents because they’re old, when I leaved them, they were young.’357 ~ ‘First of all I started missing everyone and when I met them it was an emotion of the union; when I met them that was in 1993. From 1987 to 1993. My father cried, I also cried, my mom cried. From there we parted and I didn’t have the feeling of leaving them because they were out of my mind completely and even today that feeling is still there, I don’t miss them. Instead I miss my friends who were together in the bush.’358 ~ ‘I didn’t really hesitate moving back with them but situation did not allow me to move back with them. I was in school, I have to work, I have my own plan and even the guys which I grew up with which are different strangers were like my parents at the end of the day because I adopt a new neighbourhood so it wasn’t like my neighbours that I was with in ’89, this was ’99 and 2000 and new people, new life those are the parents those are the people so you have to give them all the attention possible like the way you can give to your parents. So at the end of the day it wasn’t about feeling like I don’t need to join them but the people I was with were even ok, they were parents to me, so I don’t regret either way, all of them are both cool and fine.’359 ~ ‘I was feel great, I was feel very happy, I was very, very, very excited to see my own land, my people, who is there and who is not there. At least to unite again because you know during the wartime you may even think your brother in Ethiopia, America, wherever and you don’t know where he is. Sometime you can talk with your parents or relatives through Red Cross. When I came back as you look at me I feel I should take care of them because some of them are still young and some become vulnerable so in fact that’s why I decided to join school again in order to depend on me.’360

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Q: How did you feel when you met them again? Did you feel uncomfortable to depend on them? ‘Sure. I was. I felt they were foreigners to me I just didn’t know who they were. Even my younger brother who grew after me, I didn’t know they were my brothers. My mom had to take me into her bed that night as much as I was grown because there was a lot of kids where I had to sleep. So in the middle of the night when she was talking to me I realised the deep sound when I used to be a kid and when she used to sing for us some songs I realised that sense of motherhood came into me and then I realised I was with my mom. I think after eight months like that, that’s when that incident happened. But all along when I joined them I could behave differently, it was so difficult to get reformed and get back to behave like other children does in the house.’361 Instability Being a part of the SPLA allowed the former child soldiers to be an active participant in creating their environment’s stability and therefore they feel it would be a factor in rejoining in the future. Q: How did you feel having to live with your family or as a civilian after you came back from the military? Were you comfortable with having to rely on them? ‘No, I feel unsafe due to the lack of gun’s power because having a gun relief fear of apprehension.’362 Q: Why did you decide to leave the SPLA? ‘No it just happened spontaneously, I have not decide to leave, it happened spontaneously I was sick and I was sent to Kapoeta for treatment and then when they heard that there was Jalaba coming to attack Kapoeta so I left from there and went to Nairoos, so a few days after that one there was a rounding up of soldiers that were in the area and I was among those people that were rounded up. So on the same day that we were rounded up and

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we were about to be taken to the combat, Kapoeta fall into the hands of the Jalaba that was Arab that was 1992 and then that . . . all of a sudden nobody become concern about it what they were doing so we find ourselves nobody was still guiding us. So I went back home, where I was, I went and picked my, what came to my mind was for us, those who are soldiers start preparing and go make it to the combat, so I went and put on my uniform and I remember one of my relatives started asking me ‘why are you putting on a uniform’ and I told him now Kapoeta has been taken what next is for us to put on our uniform, maybe look for gun and go for combat, it has never come to my mind that we would find ourselves in Kenya and then he told me ‘no people are going, heading to Loki’ I say is that the thing now, he told me yes, so I remove the uniform, put it in a bag and we start trekking but I find myself in Lokichoggio.’363 ~ ‘Yeah if there’s any war which broke out again I have a dream of joining SPLA for my will to fight for my own land and my own country and if there’s no war I will not join the SPLA again I will go back for my studies and come back to build my own country.’364 Experience of Peace The transition into peaceful times were welcomed by the former child soldiers and for many of them, peace replaced their pain. Gaining peace was the beginning of their healing process and the journey of getting their life back. ‘When I joined the army I don’t feel good because when I think of my sisters and a lot that I had lost by that time I don’t feel OK and what I know is that we are very strong and we are trying to get peace in our country and we are now going out and we are now going to school, we are now walking, we are now getting money, we are not fighting, I don’t feel anything bad now.’365 ~ ‘OK after SPLA, after peace I became now very, very independent.’366 ~

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‘It was very hard because it required a lot of transformation trying to change the way you were. Actually for us at that time we were very young and we could just adapt easily to fit into school but some aspect of some military in us because we still lived as SPLA, minors, our own north civilians in our community but in the wild, comes through. You interact with people in schools, certain functions, and then dance where there are traditional dances, committee meetings that bring you very close to the civil society. Civilian population actually changes you so that is how we changed.’367 Gained from Joining the SPLA Some former child soldiers walked away from their experience with the SPLA feeling as if they had gained positively from their participation. ‘Yeah after I joined the SPLA I feel like independent because I’m a soldier and when the enemy come we can attack or we can defend ourselves so it was useful than being in the civilian life.’368 ~ ‘Up to now I think I’m in position of protecting my fellow countrymen and marginalised people of Southern Sudan and not only Southern Sudan, Sudan as unite because in the Sudan you go to the North, you go to the East, you go to the West, Centrally you find that there are people who are marginalised. And all these people that have been with the SPLA for the eighteen years I have been fighting in order to protect these people. And as such I’ve found that I had the strength up to now, the strength to protect my people and even to protect myself.’ ‘Yes as I gave you in my statement earlier, I said that I am now a man that can decide. It has given me the most biggest ability to decide and think. I know what is supposed to be done and what I have to plan for my people in the future so I think my being in the army here now has given me that ability to reason on that.’369 ~

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‘And the time that I joined liberation I feel more powerful because now I benefit because I fight in order to get to fight to get powerful so I think I feel free. The time I joined the army in order to liberate the country, I think if I should not be liberating I should not be free for the future.’370 ~ ‘I feel more independent because I was having a gun, I’ve got something that can protect me and the side also I’ve got SPLA and the troops that can also take care of us.’371 ~ ‘Oh I cannot say I’m better off, I cannot join the SPLA better off, but I could have been better off if I could be out some other country to study and achieve . . . free, I could be better off but I don’t regret, when I get our land or get our freedom and I’m better off I don’t regret but I make sure that my kids they are better off in future but I don’t regret being in the SPLA.’372 ~ ‘I want to make sure that I also participate so that I enter the history of my country.’373 ~ ‘Life is better when I joined the SPLA because though I suffered in the bush I can see what I was doing is the right thing because if we struggle or if we fight with our enemy and soon there should be a room of getting what ever you have decide for your own because you should not be forced and maybe fighting will not continue as it is for some years back.’374 ~ ‘Well personally I think I’ve gained a lot as a soldier today I gained the freedom of my people, people have access of movement, our people are now able to do something that they couldn’t do, they have that self expression, they can make rallies freely, so I think that I have gained a lot both politically or militarily.’375 ~

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‘For joining the SPLA my achievement is now the CPA came because of the struggle we have done for the Sudan and also because this my country is also very important for me to be in the army because a country cannot be a country without an army, we are here defending the civilians. Whenever there is any destruction in any ten states of the South we have right to talk on behalf of them.’376 ~ ‘Yeah really it has taught me how to struggle because that time I must have to struggle and construct my small house, cutting the grass in the bush, cutting those small . . . looking for the rope and tie to make my small house. And think also if I pass this way there must be danger, I should have to divert this way and it also taught me how to be brave. I can face any tough question or any problem I must have to face it.’377 ~ ‘I think that despite the fact that I have spent my best part of my life in the SPLA I believe that I’m, despite the fact that I’ve lost a lot of things, a lot of chances that I would have gone and finished my education, I feel that I’m better off because in near future if Southern Sudan amends with the stability that we got today I feel that I’ve done something, my children will not face the same problem that I’ve faced.’378 ~ ‘During the two years experience I got a lot, especially when I joined the SPLA I have come to know very many things, like different places in Sudan or parts of Sudan I have travelled and have known, where if I could not join army I may not reach such places.’ ‘Yeah, if I did not joint the SPLA I think as I am talking to you now I could not live life by this standard because of the Arabs. No all those who are with them there, all my age mates, which I left them behind, most of them have died. And I don’t know whether by this time I would still be alive.’379

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The testimonies below speak of gaining an education from the SPLA, whether formal or informal. ‘If I did not join the SPLA, I do not know that I would go to school, because as I told you I lost both parents, mother and father, so I was only with my Grandma, and had I not join SPLA, I would have not had the chance of going to school because she is an old woman. She may not afford my school fees to the level, which I want. So it was because I joined the army and I got a chance there in the army, and I got support from the army, that is why I am still going with my school.’380 ~ ‘I’m better off to come join the SPLA one reason was if I would have remained in the village maybe I wouldn’t be where I am now, I’ve joined the SPLA, I’ve seen although we were having what they call what we maybe can describe badly as boy’s school, it was better off than being in the village without a school. So when I joined the SPLA I was able to access education, I think I’m better off.’381 ~ ‘Well, joining the military training has opened a lot of windows to many people. One, education wise. Let me say if I was still in the village, I would be illiterate up to now. I might not have gotten the chance to be educated; I might have been a cattle rustler riding cattle in and out of the area. It has opened up windows of opportunities to most child soldiers.’ ‘Yes, it is really good. No matter the experiences that my colleagues have gone through, I would call myself a lucky person because I have not experienced much as they have. It is really a good experience because it is a sign of being patriotic because we were focused, we knew why we were joining to be child soldiers that’s why today is as a result of this, it was because of that objective, because of that vision, so it is really of much help and that’s why today we can sit and talk and be able to express ourselves. Well at that time there were opportunities of enjoyment, but still there was no room of enjoying because war was there and for those who joined as child soldiers are better off. Now they are educated, military personnel who are trained.

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They have the best advantage than the child who remained in the village, now they have nowhere to be placed in. Yes they have joined the army maybe later but they are not educated so it is really hard for them to really get those chances of maybe going for education and so on.’382 ~ ‘Well I would say it has changed a lot. The conflict actually has given me one a chance of seeing something ahead of me with that one it has given me a lot of opportunities of doing what I can do and then of also it has educated me to know what is ahead of me and what is going to come in the future so I have gained a lot, me personally I have gained a lot and become in the position of resolving my own problems so I think there is nothing bad.’383 ~ ‘By that time when I was very young, I didn’t really have a vision or really know what I would be in the future because I living in a society whereby people could take care of and live a community life together. But after living in the military I started being exposed and started hearing about politics, I heard about education, I heard about the world, countries in Africa. It opened up my capacity and I was able to know that I’ll go for something that I will be in future and this opened up my chances of education.’384 Pride For the majority of the former child soldiers there is a great sense of belonging to an achievement, which they feel served to benefit the whole country. Their pride is goal orientated; felt by the peace they helped achieve with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005. They also feel proud because their efforts were a part of the history of Southern Sudan and they made a contribution to their fellow southerners. Their sense of accomplishment for participating in the SPLA also serves to balance out the education or opportunities that they missed out on. ‘No. I wouldn’t do it any other way if I can go back and like have a choice of which ways to live, I would live this one.’385 ~

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‘I really felt great. I’m a part of this history. I’m really proud to be one, because without it I felt I was not contributing to the right cause of the people of the Sudan.’386 ~ ‘Yes, I am really proud of all the youth not myself alone but all my colleagues because our efforts is what have brought the results of today because majority who really struggled or who participated in that fight or in that struggle were youths. So without that participation, we would not have had the results of today that it the CPA.’387 ~ ‘I feel proud because I have a duty to serve my people from what they are facing but I don’t have a choice because SPLA is an organisation where you don’t choose where to go. I joined the SPLA with the objective in my mind to go back to my home area to protect my people but when I joined the SPLA . . . I was not allowed to go there, I don’t have a choice, I was put in I was deployed in a different unit, until I went home to my home area in 2007. So I feel proud that SPLA we did something actually, we have enlightened people and we have liberated our people and that’s why there’s CPA and that’s why people of Southern Sudan enjoying a bit of freedom that they have despite the fact that we still feel that there might be a war one day yeah but we have done something.’388 ~ ‘More than proud, pride is even an understatement because you might not understand it, that’s why I’m trying to tell you. One person might have joined the movement because he stole somebody’s crops and he was a fugitive and he had no where else to go so he said I’m going to this liberation movement. But somebody else knows what liberation movements are and what is the science of revolution.’ ‘No. I wouldn’t do it any other way if I can go back and like have a choice of which ways to live, I would live this one.’389 ~

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‘No I cannot be ashamed when I am speaking about my rights, I am also growing up, I am not a child, everybody, there is a time when you don’t know and a time when you should know and when you know of course, knowing means you have to decide. I am not ashamed of anything, I not ashamed of my background as a child soldier, not ashamed of my background as being the one who make it a point of discussion. I feel very happy and I am very satisfied. Of course I am not content with current progress; I would like to see more.’390 ~ ‘Ok it’s a mixture of both happiness and sorrow. The few of us who remained behind those who managed to leave some of them tried by hopes and . . . they continue to finish their education but for me there was no way so I came the way I am, that’s why I look myself as somebody who is lagging behind but also on the other hand I feel proud because I feel I participated in the peace that is now in the whole of South Sudan, I feel proud of it and I am very proud of that.’391

How Conflict Has Changed Former Child Soldiers Many of the former child soldiers found themselves leaving the war as changed men. As it was evident that they had made positive steps in coping and recovering from their traumatic experience, it was also stressed by the respondents that there were others who were fighting battles within themselves with drug addiction and violent tendencies. This section on change is divided up into two sub-sections: personal changes and societal changes. Personal Personal changes include a heightened sense of right and wrong, an increase in responsibility for themselves, and a greater awareness of who they are. ‘Yeah becoming a child soldier has given me skills because I have learned how much to, how to take from suffering. It has also given me a sort of

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strongness I can resist what ever situation that I can got, because it has also, you know, it has taught me also to know that there are difficulties in the world because when you are a child soldier, even being a man soldier you find it hard not only being a child. So that one really teaches you in some other ways.’392 ~ ‘Yeah it change. It make me to make decisions because as I put it forward before as someone who had seen hardship it cannot be the same with someone who had not seen hardship. For instance starting from 1988 up to now, I’m just defending alone, I don’t have parents to support me and even I don’t have any relatives to support me. But I persevered the situation because I pass through these difficulties so I can say that these difficulties make me to be responsible on my own self.’393 ~ ‘Yes, it changed me of course totally because to be an army it give you an ability to decide, to decide for right and to decide for wrong and to see things in a right way and to see things in a negative way.’394 ~ ‘It made me know myself. It didn’t change it, it just made me know who I am and that is why I wouldn’t change anything because otherwise I might have been lost but because of the conflict I know myself because the conflict is an identity crisis really. Not only in Sudan but in the whole world, when the conflict is identity crisis and so the solution to that problem is the resolution of that identity crisis and my identity crisis has been resolved, you know, I know who I am.’395 ~ ‘Yes it changed me because the situation that I’ve gone through, the very many situations that I’ve gone through has given me very many lessons so it can be able to decide as a man, makes me very brave, I don’t fear anything but I still have an ambition of further education if I’m given an opportunity I still believe that I need some time for my studies.’396

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Societal The former child soldiers also changed how they interact with their society because they felt more aware of national issues and have accepted a protective role. ‘Well if you’re like a soldier you have that potential, you have that energy to express whatever to see any problem because a soldier can see something bad, a soldier can see something good, so you judge and define yourself. Being a soldier right now has given me the strength to talk openly in public to protect anybody I find on the way who is sick, to give help to civilians who are there in case anyone need help I’ll be surrendering services to those people so . . . have changed my life, I have gained momentum, I gained energy, I’ve gained power and I think the work of army has changed my life.’397 ~ ‘So what I see is as the war has come to an end and if people continue like this there should be a change for many people not me only because people can believe when you suffer and you achieve what you are aiming so you believe the struggle was actually good, but if you struggle and you end up with nothing you can have a feel of maybe you have discourage about what ever you have been doing and if you achieve what you are aiming to do you can have a good feel of achieving what you have been doing in the struggle.’398 ~ ‘The conflict brought a lot of negative effect you know into everybody, conflict is bad to everyone, destruction of things, burning of things, killing of people, is just the negative part of anything else if there is something worse that is everybody don’t need it. So it bring a lot of changes that you are different from parents anymore, you don’t see them, there’s no love, you’re just running around, just fighting you miss to die you do what, you know it bring a lot of change that it change differently, you think why everything is not cool, everything is not in it’s place, you are not in peace, you are not in love, you are not in anything, so that

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change a lot of view and it change a lot of anybody else, your parents are thinking of you, everybody is like you’re dead or what so those are part of what the war brought into existence if its there sometimes.’399 ~ ‘I think it has changed me completely because the people I interacted with from different communities and it has made me to look at more of national issues rather than individual because some of us or me it’s true we have nothing but if I was at home I should be having maybe some wealth for myself but when the war started it’s difficult in the SPLA to have because it’s like some sacrifice, we were not paid, there’s nothing.’400 ~ ‘Coming back from military, it is a good thing because first you are educated so it gives you more chances of coming up with a fresh mind and helping in decision making whereby now you can be able to give good directions, not to lead blindly, you can be able to argue your point out to the rest of the world, in case of any violations of your rights or any citizen rights.’401

Further Research The majority of my respondents who felt that more research needed to be conducted on the former child soldiers of the SPLA referred to a need for more qualitative rather than quantitative research. Most respondents also mentioned a lack in long-term issues being researched, such as the effectiveness of DDR. Many expressed concerns that the NGOs were not keeping track of demobilised children, and therefore the NGOs were failing to remain part of their support network. Child Soldier Experience The interviewees believed that an important element to further research pertained to the individual experiences and feelings of the

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child soldiers. An understanding of these individual experiences would produce better and more effective care during the DDR process. ‘I can see what the NGOs need from the child soldier is how the life of child soldier is now in South Sudan and what was the determination of the child soldier and also they can see if there is any way that they can assist the child soldier. The child soldier can narrate the biography of how they have been in the bush for twenty-one years and if there is any assistance for NGO, they can do that through the voice of the child soldier in South Sudan.’402 ~ ‘Children should be involved because this is where you’ll find the facts about them that you see, someone might say ok when I was in the army, when I was ten years, when I was thirteen years I did this combatant, I did this, and then you’ll find an opinion from them so mostly they have to be involved.’403 ~ ‘Actually it looks like it has never been covered on a wide scale by the international community. I think I only came across the topic on child soldiers maybe twice. I think it should have been covered very well to show the real suffering the children of South Sudan underwent in the process of the struggle. Children were children and women actually were very vulnerable group during the war in South Sudan. Being a child soldier those days, we saw ourselves as heroes and people who are blessed given our age. But we had no option, that is how life was taking us at the time.’ ‘I have looked at a number of articles written by people who visited us in the camps when we were in Ethiopia then we came to Sudan. There were a lot of things that were excluded. I saw that the writer who wrote about lack of basic things like food, clothing but I think it extends more beyond that, the human suffering that we endured because not even the rebels had better services in terms of education, food and all the other things that were happening. You could imagine people footing, moving

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food across Ethiopia, Kenya and it was very, very hard and I don’t think even this time I can be able to walk same distance. It was that time. I think the international community would have looked exactly at how someone would have portrayed how the child soldier was by then by questioning the people that were getting the basic services like food, clothing. Education was very basic by that time and very slow, it was one of our motivations. It didn’t matter to us how frequent the studies were but, it was very regular at times and other times when we are not in class we were running around. So I think it would covered a lot of things about the hardships in life, education of the children and then the future of the children of South Sudan. It was not brought to the international community’s attention and maybe the international community would have done much more than they did because I was in Kenya and some former child soldiers were taken to USA and a number of them remained. Those that remained were concerned about access to education because if you didn’t have education, you cannot have that confidence in you.’404 The Media and Communication with Child Soldiers The interviewees below felt that there was a lack of in-depth investigation by the media and that researchers or journalists pursued easier routes of research, thus neglecting to involve many of the former child soldiers. ‘Locating us to where we belong to, ok I mean, when people become deep into the war now there is no international community that can talk about it, we are dying twenty-four hours, but then nobody, BBC are coming, whoever is coming, Friends what League is coming, everybody is coming, but nobody is taking care about child soldiers. People came and called the big people know English, and there we don’t know English, we cannot talk English, we are completely neglected so we are feeling bad, we say maybe one day some of us will know English and you can talk to a white person that way you can express your thing.’405 ~ ‘In my opinion, in my view it’s being neglected because for one people are not the fear of coming to where child recruitment is, in most cases,

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like in Sudan, Liberia, in all these other countries, Somalia. Where child soldier recruitment take place it’s always dangerous and therefore scholars, scholars don’t like to they fear their life to go research in areas where child recruitment is taking place that is one reason why. Secondly, people seem to be busy with their own things. Since this is a fragile field research where it involves the government, it involves the rebels, it involves the recruiter themselves and such information is not always allowed to get out.’406 One Dimensional The interviewees in this sub-section express many shortcomings as to the ways in which NGOs and researchers approach the child soldier topic. They also note the isolation maintained by NGOs with their research subject, namely the former child soldiers. ‘Well I would say that a lot of things have been said and done with regards to child soldiers but I think the perspective used is one dimensional they haven’t actually looked at it from different angles and it looks like quite a number of people who have looked into this topic already had a set mind with regards to that so they were just coming to kind of confirm but there are also a lot of positive issues in regards to that. So it’s an area that has been written on, it’s an area that has been talked a lot but I think there are a lot of gaps that have not been covered.’ ‘Well to begin with more often than not most of the writings and discussions about child soldiers do not involve the child soldiers themselves. You know so the child soldiers have always been the topic of discussions but they have never been participant of this particular discussions or research or whatever so that to me is a gap. At the same time the concept of child soldier has always been having some kind of, maybe not necessarily majority sense but even it has always been portrayed as negative area but there are a lot of other positive side of it that have not been looked into to a large extent. So these are mainly the gaps that I have actually identified.’407 ~

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‘Characterised by political polarisations, there’s no human story. In all the child soldier things that I see, either it is over-sensitised you know it becomes sensational or it is over-generalised so that it become a factor that is just buried in the global. So the people are separated from the issue, the people affected are separated. People come and choose the time they want to talk and leave the rest. So you’ll find people coming and saying “oh I know, I have seen child soldiers who came in ‘98”, and the child soldiers started right from the movement time. So a bulk of the issues are excluded perhaps because of lack of data and perhaps because of an academic time frame, I’m sure you people have a scope, you can’t study everything. And to me often literature I have come across I laugh at it because I think I don’t know where I left it I think I left it with a small booklet. It’s one of the charities where they put my interview and I was laughing out they went and used, they twisted it to make it sound very sensational, even me I was scared to read it myself. But for me I’m used to that. But also among us the child soldiers there are a lot, many people who have used it to make it sound so horrific. I was reading about another young man. He was writing about being a child soldier; that he was forced to eat human flesh and I couldn’t correlate it at that time. Some of it basically are exaggerated information, this also demonise the actual scenario, you lose the whole thing because in Sudan you have seen people are culturally bounded and that’s the difference between the LRA and the SPLA because the SPLA is structured, it has a command. Ok I don’t want to say it works perfectly but it has a skeleton, it has a commander and so follow. So you can’t go and cut women’s lips out and things like that, if you do it maybe you do it at your own personal but if it come into the command there would be punishment for that, so I would say the culture is still there. But over-exaggeration by those who have experienced as child soldiers also you know distorted the whole thing. That is my fear when you document things. So the sensational thing and the media and the whole thing it has just taken it away.’408 On the issue of NGOs’ portrayal of child soldiers, ‘They have to be victims to solicit money from the West. The way the situation is depicted is whoever has a small heart is motivated to give money.’409

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The Effect of War on Child Soldiers The interviewees below felt that there was disconnect between their society and the former child soldiers because of the lack of awareness of the child soldiers’ experiences during wartime. ‘The issue of child soldiers came up in ‘91, that is when Riak split with the SPLA and that’s when he started talking about it so in a way it was like negatively. What need to be researched is the importance actually of the child soldier because the culture actually of the decision makers they don’t know anything about it, it needs to be broadened, that is the scope so everybody understand it what the consequences are.’410 ~ ‘Well the most important thing to ask the child soldier possible the reasons why he or she chose willingly to become a soldier, you know that’s very, very important. And if you ask them they will have quite a number of reasons that are beyond anybody’s control. At the same time it’s important to ask them what have actually been the positive contribution of them being in the military in their own lives particularly in a situation where the social fabrics, the family values have all been disintegrated because of the war, families have been broken apart and the only family they have are their own peers, are their own friends and also the military establishment that is able to provide perhaps free food, that is able to provide security. So these are the key questions that need to be asked particularly those child soldiers.’411 ~ ‘I don’t know if they really take the time trying to find out what are the costs of child soldiers, what are the reasons why some of the regime or the government tried to recruit young people into the army, what are the costs of this? What is the problem behind why children get into army or to fight or to using guns? I think the problem lies between getting a really good research and finding out what are the effects because maybe you don’t need to just blame people that it happened, that children fight and what, there must be a cause of this. Today it’s still happening that’s the

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problem, you should be wondering it’s still happening the child soldiers are still being recruited more and more, day and day in war zone . . . and everything bad, even say today in the army but I think those are the things they need to find out and take the time and see what are the costs.’412 Preconceived Ideas about Child Soldiers The last point in this section regarding further research concerns the international community’s preconceived notions of child soldiers. As expressed by the following respondents, NGOs are operating on generalisations of child soldiers and without in-depth knowledge of their experience in Southern Sudan. ‘Well the international community is researching and looking for what is neglected about the child soldiers, actually they don’t know exactly what to talk about the child soldiers because they see child soldiers like those who know nothing actually they will do nothing but because when you have that feeling they should consider that and put it into consideration, someone maybe they think you are abducted from your home or you are forced to join the army but when you see problems which rise from your people and see how your people are being punished, see how women and children and your father, grandfather been punished actually let you think why should we all finish to rule our country, so what has been neglected is that they neglect the right of the children and the thought children are very young and they have no potential of fighting so I ask the international community if they can hear and if they really can help about the child soldiers they should actually give that right to child soldiers to know exactly what he has been doing because he went to the bush not interestingly being forced to join the army, he went there simply he want to rule his country to be free from dictatorial rule from other people that’s why . . . essentially they are going to the bush to have that freedom.’ ‘Well the opinion the international community need from the child former soldier is actually they should have known why they went to

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the bush and they should explain it in details because some have a reason why they went and most of them are not forced actually, they went to their own interest to fight and to rule their country so they should actually ask because most like war-torn countries like Sudan, like Liberia, Congo, you get a lot of child soldiers because what you’ll see happen to your father, maybe your father is brutally killed at home, your mother is murdered innocently, then it will force you to join the bush and fight for your rights, for the right of your family, for the right of your dad, for the right of other indigenous people who loose their lives so that was normally forced child soldiers to exist in this developing world.’413 One respondent felt that my research was contributing to filling the gap an current research and that it drew out topics that future research should include. ‘It is really important, I would really acknowledge your work because of such a topic, no research has ever been conducted and due to lack of that research, people are getting wrong messages regarding child soldiers, regarding their recruitment and whatever they have been doing. So it will be of much help to NGOs, to individuals, the research you are doing if at all you are going to maybe allow people to get to know what you have been doing.’414

Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration Included in the CPA signed on the 9th January 2005, the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration process began shortly after with the establishment of the Southern Sudan Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission (SSDDRC). The SSDDRC has the lead role for the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration process in Southern Sudan, but the NGO community is intended to be supporting them. The perception of DDR according to the former child soldiers is that it is largely haphazard, ill planned, ineffective, short-term solution based, and child-focused, which does not serve to include

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those who joined under age but who were now of age. DDR was also seen as being preoccupied with the physical removal rather than the emotional well-being, education, or career capabilities of the former child soldiers. The responses gathered from the former child soldiers echoed the opinion that there was a loss of knowledge of what to expect after the process of DDR was complete. This loss of direction after the DDR process led many of the former child soldiers to question its long-term effectiveness in preventing re-enrolment. Remain for Protection Even if the DDR process is completed some former child soldiers stated that those removed from the army would still have to contend with security issues. As security threats continue, there are limited options that the DDR process can provide. The testimonies below reveal that the situation on the ground for many demobilised soldiers is more complex than the NGOs regard it. ‘When you move a child out from a soldier it means they are not going to have any defence also in our country.’415 ~ ‘UNICEF was trying to demobilise us but we refuse for the motive that we come, we need to come and fight but UNICEF and Save the Children insist and they came and monitored us, they came and erect some camp and they stay with us in the camp so and brief us about the period of the school so it change our mind to the school at that time so we started from three years up until 1991. In ’91 the majisto, the prisoner of the civil war was being taken out and then we run out from the boundary, we got ourselves at the border of Sudan the crisis so from that crisis we got the chance whereby we pick up the gun to protect ourselves. So at this junction the rest of us remain in the military even I myself, I remain in the army, serving the army for the protection of myself with the gun and then to liberate the area where we are being forced to go.’416

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Q: How many kids wanted to get back to the SPLA and to fighting? ‘It was the whole number. Everybody posses the gun, everybody went back to the army due to two reasons, one you don’t know anywhere so your father is the gun . . . so you need to have the gun to protect yourself, you need the gun so that you kill the animal and go and eat, you need to have the gun to protect yourself from the enemy. So when we were coming back to Ethiopia we got the river called Elo, that river has taken a lot of people, the river was running very fast, people were being caused by the enemy to jump in the water. So the river was full of the water with the people and then the last group was just stepping on the dead bodies in the river so and then they cross. So this thing it forced a number of the children to have the gun so that they protect themselves and these children they remain in the military.’417 Commercialised After witnessing and in some cases, such as with Nepoleon Adok, being involved with NGO programmes in Southern Sudan, disillusionment set in as to the intentions of the NGOs’ involvement. ‘To me what would make a success is creating an alternative path for the adults who have been denied access to education. Quite a number of them are quite traumatised, they have no skill, now there is a downsizing of the army and of course you throw me in the street with all the knowledge; who would I become? I simply become a terror to the society, I will use my military background for robberies or for crimes unless I am provided with the, the society will provide me with some skills or whatever so that I can also be seen as someone who came back with some talents. I didn’t come back as some drunkard who speaks five languages. So to me integration should be preceded with an assessment of services and this I have talked about this so many times. You might have noticed I am very rude now because I had made a decision at some point never to talk again about it because I had done that with United Nations and I was at some point, of course with UNICEF I still commend them for an excellent job but I felt at some point demobilisation

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became commercialised both at the army, at the forces and the charities, both parties demobilisation was being driven by donor money rather than by the quality of what you produce that’s why I feel very bad that I feel ashamed at this point but to me I feel there is still an opportunity now that we have institutions like government and we have a standing army so there’s no escape route again, SPLA now is a conventional army because it has a constitution, it has a budget, it has all the policies. So these elements of protecting children under age from the army can be incorporated, and I think this is what one can do, there is nothing that you can leave, there’s room to be done. So now it is forgotten and people move to DDR.’ ‘I wouldn’t want to go on record saying UNICEF was superficial, I recognise their progress and I am very proud to have been associated with that but what I wanted to say that the thing got diluted in between but I think there are places where the community could be involved in the demobilisation, really from the assessment, identification and process of return, its just to de-politicise it and make it a social service rather than a political process of DDR like the “national DDR”, they’re talking about soldiers cutting down. So to me I feel that community participation is very crucial, because you are returning, at the end of the day they are the custodians of the returnees children, like what happened in Rumbek, like what happened in Tong, like what happened in Torit and Kapoeta, in Yei and in Yambio, I can give you a case there are about twenty boys that were returned from Kenyaconya to Yambio and when they were returned there, even the local chief didn’t know these boys have come back until one time one of them committed rape and was taken to court and his father plead saying “I didn’t know my child”. Because traditionally when a child commits an offence it is the community that child grew up that is first condemned for allowing such behaviour but then the community, the elders were saying “no our child since he back from that army thing is no longer our man”. So you could see how the social structure has been interrupted. So this person come back with added education good or bad and now he want to be brought back into the system, so this is the gap but if they were in Bor and they could prepare this guy to come back, I think they would be in a position to defend him and to say you

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know maybe because of that and counsel him, that’s how I look at it. But right now I am in a position not to get involved that’s why I was against recording.’418 The issues mentioned by Napoleon Adok further problematise the international approach and put into question NGOs’ priorities in caring for child soldiers. Counselling One of the key issues that former child soldiers stressed DDR needed to improve on was a stronger focus on counselling in order to provide long-term rehabilitation. ‘Yes you wait a while because now most of the children they don’t know what they are doing, if you call them like now you call me for an interview, I can easily say “why do you call me, what do you want from me” because my blood is still up and you see when you are in war you are supposed to get comfort first and then later what you want to say or what you want to do will come after.’419 ~ ‘Apparently the government of Southern Sudan is facing a lot of challenges with the reintegration, either of the disabled, the former child soldiers themselves, its just so challenging because if you want to demobilise for example and then you reintegrate a former child or maybe someone who was disadvantaged during the struggle some certain things must be put right. And these things that are prerequisites of the rehabilitation or even reintegration have not been put to rest so you find it very, very hard. So I think the better way always to do this is to put those things right like the children should be taken back to school, so that it is already an alternative to them being in the army. I’m also one of them, because as much as I went alone, I found that there were so many challenges going back to the society and live in a civilised way. It was quite challenging. So unless you put those things, education, and you bring programs such as counselling and begin to get these children actively involved in

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such activities. If we don’t do that and just simply talk of reintegration, we’ll never succeed in doing it. So I think its quite challenging. We need to get these children involved in counselling and then make education available.’420 ~ ‘I would like our communities to participate in the reintegration process of the former child soldiers in that for people to talk to their children about the importance of supporting child soldiers those who did not finish their education should be supported so that they finish their education. Those who became traumatised like some of us we need counselling so that we can be able to cope with the situation that found is now new because we stayed in the bush for a very long time.’421 It is recognised that psychological support is something the whole community of adult former child soldiers needs, not just individual interviewees. ‘We really appeal to NGOs to join hands with us so that they contribute to us our education involvement in Southern Sudan because if we see now education background you see small children roaming about and they are not in school that one is now affecting us so much and we are in need of psychologists to come and council us because most of us are affected psychologically, though you see us like this, sometimes it is there but when it is out of mind you can see somebody and go crazy so it is good for NGOs to organise psychologists to council us especially youth and also we appeal for the force to be open for us because some of us dying with their talent in their brain maybe some of us will become footballers in the future, some become basketballers, some become athletes to run across the country but we are dying with those talents, nobody is coaching those people so that they show their skill and what why.’422 ~ ‘What part of child soldiers has not been adequately addressed, reintegration into society because they just talk about demobilisation but they don’t have any kind of a counselling, they need a lot of counselling,

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serious type of psychological counselling. Not only for the child soldiers but even for the adult soldiers it has been neglected so I think that is the main thing that is needed, counselling.’423 Engage Child Soldiers The engagement with child soldiers was seen as a key entry point into conducting further research on the subject. ‘There are not many people who have actually done a lot of research in the DDR programme, that are children that are associated with the army. We do not know why maybe people have no interest or they are not aware of children being associated with the army; maybe that is why many people have not taken an interest to research in the topic. One topic specifically, the cause to why children joined the army and when they are demobilised the reintegration challenges. How do they get back into the community? One of the very important questions is what forces the children to join the army and what are their personal career, what do they want to do in the future?’424 ~ ‘We need to go in-depth with the individuals and ask them the truth where they want to be reintegrated. And most of them well they say ‘I want to go where most of my friends are, I want to go where most of the comrades are, I want to go where my family is, not necessarily where he comes from originally and you want to take him out there. So that’s a poor area. The second element is community reintegration with all the support systems that are expected needs to be empowered. You cannot take somebody into a community or a child soldier, what they call a child soldier into a community and give that community a few utensils and say ‘ok you can reintegrate this particular child’. There is a lot that needs to be done to sustain that integration. For example, most of us are traumatised because of the nasty experiences that we have actually seen, so if you took me back there as a child soldier and I’ve already had what I would call some love affairs with a gun and you take me to that community I will try my best to find a gun so that I will live with it

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in that community. So we need to be, there is a need for a bigger . . . to at least move me away from that traumatic situation, at the same time there is a need to give long term what I would call life skills education and development which is just beyond giving me some skills so that I can start to generate an income. I need to be taught moral values, I need to be taught problems of alcohol taking, quite a number of young boys and girls are very much into drug taking and alcohol taking, so we need to go beyond that. So an organisation cannot go on its own and say “I’m going to go and demobilise the child soldiers” and then give them some skills so that they can generate income for their livelihood. We need go beyond that. We need to look into counselling, we need to look into the values of that society, we need to look into the kind of friends, the web of friends of that particular person, the family where exactly they are, we need to look into those issues.’425 Zalson Khor Zal confronts the question of whether or not it is a good idea to remove all children from the army; where as NGOs’ policies eliminate such a debate. ‘Really the question you should ask a former child soldier is whether it is a good idea to remove them from the army and take them to another life that is completely different from theirs because some of them will see no reason why they should leave the army and leave the other life when they really feel compatible to where they are. So army is not a very bad institution and if somebody goes there he will feel like he should continue being there so sometimes its important to ask their own feeling because as I told you, some of us went there not because we were forced but because we believe it was the right thing to be there so they should be asked their opinion whether its ok for them to continue being there and whether it is legal or not, that would be another thing all together because some people will view it as human rights abuse to take a child for example and have them stay in the army, yeah but what about the feeling of the children? Because it may take them like, some of my friends who happened to have another chance like me to go to school they did not want to stay in their school

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as much as everything was prepared for them they still come back to the army.’426 ~ ‘Well we have so many questions to ask them because those who have been demobilised some of them, they don’t know why they were demobilised because no one explain to them “you were demobilised because you are young’, no one said so but the gun was removed from their hands and they people said ‘oh now you are going to school”, but no school for them, so that is the question people should ask why those people are there without education and they were demobilised.’427 ~ ‘I would want to read the whole interviews of all these guys so that I really see what I went through and after seeing it I will be able to change something out of what I have read because I already know what I went through there we were together in the room everyone went through difficulties in his own style, in his own way. But I was reading peoples minds and what you think about it as a researcher then from there we can say now enough is enough, it was enough for us, not for our children again.’428 Reintegration/Education Many respondents mentioned that a main component missing from reintegration is the opportunity of an education and additionally an education that will be able to offer them a way to contribute to society. ‘Kids will only know learning about guns, learning about killing, learning about being in the army, which is not really cool. That is the first lesson they get like we, that is the first lesson we had, we didn’t go to school, but that was the first school to be in the army, and that’s the only thing you know, you’re a man, they initiate you that you are a man, which you are not a man you are just a kid, the thing is you have to believe that I’m a man and you’ll do everything that’s bad, so

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it’s what I shouldn’t like to happen is getting more children to the army where ever they are, it shouldn’t be necessary.’429 ~ ‘As all over the world, the best place for the child is in school but they found themselves in that position and actually I think it should be the . . . government of the day of Southern Sudan or concerned organisations which are helping the children to take children away from the army. Because SPLA especially has done it and demobilised most of these child soldiers but they should go under youth organisations, that’s where they should be utilised better by the government or where they can have support. But in the army I think there is no special treatment for the child, if you are a soldier you get the order as an adult. So in the army, the years that I spent in the army is not a good place for the child to be actually children under age of eighteen but majority of the children in Southern Sudan, most of the rebels joined the army under the age even ten or in my case I joined the SPLA at the age of fourteen so that there’s a very it’s not a very good place for the children actually.’430 ~ ‘Yes I feel proud of what I did, although there are a number of disadvantages that I got because it was at that age if I had not re-integrated into the civilian population it would have influenced my behaviour but I’m glad it has changed because I know if you live in the army for long, it has some positive and negative effects on you. I knew it would have influenced me somehow bad but luckily I changed and adapted to the civilian life, which is also good.’431 ~ ‘I think registration of the children, especially for the orphans, we have child soldiers who are orphans, they have no parents, and they are still young, some are still nineteen years, some are still eighteen years. They have to be registered by the government so they can get some small rights, they can be given some small care, even though they reach something years they still need care because their mental is not good now, they still thinking about war, they are still thinking about being orphan, they are

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still thinking about being a child soldier. So the community should go down and make some registration either from Dinka to where, registration from grand tribes so that they know who’s a child soldier, that lost parent is everything so the government can do something for them even though you are doing a lot it will be ok, it can settle you mind a bit.’ ‘We completely need a full change because there is no organ of the government dealing with child soldiers, dealing with orphans, dealing with them because I mean orphans those who are child soldiers because most of the child soldiers have no parents. Most of them. So the government is not putting any care into that, you have seen the government of Southern Sudan they are just dealing with the department, they don’t know the back thing. The child soldiers are really having no where, you can see some of those on the road now, they are crazy people, they are mad, they are drinking everyday because they don’t know where they are heading to, so the government needs to locate them, accompany or anything that can be with them or an international organisation deal with them, register them, make everything for them so that they can know they are now with the government.’432 ~ ‘I believe what the international community can do is to find out these young boys who were child soldiers and try to give them a different program which they can do, they can spend their time they are still young boys who are very young so far and there are still some who are determined to go back to school, they are there, they can raise any other program that they can do mostly whereby they can be saved if they’re find out.’433 ~ ‘I think so it is just a need of policy, the government should make a policy when they need to make integration there’s some basic things they need to do to those people and when you are a soldier and carrying a gun now the way you need to put down the gun, come back home, maybe you don’t have education, you don’t have what, then it is a policy of the government to see to it that now these people taking them back to the

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community what do they need so that they are able to integrate into the community and to start a life of not having a gun and now becoming a just a citizen, a common citizen but now they don’t have education what do they really need? They need create some institution maybe train them as carpenters, training some as maybe plumbers, I think so, that one can be able to help them integration then just saying you need to integrate people without giving them an alternative life.’434 The expectations for the NGOs to provide education are clear from the testimonies below: ‘The NGOs are doing little, they are not doing enough especially the reintegration of child soldiers, I’m speaking to you now maybe more than fifty-thousand or more like sixty-thousand children they are not enrolled in the school and most of them they think of coming back to the army because they were deceived, NGOs told them that you are going to be sent back to school, yes few of them are sent to school but the majority have not been sent to school, they are not learning, even their ambition they were told if you come back to the civil life then you’ll be taken to school, you’ll feel like you have a better future, you’ll be a better leader and now their ambition and their feeling the promise that we have told them are not fulfilled only few who got those chance.’435 ~ ‘Yeah for me the question you want me to ask is this so the time when this thing has happened you people of UN came I remember in 1997 that was the time we had been told that now the UN is condemning the issue of child soldiers so they told they bring out our gun in . . . Eastern Equatoria and they sent us to school so that was the time I went to Kenya and I joined the school and by then we were not in the school. So my question is this, since these people of this UN organisation who is supporting, where are you now and what are you going to do for us because by then you brought us, even now we are no longer soldiers and we are civilian but now we are just in the middle, we are not soldiers as well as not a civilian because we don’t have enough education whereby we can support ourselves. So we say to you what are you actually going to do, do you

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want to leave us like that in the middle without having any position? If you leave us as a soldier I think now we could be having a position but now it is very difficult, even though you go back to the soldier, you’ll go and start from the fresh and already has been occupied now we are just in the middle, we don’t have UN and we don’t have the SPLA. Who is supposed to support us? So we are in the middle group.’436 ~ ‘I see that the future caring of these children also in case one grows up to such an age that I am in now you find that nobody as an NGO thinks of also referring back to the histories that have been happening to this boy, either he is alive or he is dead during the struggling or where is he now, there is nobody who follow up, take up the follow up of any child that they had been caring for during all this struggle.’437 Communities Change The DDR process presents many complicated issues for both the former child soldiers and their communities. One observation made by the respondents is that by the time ex-soldiers are reunited with their originating communities, many changes could have occurred. The lack of familiarity that both the former child soldiers and their communities have with each other could create a difficult environment for successful reintegration. ‘Very simple, first of all the aspect of reintegration and tie reintegration to the communities into be unified. Because of twenty years of war communities have been displaced from one place to the other. It’s very difficult to assume that because I come from Meridi I should definitely be taken to Meridi for reintegration. Probably my parents moved away from Meridi a long time ago, maybe they are in Wau, maybe they are in Bor. So the concept of community reintegration has to be linked up with what I would call family new locations. Otherwise that himself has been posing problems, at the same time when you take someone who has been away from his community for like ten, twenty years and you take him or her to his community for reintegration, it’s going to take a

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long time because that community is not necessarily his community or her community, he will have to start learning new values. Assuming I was taken away from my community at the age of ten and you take me back there at the age of thirty-five to be honest you are not doing me a favour because I do not know the values there I do not know the subcultures that are there so it becomes a little bit of a problem to reintegrate but at the same time I’m not saying that the community reintegration, the reintegration related communities are necessarily bad things.’438 Child Soldiers Remain in Army In 2005, soilders in the SPLA began receiving a salary, which has increased the difficulties of getting child soldiers to leave the army. ‘Well, talking of former child soldiers, the re-integration that has been done, I can really appreciate because I am seeing now some of my colleagues are back in the military, some are back in the civil service where now others are working with several ministries, which is really good but still, more work needs to be done because these are former but still there are more child soldiers within. So the DDR should really be focused and do a lot of work like survey, find out within the military barracks wherever the military are, to identify who are really child soldiers and who have reached that age of 18 to join the military. So more effort needs to be done because to me, I still see child soldiers who are still within the army yet there is that commission that should be dealing with that. So the commission has to work hard to combat that there are no children who are recruited back to military again.’439 Child Soldiers’ Recognition An interesting point made by Rambang Paul Giel is on the issue of giving recognition to child soldiers’ contributions. This testimony puts further issues into question, such as the former child soldiers’ entitlement to pensions and their recognition within the War Veterans Association. ‘Some of them until today, they are claiming that they didn’t get their right because when people come to the system whereby SPLM want to be

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separate from guerrilla movement to a political kind of . . . three-fourths of child soldiers until today their name did not appear in the record. They are supposed to be recognised but some of them their names did not appear simply because they left, some of them went abroad, some of them they have been scattered all over. Which they can claim it and they did, I think that’s when until today they are still complaining. If you ask them, they’ll be like “our rights have not been recognised” and this and so simply because they were not put in a consideration. They need a special consideration actually because these are the people who are from here leave alone who is major general or something they are all. After all maybe only two years serving they will be retired. So these are the people who will still fight and die for this land if any problem happens today. So I think people are working on this because people have been talking about it every now and then, there have been some good work, I think everyone will be happy soon.’440

Misrepresentations of Child Soldiers The question regarding misrepresentation proved unanswerable by many of the former child soldiers due to their lack of exposure to the opinions of the international community. Where views were held, however, they exposed an appreciation of some of the misconceptions considered by NGOs. Garang’s examples of what NGOs misconceive: ‘Their special life in armed forces and their parental care and responsibilities and of course their futures as minors.’441 ~ ‘Well what is misrepresented about child soldiers is their the international community they fail to understand what led children to go to fight in the bush because if they realise it because children are still the human beings like the adults, they know that some children can reason difficulties and see problems arising, so when you see problem arising then it will force you to go and fight with . . . because like I say for instance like your father chase your mom from home even though that there was no

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reason she was chased from home, it will force you to inquire what led your dad chase your mom from home, so that’s what forced me to join the army because our late heroes Dr John Garang left and went to the bush and he knows why he left to the bush so he wanted us to be free from dictatorial rule as I can . . . myself so I decided to follow his footsteps to be also free and let other black Sudanese be free from dictatorial rule.’442 ~ ‘One of the things is it looks like child soldiers are one of those people who are not being taken care of, that was very wrong. The child soldiers were getting formal education, just like any other child but still they were given their basic military training but the message you get to hear from people is that they were not given a chance to be educated at all but just to be focused on military training. Like the camp I was in, we were getting formal education and at the same time attending military training.’443 Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande correlates his observations regarding the misrepresentation of child soldiers in Southern Sudan with the level of knowledge some NGO workers have in the field. ‘Yeah I think to begin with there are quite a number of actors moving around talking about child soldiers. I believe if you went to each of them and asked them to give a natural degration of child soldiers and the problems of child soldiers there is a possibility of diverse views with regards to that. Perhaps the only area of commonality about them is the fact that they are here to come and solve a problem; to them they see a problem. So what I think is so misrepresented in this whole child soldier world is the actual views, the actual perceptions of child soldiers himself or herself that has been misrepresented completely. There are examples that would back that up, I’ve seen cases where UNICEF went around and started demobilising children and saying “if you are a child, you cannot be in the military to fight”. These children were taken to particular designated camps so that they are given what are called ‘new life’ you know. Now for a child who has been in this establishment for ten years it’s not necessarily as a combatant because most of the child soldiers

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were not necessarily combatants. You may find a child in the military who’s got a uniform but he’s not a combatant. These children are there as a sense of identity so that they can also move under the protection of let’s say the army and feel they are a part of that but they are taken to these designated camps to be given what they call the “new life”. Now most of them deserted these areas, they were given balls. You give a child who has seen his parents killed by the government of Sudan, a child who has already seen protection within the SPLA, you start giving him or her, toys and balls to play. That child in terms of age is a child but in terms of experiences and thinking that child is a grown up. So I think the feelings of these children, their perceptions, their views have been misrepresented completely. There are some elements of truth in that, there are some negative aspects of that these actors are definitely here to solve and I think many people appreciate that but I think they need to go beyond these assumptions that there is a problem there that we are going to solve, they have to go beyond that.’444

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CHAPTER FOUR CHILDR EN’S EXPR ESSION OF POLITICAL AGENCY

This book set out to reveal the political agency demonstrated by the Southern Sudanese children from the Second Sudanese Civil War. The issue of agency is addressed through the analysis of the political relationship former child soldiers had with their environment, involving political choice, participation, and decisions. First investigated is to what extent the child-focused NGOs understand the former child soldiers’ political consciousness and agency. Through the interviews below, the co-existing, yet rarely intersecting, experiences of NGO workers and children in Southern Sudan are demonstrated. The testimonies of the former child soldiers in this Chapter serve to provide a comparison and highlight the extent to which their political agency is underestimated and oversimplified by the NGO workers. This Chapter will be addressing the following questions: • How does political agency manifest itself in conflict? • Can forced conscription still involve an element of political agency? • What can be learned from the Southern Sudanese case study? In using the term structure, this is referring to conditions or environment in which agents assert or gain their power. Structures do not determine an agent’s resolution but lay out the parameters for strategies.445 By agent this is referring to an individual or social group

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that is capable of exerting power or change.446 Callinicos would further define agents as having personal, public, or collective goals.447 All agents do not have the same capabilities to exercise their power, as noted by Wight, as some agents have structural advantages.448 For the purpose of this research it does not intend to treat structure and agency as separate areas of study but rather as areas entangled. Agency In contrasting the humanitarian approach, the issue of agency puts into consideration children’s ability to exercise their own decisions. Although Rosen only mentions the issue of agency, its importance is apparent in considering the actions of a child soldier.449 The issue of agency can begin with the examination of how a child is perceived within the society and further how this conceptualisation might alter in times of conflict. Involved with the issue of agency are the ideas of rational choice and political participation. Whereas the humanitarian approach denies agency to children by assuming a lack of rational thinking capabilities, the allowance of the possibility of rational thinking facilitates the exploration of the motivations of a child soldier. Agency Debate Applied to Conflict The simplified dichotomy of the agency-structure debate omits important considerations in relation to its application during times of conflict. The influence of structure in these circumstances is essential to consider. ‘To accept human interaction as the product of largely voluntary associations is to accept individual liberty as the primary driver of such associations and hence the enabling condition for the toleration of difference and the distrust of arbitrary rule.’450 A possible structural truth is that the state provides protection to its citizens as well as having the responsibility to take up arms to defend its citizens. A shift in this structural truth then threatens one’s ontological security. The condition of conflict can weaken structural truths, thus affecting one’s ontological understanding. The continuity of one’s structure is broken in warfare, causing reflection and evaluation of one’s own

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agency. The relationship between structure and agency is not a matter of ‘cause’ and ‘affect’; it is certainly more fluid than that. Agency under contingency refers to how the agent functions and interacts under war conditions. As agents change in their role, they can become the cause of the conflict just as they are affected by it. One agent’s experience is an element in another agent’s structure. Applying the Agency Debate to Child Soldiers Understanding children’s agency allows for a greater understanding of what agency means, and it helps to define agency’s boundaries. To bring children into the discussion of agency during conflict also raises the wider issue of how children can contribute to our conceptualisations about conflict and peace. This increased inclusivity towards issues of war and peace can only serve to heighten our understanding. Conflict studies have to further develop the link and interaction between items such as the CRC and what children experience during times of conflict. ‘The relevant question for conflict research is how the tacit knowledge contained in practical consciousness becomes articulated in discourse in conditions of adversity.’451 The knee-jerk opinion that children should not be allowed in conflict has to be substantiated with empirical research for the purpose of validating and defining the limitations of such assertions. The international community fosters the simplification of theorising and conceptualising the role of the child. ‘Another limitation to political agency derives from invocations of the international as the arena of activity towards which domestic legislation is aimed.’452 Does the CRC give children more rights or rather limit how adults treat them? Child rights through the CRC do not necessarily give a child agency. The CRC creates distance between the child and sources of power. Whether it is economic or political, the CRC places children outside these realms. The CRC also assumes limits to the role of children’s agency. This supplementation of rights with protection under the CRC results in the limitation of child agency. ‘The condition of childhood poses an obstacle to morality insofar as it prevents people from being agents in the full sense.’453 The issue of children as ‘rational agents’ is avoided and overshadowed by the international humanitarian communities’ attempt

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to ‘protect’ them. This paradigm of how to conceptualise the child is not examined in terms of the consequences of holding this particular conceptualisation.454 In order to place the role of the child in relation to an adult’s, the nature and role children play during conflict must first be understood. Problems of under-theorisation and under-conceptualisation are identified in the area of agency in regards to children.455 Alison Watson speaks of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ agency that children possess or are allowed. The negative entails taking away rights, for example the punishment for a crime. Whilst at the same time positive agency is denied, such as making a political contribution.456 Another unique element to agency during conflict is the changing interaction it has with structure. When it is the government who is attacking a community, who is it then that the community turns to expecting protection? What effects does the increased role of the child that their family, community, or themselves, place on them have on their decisions to participate in conflict? The elements of interaction between the conflict environment and the child could help shed light onto what extent a child has agency during conflict. Including children in the agency debate draws attention to the appropriateness of exclusion. What needs to be created is an ‘open dialogue’ where boundaries are questioned and roles are examined.457 Child Soldiers: Agency in the Field Children should have a voice as to how a conflict or its consequences are perceived. Watson believes that ‘children have a place to play in the historical recounting of conflicts and their aftermath.’458 This research seeks to look at security studies in relation to the circumstances where children feel they are no longer protected by their state or family during a conflict. During a period of conflict, the interaction between a child’s level of agency and their structure changes. Children have been given circumstances that are beyond their control in which their agency could be evoked, suppressed or any number of different human reactions. Their agency could then supplement the structure that previously determined their agency. Although the agent is going against the structure of childhood, the same agent is also pursuing the structure of freedom to exercise their choice.

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Not only do agents have different capacities of agency, they also have different capacities in which to determine their security. An individual or group with little or no agency that then acquires arms changes their level and ability to exercise their agency and security. Interviews with child soldiers often limit themselves by focusing on the ‘horrific’ experience or horrifying duties they were forced to carry out, ignoring any political or agency questions. The children’s interpretation of the conflict or political context is not pursued in the interviews. The probing for complex interpretations is left to the adults. Liberalism assumes that peace is achieved by ending conflict. However, this perspective fails to examine how peace has been the result of conflict or how conflict may be the result of a failed peace. From the liberal perspective peace is the desired state of political being, but what if conflict is needed to reach that peace? In relation to the issue of child soldiers, the humanitarian approach lacks engagement with the children they claim to be protecting. NGOs that embrace the humanitarian approach do so with blinders on by not acknowledging the limitations of their assumptions. The humanitarian approach also limits the cultural application of concepts such as child rights. Classing children as victims also can serve to take away their rights and political voice.459 The humanitarian literature regarding child soldiers focuses on the legislation passed and the estimated statistics of either abduction/recruitment or of their demobilisation. This is problematic because it overlooks important related issues such as state politics or different groups of child soldiers acting within a conflict. In looking at both child soldiers and the Southern Sudanese case study, this research hopes to locate the child soldier within a political context. This research sets out to examine how child soldiers interact with their political surrounding, opportunities, and responsibilities. Little is revealed in the literature about variations among child soldier groups. The characteristics of child soldiers in any one particular conflict are lost in the international ‘phenomenon’ or grouped regionally, such as with ‘African child soldiers’. This research highlights the individuality of the child soldiers interviewed. Furthermore, interviews were obtained from child soldiers who were conscripted, abducted, and who chose to join, in order to represent the widest sample group possible.

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Many arguments regarding the issue of child soldiers favour the structuralist approach, as in the case of the humanitarian or globalisation approach. It is the structure that is seen as needing addressing, changing, and controlling. The motivations of a child soldier are not examined from these perspectives but rather how the structure influences the agent. What forms of structure do child soldiers have? In the case of child soldiers, I identify conflict, globalisation, and society as structures, and children and their communities as agents. Conflict is a dominating structure, as is culture for these children. Children growing up during time of war are not choosing but are born into their circumstances. How would a child during conflict experience it any differently than an adult? Whilst the war environment is seminal, is it all determining? If child soldiers were outside the context or structure of warfare, would they make the same choices? According to Rosen, violence begins long before a conflict is declared, thus expanding the violence structure.460 In the literature on child soldiers, children are seen to have lost their agent abilities in situations where they are drugged or threatened.461 What consequence does this have for the conceptualisation of their agency? Does this mean that child soldiers had agency before an external party took it from them? Drawing on the testimonies of former child soldiers this research investigates these questions and reveals the complexities of the choices made by each individual child soldier. Lack of Political Agency In contrast to the testimonies from the former child soldiers of the SPLA presented below on their political agency and awareness, the literature explored virtually omits the topic altogether. The literature offers no examination of the child soldiers’ political agency or motivations to joining the SPLA.462 In addition, the literature does not explore the political awareness of the child soldiers.463 ‘These children did not learn anything other than war and destruction. They do not have the chance to get education. They are totally tormented.

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Most of the children have witnessed the killing of their parents or sisters. Many people believe it will be very different to rehabilitate them after the war. The warring parties in Sudan have been engaged on recruitment of children as ‘Child Soldier’.’464 Although many of the reports from UNICEF and HRW attempt to describe the conditions the children are in at the refugee camps, the reports do not capture how these children are absorbing their surroundings. Compared to the high level of awareness that the former child soldiers recall having during their experiences, the literature fails to capture this aspect of sophistication in their reports. ‘Notable civil wars broke out in Nigeria in the 1960s, Ethiopia in the 1970s, Sudan and Liberia in the 1980s, and Sierra Leone, Somalia, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1990s. Civil wars hurt children in many ways. They suffer psychosocial trauma when parents are killed. Children witness violence and suffer posttraumatic stress disorder. They also undergo forcible induction into armies as porters, cooks, prostitutes, and even soldiers. In nearly all of these cases, children become committed to these conflicts due to poverty and inequality, and not because of political ideology.’465 The literature tended to over-simplify the child soldiers’ experiences in regards to issues such as forced recruitment and motivations in joining. Furthermore, this over-simplification extended to the omission of the child soldiers’ political agency and awareness during the conflict.

NGOs’ View This section reveals NGOs’ opinion as to the political awareness, struggles, and motivations children were experiencing in Southern Sudan during the war. The limitations of their opinion are referred to as stunted conceptualisations. In order to present a comparison between the NGO workers and the former child soldiers’ perspectives, this Chapter will address the political expression of the former child soldiers.

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Political Awareness The NGO workers conceptualised political awareness or motivation as something that someone is fully conscious of and can then make decisions upon. It is through this interpretation that many of the respondents did not think child soldiers were capable of having any political motivations or a significant amount of political awareness. However, the NGO workers did not consider the possibility of a political consciousness or the political subconscious to be an integral part of a child’s decision-making ability. Before they joined the SPLA, the former child soldiers demonstrated an awareness of the political environment involving a high level of absorption and resulting in rational conclusions. This finding is challenged by the following opinion of Frank Kashandof of UNICEF. ‘They really cannot realise, they really are not aware of what is going on and the implications for them to be associated with the armed forces on their future, on their development.’466 Political Struggle Children were not isolated from the political struggles and human rights abuses taking place in Southern Sudan. They were experiencing their own as well as witnessing political struggles and human rights abuses within their community. As the children played their unique role in society, they were experiencing political struggles in, for example, the education system. The following testimonies from NGO workers reveal to what extent they believe the children were a part of any political struggle. ‘I really don’t know whether you are talking about political challenges. As far as this perspective as these children I really wonder whether they really understand the politics behind the war very well. What they know is that it is a conflict situation, there is what they can perceive as an enemy who has been responsible for the killing of their parents, the killing of their relatives or the burning of their villages and so that is

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the main motive, that may be the main motive just for them to go but I don’t think they can really have perception, political perception in a way which will probably say adulthood, people who are well aware about the political nature of the conflict.’467 ~ ‘I don’t know if they actually have political struggles.’468 Furthermore, another point of stunted conceptualisation became apparent when a question relating to the perception of the child was asked and an answer was received from the perspective of the adult. For example, when the child protection adviser at UNMIS was asked what political challenges a child might have experienced during the war, the response was: ‘well given the recent remarks by the president in Khartoum, I think the CPA is undergoing challenges of its own in regard to implementation, issues of the transitional areas and when that happens then we are talking about the whole political situation whereby the priority is the bigger picture and not issues of different target groups.’469 This statement reveals how children are viewed, not in their own right, but as a topic to be managed by the adult community. This lack of a child’s perception is evident in other comments received: ‘I guess this might be the whole demobilisation aspect, this is in the CPA that children are to be demobilised . . . so the political support is there . . . so it’s in the policy or it’s in the agreement that this happen . . . but its in the military will. We have challenges because this is doesn’t only happen then at a political level, it needs to happen at the lower levels.’470 In describing what issues the adults would have in dealing with a child, ‘I think right now the South Sudan government has now given attention to children’s issues. They have passed the Southern Sudan Child Bill 2006, which I think is yet to become a law.’471

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This lack of awareness of the limits of their own perception or conceptualisations leads this research to anticipate that the flaws in their applied approach would perpetuate. ‘I think the real problem probably more on a social instead of a political challenges in terms of political challenges organisations are here forcing the government, forcing the SPLA/ SPLM so its whether funding available for demobilisation, funding available for reintegration it could be very easy and I think the international community could really fund for that but then the problem probably more on social issues whether these children will have access, whether the community will accept them, whether they really want to change their life, whether there is enough social support for them to return to their previous life that’s I think more than the political angle I guess.’472 ~ ‘Political challenges children might face. All decisions, political decisions, met affect children . . . constitutionally children’s rights are mentioned there, so since constitution is the supreme document of the country, and all was affected either side by these political decisions . . . children will face because now we have ministries that are supposed to look after children issues. We have ministries for gender.’473 Evading the question regarding what political challenges children might face, Emmanuel Riko does not consider the perspective of the child on the ground. Instead, his response to the question pertains only to aspects of political culture that are controlled by adults. Q: What do you think is the difference between a child’s rationale for joining the struggle and an adult’s? ‘Again I think I just repeat this: the child who joins the fighting forces is a child who normally had some experience about the war itself, directly affected as a consequence of the war and I think it is more or less that. An adult [is] maybe somebody who actually knows the reasons why there is war taking place or conflict. They a bit understand the situation

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much better and in a much broader way and so to me what an adult person joining the fighting forces is, depending on which side do you take, if you take the government soldiers who are paid salaries. Most of the young people go and join simply because that’s the source of revenue for them, for earning their salary, for livelihood because474 many of the young people may not be able to get proper employment so the military becomes a sort of recruitment agency so long as livelihood are concerned but on the other side those guerrillas side again that little monetary incentive because they are volunteers and probably they may be forced because of the circumstances during the guerrilla warfare.’475 The testimony above echoes the simplification and polarisation brought out by the NGOs. Portrayed is an adult who is motivated by their political awareness and a child who lacks the ability to process critical political thought. Political Motivations This research has documented a gap between the agency exercised by the former child soldiers during the conflict, the level of agency assumed by NGOs working on the topic and NGO workers’ understanding of the former child soldiers’ motivations for joining the struggle. In the course of the interviews, it was a point of confusion for some NGO workers even to contemplate the possibility of children having thought about such topics as freedom or politics. For example, when asked what political motives children might have to join armed groups, many NGO workers brushed the question aside and explained that children are not complex enough to be thinking about political issues. ‘I really don’t know whether we can talk meaningfully about the kind of political programme these children should have in mind regarding liberation. What they would probably have is that they are fighting a cause and that cause is worth fighting for whether that is on the government’s side, whether it is on the SPLA side.’ ‘I don’t think those young boys can really have any political motivation behind them. The main thing is that it is their experience, particularly

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those who lost their parents. Either killed by the other side and so they tend to just take that as a reason for joining the fighters.’476 ~ Q: What thought process do you think children might have been through to become a soldier? What were they thinking? ‘I don’t believe the African is as critical analytic as the people in the Western world.’ 477 ~ ‘Well, the only political motivations are the stories they used to hear from their parents and their colleagues that there is a lot of political injustice in the county and a sort of religious intimidation in the country because we are relating in a country whereby if you are not an Arab or a Muslim, you are hardly regarded as a human being and of course, these are the ideas which are being inherited from many generations to generations so most of the children in Southern Sudan are politically motivated.’ 478 ~ ‘You know the challenge that Sudanese children have is lack of vision and we need to actually ask them, provoke them, and direct them that there is life beyond carrying a gun’ 479 ~ ‘Political motivation. I don’t believe the child soldier . . . maybe the honour of knowing that they had the respect and he was needed by the soldier to carry his things to prepare his food. What would come afterwards, we were just fighting to survive. I don’t think we had a peace plan, I don’t think we had ambitions to go beyond among the children I think the ambitions were resting more with the commanders, with the big people who were hoping that then once the war is finished their will be rewarded with political places. Maybe it was a minor motivation in the mind of the children because they knew they had no education, they had nothing to stand on, they didn’t know how to read and write.’ Q: What do you think is the difference between a child’s rationale for joining and an adult’s?

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‘I’m sure an adult has a higher degree of greed or ambition. I call it greed because our whole war hinged on greed for the resources of the land for possessing one or the other parts of the country to have the oil to have other things. So the ambition of an adult would be to gain prestige to become member of a ministry and in that ministry to get ahead to become rich, to become wealthy, to prosper and some of them have managed to do just that. The child mentality is much different, he is more simple attitude, in some way he is a follower. He has not discovered all the benefits that he could accrue. So for me the difference would be in the less degree of awareness of what is available in the future but they wanted to get ride of a common enemy, a common obstacle and to be able to posses what was their own. Then to divide up the pie, I think the adults were more eager to do it than the children.’ 480 ~ ‘Well for a child I think it is very automatic and instinctual and they just hear and be convinced very easily and they just join. But for adults they have seen and experience that some of their colleagues have lost their lives and it is not that easy to immediately join the army they may think since that is the only option they have definitely then they join but there is a second thought for the adults as compared to the children who would be very easily convinced that they’ll join the army.’ 481 ~ ‘Before I am not sure they make any decision because they come to be involved by mistake, it doesn’t depend on their own decision. Once they are in the army they don’t have opportunities to make any decisions because they are guided, they are directed, they have to follow their commander and after that is the point where after they are released from the armed group the social workers and the people who are in charge of their follow up they have to help them to find to take the own decision for their own development but the decision can be going back to school or doing some other skill or learning something like that. I think in the decision taking they have to be really supported so that they can take the one that is appropriate to their situation.’ ~

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‘I believe it’s typical of children to follow their whim, to follow, they loved John Garang, he was an idol for them. To die for John Garang was enough for them more than dying for their own country. What ever John Garang would have waved a finger at they would have done it. A child is a person who has a model in front and follows it blindly. Many of them created an idle worship within themselves for the heroes of the war and they were following them.’ 482 Q: What thought process do children go through in order to become a soldier? ‘That’s what I have been telling you, personally they don’t think, they don’t decide. But when they are recruiting them, maybe, I don’t know about being a soldier maybe some of them children they show them that after they join the army they can progress very quickly and become get some ranks in the military this and that, that’s the only way they can speak to children because I don’t think that a commander who was recruited children will start telling them that they will not get anything within the army, the only way is to let them think that they are in a good position and it can give them opportunity in the future.’ 483 The absolute terms of the respondent below stunts any exploration beyond apolitical. ‘The adult are always the ones who are or have a political reason for joining, they join for this or that. But the children always follow. Follow the guardian, follow the community members, they don’t know what is ahead of them. And they don’t determine what happens.’ 484 ~ ‘I think it’s probably a combination of being forced and peer pressure. I think once you convince one or two key youth leaders, and I think even when they are seven, eight, nine, they still start to form a hierarchy, a particular youth that takes the lead and I think once you get those key people in then the rest just follow.’

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Q: What is the difference between a child’s rationale for joining the armed groups and an adult’s? ‘Ah I think adults would have to be a bit more practical. They may have to provide for a family, a wife and children and so for them it may be a way to support their family. Children generally don’t have the same responsibilities although there are a lot of children in Southern Sudan who have lost their parents so they still have to support their brothers and sisters. But I think for children it comes down to very simple things, and again food. If you can tell a child that you’ll give them food if they’ll join, then they’ll join. I think for an adult who’s perhaps been through difficult times before that the prospect of having a meal tomorrow isn’t perhaps such a big deal as it is for a child.’ ‘Even young children, they’re talking about Salva Kiir and about John Garang and about the heroes that they see that led them in the struggle against the North but I’m not sure their understanding or their dialogue goes much further than idolising some of these figures, I’m not sure they really have the capability to really analyse some of the political issue that have been going on and comment on.’ 485 ~ Q: What political motivations do you think child soldiers have? ‘So politically they didn’t know what was happening around them, and get something to eat, and be able to visit their families once in a while.’ 486 The consequences of the NGO workers’ attitudes and perspectives expressed in this section create limitations for them in exploring and respecting their subjects’ opinions as well as preventing the accurate interpretation of conflict history through the eyes of the child. The adult dominated interpretation of a child’s experience removes a child’s involvement in conceptualising the conflict. This also prevents children from engaging with their society’s history.

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Child Soldiers’ View An inability to articulate complex thoughts and awareness is not the same as being devoid of them altogether. This section acts as a point of comparison for the NGOs’ testimonies regarding the political consciousness of former child soldiers, involving their awareness, struggles and motivations. This section presents these issues from the perspective of the former child soldiers. In addition, this section will consider elements of political education and political involvement that were not touched upon in my discussions with NGOs. The length of, and additional sub-divisions in, this section represents the multi-dimensional manifestations of the former child soldiers’ political consciousness that came out in the course of the interviews. Political Awareness and Political Struggles This research looked at former child soldiers’ awareness on a range of social and political issues to establish their awareness as a multi-faceted phenomenon. Furthermore, their awareness of the issues raised during the interviews suggests that the extension of their awareness reaches beyond what their responses revealed. The majority of the former child soldiers did describe having political awareness before they joined the SPLA. When enquired about their political observations prior to joining the SPLA, most former child soldiers told a story that supported a high level of awareness of political events or issues. The former child soldiers revealed many memories which were politically orientated. The majority did recollect incidences before they joined the SPLA involving issues such as religion, racism, education, language, or violence in their community. Not only did they recall the incidents but they also recalled what thought process was going through their minds at the time or how these events made them feel. Exemplifying the political knowledge former child soldiers might begin with is the testimony of Jonas, who joined the SPLA in 1989 at the age of nine. ‘But it is not that maybe they had the full logic of what they are going in, they are just because they understand like particularly for instance with the

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situation of Sudan, a child of seven years can understand who is an Arab and who is a Southerner. Because it has been a conflict that has been persistent, it has been there. So the child can just know that this is an Arab, they are the killers, they are no good. Even the Arab, these are the Southerners, these are the people that wanted saying that they are the owners of the whole Sudan and the youth, who want them to be Muslim, they are savages.’487 Jacque describes below how his political environment showed itself in his everyday play. This example highlights his political awareness from the age of six and furthermore, his desire to interact with this political environment, even if it is just during play. ‘When I was very young I could see soldiers when I was at the age of six and five I could see soldiers moving around with guns and in uniforms the SPLA soldiers and I was extremely impressed. As a child I started modelling mud and make tall soldiers with guns, which I painted some red to actually notify the Arabs and I paint the others black and then I put them struggling with one another, people would pass around and laugh at me “what are you doing?” and then I said, “there is a war being fought down here”.’ ‘I did not remember very well but something that would have political implications was that sometimes in the communities there are tribes . . . and then there is this some level of impression, yeah in the communities all the community members of every tribe they actually rival for superiority at the level of the county and at the level of state and the level of the nation, I have witnessed this since I was a child because people are actually generally thirsty for power even at the very young level and there are some communities that would actually want to think on the power and be the leaders of the others though I noticed this behaviour when I was very young.’ ‘There are so many atrocities that happened during the attacks. In a war situation when the town is attacked you know they actually . . . people were killed, properties looted, people sent out of the town. I was very young; I was ten. Then as this would continue and then the SPLA

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would actually go away and regain power and then come again and capture Yero. For Yero people fought about four times, and when it was recaptured then the government troops would now send the aerial bombers to come and bomb the civilians in the town.’ ‘Well I knew John Garang and I knew the war being fought I was other conscious but not fully actually conscious of the political issues at the national level because I would need much education now and actually to grow up in the mind so that I fully understand politically what is happening in my nation.’488 ~ ‘Yeah political issues are that why the government don’t stop this, we are suffering, we don’t see our parents for the last four years, what is happening? Is there a problem? Why should we be here and we’re not supposed to be here? That make a lot of issue [concerning] what is the SPLA role, what is going on? A revolution is not being fought for children but some people need to, ok not because I don’t need to be in that war but later when I’m ok when I’m able but not when I’m just a teenager. Like most of us died but today they can help, but they die because they’re unable, they’re stressed, they just give up life and they . . . dead from things like that. So that is a political revolution, which is not cool enough by engaging young people into dangerous zone and get die and some survive dangerously.’489 Islamicisation /Arabic Education Perhaps unsurprisingly, one area where children demonstrated a particularly heightened level of awareness was in education. The attempt to ‘Islamitise’ the education system in Southern Sudan during the Second Civil War was concrete evidence that the Northern government was determined to rewrite the identities of the children of Southern Sudan. In addition to the implementation of Shari’a or Islamic law, in 1983, Arabic replaced English as the default language used in the Southern Sudanese school system.490 This change did not go unnoticed by the children and many struggled to accept this as their new identity. The former child soldiers interviewed felt displaced in an education system that was developed not with their existing identities in mind, but with

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a positive intention of recalibrating that identity, thus causing them a degree of isolation. ‘When I was young my parents are Christian. And still again when we were to go to school you would find the dominance the Arab now those days. Yeah the government it was theirs. All over, everywhere in the economic sector and on the political side of the country. So you would find, you would find yourself as a Christian because there your parents take you to church and when you go to the school you find yourself being trained in a way you are wanted to be given a new kind of religion, of which that is the religion that you should be you know, you should have, you should be in which you join a Muslim. So you find it hard because you will just say no my parents, they told me I am Jonas, they told me I am Peter, they told me I’m John, you know, I’m whatever name in the Christianity but again should I be of this name again? No my teacher I can’t do that. So you find the child when he comes back home or she, she’ll just come and say “oh, mom or dad, the teacher told me this and that, I don’t know. And I’m being given a script that is of a different design so I have not caught up with that. Why?”491 ~ ‘We would like to tell the world that children should be given their right to education, their right to live a healthy life with their families but this is not the case in Southern Sudan. In Southern Sudan parents, some of the parents are unable to take care of their children because of the political situation in the country, they put position of the solution if you are a Muslim for example in second development you are given a very high salary, if you are a Christian you are given a very low salary, so that you cannot be able to meet the cost of education of your kids and the other which is Muslim will be able to meet and therefore it increase the gap between the Muslims and the Christians. So the Christians are unable to go secondary particularly the lower level, the lower class they can afford to send their kids to school up to university because they can’t afford things are very expensive for them, but for the Muslims, even if they don’t afford they have a special organisation that set to provide them financial support . . . because they’re Muslims. Take for example the area of Manokea here, these are all people from my own

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tribe but because they’ve accepted to become Muslims they are centred in that area so they have underground money, which is flowing and that is why the whole community is against them and that make them different so if you go there most of them university graduates because they have the opportunity, so the idea of the government of Khartoum was to change the whole country to become a Muslim country opposed to what we have in our hearts the larger Christian community in Southern Sudan.’492 The close proximity with political struggles in Deng’s family brought to the surface his engagement with the wider political environment. ‘When this I was having one of my brothers who was schooling even admitted to Malik secondary school and then he was transferred from Malik secondary school to Batong, Batong is in Upper Nile the region so he could not manage himself to go there because there in that locality he will not gain what he want, he don’t have somebody to support him. So he tried to put kind of requisition to be in his locality to follow his studies.’ Q: Why did he want to change schools? ‘Why he want to change schools because you know when you don’t know the language of other people in the area it was hard by then to go and stay in that place.’ Q: And so the language was switched to Arabic. How did you feel about that? ‘I feel not happy because depression because he got the first grade and he was disgraced down to not go to the higher institution you see? And the other thing was I was having my uncle which is a policeman there is a kind of humiliation he has worked from now and he wanted to retire but you know he was not given his rights so his right was closed and he could not be given chance during that time until ‘82 so what he thought,

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he said if like there’s no human rights and there’s no one’s rights therefore he decided to go home even though we were being helpless so those are the only things that I knew by that time, that’s when I know there was a kind of liberation of our people, the Southerners.’493 ~ ‘What made me very angry was the issue of school, it was in 1992 when I was in Juba for my primary three, the Arabs came with the policy that they wanted all the schools, all the curriculum would be changed in Arabic from university to university, and they brought teachers from Khartoum and all the teachers were Arabs. So they closed down the school in English and yet we were studying in English pattern, so they wanted all of us to study in Arab pattern. So people came, some students those in intermediate and secondary school struggled and they made a strike, that strike led to loss of lives, very many students were killed, others were put in jail, and others managed to escape to join the SPLA so they possibly were leaving Juba though footing so they left from there and others were captured and they were forced to join the SPLA, others were killed in the process, so only the church, the missionaries who received some of the students, otherwise they were going to be finished by the Arabs in Juba.’494 The absorption and understanding of the conflict environment, as described by John Puou, exemplifies how awareness went beyond observation. ‘What I have experienced when I was a young people can have a feel but I in particular I have a feel what people were fighting for is not because of the learned or the some other thing is because of people and also we have a problem in Islamic between Islamic and Christianity. Like the political issue of being a Christian in the same country where the Muslim. You can make Muslim have a feel of including us in Islamitisation . . . you don’t have freedom of movement, you don’t have freedom of express[ion], you can’t express you have to the big people. So they can maybe come and attack you then they take you somewhere that you cannot even decide.’495 ~

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‘Politically of course there were enforcements, people were forced to become Islam, to join Islam by force, you don’t like it you’re killed, people were forced to get education in Arabic by force whether you like or you don’t like, people were forced even to have some Islamic ceremonies whether you don’t like or you like and I was really I was not happy about this. I was young, young, eight to seven years. I was young; I was not happy about all this what is happening. When you look at the TV before all it is Islamic and Arab kind of activities, I was not happy. Even when I was young, I can remember when I was in primary one, a teacher, an Arab teacher slapped me because I didn’t want to learn Arabic, when he came in I went out of class and he pulled me and slapped me, since then up to now I don’t know Arabic, I don’t know Arabic, even the alphabet I don’t know, even if I was interested to learn, even my children I don’t want my children to learn, I’m not interested.’496 Anjelo was 11 years old when Shari’a Law was introduced in 1987. He became a child soldier that same year. ‘We feel neglected, we feel deprived we may not be given a chance and even we have been forced to join the Islamic school it was not your interest. If you say I should not go to Islamic school, you’ll not get the education; you’ll not get education at all. Yeah, you feel angry, you feel annoyed, so when you feel annoyed you go back to the cattle camp that was the last resort. And if you go to cattle camp you have no education at all, you remain a cattle keeper and then you see a number of the people are cattle keepers in this area. And the education was Islamic, Islamised, it was Arabised so if you don’t have that Arabic name Ibrahim, etc, so you should not join the classes unless you adapt that style of Arab, this way you’ll be given a chance to be in school. That was political norm, indirect political norm exercised by the Arab and this experience gave us to join the SPLA so that we gain our freedom. Again you’re forced to learn Arabic rather than English, especially Southerners were not given a chance to learn Arabic and you’re forced to stop at the 7/6 when you reach 7/6 you will not be proceeded to go ahead, you will remain at that level. So when we reach to other worlds we were given a chance to join the different tertiary education whereby

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you go to university if you’re capable you go. I complete my senior secondary school in Nairobi and I’m free now to join any university in East Africa that’s why I have that peace.’497 ~ ‘I remember. When I am young the Northerners come to our area, they take money from our big brothers, they take to the North and they make their schools there and hospital. There is a political issue and they force some people to become a Muslim they make political ways that I know before.’498 ~ John remembers that at the age of ten, ‘I’m Amin; they changed my name that let me be . . .’ Q: They wanted to change your name? ‘Yes to change your name, then to force you also to change the religious the Muslim read the Qur’an, and also the schools where they study Arabic, at first they started with the word of Qur’an not Bible, so that’s what I know.’499 ~ ‘Sure that one because most of the schools we were taught in Arabic and then we were taught the Qur’an from we call Madrasa in Arabic so we sang these Qur’anic songs’ Q: At what age were you aware of its meaning? ‘It started at fifteen when I was actually since I was sitting there as I sat for my primary certificate and then I moved when I was in my secondary school that is year seven, we call it the junior secondary school, that is when I actually start knowing exactly these things are just being used as Arabisation kind of thing.’500 ~

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The voice Taban exercises exemplifies what decisions the former child soldiers were making in their youth. This disputes the NGO workers’ claims that children do not have decisions to make regarding their lives in a political context. ‘Because by then the schools were divided there were some . . . few of them were English pattern, and then most were Arab pattern. So for me I decided, I told my parents, “I am going to English school”, because by then people were all going to Arabic school. So when you try to see that I am English school, they do not match population of . . . peoples but they only few and they with no proper teaching and it was all the Arabs doing the . . . playing the game. So but I decided to join English. That thing just came automatically in me.’501 Oil As the oil exploration in the northern regions of Southern Sudan increased national and international attention, for some former child soldiers, vulnerability and the war was brought closer to home. ‘I had that ambition, one day, one time I would be a doctor or a petroleum engineer because I was motivated by this Total, there was a Total company, it was in ‘84 when I was very young they make an exploration process and they contained the oil and . . . like that so I got motivated if I could work for such a company and mine that oil . . . even today I’m going to study it, I will go to study petroleum engineering, I will go to do it, yeah.’502 Q: What was your first memory of violence in Bentu? ‘First memory of violence. I see violence in oil field, Bentu oil field.’ Q: What happened? ‘The SPLA came, first they shoot the Northerners from the area of the oil field, and they stop the Chevron.’ Q: How old were you? ‘About ten.’

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Q: How did it make you feel to see violence in your area? ‘We felt fear because they shoot the big guns the people. I feel afraid.’ Q: You felt afraid of whom? You felt afraid of whom? ‘About the Northerners.’503 Witnessed Violence Many NGO workers’ perceptions of former child soldiers involved a child traumatised by violence who consequently was less able to take rational decisions. In other words, agency is removed as a result of experiencing violence. However, the testimonies of the former child soldiers not only involve them witnessing and describing their experiences with violence but they were also able to articulate and present reasoning for what they wanted to do about witnessing the violence. Garang Majak remembers his community enduring: ‘Massive killing of human being, burning down houses, rape and looting properties of civilians and abduction of young girls and boys for slave and forceful recruitment into armed forces or militia.’504 ~ ‘Many people were killed without a reason.’ Q: How old were you? ‘By the time I was eight years.’ Q: So that would be the first memory of the struggle when you were eight years old. What else happened? ‘Yeah people were jailed.’ Q: You saw this with your own eyes? ‘Yes. I see people were killed with no reason.’

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Q: By whom? ‘By Arabs. Secondly maybe they have they used to abduct ladies and young girls which are not able to be taken somewhere so that was the first memory that I have seen in the struggle time.’ Q: So you saw it, you heard about it? ‘Yes and I have that feel in my heart.’ Q: Did you know it was Southerners versus Arabs? Did you know the difference? Did you know that the Arabs were doing that? ‘Yes I know very well because I know like when you are a person you have a memory or you have a decision for what you have witnessed through your eyes and what you hear, you do acquire all these things and you come to understand the point, you can decide and see what was going on. Like by the time I see people were recruit in the village by those people they were taken away and some people were killed with no reason, they jailed some other people like old men those who are not able to walk for long distance.’ Q: Did this make you angry seeing this? ‘Yes! So they do that, they do that very well because they can keep you for so long without food, no water then if you feel like not to move with them they may kill you. So I realised when people were killed with no reason and maybe some women were abduct by Arabs so that’s why I have a feel of staying in the bush with SPLM because I have all this information and also.’505 ~ ‘Before I went to Ethiopia. The first was took place in our home town and people running in disarray, there was a lot of killing that was happening, a lot of homes were set on fire, cattle. I saw all those, cattle were raided and then we had to run to the bush, very far areas from the town. So later

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on after the fight we came back and then the continue raid happened now from ‘83 up to ‘87. Aerial bombardment of the villages, the cattle camp was also bombard by airplane and vehicles of military could move the villages. When they arrive to the village they get people who are wearing clothes they get them and kill them and they also attacked younger boys who are between the age of eighteen and ten, they take them away with them. So it actually became a very bad situation and that is one of the reasons why I actually left home because when I reach to the age of nine, I became among the target group that are being abducted, so that is why I left.’506 ~ ‘When we grow up about age of seven years we are aware that when people came out from the war in 1972 we heard that there was an agreement signed and now there was rumours of Arab again coming back to make war again the source. So these are the rumours we had and before that the choice was burn in our village at first in Pechong so we experienced that problem in 1984.’507 ~ ‘Yeah the other kids which we are with them they went to the best school because they are Arabs and we are the blacks so we cannot go to that school. Yeah I witnessed some of them because when my father, before he joined the army my father had a plan of going into the army and when politicism at that moment the attitude of my father want to go, want to join SPLA, they attack us at home and they kill all of my sisters, the Arabs so they attack us at home, they attack us and kill all of our sisters. Since from that time my father joined the army and after my father then I joined the army because it is very painful.’ ‘Yeah surely there were several events ranging from attacks by the enemy of the towns that we were living in, attacked several times, people would be attacked and anybody that was having a weapon to fight would just fight whether you were a soldier or not, in order to defend actually and that was one of the things I joined. Then number two, there were these rampant aerial bombings the civilians and towns and one would

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actually want to see to it that these problems are eradicated be it if it cost all the lives you fight for them.’ 508 Lieutenant Colonel Dut Riak commented on his experiences of violence at the age of five in 1971, and the subsequent evolution of his political understanding by the age of eleven in 1977. ‘I have seen the bloodshed, people were being killed there, I witnessed it actually because I was within the town here because by then Rumbek was still a small village.’ ‘What I remember in my life is only what has been done by the Sudan government to our own people. The average age I begin to learn that was 1977 this is when I realise that there is something done wrong by the Northerners to my own people.’509 ~ ‘What I witnessed it here some of the traders were here, most of them were military guys, sometimes they remove the shop from our own people and then they own those buildings that’s one I witnessed it in my face. The other one they come and build the mud buildings here in the space in Rumbek area here and then from there they collect the money and they goes away with that one. Then our local traders with the youths they react that was in 1982, very big fighting it took place within the town and many people were killed from the Northerners traders here. And from there at least there is a realisation of the right of the people and from there my people almost start realising actually these Northerners they are exploiting people, they are taking the resources from us and we are not benefiting anything, and then from there it continued until 1983 Anya Nya II become active here in our area. In ‘84 we start joining the SPLA.’510 ~ ‘Yes, during the time I was actually with me family in Rumbek here I can witness many things because sometimes Arab was staying at Rumbek here, they go outside, they kill people, they take cows and they take even the grains.’511

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By the age of 12 he claims, ‘Yes I’ve seen there is no equality between Arab and Dinka. Arab oppress us say that to have a problems with us, they force some of our elders to some work without payment that’s why.’512 Seeing the treatment of the Arabs at the age of 12, ‘I feel angry because if Arab comes and takes our cattle and all our properties, what can we do, if we are going to have a problem with Arab it is because to have a freedom so that go to the arms to fight against the enemy.’513 ~ ‘So they carry on operation up to where they were, 1985 so they burn the village where we live, they destroy all our properties.’ Q: Did you see this? ‘Yeah they shoot people. Yeah I live in that town Pechong, Easter County yeah they pass that time until they reach Yero, so our village was burned down and they shoot people and we run away.’ ‘I was very angry, I was very angry that memory remain until I joined that operation 1996. That operation 1996, that’s why I went to the SPLA, joined SPLA 1996.’514 ~ ‘In fact before even when I went to Ethiopia I’ve seen a very terrible things. It happened, it was around midnight the army soldiers attacked the whole community, they burned down houses, they killed people, and even some brothers of mine, relatives we let them down lying and then we ran out, we ran to the bush until we went to Ethiopia. It was not our own need maybe but it . . . So we have seen so many terrible things, seen people that have been killed and that’s why we went out, we fleet for our dear life to Ethiopia.’515 ~

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‘Yeah I saw some premises or some buildings being burnt, fighting took place, my relatives were killed and all those things. So those show me that there was a problem between us and the Arabs. I know because my, the home of my father was near the road so they could pass with their vehicle through that road and I could really learn everything that.’516 ~ ‘Yeah my first memory was come in 1983 when the first SPLA soldiers came so by then I was having a lot of goat so in our culture boys don’t want cow but you’ll be given a goat herd so I was having my favourite goat so those of the soldiers they come and kill it and then they chase me away so when I come to report it to my mother, my mother told me that now these are the people who are going to fight to liberate us from this poverty. I said that they want to liberate us from where, so by then I was not knowing exactly. So after 1995 so I was having my uncle who was educated, so this man came while they were conversing us the grown up people they discuss how these mistreated Southerners are being mistreated and then they talk about it. So from there I get it but I didn’t pay attention because I was a small boy. So when this event has happened when they come and took the cow, this was the time I reflect back and I know that these people they are just doing something because to defend this why that was the first memory that came to me.’517 ~ ‘I was ten to eleven years time, so I have seen a lot of things, ten years and I am not a small child I think and I have seen some things I know that bad things, I even evaluate. I know the killings is not good and even I was a lot of people has been killed I’ve seen them in my height so this situation it make a lot of Southerners and Arab together they have been killed because whenever SPLM fight with a troop that belong to the government if there has been defeated so they will be coming not feeling alright if they see Southerners with them together and if the forces are defeated badly by the SPLA, so this situation happening in time of war.’518 This testimony from Jony demonstrates extending witnessing violence to ‘evaluating’ violence through his assessment of good and bad. He

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further describes how he picked up on the emotional state of the soldiers and why they were ‘not feeling alright.’ ‘My father he was killed by Arabs, that is the problem. When I come, I join the SPLA that is the one. The area was destroyed; everything is not there in our area. That was the problem when I joined in SPLA. Second to that, in that our area there are no schools there but by that time when I come to SPLA. The school is not there but something the problem when I joined the SPLA and the problem is there in my, in that our area.’519 ~ ‘Because I realised that, because when I was in my area the enemies came to my area and destroyed the whole community and he captured our cattle and also he burned the houses.’520 ~ ‘Ok I was seeing, what I am seeing is just that people are killing each other, people are killing each other, some of us are going to Arab side, some are coming this side, ok I was seeing people are just trying to kill each other.’ ‘There’s nothing about peace of whatever. That’s what I’ve seen so when now I go to the bush I come knowing that we have different government fighting but before I’ve seen like if there’s a desire to kill you, I go and kill you. Yeah that’s what I was thinking when I was still young.’521 ~ ‘Of course during the war everybody was willing to join the spirit of the movement because of the marginalisation and because of the mistreatment by the Northern government, even the children, even the womens they took up arms against the regime of Khartoum. Of course they see the bad things the Arabs are doing against the people of Southern Sudan because of anger because of what people came out of their homes of their villages went to the training centre. In going to the training centre some people fought their age, even if they’re young they say they are fit to join army. SPLA trained them and some of course excluded from combat, to go to the combat zone.’522 ~

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‘I was thinking of like ok yeah the Arab are mostly coming to our family to kill us and I felt very bad about it and that was the time I never knew nothing about political tension but I could feel it that there’s something because we have never mixed with the Arab before, we have never played together, we have never gone to school together with them, and the history I can hear is like ok they are bad people and they are coming to rule us and that’s why the reason they are chasing away for us from our town and we end up in the village not going to town again . . . I felt there is something now between us.’ ‘I felt scared and also very angry because I have to walk footing from a distance to where I end up so that’s why I was scared.’523 Sergeant Major Atem Abuoi Atem recalled his experience of an SPLA attack at the age of nine in which some of his relatives were killed. He went on to join the SPLA himself two years later. ‘The SPLA attack the town and they fought with the government and then they run away, so at that time I saw so many things, I saw tank and gun chief and some other big machine guns so I saw them for the sake of seeing, I saw wounded people, some other people die but I thought it was only for that day, yes that memory remains. Well I was angry when I saw my uncle was killed and another uncle of mine was wounded, so I was not happy because I don’t know what kill my uncle and what wounded my uncle so I not happy completely so and that what make me to leave my parents and I went away.’524 ~ ‘Oh by then before the age of nine SPLA was not all that up to date by then, by then like at first when my father was killed he was given fourteen days permission then he went and add one day, fifteen days, so by then when he delay for one day, all our cows all our goats were collected, so by then I could say these are not good people even with just one day they have to punish you, but I saw it, it was only one day for a reason they could have not done in that manner, you take permission and then you disappear and don’t come back.’

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‘My first memory it was in that area people could come to our community and ask you who the SPLA are, he denied your hand would be tied to the back, you’re beaten, you’re tortured, they could even burn this plastic thing and they put it all over your hand so that it burn you, so that you talk.’525 ~ ‘Yes I’ve seen my community between the North and the South many things happened because during those days those of Arab, they stay with us there also they insult me one day, there’s a time stop beside the road I start to urine so they come and insult me that I am also a donkey, “you’re stupid, you’re a donkey”, so they arrest me while I’m still a child’ Q: How old were you? ‘In that day I am eleven. So I keep this thing in my mind then during SPLA, the SPLA come there I remember all what happened to me, so they insult me that I’m a donkey, and I rode a horse so that makes me also to go. Yeah, yes I heard of it before when I was still a child even before that. My father told me a story, “you know those of Arabs they are doing such kind of things like this, they went before that in the bush, Anya-nya I they’re called Anyanya I, they’re there for this purpose”.’526 ~ ‘The political issues especially when I was young, that was in 1983, I would see people going on strike, people being shot, that was in Bor town and when I asked my dad he would tell me these are Arabs, they are really mistreating the black people. Now when I joined, I got the same thing. The people that are being trained are to fight the same Arabs who are mistreating people.’527 ~ ‘That was my first time seeing them and I got scared for one day I was screaming so I went alone, my mother went alone until I came and got people on the way I asked them why are you going, they say let us go, I did not know, until when we reached Ethiopia they say “this is Ethiopia”

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I told them what do you mean by Ethiopia, they said it was a different country.’528 ~ ‘My main motivations I come from Northern Bahr al Ghazal, which is Aweil and I think you might have heard the reason there’s fighting there, there’s still fighting there recently from the Arab tribes that is called Bagara. They always fight people there and they loot cattle, they take children and you might have heard also about the slavery going on in Northern Bar el Ghazal that’s where I came from so from that area we have seen the fighting even before the start of the SPLA because fighting between our tribe and the Arab Bagara has been going on for long time. So it happened in 1984 we had this historical thing or the common problem of Southern Sudan or common problem of the Sudan in general which actually has come to a bit of peace now but in our area border our problem has never stopped. So I’ve seen it in 1984 SPLA has already started and there were many problems we were young that time, we don’t know much about the political background of what marginalisation is but what is happening is what we have seen in our own eyes because they always come and attack our area, they burn villages, they take cattle away, they take women away, they take children away, they kill men, so my home area was completely destroyed that year, it was burned, children were killed, women were killed, and my father persuaded me that I remember when the school was there.’ ‘My observations as I told you in my home area the war dated back before the SPLA started, before Anya-nya I in 1950’s started because in our home area we heard a lot of stories from our father and most of the relatives were killed by the Arab tribes which are bordering Southern Sudan and as I told you not only in 1984 that I’ve seen it, when I was even small child they always come and attack the area, we always run from the area, spend some time out of the area and then people come back again to review their houses because they are always burnt. The first experience I think was in 1977, I was seven years old. They came and attacked another area, which is near my home area actually, and then we had to run away from our home area. We spent about two weeks

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away from my home area then when we came back we were taken to that area, it’s just about three hours walk from my home area. When we went there we found the entire village burnt down and many corpses. We still in the area at that time and the people that they killed they threw them in the drinking wells. So since that time in 1977 I’ve never forgotten about that one.’529 ~ ‘To me in my village where the war broke out was just some distance away from my home so I was in Bor town, I was schooling in Bor town in Arabic, so when the war broke out I find myself in the countryside, no school, we could not access it from the town, we were cut out from. Yeah the war was going on and I saw most of my relatives die who were killed in the war combat, those who already joined the SPLA they came back and they were feeling the combat so I feel bad. My first memory was when the SPLA came back, when the fight brought 1983 they went to Ethiopia and they came back 1984 and there was a lot of fighting that was going on between Bor and Juba road when the Jalaba mobilised about ten thousand people to come and burn all Bor, take the cows out, so likely now they met one of the target . . . came back from Bonga that was among the first . . . trained by the SPLA and they fought terribly and we were able to contain that one and they could not reach us and in that combat many people that I know really died, some of my relatives were killed.’530 Neglect The inequalities between the Northerners and Southerners did not go unnoticed by the former child soldiers. They witnessed these vulnerabilities first hand within the school system and some heard stories from their elders of Arabs living under better conditions. ‘Specifically you would see that because most of us were we started school when we were using the plain iron sheet and then using some charcoals and the chalkboard you know such facilities were not available and by that age when it was ‘71, ‘73 most of it was supposed to be captured by the government and there were no teachers available at that place except

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a few Southerners who were coming to volunteer. The government had never made those schools as regular schools and therefore you saw that maybe there was some kind of neglect even it we were not actually told exactly what significance it had.’531 ~ ‘Well I mean the political discrepancies between the North and the South are not something new to anybody. Even as a child you hear them in songs, you see them in a play out even before the war breakout and I was in a combined school, we always make jokes about it you know about those being Arab and about those being, so it’s not like. Of course at that age I didn’t know the substance behind it, if you ask me what exactly the Northerners did, I didn’t know, I would just say ok we don’t have better roads, since I’ve never seen a better road, I’ve never seen tarmac so I can’t say I’m missing tarmac. Since I’ve never seen modernisation there is things that I don’t miss but from elders and from the literature and conversation you, everybody has a judgment . . .’532 SPLA Presence By experiencing the SPLA defend and protect their communities and to witness their communities reciprocate with support, the former child soldiers were inspired. ‘I remember the first time when the SPLA came it was like change is coming because first we have seen terrible things from the Arabs before I knew SPLA, so when SPLA came it’s like now they are encountering what the Arab was doing and you find that he saved you. Though you have seen terrible things somebody came and said now he will protect us.’533 ~ ‘By then you know when people start going to bush its, there’s nothing like you know you don’t have a clear idea what you are going to do there but its like something like a revolution when a Southern Sudanese decided you know to fight for their right and that one gave everyone a motivation, I have to be part of this because even in Khartoum the students started strike everyday and every now and then universities simply because they

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are Southerners and they feel like they can even do better even if they are even the brothers on the other side but it doesn’t matter. From there you feel like you want to join them. That was the motivation.’534 ~ ‘Well before I joined the movement I had my dad and he was taking care of me unfortunately when the war broke out in 1983 actually he was mistreated by the government which we are under still so he felt that he’s still missing that freedom because if he himself is missing that freedom he should go into the bush and fight for that freedom for his generation the young generation to have that freedom even though he’s going to loose his life in the front line so my protection was actually under my dad and later on it was SPLA who are protecting myself because if not for SPLA I wouldn’t have been in position to speak to you right now and I would have been dead or somewhere else.’535 ~ ‘What I observed as a child since there are very many things because when I was a child what I observed between us and the government, what I observed the government was fighting with us but the way government was fighting with us it was not the choice of the people in the country because if we got those . . . prisoners of war on government side they are supposed to be killed but if we caught them our late hero say no don’t kill them, so sometimes we got disappointed why we leave them and our brothers if they got them they kill them why. So from that we stayed like that until recently we realised that what he was doing was correct in this time of peace that is when we realised.’536 ~ ‘When I am in Ethiopia I, in the process of my education, I learned a lot and then when I am able to read I also pick up literature and I learn a lot about the past stories and I begin now to find justification for all this risk and of course as you grow, you begin also to learn more so I would say that perhaps when I left I didn’t really have a political judgment, I was leaving for different reasons and I learn in the process.’537

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Observations before the war encompassed a community-wide turn to Christianity and the use of military terminology. ‘I think a lot of what I have observed as a child was there was a lot of evangelism at that time because when times were difficult so it’s like people turned to God and religion spread faster, that is Christianity and that is something that I had observed. The national issues were I came to learn the difference between the West and the East because the SPLA or the language which was used was like Comrades and which have some political . . . I came to learn later on what people were meaning.’538 The similarity between what the SPLA was speaking about, in settings such as the radio, echoed true on the ground for Africano Mande and further solidified his desires to join the army. ‘So the point that I am trying to make is at that time we perfectly knew the idea was the SPLA, it was listened to the media and we accepted, we made rational choices to listen to the radio of the SPLA and again those rhetoric were making sense because already around we . . . around ourselves we noticed . . . that were happening we know that most of the shop keepers were Northern Sudanese. We knew the Northern Sudanese enjoyed quite a number of advantages economically over us because the government facilities were being used for their own support system. So the choices we made later on to join the army didn’t come out of nothing. We already analysed it critically and one led us to join at that particular time despite the fact that it didn’t happen before or later but it was because of many factors at that particular time. Things became so intense, we were besieged, there was nothing we could do. Basically we were saying, “I think the time is right now”. And this explains Dr Garang’s famous speech, he said ‘you know a struggle is like a train, like a bus, you cannot say you can get everybody on the bus from the first station, there are people who jump on the bus from another station, another station, then come down, etc. And the reason why they would have to jump on the buses from different stations is because . . . the factor that they happened to be at that particular place that’s why it got into . . . so

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the concept of long term reason . . . at the time and then intervening reasons are very, very, very important.’539 As the eldest son of SPLA leader Dr John Garang, Mabior Garang de Maboir said he was ‘born into politics’. He was close to his father and was entrusted with his life, serving as one of his personal bodyguards. At the age of 14 Mabior remembers the fall of the Soviet Union and the impact this had on the SPLA. ‘I mean the fall of the Soviet Union affected all the liberation movements of the third world greatly, so it has to be something that affects anybody who was a part of any liberation movement in the world. I mean the movement was being supported by a state that was supported by the Soviet Union, so that logistical support was gone so that’s what caused the defections and the movement of the splits and all those kinds of things, it retarded the movement greatly, a lot of what had been achieved was squandered.’540 Life in Khartoum Although the majority of the Second Sudanese Civil War was fought in the South, the Southerners living in Khartoum were affected. Their lives became defined by their ethnic origin and they suffered discrimination, especially through the education system. ‘No I don’t have because I was have before once when I having one guy from Arab friends and there is one day he came and told me so let me go and join the religious to be Muslim so I refused I told him like that. So what I told him, I tell him for about me I’m a Christian and I cannot go against to be a Muslim.’ ‘It’s not peaceful. It’s because when we are there they are saying you can go out, you can go from here, you can go from Khartoum, so you can go out from here, and you are not from here, so you can go out and join your people from there.’541 ~

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‘It was difficult, Khartoum abuse us, I was a student in school and the bus collect the student from house to house and we have a very big area to concentrate . . . the bus come in to take us to school. The bus coming, we get in line, we line up, either you are black Sudanese go to last one, so if you come first the teacher will tell you go to last one, to be last in the car, the Arab, the Muslim would go first, you are a Muslim African you are second class, you are a Muslim Arab you are first class, you are African no Muslim you are the last class.’ Q: How did this make you feel? ‘It made me feel very upset that’s why I was fourteen years I took the arm to defeat the Khartoum Islam regime.’542 ~ ‘There are some people who did not join the SPLA, they went to Khartoum and they faced more problems than we who joined the SPLA, and they have to leave the country and go to Egypt from Khartoum at that time, so because I consider myself that I took the right position of joining the SPLA.’543 ~ ‘Yeah. So until I feel like you know, have to stay for a year, so I went and stayed for a year. I just decided, let me just go to the training, just the training the normal one. We went for six months and then after that we graduated then I go back to Khartoum. I went to the school and then again I went there, they considered me as apart of this, I’m already a Red soldier I’m in the army of something, but my mind is still in Khartoum. I’m not actually fully decided or committed to be in SPLA or something. Until when I finished my intermediary school, I went there, I stayed and they given me assignment, I was put in a certain camp whereby you know its kind of a border when people are coming from Malaka going to that area, you know, I have to cite them because I know Arabic and let us see what is written inside. It’s kind of a security way of doing things and I was there for a year. So I was comfortable and from there I decided like I’m not going back to Khartoum. I just want to be here’

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Q: What made you change your mind? ‘Simply because I’ve seen different things in Khartoum. Actually when I went for my form one high school that is when I just decided like I don’t want it again because people are being humiliated. You can see it. In school where we are studying we don’t have a Christian religion in the school and they want us to study Koran in which we did for three years. Whether you like it or not you have to and then you don’t have right. You can be abused at any time. And they introduced, like you know they are recruiting people and only Southern Sudanese has been recruited and sent to Juba by then people are fighting and you fight your own brother, whether you like it or not that’s how it’s supposed to be. And you have to stay down for three years why you didn’t see any white Arab in Juba fighting SPLA by then. Only black people from Darfur and Nuba Mountain, these were the people have fighting SPLA. So we just decided like you know, you better die when you are young, and the history remain like you did this like a child soldiers or Red Army today, they have been given a special consideration by our president at the moment that’s why we are happy because they are recognised and their hard work because when they were from Ethiopia people coming from side of Equtoria they were the ones who have died because they are young and people are crossing borders after borders and they couldn’t make it, three-fourths of them just died and the ones who make it they were killed here fighting. So I just feel like, I have to be with my people and fight for this and I did it and I was in my home area and then I went to find out that soon I was sent to Nairobi for school, that was in 1996, Dec. So I went to school. And I come back 2005 when I was working with IRI, International Republican Institute. But I still, where ever I am, I still talk about child soldiers though I am not a child soldier but make them happy, at least they feel like they are being recognised and today its remain like just a name in history and now musicians pick it up from there they call themselves child soldiers and they release so many albums about child soldiers. If you meet some of them they can tell you more. Though they are not child soldiers but at least the idea that they got from different people and they compose songs and compose different things that’s all about child soldiers.’544

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Political Motivations to Join SPLA In contrast to the assumptions made by the NGO respondents, the majority of the former child soldiers expressed political motivations to join the SPLA. Following a brief look at the affect of age on political motivations, this section divides the responses into three categories: freedom, defence or protection, and political education. Age After witnessing the events portrayed above, age did not become a factor limiting the former child soldiers’ motivations, as will be demonstrated by the following testimonies. ‘I’m never joined that place only I came through worse and become a full soldier only my only to fight and only to get the politics wars introducing of what’s going on in Sudan but I never tend the child soldiers, I wasn’t a child soldier, I was a short man.’545 ~ ‘Since then I was age limited though I was angry since fifteen years and above I know what is going on until I joined the operations I was well known for the situation in Sudan and also our people were suffering so I started angry when I reached that years I don’t care whether I am minor or I join that operation that year.’546 ~ ‘Yeah it changed when I was eleven. Things changed. I become good now, I become knowing what I am doing and whom I’m with but before when I was nine I was feeling bad that I have to go home and stay with my mother and my father. Yeah it was mine and I feel good because now I can hold a gun, I’m now eleven years and I was very happy with it until I end up with it I was very happy. When I was nine years I was not knowing where we were heading to. Ok when I reach 11, I see now my government is fighting different government and I was happy so that we fight and we get the right that we are looking for, so I was very happy.’547 ~

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‘It was at the age of seventeen when I felt like a grown up man now after having joined the military three years before and as I grew up from that young age to reaching my late teens then I really thought it that I was a man now and I knew I became fully aware of what is happening in my nation.’ As an extension of the topic of age and specifically in relation to the former child soldiers’ political maturity, the testimonies demonstrated that their age did not prevent them from gaining a level of political awareness and motivation to join the struggle. Freedom Feeling the presence of repression and experiencing the abuse of their human rights, the former child soldiers below demonstrate how, at such a young age, developed ideas of freedom emerged. In 1991 Captain Morris Modiloro was in secondary school, that same year, the government in Khartoum imposed compulsory military service to all students who had a school certificate. ‘At the end that force us we went and then join the SPLA forces just to make sure that you participate in the politics of the country and given a due respect despite the fact that we’ve lost our education because of the situation put hope in our heart that at least one day we should be ok then we can also fight for the rights of those children who are not given their rights.’ ‘I decided immediately after the provision of the compulsory military service, that’s one, secondly the Arabisation immediately after that set up my mind I said ‘something was going wrong’ so I must change my mind, that’s why I decided and then I went and joined the SPLA.’548 As the son of John Garang, Maboir Garang de Maboir had strong views on oppression and liberation. ‘To appreciate it more as a liberation movement for the human family than a liberation movement for the people of Southern Sudan.’ ‘That I was being oppressed and that I was a second class citizen in my own country.’549

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While the average child soldier of Southern Sudan did not have the same direct level of political exposure as Maboir, the following testimonies demonstrate that an understanding of the pursuit of freedom was evident across the SPLA. ‘Yes I was having that ambition to go to university and secondary school but I decided not to continue my education before, as I told you earlier people were forced to learn Islamic religion by force and people were forced to learn Arabic by force and after you reach high school, higher class, you are forced to join public defence course, that is Jihad to be trained for five days by force then they say from training centre you are taken to fight the SPLA, I say this is all useless, I quit the school and I went to the bush.’550 ~ ‘Well it’s very simple, first of all when the war started; when it became intensified most of the teenagers became victims of the government of Sudan because automatically the government of Sudan looked at these young men and women as potential soldiers who are automatically going to be recruited by the SPLA. So they were put under serious surveillance, there were a lot of attempts to restrict the movement of these young men and women and we were all victims of that and particularly some of us were in schools at that time. We were a little bit vocal about what ever was going on so automatically we became victims of that so we ended up in prison a number of times and we thought if we are being victimised because of the SPLA then we will have to join the SPLA. At the same time the most important thing was that the SPLA has been fighting for a cause and that cause has always been so appealing and some of us have never held a constitutional position in Sudan now the only politics we grew up to know was the politics of the SPLA, the rhetoric was so appealing, the cause was so appealing and we know that we can easily identify with that. The whole thing here is that it’s a movement, which was actually capturing the whole country. And at the age of seventeen, we were young and it was very exciting and we thought we don’t want to be left behind; we want to be a part of that new reality that was actually imagined. So that actually motivated us to join the SPLA, so the

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most important motivating factor was the cause which was being caught for, two most of our friends, most of our colleagues and relatives were already in the SPLA, three we were vulnerable to all the policies, the subversive policies of the government of Sudan as young men and women at that time, so we thought if we cannot get security here then that means we would rather join the SPLA and get security. At the same time in those days most of the towns were like Juba. Juba was so besieged, it was cut off and we thought by also being in the SPLA we will be free to wonder around in the vast beautiful land of South Sudan the way we wanted. You know so I think this was the key motivating factor, physically what was left for us.’ ‘Yeah of course, that’s the thing that motivated quite a number of us. At the age of seventeen we were conscience to a large extent, we understood the politics to some extent. So by joining we know that we are contributing towards establishing what I would call the power balance in the country, we are definitely contributing towards that because at a certain point we knew that our leaders would be able to sit and negotiate with the people we were fighting as partners, as equals. At the same time we developed some elements of, we felt we were also regaining some elements of respect even within the neighbouring countries because they know that they are a force, we are a power worth recognising inside the region so it did for a large extent at that particular age we felt we contributed to the power balance in the country.’551 Sergeant Alsu Manyok Brach, who had joined the SPLA at the age of 16, reflected on the perspective of the international community towards child soldiers of Southern Sudan. ‘[the international organisations] thought joining the movement was something bad for under age actually we as SPLA soldiers we joined the movement simply to fight for our people because all this time since independence from the British we are like we have no freedom of expression because you cannot actually express yourself, you don’t have freedom of movement. We are neglected we black Sudanese that’s why I decided to

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join the movement, simply I need that freedom, I need that feeling me as an individual, as a Sudanese as a whole should be having that freedom to express themselves, to do everything what they want and to move freely everywhere they want, actually this was my intention actually to join the movement.’ ‘Well my motivation to join the army at that age it was actually to fight and rule the country to be freedom of any problem, to express myself, to move freely and later on because the issue of schools, I joined school even though I’m old still I can join school and fulfil what my interest would be but my motion was actually to be free from dictator rule.’552 ~ ‘Yeah if I did not join army what I know, I’m not going to be a human being. I’ll be repressed more and more that’s why I joined.’553 ~ ‘Motivation was only that although we were children only, we know that we were fighting for our country, so at last they choose me, so the motivation was only that the task should not end and we have to fight until the struggle finish.’554 ~ ‘With the conflict, it changes you immediately because, when now you are out in a different country, we were not being trained in Sudan, that is in the border of Ethiopia and Sudan, you feel bad you are out of your country, it really changes your perception and you feel you have to fight this enemy and go back to my land. So it gives you motivation to be hard in the training and go back throw out the enemy who chased you out of your country.’555 ~ ‘What I want to gain joining the SPLA was the freedom, enjoy freedom like any other free people in the world because in my home area as I told you in the first place there was no freedom because people, you know most of the people who were attacking our areas they were armed always by

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the government of Sudan to come and loot everything in the area and they kill people randomly. So first of all was to have the stability and to have the stability in our home area is to have arms and be strong and when something come you confront that one and you’ll, people be free. So the first thing was stability and the second thing was to liberate our people from the problem that were facing. We don’t have good schools in Southern Sudan, we don’t have roads, we don’t have water, there are no hospitals and you always get them when you go to the North so there was a general feeling that if we liberate ourselves from this government of Sudan we’ll have all the things that are there in the Northern Sudan. So there was general feeling that people should have led themselves and that was my case also because in my home area I’ve seen all the area, all our schools burnt, everything was touched by the Arab militias.’556 Q: Did you feel like you had political power? ‘Ok when I was seventeen I feel that I had political power because I have to talk to others about army.’ Q: When you were seventeen what did you tell the younger kids about why they were fighting? ‘I told them we are fighting for the development, we are fighting to be free, to free ourselves. So that our mother from the village will not be killed twenty-four hours, we’ll go and defend them.’557 ~ ‘At fifteen, in the age of fifteen years I would look myself that I am a man because I was fifteen years I’ll see myself as a man and what’s going in our county is not true, it’s false it’s not us that do that, that’s why I joined.’558 ~ ‘I didn’t join the armed groups, I joined the liberation movement . . . When you say liberation movement then you get a motivation and then you must study what a liberation movement is.’559

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John Madol Puou, who joined the SPLA in 1997 at the age of 16, recounts how he was motivated not only to pursue freedom, but also to have a role in the pursuit of that freedom. ‘The motivation was to get maybe a chance of having my own land in my own country as I am in Sudan now and actually as I was forced to join the bush, it was by force and through my understanding I can see we have a dream of getting our freedom in our own country so we decide to stay in the bush as a child soldier by participating in the war and some other things so the motivation is to get my own country, I’m free in my own country and also I have a dream of building my country in my own land.’ ‘Ok the political is to, maybe to get the will of having independence, and you are free to move and you are free to do your own thing without being told by somebody, “do this and do this by force”. As we were in a camp we were told to do some other things because we were in the war and now so we are at a day that we can decide to celebrate as we sign a peace in 2005, it was actually a great day for all of us, those who have been in the bush and those who are maybe some other people. So we determine the motivation is to get our own country and to feel free, we should not be forced to do anything by anybody.’ ‘Yeah after I was recruited I have a feel of participating in the war as I understand that. What are people are doing is not for joking, it is true for us to fight to get our own thing and also not to be simplified by rest of the people like Arab so I decide to get that motivation of participating in the war as I got the point that we would have struggled so that we can get independence through arms struggle.’ ‘I joined the SPLA to gain freedom in my country, another point, I joined the SPLA to see what the people were doing, whether people were doing the right thing or not as I have seen many people have been in the bush through recruitment by force and if I come to realise I realise that what people were doing is not joking people were participate and also what they were doing is the right thing for us to get our country back

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from Arabs and also to get a better education as our country should start progressing in some other thing like capacity building, people, and also there should be no room of colonising from Southerners if we participate in the movement if we participate in the movement and also after the movement we can even try to learn maybe some other things in life.’560 John’s testimony demonstrates a clear understanding of political identity, and an appreciation of concepts of nationhood. These thoughts are also echoed in the following testimonies. ‘Well the other motivations in have is that when my people I feel I’m also part of the nation I should also join them, that is what also motivated me, I should partake and do my part as a person to see to it my country vision is realised in struggling for freedom in the nation.’561 ~ ‘We don’t have political, we are just, are political, if you see something wrong that’s why you start to continue with fighting immediately.’562 ~ ‘At the first place when I was fifteen years in fact it was in my mind that there is something called liberations but when I joined the SPLM/ SPLA I come and realise liberation is the one that let me to be with the SPLM. And join the SPLM as patriotics.’563 ~ ‘Yeah you see I was not properly politicised but I was having that headache of Arab oppressing us in everything that we can feel and see.’564 ~ ‘There were motivations. At that time 1983 I was at the school then I really facing a noise . . . with Arabs. My age-mates are not treated equally with me and there I sat up and I refused to join the school again. They used the word “abis doc” to me and I thought that it’s not fair to

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me ‘cause this land is mine and I am indigenous to this land, I sat up totally, I left the school.’565 ~ ‘Of course you know when you are do something you have to gain something. What I was in my physical part of joining is to get freedom for myself and my people and for my community. So the first to get freedom they want you to move with no fear, no instituting, no kind of . . . and so forth, so I was looking for freedom. Otherwise if there was freedom back then I wouldn’t join the SPLA in the age of fifteen years, I would have stayed at home and domestic duties but due to threatening of enemies reaching to innocent people killing all age elderly people, children, women. You see it looked like there was no freedom because in the worldwide we have a low, low kind of human rights you don’t kill somebody who can’t kill another. So when I look at it, it forced me to go for it.’566 ~ ‘The motivation of why I joined the SPLA so I have a desire to fight for my country because our enemies was Arab and we know very well and we have I’ve been joining the SPLA to struggle with them to get my right for to be for Sudanese to be recognised as the rest of the people that’s why motivation I join the SPLA, to fight for my country.’567 ~ ‘My motivation is because the struggle for our movement this is a way that motivates us because it is a way to overcome to follow that ways and our government . . . to contribute on that problem that is why because when I see it kill my father so even me I should go to fight for my freedom that is why this is what tell me to put me to the war.’568 ~ ‘My motivation was to free myself from the enemies of the Khartoum regime Arabisation and Islamitisation system set up by the Khartoum regime. That is why I take the army to fight, to protect my culture, to be a Sudanese African also to be a Sudanese, Sudanese to take the arms to join the SPLA

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to fight the enemy in Khartoum. This enemy is trying to . . . our culture, first one reason I fight is protect our culture, access to education, to have access to hospital, to get other services, in Sudan if you are not an Arab, if you are not a Muslim you cannot go to school you cannot go to hospital.’569 ~ ‘I joined the SPLA not only for the sake that I wanted to pay back the suffering that we suffered but my main aim of joining the SPLA is to find way of putting freedom to my people. To bring the people, the marginalised people of Southern Sudan mostly, in freedom where they can exercise their freedom in open.’570 ~ ‘Well actually it was something that we the Southern Sudanese wanted to push to the government and the people in Northern Sudan that we were not fighting for the separation of Southern Sudan or we were not fighting for power. Actually the idea that was in me was that I’ve been marginalised, as such the extent of that marginalisation should not reach somebody else. Then we had been fighting all these years and then in the area that I had been fighting for we were telling and I was personally telling people that you see people we are not here for the factor that we wanted to be here, what we wanted to tell you is that there is somebody in front of us that wants to chase us out of Sudan, being a Sudanese but he wanted to remove us out of Sudan. So as such we together has to join arms then show him or her that we are not ready to welcome that one. So our end there was to show to our people that we were there to fight for them and then for their freedom too.’571 Captain Natana describes being motivated by his experience of Northern dominance. His expression of freedom involves his desire for his community’s protection and preservation. He further describes that although he did not want to be fighting, he felt his source of ‘force’ derived from the circumstances of Northern aggression. The motivation to fight is interlinked with what it means to be free and Sudanese.

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‘The reason I joined the SPLA, we were being taken that time ago that we were being colonising, even the time that I was at home, those of Northerners they used to take our cows, our goats, and they used to burn our houses, they do so many things to us. From there we look it is better for us to join the liberation in order to find a country to be in freedom.’ ‘There was what myself order I have to join the army in order for my country will be free also for myself I decided to join the liberation in order my country will be free, feel democracy among us and for the future.’572 Defence and Protection Seeking more than just self-protection, the former child soldiers wanted to protect and defend their community and Southern Sudan. ‘Yes, that is it actually, I left I saw myself what actually made my struggle to be real, is my losing my cattle and my chief and I lost them to the government not just to anybody else. So why should the same government that is supposed to be my government taking my properties? Leaving me with nothing. Therefore, I joined the struggle to get the gun to defend myself, therefore that is part of struggle yourself, when you feel what somebody is doing to you is not fine and you say no, that is already a struggle.’573 ~ ‘My political thought that to save my life and to save somebody who is not able to save himself.’574 ~ ‘My main motivation for becoming a soldier at that age is that I’ve seen the suffering of my people and our families are not helping them, the government is not even supporting that’s why I feel that even if I leave it is not going to help so the only thing that I can be able to do is take up arms, fight for support of my right and then for the right of very many children who are being neglected and very many families across Southern Sudan.’575 ~

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‘In politics even in the army we feel more powerful. I can a little bit describe to you because SPLA was an organising body with full army so that protects themselves from enemies that protects also the rest of the Sudanese from the enemy. So I can describe this to you because we feel more powerful because of a lot of protection of SPLM/SPLA given to the country.’576 ~ ‘Well the long term reasons was the fact that the reality . . . that I could see the disparities, I already understood the fact that there was high level oppression going on in the country, I knew about that already but that doesn’t mean automatically that was enough for me to join the army at the time, but at the end of the day, the immediate reasons of the intensity of the war, the intensity of the operations, of the oppression, the arrests that were taking place at the time the fact that many young men were also joining made it possible for me to join at that particular time. I would have joined before that or even later. So I was already politically conscience, I knew what was going on but I chose to join at that particular time because I saw no choice at that time, I felt the time was right for me to join, that’s why I did it at that particular time.’577 ~ ‘My motivation was to free myself from the enemies of the Khartoum regime Arabisation and Islamitisation system set up by the Khartoum regime. That is why I take the army to fight, to protect my culture, to be a Sudanese African also to be a Sudanese, Sudanese to take the arms to join the SPLA to fight the enemy in Khartoum. This enemy is trying to . . . our culture, first one reason I fight is protect our culture, access to education, to have access to hospital, to get other services, in Sudan if you are not an Arab, if you are not a Muslim you cannot go to school you cannot go to hospital.’578 ~ ‘Of course this conflict, of course when I was ignorant for sure the different but being in the bush I got a lot of lessons about life, especially in the way of politics, I learned politics more lessons I learned in the bush but when I was here nothing than I was inside Sudan government but when

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I went away I got more knowledge about politics even I became more annoyed about my people and people what can we do to set up.’579 ~ ‘OK many guys got their village burned, that is part of their villages or your home got burned maybe some relatives were killed by the Arabs so that make you like, you don’t like that one, you need to revenge that in which ever way so such a things empower you because you are having the SPLA here they give you the gun to go and fight the North, which you don’t like them already, they did something bad they burned your place, they burned down everything, they take you away from your place, they killed many people, so nobody liked that already as Southerners, you don’t want that, that is a motivation on the other hand that make you do that, let me fight them because I don’t even like them already.’580 ~ ‘Exactly in the year of 1994 its me who decide by my own because I even understand the situation why we fight for our land, its me who decide to go and a lot of progress I have seen on my own in the year of 1994.’581 ~ ‘My mood at that time I was thinking only to chase away Arab because the way Arab was mistreating us was very . . . so I was thinking to join to learn, if I die I should have to die struggling for freedom of our Southern Sudan, if I’m going to be alive is also ok I defend my people that is why I have joined that time and I was thinking only not to leave Arab to take our country Southern Sudan especially.’582 ~ ‘Our people, most of them, they were used to the Arabs and they were motivated by them, so Arabs were playing with their mind politically, from them there, we want to protect them and tell them that these people whom are staying with them are not good people, these people came from somewhere, they are not their relatives.’583 ~

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‘I think the songs that were sung by the SPLA at that time played a lot of role, the language that was used at the time, so some of these songs were quite touching and quite interesting. I think this song actually because there was no, I was . . . by then and I was very small or very far from the SPLA top brass to learn exactly what the political motivations were but in the songs there was a lot of politics in it, there was a lot of like “we Southerners are suffering” the way the enemy was presented to us.’584 ~ ‘My first motivation when I joined the SPLA when I was sixteen only the issue which the SPLA decided to do on that times and then my motivation to defend myself from my enemies, that is when I joined the SPLA at sixteen years.’585 Q: Did you feel that they were your thoughts? ‘Yeah I thought and also I agreed to join it so, for my own means.’ Q: To support yourself? ‘I support myself and also we support ourselves as a community as the SPLA then we are sharing anything, in the army, in the community, in whatever.’586 ~ Through a translator, Captain Erik Dau expressed that he, ‘saw it as imperialism, because the enemy came and took the small children, raping the small girls, the primeval weapon, so that thing annoyed him and then he joined the SPLA.’587 ~ ‘Oh I was there are so many things that led me to become a soldier, first of all the attack of Juba in ‘92, I was there and when the SPLA withdrew the students became the victims, the young ones, the womens,

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the adults, they became the victims, even in worldwide everybody heard about what happened in Juba in 1992, young people like us were slayed to death, and womens ladies raped, and adult old men killed as such, I say it is not good, it is better to die than to sit waiting to be killed, you better take something so that you can defend yourself and you defend your people as such, we decided to went to the bush and join our brothers and sisters who were in the bush.’588 The respondents in this Chapter, thus far, have expressed great depth and significance to their political awareness and motivations. This research finding has particular relevance to the demobilisation process. The former child soldiers’ political awareness and subsequent motivations highlight the importance of a political dialog as part of the demobilisation process. Political Education Ostracising children from the political realm risks encouraging ignorance within the future adult population. An important element to challenging the Northern government would be the strategic move to educate and create awareness of the political environment in Sudan. ‘Yeah then it will only be the government talking politics, and the government have got a clear policy because it’s a political win so even you cannot come and counter what the government say and if prove it wrong or right then children may not be able to differentiate between what the government say and what the NGOs say.’589 Political Change Participating in the conflict provided the former child soldiers with a greater appreciation for the SPLA’s objectives and also made them feel more politically powerful. Their testimonies demonstrate their belief in the interlinked relationship between creating political change and becoming involved with the SPLA.

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‘It gave me better understanding as [to] why SPLA took arm. I got my self in armed forces, which could have not been the case if there was on conflict. But it also created a sense of protection towards freedom attainment.’590 ~ ‘It made me become very conscience perhaps without the conflict I wouldn’t have known necessarily the extent of the oppression that our people were experiencing, I would have grown up to accept the situation as a given situation but the conflict first of all past a signal to everybody including myself that there is a problem in this country and we are, one of the problems we started seeing what the problems are, so the conflict made me become extremely conscience. Two, the conflict was able to make me really know quite a number of areas in my country, I wouldn’t have gone to Wau, to Malakal, to all these places. I wouldn’t have known these places. But the conflict has made me know quite a number of these places, the conflict has also been able to help me even interact with different traditions, different people from different tribes, to interact, for example the person who brought me up whom I grew up basically with is not from my area, he comes from an area called Pashala which is near the border with Ethiopia so to me, he is actually closer to me than perhaps even my dad was to come alive again, my dad wouldn’t be closer to me than that particular person. So the conflict was able to really make me relate to quite a number of people quite comfortably.’591 ~ ‘The conflict changed my perception in 1986 when I joined the war so that is when I realised there is something going on but I was not knowing that we are doing this and this is how we are just fighting just a soldier but I was having no any point of politics in my mind that we have problem with government in this way and this way, no it was not like that so all these have just come to realise when I got a little education so now that is when I come to know all this.’592 ~ ‘Yes, it makes me more powered politically like I can take control of any situation I can come across; you can really deal with it . . . situations, bad or good.’593

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Political Involvement Peter Jel believed that his participation as a child soldier opened the door for his involvement with political issues within the community. The lack of current political involvement by the former child soldiers is demonstrated by the lack of testimonial evidence in this section. Considering the testimonies above regarding the awareness of Southern Sudan’s history and circumstances, it is surprising that more NGOs would not attempt to involve their expertise in rebuilding the country. From his experiences with the SPLA and the respect gained from his participation, Peter Jel feels, ‘Extremely very proud of my participation and now I do sit in on the forums who can be listened to because of my participation in the SPLA and having . . . knowledge and as for now the people who are leading us currently in the SPLA now they’ve been given an opportunity to lead we are the only people who can face them and tell them this is not what you are telling us when we were in the bush what we were supposed to do. So what ever the small changes now we are the only people who can things to make those changes unlike the person who has not joined he is not that voice he will be told in the last twenty years you have been collaborating so what ever you are telling us now you would have made it positive when you were in to make them understand but as for now give us . . . so I’m very proud to have been in that moment and . . . and survived because there was some instances . . . you’ll see those who survive really don’t want them to continue.’594

Theoretical Development: The Application of Agency to the Former Child Soldiers of Southern Sudan ‘In developing an understanding of violent conflict . . . it is not sufficient simply to isolate one or one hundred case studies of conflict to discern regularities in decision-making calculations at elite levels. It means a recognition that decision-making and practice in one specific conflict is situated in time and in space such that language, meaning, perceptions and societal institutions are implicated, or drawn upon

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by actors involved in conflictual interactions.’595 Jabri’s view of the structuration of a conflict combines agent and structure in determinism, the balance of which is called structuration by Giddens. ‘Society is both ever-present condition and the continually reproduced outcome of human agency,’ as a more radical theorist put it.596 In expanding on how they interact, Jabri claims that ‘Agency and structure are mutually constitutive such that action is only meaningful in terms of its relationship to structure and the latter only exists as such in terms of human behaviour.’597 Building on that, Giddens argues that ‘Structure is not ‘external’ to individuals: as memory traces, and as instantiated in social practices, it is in a certain sense more ‘internal’ than exterior to their activities.’598 Structure interacts with agents not just as a restraint but also as an enabler.599 Developing this further and applying it to war, whereas Giddens’ work has been located primarily in conditions of peace or non-wars, Jabri claims that ‘war is (a) a multicausal phenomenon, where different causal sequences may apply to different conflict situations, and (b) a result of decision-making paths which, far from suggesting rationality as defined by strict criteria of consistency, point to the view that rationality is bounded by institutional roles and established norms which impact upon the informational and analytic loops which actors may go through prior to the onset of war.’600 This idea of different causal sequences is applicable to the phenomenon of child soldiers in war and evident within the research developed in this book, with each former child soldier testifying to the varying sequence of events which led them into the military. Her point regarding the use of rationality and the presence of decision-making paths is also evident in my research regarding the former child soldiers of Southern Sudan. Furthermore, Jabri claims, ‘the moral boundary between war and non-war is defined by the acceptance or legitimacy conferred on violence as a form of human behaviour.’601 Thus, further challenging a strict conceptualisation of rationality and when it can be applied. The testimonies from the former child soldiers of Southern Sudan aid in supporting that ‘In virtually all circumstances, agents know a great deal about what they are doing and why – although they cannot necessarily express this in the level of discursive consciousness.’602

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However, Giddens himself seems to foreground agency but agents may be inarticulate. In highlighting the importance of examing the relationship between agency and structure, Jabri argues that ‘If, however, we assume that both purposive agents and social structures are implicated in the emergence and generation of violent conflict, it is important to develop an understanding of the ways in which agents and social structure relate to one another in the production and reproduction of human conduct.’603 This research represents the purposive but reputedly inarticulate agent even though they were only children, and sought to articulate their agency within structures that they themselves perceived and had internalised. In taking Jabri forward this research argues that the interaction between a child and social structure in the context of war helps to demonstrate their agency. Within their observations exists judgement of right and wrong as well as the decisions they make conscious or unconscious regarding their reaction to what they are experiencing. The breakdown or shift in structure could also increase the role of the child soldier’s agency. As the breakdown occurs, the situation in a time of conflict might activate a higher degree of agency in order to compensate or simply as a reaction. This takes forward both Giddens’ and Jabri’s work, albeit in a specialist case.

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CONCLUSION AND LOOKING AHEAD

The connection between the methodological approaches researchers take and their theoretical approach is reciprocal. If a researcher does not embrace the value of the input of a child to their research then the methods of their research are stunted. How one conceptualises a child will determine the approach of their research. Equally, the method must align with the goals of the research. So in practice, if an organisation’s goals were to value and help children, it would be conflicting for their programmes to not actively engage children. A flawed theoretical approach prevents NGO workers from developing a critical understanding of the role of child soldiers and this in turn prevents refinement of these flawed theories. To value children is also to respect their individuality, ideas, and political agency. If an organisation views a child as someone who is capable of possessing valuable insight, then the organisation should put in place the necessary structure to involve children. This research has demonstrated that such a view is lacking. The conceptualisation must go beyond the victimised, irrational, helpless child in order to form an interaction with the child that is rich, valuable, and multidimensional. Physically taking a child out of an armed conflict does not require nearly as much involvement or interaction with children when compared to taking armed conflict out of the mentality of children. The research methods used by an NGO, whether superficial or extensive, can determine how successful children are in their rehabilitation. Research that is extensive serves both the researcher by enabling

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them to better serve their subjects with a greater understanding, and also the children by being given the opportunity for self-expression. Programmes that result from extensive research will be tailored, historically and geographically appropriate, and involve children in its foundation. The testimonies of NGO workers that have been considered have made clear that this is not the case on the ground in Southern Sudan today. Drawing on 33 face-to-face interviews conducted with NGO personnel working in the area of child soldiers in Southern Sudan, this research looked at the relationship between the NGO workers and their respective organisations. Despite the fact that some NGO workers were not satisfied with the way their organisation or their specific role was functioning, many did not feel empowered to effect change and were content to accept the status quo. Following this, the research considered the relationship, or lack thereof, between the NGO personnel and the former child soldiers, from an NGO perspective. This revealed a lack of contact and communication between the child soldiers and the NGO personnel in the field. This lack of contact manifested itself in the policies and engagement of the NGOs more generally, and highlighted a consistent lack of understanding of the complexity of child soldiers in Southern Sudan. Evident was a lack of knowledge and understanding of what the child soldier had gone through before and during the conflict, instead conceptualisations were dominated by Western perspectives and tainted with ideas from other child-soldier case studies more generally. Furthermore, the testimonies revealed a lack of understanding of the environment of war itself. In the relationship child soldiers held with the NGOs, particularly their engagement in the development of policies, there was disconnect and a lack of child-soldier involvement in developing the policies designed to serve them. The international approach that was taken meant that organisations failed to take into account the specific nature of the Southern Sudan case study, and were instead using policies developed in different contexts and often directed from offices in Europe or North America, far from the reality on the ground. In investigating this disconnect further, the views found on the value of researching children and the perspective of NGO workers were by no means

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homogeneous; a number of the interviewees admitted that there was a lack of sufficient research on the child soldiers of Southern Sudan, others claimed that existing methods were sufficient and further research, either by organisations or by academics, was not necessary. Where gaps in the research were admitted, however, the disempowerment of workers in the field to bring about change suggested little hope for this to be addressed. The testimonies of the former child soldiers of the SPLA highlighted the discrepancies and the extent to which their experiences are not represented. Through the direct testimony of the former child soldiers, the complexity and range of their experiences as well as the high level of awareness and analysis they apply to their experiences was demonstrated. What the NGOs see as a ‘problem’ of child soldiers is consequently riddled with perceptions and assumptions of the childsoldier experience. The best way to approach the issue of child soldiers is to go beyond the ‘problem’ paradigm and begin to deconstruct and explore the complexity of their unique understanding. In engaging the 76 interviews conducted with former child soldiers, the perspective of former child soldiers on their experiences, revealed a depth of sophistication not well appreciated either by the NGO community or the existing literature. As the first thing that defines a child soldier in the eyes of the NGOs, the exploration of age through the testimonies revealed the common assumption by the NGO personnel that adulthood is determined by culture. However, the testimonies of the former child soldiers revealed a greater complexity and diversity in their experience of reaching adulthood. Through the former child soldiers’ interpretation, they felt they were an adult when they were independent, making decisions or possessing knowledge beyond the average child, and when their experience or role was that of any adults. For the former child soldiers, the circumstances of their conscription were diverse in nature. In contrast to the NGOs’ perception that the former child soldiers were either forced, or told to join by their parents, the majority of the former child soldiers testified that they were not forced to join the SPLA, and furthermore, some tried to appear older, ran away from their families, or had to convince

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their parents in order to join. Although some of the former child soldiers felt that they were forced, this was largely attributed to the circumstances around the time they joined the SPLA rather than direct action of the SPLA. This book also separated the testimonies of the current SPLA respondents from the rest of the former child soldiers on the issue of forced circumstances because they stood to represent a professional insight into the SPLA. The relationship the former child soldiers had with the SPLA was largely one of respect and dedication. The circumstances of conscription proved to be diverse. The issue of force was present in the testimonies of the former child soldiers, as many of the respondents used the term referring to their circumstances rather than in a direct implication. In contrast to the simplified depiction by the NGO workers, the former child-soldier testimonies revealed a great level of diversity, ranging from personal gains such as education to community protection. The motivations of the former child soldiers to join the SPLA involved a wide range of issues and influences. These motivations included their personal or community protection, defending themselves and others, accessing their family, supporting their country and its struggle for freedom, and a desire for a future career in the SPLA. The progression of their experiences whilst they were in the war, from their time fighting to their return home and how they had changed, revealed how important it is to delve into what their experiences were during their time on the battlefield in order to contextualise their perspectives. The former child soldiers were able to articulate what they had gone through with a high level of self-analysis. Some of the child soldiers felt uneasy and hesitant to return home, whilst others claimed that even though years had passed between them and their families, they felt as at home as the day they left. The NGOs’ view on the former child soldiers’ political awareness, struggles and motivations served as a contrast to the testimony of the former child soldiers. This highlighted the discrepancies, gross generalisations, and erroneous perceptions of the NGO workers. The political observations and sophisticated analysis demonstrated by the former child soldiers were revealed within the testimonies.

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What the interviewees felt was misrepresented about child soldiers was an intimate portrayal of who they were and what motivated them to be a part of the struggle. They felt that if researchers and NGOs gained this knowledge, the former child soldiers could be more effectively integrated and represented in their communities. Several political motivating factors in joining the SPLA were also examined and focused on the political motivations of the former child soldiers. These included freedom and defending or protecting themselves and community. Considering these findings, it was argued that the demobilisation process should engage with the political motivations of child soldiers. In addition to the demobilisation process, this research also suggests that children should be more empowered to engage in the political process and that to isolate future adults from the political realm would leave all political discussion to the central government or army, while further alienating a significant part of the population. The former child soldiers expressed a greater understanding and appreciation for the SPLA in their political goals, not only during the war but also after leaving the army. In some cases, participation in the conflict as a child soldier also brought about political involvement in their adult life. However, this feeling of political empowerment did not resonate in the minds of other interviewees, despite their similar experiences. This highlights the varied impact of war on former child soldiers, and underlines the risks of making sweeping generalisations about such a diverse group of individuals. Within the exploration of agency demonstrated by the child soldiers of Southern Sudan emerged the progression of how agency is conceptualised, operationalised, and articulated during conflict, as well as how the investigation of agency, brings to light a more thorough way of researching children. Bringing together the testimonies of the NGO personnel and the former child soldiers on the issue of political agency, the research highlighted the opinions expressed by NGO personnel on the political awareness, political struggles, and political motivations of the child soldiers of Southern Sudan. NGO workers depicted Sudanese children as existing outside the political sphere; for example they often commented that they did not have

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political struggles before they joined the SPLA. The former child soldiers’ awareness of the conflict prior to enlisting in the SPLA was extensive, involving issues such as Islamicisation, control over oil, witnessing violence, and experiencing neglect from the Northern government. Revisiting the idea of how the conflict changed the former child soldiers, the research developed this further with a look at how the conflict changed them politically and how it shaped their political involvement. Comparing the two sets of testimonies, it is clear that the NGO workers held a simplified opinion of the child soldiers’ agency capabilities, which overlooked and downplayed the child soldiers’ interaction with their political environment. The reality for the former child soldiers was far more complex and demonstrated a degree of political awareness that has been overlooked by the international community. When the former child soldiers returned to civilian life, they each had such a different experience reuniting with their family. Some experienced a feeling of instability in their personal safety, whilst others felt peaceful in their return to civilian life. The former child soldiers felt they gained valuable experiences and freedom from their efforts in the SPLA. All of the former child soldiers expressed pride in serving with the SPLA and contributing to the CPA. Taking a step beyond the assumption that their experience was solely traumatic, the research revealed how the conflict changed the former child soldiers personally and socially. Many found strength from what they had experienced and felt that the added responsibility when they were a child soldier empowered them in their adulthood to make decisions and have a firm belief in what they stand for as Sudanese. Disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration are largely what tie together the NGOs and the former child soldiers. The NGOs’ perception of the DDR process is that it will increase a child’s safety; however, many former child soldiers expressed feeling greater security within the SPLA. According to the testimonies there were many flaws in the DDR process and the NGOs’ involvement. Some felt that the current DDR process ignored the situation on the ground after the child soldiers would be reunited, where they would be forced to rejoin

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for protection. Testimonies revealed that some former child soldiers felt NGO involvement in DDR was commercialised and out to serve donors’ interests. The greatest concern voiced in the testimonies with the former child soldiers was the issue of counselling, which they felt was lacking from the DDR process. Overall, the feedback advised that child soldiers should be engaged in discussion and the DDR process. The DDR process was recognised as being complex in nature and difficult to tackle with one policy. Reintegration and education was problematised as communities change so do the child soldiers themselves. Further issues arose surrounding the 2005 reinstatement of salary to SPLA soldiers, creating further such difficulties of trying to demobilise child soldiers. An interesting point raised was concerning the idea of child soldiers receiving recognition for their efforts during the war, which could result in their entitlement to benefits and official recognition from the Government as war veterans. In contrast to the NGO workers, who felt that a suitable amount of research had already been done on the child soldiers of Southern Sudan, the former child soldiers identified many issues that need further research. The former child soldiers suggested that the childsoldier experience in its entirety and the effects of war on child soldiers need to be further researched. They also felt that a new approach needs to be developed with corrections concerning: the relationship with the media, the lack of direct communication with child soldiers, existing one-dimensional representation and gaps in the current research, and preconceived ideas about child soldiers. Further research on child soldiers needs to be aware of this book’s findings in order to better serve the child soldier as a research subject. This book has demonstrated the experiences of the former child soldiers of the SPLA in the Second Civil War to be diverse and highly case-specific. The goal of this research has been to provide the former child soldiers of Southern Sudan with a voice to articulate their experiences to the international community, which the existing literature has denied them. The 76 interviews conducted with former child soldiers, while a significant achievement, still only represents a handful of the former child soldiers in Southern Sudan. Every one of the interviews

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demonstrated a unique perspective based on varying personal journeys. Failure to appreciate this diversity only serves to dehumanise the individual. Whilst the need for centralised standards for working with former child soldiers cannot be disputed, NGO assistance needs to take into account case-specific factors when transferring assistance programmes between countries. When approaching a new case study, the history, cultural dynamics, circumstances in which the child soldiers joined, and understanding how the subjects see themselves, need to be considered. This could best be achieved with a greater degree of child participation in the design of the programmes that assist them. This would enable the research and programmes to be more effective and supportive in providing assistance. Even where these limitations are accepted on the ground, this research found that NGOs felt disempowered to effect any level of change. What is instead required is a paradigm shift in the approach of the international community towards involving child soldiers, which would place child soldiers at the centre of the policy-building process. If we are to achieve the required paradigm shift in the approach of the international community, academia and particularly practitioners in the field of conflict studies will have an important role to play. This book provides a first step in that direction. Drawing on the case study of the SPLA in Southern Sudan has exposed the failings of the ‘international approach’ in this instance; however the value of similar extensive field-based research in other regions cannot be underestimated.

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ANNEX 1

AIDS CPA CRC DDR HRW ICC ICRC IGAD MSF NGO SPLA SPLM SSDDRC UN UNDP UNICEF UNMIS

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ACRONYMS

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Comprehensive Peace Agreement Convention on the Rights of the Child Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration Human Rights Watch International Criminal Court International Committee of the Red Cross Intergovernmental Authority of Development Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) Non-governmental organisation Sudan People’s Liberation Army Sudan People’s Liberation Movement Southern Sudan DDR Commission United Nations United Nations Development Programme United Nations Childrens’ Fund United Nations Mission in Sudan

3/28/2012 10:52:58 AM

ANNEX 2 NGO INTERVIEWS

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Simon Manoja

Native

One year

Julius Tiboa

12/12/2007 International Rescue Child Protection & Committee Youth Livelihood Coordinator Director of Centre 10/02/2008 Centre for Peace for Peace and and Development Studies, University Development of Juba

One week.

He first arrived in 1981. He first arrived in 1954.

Time in Sudan

Ali Aulia Ramly 28/02/2008 International Rescue Child Protection & Committee Youth Livelihood Manager

20/03/2008 Diocese of Rumbek

Father

Role

Mario Riva

Organisation Bishop of Rumbek

Date

Caesar Mazzolari 20/03/2008 Diocese of Rumbek

Name

He has assisted, accompanied, and been responsible for the welfare of former child soldiers during his time in Sudan. Testimony not used. In 1964 he was sent away to where he stayed in Kakuma. He helped the refugees and travelled with them. From Kakuma he went to Koboko, Uganda with the Sudanese refugees. He has been working on the child soldier issue since 1999. When starting his managing post, he had never been to Sudan or worked on the issue of child soldiers in Sudan. His references to Sudan were limited to literature.

Other

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03/11/2007 Pact

25/03/2008 Save the Children Sweden

John Madol Puou

Santo Domic Chol

05/12/2007 Southern Sudan DDR Commission

Emmanuel Zino 05/11/2007 Save the Children Riko UK Peter Dak Khan 10/11/2007 Save the Children UK

25/03/2008 Save the Children Sweden

Otto James Avelino

29/10/2007 Save the Children Sweden Timothy Kilimo 16/03/2008 Save the Children Sweden

Alpha Chabari

Tim HaydenSmith

Native – Former child soldier Native – Former child soldier Native

Care and Information Officer, Juba Child Protection Project Native Officer, Unity State, Juba Child DDR Coordinator Native

Rumbek

Rumbek

Two years. Project Manager: Community Security and Early Warning Posts. Programme Officer, Two years Child Protection Field Manager of Lakes Ten months State, Rumbek

NGO Interviews (continued)

He has four years experience working on the topic of child soldiers. Testimony not used. He has been working 2.5 years with Save the Children. He returned to Sudan in 1993. He has six years of experience working with DDR of child soldiers.

He joined the SPLA at the age of 16 in 1996.

He has been working on the topic of child soldiers for two years. He has worked for Save the Children Sweden for ten months. Before that he was working with World Vision on child protection issues for 4.5 years. He was a child soldier at the age of 14.

ANNEX 2 225

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Date

Organisation

Role

Time in Sudan

05/12/2007 Southern Sudan Special needs group Native DDR Commission coordinator Stephen Dut 05/12/2007 Southern Sudan Assistant special needs Native – Deng DDR Commission group coordinator Former child soldier Diing Bul Arok 05/12/2007 Southern Sudan Community Security Native – DDR Commission Assistant coordinator Former child soldier 01/12/2007 Southern Sudan Information systems Native – John Mayom Deng DDR Commission officer Former child soldier Lt Col Dut Riak 19/03/2008 Southern Sudan SSDDRC State Native – DDR Commission Coordinator, Lakes Former State, Rumbek child soldier Colonel Manoah 02/02/2008 Southern Sudan Secretary Native Alemi Peter War Veterans Association

Oluku Holt

Name

Former child soldier, joined SPLA at the age of 17 in 1984. He started working for the SSDDRC in 2004. Currently stationed in Rumbek. He started his position in November 2006. He joined the SPLA in 1987 and served for 30 years.

Joined SPLA in 1991 and left in 1997.

Testimony not used.

Testimony not used.

Testimony not used.

Other

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Consultant Child DDR. One year

Frank Kashandof 19/10/2007 UNICEF

17/10/2007 UNICEF

15/03/2008 UNICEF

Peter Wisseh

Abraham Kur

16/10/2007 UNICEF

Jessica Alexander 28/11/2007 UNICEF

Stuart Kefford

Child Protection Officer Native

Six months

One year

Nine months

Two years

DDR Reintegration Manager, DPT Regional Coordinator. Child Protection/DDR Officer Southern Sudan Child Protection office where she developed re-integration programs. Consultant Child DDR.

Dean Piedmont 03/11/2007 UNDP

Native

Chairperson

H.E. Kawac 02/02/2008 Southern Sudan Makuei Mayar War Veterans Association

Former child soldier, joined SPLA at 14 in 1998. (continued)

He had been working for UNICEF for three years and has worked in both DDR and child protection.

Testimony not used. He spent ten years in Ethiopian prison. He was elected Governor of Northern Bar El Ghazal. Then he was the Minister of Labour. He was one of the two first battalions and was a Major when he came from bush. He was also Minister of Wildlife.

ANNEX 2 NGO Interviews 227

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25/11/2007 UNMIS

11/04/2008 UNMIS

Victoria Ngali

Jean Lokenga

02/11/2007 World Vision International

Ayalew Teshome 15/11/2007 World Vision International

Sarah Gerein

UNMIS

03/10/2007 UNICEF

Jacque Chiengnyang de Mabor

16/10/2007 UNICEF

Dombek Deng Kuol Garang Majak

Organisation

Date

Name

Native

Former child soldier, joined SPLA at 14 in 1987. He started working for UNICEF in 2002. Seven years of experience working with child soldiers in Southern Sudan. He has been working in Sudan for UNMIS since 2006. In 2002 he was working on the topic of human rights, which has encompassed the issue of child soldiers Age 27, born 1980. At 15 started with SPLA. From Yirol county, Lake state. Marabol, Equatoria state he did six months of training.

Other

Peace Building Seven months She works with Southern Sudan military and Protection and UNICEF for the demobilisation of Programme Manager child soldiers. Her job is focused on the reintegration of the former child soldiers Operations Director, Two years South Sudan Programme

Rumbek

Child Protection Seven years Advisor Regional Child Two years Protection Advisor in Southern Sudan

Project Officer for Child Native DDR. Native

Role

Time in Sudan

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ANNEX 3 CHILD SOLDIER INTERVIEWS

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02/04/2008 15/03/2008 05/05/2008 16/03/2008 16/03/2008 01/04/2008 03/12/2007

10/03/2008 05/11/2007 25/02/2008 21/01/2008 15/03/2008

03/04/2008 35

01/04/2008 35

20/01/2008 26

Name604

Abraham Deng Chol* Abraham Kur Akim William Nyuon* Albino Paul Kuot Angelo Magena Wade Benjamin Bol Captain Erik Dau

Captain John Amin Badi Captain Luka Loku Natana Captain Morris Modiloro Captain Ngor Ngor Kuany Daniel Mabior Madol*

Deng Aleer Kon

Deng John Agoot

Diing Bul Arok

29 29 32 37 26

31 28 37

32 23

Date of Interview Age

14

15

15

13 12 16 14 17

14 14 11 14 11 9 16

Age of joining SPLA

1995

1987

1987

1991 1990 1991 1984 1998

1987 1988 1986

1990 1998

Year of joining SPLA

Bor

Duk county, Jonglei state Bor

Central Equitoria Juba Aweil Yero

Rumbek Rumbek Yirol, Lake state Abei in Bar Al Ghazal

Bor

Place of origin

SPLA SPLA SPLA SPLA He felt he knew national political circumstances by the age of ten. Juba University, Community Development (Student Representative) Juba University, Economics and Banking Management SSDDRC, Community Security Associate Coordinator

Ministry of Information Juba University SPLA

UNICEF, child protection officer

Further Information

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12 14 9 14 15 12

23 34 25 25 27

01/04/2008 03/10/2007 05/12/2007 15/04/2008 20/03/2008

26/03/2008 21

08/04/2008 34

James Lam Dak

1985

1999

1996 1987 1991 1996 1995

1996 1992

1987

UNICEF in Rumbek

SPLA

(continued)

Tonj, Warab State He did eight months of training in Southern Sudan. He was given a gun at 13 and went to the frontline. At the age of 17 he felt that he was an adult. Thought children volunteered. His family did not want him to join. His motivations were that his father was killed and the North was bad to his people. When he was ten years old he observed Northerners ‘Came with guns and chased away people’. He is a P8 student. Bentu, Unity state Juba Univeristy, Community Studies and Rural Development

Bor Yirol County

Aweil

Mvolo Acholi

Twic, Jonglei state Juba University, College of Natural Resources

Child Soldier Interviews

12

13 17

20/03/2008 24 25/10/2007 32

Emmanuel Juma First Lieutenant Joseph Lam Paulino Rose Garang Majak Jacob Kuol Mawut Jacob Mazzier Jacque Chiengnyang de Mabor James Akeen Dor*

9

03/04/2008 29

Dut Jacob Dau

ANNEX 3 231

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Ryan_Annex.indd 232

Date of Interview Age

26/03/2008 23

17/03/2008 26

15/03/2008 27

12/04/2008 27

01/04/2008 33

Name604

James Lam Marial*

John Madol Puou

John Mayom Deng

Jonas Acouth Mayom

Jony Lual

13

9

11

16

14

Age of joining SPLA

1987

1989

1991

1997

1999

Year of joining SPLA

Malakal, Nasir County

Bor

Rumbek

Tonj

Place of origin

Trained for six months and at 16 they gave him a gun. He was fighting in Aweil at age 16 on the frontline. He feels he was ‘never forced’. His parents supported him to join. Motivations: ‘Arab took sources of life’, they took his cows and killing his people. When the Arabs came the were shooting people and burning houses. He was the only one in his family to join the SPLA. In 2001 he started primary one education.

Further Information

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Ryan_Annex.indd 233

17 17

10/02/2008 36

19/03/2008 40

02/04/2008

10 9 9 17

09/11/2007 15/04/2008 03/11/2007 15/01/2008

Kevin Kueth Tut Khang Chol Khang Lam Tungwar Kueigwong Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande (1) Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande (2) Lieutenant Colonel Dut Riak Mabior Garang de Mabior

13

29 30 26 36

24/03/2008 26

Joseph Mel Mel*

1984

1988

1988 1986 1990 1988

1990

Bor

Rumbek

Meridi

Bor Bor County Aweil Meridi

Aweil

SPLA. Now works for SSDDRC in Rumbek. Eldest son of former Dr John Garang (associated with the SPLA throughout his childhood). He is now chaiman of Alkebulan Investments. (continued)

SPLA

Working for Alok SPLA

Left SPLA in 1999. He felt most children were not forced to join SPLA. He felt he decided on his own to join SPLA because he felt fear that he would be captured by the Northern troops. Had primary 1 and 2 education before joining the army. The SPLA gave him no education just training. But in 1999 he left for education under their influence. SPLA organised his teacher. He was proud of his participation as a child.

ANNEX 3 Child Soldier Interviews 233

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Ryan_Annex.indd 234

21/01/2008 19 17/01/2008 31

26/03/2008 14/04/2008 08/12/2007 25/03/2008 25/03/2008

30/01/2008 35

20/03/2008 34 22/10/2007 31 28

Majok Thiel Koc Marial Kuol Aguto

Mayom Maboung Napoleon Adok Nuh Jacob Mayendit Nyok Mabil Mijak Otto James Avelimo

Peter Kuot Jel

Philip Malok Rambang Paul Giel Riak Mayiik Lual*

24 35 28 26 27

Date of Interview Age

Name604

13 16 10

15

16 11 9 14 14

11 15

Age of joining SPLA

1986 1992 1989

1987

1999 1983 1988 1995 1994

1999 1991

Year of joining SPLA

Malakal, Upper Nile

Rumbek

Nimule, Eastern Equatoria Aweil

Rumbek

Aweil

Place of origin

SPLM He trained for six months then in 1990 he was stationed in Naser. Every home gave one boy. He was the only boy in the family. He was happy to join because he ‘was going to help all the brothers in South Sudan’. He feels good about being a child soldier. He saw a lot of violence and fighting with guns. After fighting he ‘became free’ because there was ‘no one above me’.

Worked for UN agencies for five years as a civil engineer

Save the Children, Sweden (Rumbek)

Worked for UNMIS and now works for SPLA Teacher at Deng Nhial Primary School

Further Information

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14 15 16

14/02/2008 26

10/11/2007 26

15/03/2008 27

7

14/02/2008 27

Simon Akuel Deng (2)

7

14/02/2008 25

11

11

10

14/02/2008 40

25/11/2007 30

11

14/02/2008 33

03/11/2007 27

10

14/02/2008 30

Simon Akuel Deng (1)

17

15/02/2008 32

12

20/11/2007 24

Sergeant Garang Maketh Juac* Sergeant Machar Malet Kuol Sergeant Major Atem Abuoi Atem Sergeant Major Jacob Ajak Majok* Sergeant Major John Borong Mach* Sergeant Major Jok William Nyok Sergeant Major Rasio Ubur* Sergeant Marchelo Makem Wuol Sergeant Ngok Lian Ngok

16

01/04/2008 25

Sergeant Aleu Manyok Barach Sergeant Daniel Majur

14

26/03/2008 22

Samuel Kiir Dut

1991

1991

1993

1996

1986

1987

1990

1979

1985

1987

1993

1995

1998

1999

Aweil

Bor

Bor

Giant Technologies

SPLA

SPLA

(continued)

SPLA. He wants to study English and drama in the future. SPLA

SPLA

SPLA

SPLA

SPLA

SPLA

SPLA

Western Equatoria SPLA

Bor

Bor

Bor

Bor

Kapoeta

Rumbek

Bor

ANNEX 3 Child Soldier Interviews 235

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Ryan_Annex.indd 236

Date of Interview Age

22/03/2008 28

11/05/2007

12/04/2008 22

03/04/2008 39

02/04/2008 27

05/04/2008 38

09/04/2008 28

05/05/2008

Name604

Simon Marihal Machuoch

Stephen Dut Deng

Taban Charlie Juma

Thomas Tut Gok

Thomas Tut Lual

Tut Nyuon Kueth

Zalson Khor Zal

Akim William Nyuon*

11

10

14

14

15

10

9

17

Age of joining SPLA

1989

1983

1994

1983

1995

1996

Year of joining SPLA

SSNDDR Commission, Assistant Special Needs Group Coordinator. He started fighting age 12 in 1997. He now works for Accord.

Further Information

Bor

Director for Research and Planning, SPLM General Secretariat.

From Meridi, Western Equatoria Akobo, Jonglei Juba University state Nasir, Upper Nile Juba University, Community and Urban Development. Nasir County Juba University

Rumbek

Place of origin

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NOTES

Prelims 1. Source geology.com, Image no 1, (Accessed on 26.6.09)

Introduction 2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7.

8. 9. 10.

11.

Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, 2008, p 3 Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, 2008, p 3 de Waal 1997, p 289 UNICEF 2007, The State of the World’s Children 2007: Executive Summary, Available at (Accessed on 14.4.07): http://www.unicef.org/publications/files/The_ State_of_the_Worlds_Children_2007_Executive_ Summary_E.pdf Rosen 2005 League of Nations 1924, Declaration of the Rights of the Child, Available at: http://www.unicef.org/specialsession/rights/path.htm (Accessed on 14.04.07) United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child 1989, Convention on the Rights of the Child, OHCHR, Geneva. Under Article 8.2.26 of the Rome Statute, ICC United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child 2000, Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. The Optional Protocol was ratified by Sudan on 27 July 2005, with the following text: ‘ . . . ..pursuant to article 3 (2) of the Optional Protocol, the Government

Ryan_Notes.indd 237

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238

12. 13. 14. 15.

16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41.

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of the Republic of the Sudan declares that the Republic of the Sudan is committed to maintain the minimum age for voluntary service in the Sudan armed forces at 18, and to maintain the prohibition of forced or voluntary conscription of any person under the age of 18 years.’ United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child 1989 Honwana 2006; Rosen 2005; McIntyre 2005; Boyden 2004; Singer 2006, p 17 Twum-Danso 2005, p 23; Singer 2006, p 19 http://web.amnesty.org/wire/June2006/DRC http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/ UNDOC/GEN/N96/219/55/PDF/N9621955.pdf?OpenElement http://www. u n icef.org.u k /store/down lo a ds/ F42A20D3-BE02– 4EF3-B3BACB4B3FFAE827/option_protocol_conflict.pdf (Accessed 14.04.07) Furley 1995; Singer 2006, p 43 Rosen 2005, p 12 Faulkner 2001, p 496 Faulkner 2001, p 495; Singer 2006, p 45 Cramer 2006, p 237 Rosen 2005, p 16, p 157 ibid, p 16 Duffield 2001, p 188 Cramer 2006, p 237 Honwana 2006, p 2; Rosen 2005, p 135; Faulkner 2001, p 496 Rosen 2005 ibid, p 85 ibid, p 90 Rosen 2005, p 4, 8; Honwana 2006; p 1; Faulkner 2001, p 494; Singer 2006, p 9 Rosen 2005, pp 5–8 Brocklehurst 2006, p 22 Duffield 2001, p 32 Brocklehurst 2006, p 39 Rosen 2005, p 6 ibid, p 6 ibid, p 9 ibid, p 157 ibid, p 14 ibid, p 134 ibid, p 134 ibid, p 157 ibid, p 157

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Notes

Chapter One 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52.

53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68.

69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74.

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Sudan Conflict History

The word ‘sudd’ is derived from the Arabic word ‘sadd’, meaning ‘barrier’ Collins 2005, p 88; Holt & Daly 2000, p 2 Beshir 1968, p 1 A position the British would subsequently reconsider. Lesch 1998, p 19 Johnson 2003, p 14; Lesch 1998, p 20 Jok 2001, p 42 Ibid, p 15, 108 Johnson 2003, p 35 O’Ballance 2000, p 11 Prime Minister Ismail al-Azhari led the country through its independence but was swiftly removed by conservative members. After a coup d’état, President Ibrahim Aboud led the country from 1958 to 1964 under military rule. Lesch 1998, pp 51–2; Johnson 2003, p 39; Daly & Sikainga 1993, p 1 Lesch 1998, p 55 Johnson 2003, p 55 Johnson 2003, p 45; Collins 2005, p 17 Johnson 2003, p 45 Collins 2005, p 49 Lesch 1998, p 47; Johnson 2003, pp 47–49; ibid, p 49 O’Ballance 2000, p 115 Collins 2005, p 49 Johnson 2003, pp 47–8 Collins 2005, p 49; Johnson 2003, p 48 Johnson 2003, p 49 Lesch 1998, p 47 ibid, p 255 ibid, pp 51–2 Johnson 2003, pp 53–5; Collins 2005, p 37. President Mahgoub Numeiry 1969–85. Military Rule from 1985–6. Sadiq al-Mahdi 1986–89. Military rule 1989–1993. President Umar al-Bashir 1993–present. Known as the ‘September Laws’ Collins 2005, p 37; Johnson 2003, p 55 Collins 2005, p 50; Lesch 1998, p 56 Collins 2005, p 51 Lesch 1998, p 58 ibid, p 88

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240 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81.

82. 83.

84. 85. 86. 87. 88. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95.

96. 97. 98.

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Collins 2005, p 337 Johnson 2003, p 48, Collins 2005, p 337 Johnson 2003, p 49 Johnson 2003, p 49; Lesch 1998, p 48; Collins 2005, p 49 Jok 2001, p 115 Johnson 2003, p 76 Johnson 2003, pp 22–3, 84. The original SPLA/M was referred to as SPLA (Mainstream). Over the course of the Second Civil War, the SPLA/M experienced factionalism and many changes within its organisation. The major splinter faction was known as SPLM (Nasir) led by Dr Riek Machar and Dr Lam Akol, which in early 1991 attempted to overthrow leader Garang. The attempt failed but led to widespread fighting in the south and the formation of other rebel groups. The division of the SPLM weakened their political power against the government of Sudan; this was the reason why the government of Sudan encouraged and used tactics to achieve this end. Lesch 1998, pp 172–3 Wöndu and Lesch 2000, p 22, 24, 33–6. By the time that the Abuja talks assembled, the SPLM had been split between SPLM (Mainstream or Torit) and SPLM (Nasir). Where SPLM (Mainstream) still maintained a desire for federation and a respect of cultural and religious freedom the SPLM (Nasir) supported self-determination and saw the differences between the North and South as irreconcilable. Lesch 1998, p 173 Johnson 2003, p 100 ibid, p 108 ibid, p 110 Human Rights Watch Africa 1995, p 35 ibid, pp 43–5 ibid, pp 45–8 Daly 1993, p 24 Human Rights Watch Africa 1995, p 90 ibid, p 90 Wakoson 1993, p 29 Human Rights Questions: Human Rights Situarions and Reports of Special Rappoteurs and Representatives, Situation of human rights in the Sudan, Oct 1995. http://www.un.org/documents/ga/docs/50/plenary/a50–569.htm (Accessed 20.08.2007) Jok 2001, p 81 ibid, p 1 Jok 2001, p 9; Collins 2005, p 341

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Notes 99. 100. 101. 102. 103.

241

Collins 2005, p 84 ibid, p 85 Duffield 2001, p 208 Human Rights Watch Africa 1995, p 38; O’Ballance 2000, p 190 Also known as the ‘Naivasha Agreement’ after the town in Kenya where much of the negotiations took place

Chapter Two

NGOs Assisting Child Soldiers in Southern Sudan

104. The field research for this book was conducted in Southern Sudan over a period of seven months, from September 2007 to April 2008. I was located in Juba, the capital city of Southern Sudan, but my research covered a wide area surrounding it to include Rumbek, Wau, and Meridi (see figure 0.1). 105. Those who were interviewed shared diverse backgrounds of nationality, age, and experience in Sudan. Some had been in Southern Sudan one week whilst others had been in and out of the country since the 1950’s. 16 of the NGO workers were from outside of Sudan, and 17 were natives. Only eight out of the 17 natives had also been Southern Sudanese former child soldiers, five of whom were stationed outside of the capital city of Juba and four occupied a position that only a native could, such as the Southern Sudan DDR Commission. One interviewee overlaps in these categories. 106. Includes two former child soldiers: John Madol Puou (Interviewed 17.3.08. From Rumbek. Joined the SPLA at the age of 16 in 1997) and Otto James Avelino (Interviewed 25.03.2008 From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at the age of 14 in 1994) 107. Includes two former child soldiers: Abraham Kur (Interviewed 15.3.08. Joined SPLA at 14 in 1998. Now works for UNICEF as a child protection officer) and Garang Majak (Interviewed 3.10.07. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1987. He now works for UNICEF in Rumbek). 108. Includes four former child soldiers: Diing Bul Arok (Interviewed 20.1.08. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1995. SSDDRC Community Security Associate Coordinator), Lt Col Dut Riak (Interviewed 19.03.08. Joined SPLA at age 17 in 1984. Lakes State Coordinator) John Mayom Deng (Interviewed 01.12.07. Joined SPLA at age 12 in 1991. Information Systems Officer) and Stephen Deng (Interviewed 20.1.08. SSDDR Commission, Assistant Special Needs Group Coordinator). Stephen Deng’s testimony was not used: He felt that journalists were professionals and reported visual observations rather than getting opinions

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242

109. 110. 111. 112. 113. 114. 115. 116. 117.

118. 119.

120.

121.

122.

123. 124. 125.

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The Children of War of children. They should have interviewed the head child. He thinks my questions are relevant because ‘it touches on political engagement of Sudan’ from perspective of child soldier. It’s not like there were several political parties to choose from. He thinks his former child soldier colleague will have very different opinions. See for example, Human Rights Watch 1994, p 20 See for example, Brocklehurst 2006, p 23 See for example, Human Rights Watch 1995, p. 50 See for example, Martin 2002, p. 124; Bass 2004, p. 166 Cohn and Goodwin-Gill 1994, p. 167 Brocklehurst 2006, p. 23 Stuart Kefford, UNICEF - Child Protection/DDR Officer Southern Sudan. (Interviewed 16.10.07) Jessica Alexander, UNICEF - Child Protection office where she developed re-integration programs. (Interviewed 28.11.07) Frank Kashandof, UNICEF - Consultant Child DDR. He had been working for UNICEF for three years and in Sudan for six months. He has worked in both DDR and child protection. (Interviewed 19.10.07) Sarah Gerein, World Vision International - Peace Building and Protection Programme Manager. (Interviewed 2.11.07, p 4) Victoria Ngali, UNMIS - Child Protection Advisor. She has seven years of experience working with child soldiers in Southern Sudan. (Interviewed 25.11.07, p 5) Victoria Ngali, UNMIS - Child Protection Advisor. She has seven years of experience working with child soldiers in Southern Sudan. (Interviewed 25.11.07, p 6) Victoria Ngali, UNMIS - Child Protection Advisor. She has seven years of experience working with child soldiers in Southern Sudan. (Interviewed 25.11.07, p 7) Emmanuel Zino Riko, Save the Children UK - Care and Information Officer, Child Protection. He has four years experience working on the topic of child soldiers. (Interviewed 5.11.07, p 6) Tim Hayden-Smith, PACT - Project Manager: Community Security and Early Warning Posts. (Interviewed 3.11.07, pp 4–5) Alpha Chabari, Save the Children Sweden - He has been working on the topic of child soldiers for two years. (Interviewed 29.10.07, p 1) Victoria Ngali, UNMIS - Child Protection Advisor. She has seven years of experience working with child soldiers in Southern Sudan. (Interviewed 25.11.07, p 7)

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126. Abraham Kur, UNICEF - Child protection officer. A former child soldier who joined the SPLA at 14 in 1998. (Interviewed 15.3.08, p 3) 127. Peter Wisseh, UNICEF - Consultant Child DDR. (Interviewed 17.10.07, p 8) 128. Ali Aulia Ramly, IRC - Child Protection & Youth Livelihood Manager. He has been working on the child soldier issue since 1999. When starting his managing post, he had never been to Sudan or worked on the issue of child soldiers in Sudan. His references to Sudan were limited to literature. (Interviewed 28.2.08, p 4) 129. Jean Lokenga, UNMIS - Regional Child Protection Advisor for South Sudan. He has been working in Sudan for UNMIS since 2006. In 2002 he was working on the topic of human rights, which has encompassed the issue of child soldiers. (Interviewed 11.4.08, p 5) 130. Timothy Kilimo, Save the Children Sweden - Field Manager of Lakes State, Rumbek. He has worked for Save the Children Sweden for ten months. Before that he was working with World Vision on child protection issues for 4.5 years. (Interviewed 16.3.08, p 4) 131. Stuart Kefford, UNICEF - Child Protection/DDR Officer Southern Sudan. (Interviewed 16.10.07, p 7) 132. Dean Piedmont. UNDP - DDR Reintegration Manager, DPT Regional Coordinator. (Interviewed 3.11.07, p 2) 133. Caesar Mazzolari, Diocese of Rumbek - Bishop. (Interviewed 20.03.08) 134. Peter Wisseh, UNICEF - Consultant Child DDR. (Interviewed 17.10.07, p 7) 135. Santo Domic Chol, Southern Sudan Disarmament Demobilisation Reintegration Commission - Child DDR Coordinator,. He has six years of experience working with DDR of child soldiers. (Interviewed 5.12.07, p 3) 136. Ayalew Teshome, World Vision International - Operations Director, South Sudan Programme. (Interviewed 15.11.07, p 2) 137. Colonel Manoah Alemi Peter, Southern Sudan War Veterans Association Association Secretary . He started his position in November 2006. He joined the SPLA in 1987 and served for 30 years. (Interviewed 2.2.08, p 4) 138. Sarah Gerein, World Vision International - Peace Building and Protection Programme Manager. She has been in Sudan for seven months. She works with Southern Sudan military and UNICEF for the demobilisation of child soldiers. Her job is focused on the reintegration of the former child soldiers. (Interviewed 2.11.07, p 1) 139. Stuart Kefford, UNICEF - Child Protection/DDR Officer Southern Sudan. (Interviewed 16.10.07, p 7) 140. Dean Piedmont, UNDP - DDR Reintegration Manager, DPT Regional Coordinator. (Interviewed 3.11.07, p 2)

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141. Simon Manoja, Director of Centre for Peace and Development Studies at Juba University. (Interviewed 10.2.08, p 3) 142. Simon Manoja, Director of Centre for Peace and Development Studies at Juba University. (Interviewed 10.2.08, p 3) 143. Caesar Mazzolari, Diocese of Rumbek - Bishop. (Interviewed 20.03.08, p 5) 144. Abraham Kur, UNICEF - Child protection officer. A former child soldier who joined the SPLA at 14 in 1998. (Interviewed 15.3.08, p 3) 145. Victoria Ngali, UNMIS - Child Protection Advisor. She has seven years of experience working with child soldiers in Southern Sudan. (Interviewed 25.11.07, p 6) 146. Alpha Chabari, Save the Children Sweden - He has been working on the topic of child soldiers for two years. (Interviewed 29.10.07, p 6)

Chapter Three

Child Soldiers of Southern Sudan

147. This chapter draws extensively on the former child soldiers’ testimonies. I have chosen to frame my arguments using their words, to ensure that their stories are not distorted by the assumptions or preconceptions of the author, editors, or readers. These testimonies have been presented in their raw form, and as such may contain grammatical errors: this is a deliberate decision, and one intended to give the reader greater empathy with the former child soldiers. When my interviewees were asked to recall the dates and their ages for particular events, a lack of awareness of dates at the time and often incomplete birth records meant that many of these figures were necessarily approximations. 148. See for example, Bass 2004, p. 57; Cohn and Goodwin-Gill 1994, p. 23. 149. See for example, Cohn and Goodwin-Gill 1994, p 23; Bass 2004, pp. 31, 57, 161, 161, 170. UNICEF 1996. 150. Bass 2004, p. 161 151. Cohn and Goodwin-Gill 1994, p. 23 152. UNICEF 1996 153. ibid, p. 36 154. ibid, p. 166 155. Peterson 2000, p. 242 156. Bass 2004, p. 57 157. Cohn and Goodwin-Gill 1994, pp. 28–9 158. See for example, Brocklehurst 2006, p. 31 159. Brocklehurst 2006, p. 31 160. Bass 2004, p. 163

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Notes 161. 162. 163. 164. 165. 166. 167. 168. 169. 170. 171. 172. 173. 174.

175.

176. 177. 178. 179.

180. 181. 182.

245

Biel 2004, p. 25 See for example, Cohn and Goodwin-Gill 1994, p. 28 Peterson 2000, p. 240 Kessler 1996 Peterson 2000, p. 238 ibid, p. 239 United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child 1989, Convention on the Rights of the Child, OHCHR, Geneva. A total of 22 out of the 35 who responded to this line of questioning said they felt they had become an adult before the age of 18. Marial Kuol Aguto, Interviewed 1.17.08, p 4. Joined SPLA age 15 in 1991. Worked for UNMIS and now works for SPLA. Abraham Kur, Interviewed 15.3.08, p 5. Joined SPLA at 14 in 1998. Now works for UNICEF as a child protection officer. Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande, Interviewed 15.1.08, p 8. From Meridi. Joined age 17 in 1988. Emmanuel Juma, Interviewed 20.3.08, p 2. From Mvolo, Western Equatoria. Joined SPLA at 13 in 1996. Nuh Jacob Mayendit, Interviewed 08.12.07, pp 4–5. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1988. Deng Aleer Kon, Interviewed 3.4.08, p 2. From Duk county in Jonglei state. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. University of Juba studying Community Development. He was a student representative. Zalson Khor Zal, Interviewed 9.4.08, p 3. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age ten in 1989. Director for Research and Planning, SPLM General Secretariat. Sergeant Ngok Lian Ngok, Interviewed 25.11.07, p 3. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1993. Tut Nyoun Kueth, Interviewed 5.4.08, p 5. From Nasir County. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1983. Juba University. Deng John Agoot, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 3. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. Juba University, Economics and Banking Management. Thomas Tut Lual, Interviewed 2.4.08, p 4. From Nasir, Upper Nile. Joined age 14 in 1994. Juba University, Community and Urban Development. Jacob Kuol Mawut, Interviewed 5.12.07, p 5. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1991. Sergeant Major Atem Abuoi Atem, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 5. From Bor. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1985. Napoleon Adok, Interviewed 14.4.08, p 3. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1983.

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183. Sergeant Machar Malet Kuol, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 9. From Bor. Joined SPLA at the age nine or ten in 1987. 184. Abraham Kur, Interviewed 15.3.08, p 5. Joined SPLA at 14 in 1998. Now works for UNICEF as a child protection officer. 185. Deng John Agoot, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 3. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. Juba University, Economics and Banking Management. 186. Jacque Chiengnyang de Mabor, Interviewed 20.3.08, p 4. From Yirol county. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1995. 187. Philip Malok, Interviewed 20.3.08, p 3. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 13 in 1986. 188. Benjamin Bol, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 2. From Yirol, Lake state. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1988. Juba University. 189. Zalson Khor Zal, Interviewed 9.4.08, p 3. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age ten in 1989. Director for Research and Planning, SPLM General Secretariat. 190. Captain Luka Loku Natana, Interviewed 5.11.07, pp 5, 7. From Central Equatoria. Joined SPLA at age 12 in 1990. 191. Jacob Kuol Mawut, Interviewed 5.12.07, pp 3–5. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1991. 192. Sergeant Machar Malet Kuol, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 8. From Bor. Joined SPLA at the age nine or ten in 1987. 193. Captain John Amin Badi, Interviewed 10.3.08, p 3. Joined SPLA age 13 in 1991. 194. Lam Tungwar Kueigwong, Interviewed 3.11.07, p 5. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1990. 195. Captain Ngor Ngor Kuany, Interviewed 21.1.08, pp 5–6. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 14 in 1984. 196. Thomas Tut Gok, Interviewed 3.4.08, p 3. From Akobo, Jonglei state. Joined age 15 in 1983. Juba University. 197. Stephen Dut Deng, Interviewed 11.5.07, p 4. Joined the SPLA at age nine. He works in Southern Sudan National DDR Commission as Assistant Special Needs Group Coordinator. 198. Taban Charlie Juma, Interviewed 12.4.08, p 3. From Meridi, Western Equatoria. Joined SPLA age ten in 1995. He started fighting age 12 in 1997. 199. Sergeant Marchelo Makem Wuol, Interviewed 10.11.07, p 3. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1996. 200. Rambang Paul Giel, Interviewed 22.10.07, p 8. Joined SPLA age 16 in 1992. 201. Diing Bul Arok, Interviewed 20.1.08, p 5. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1995. SSDDRC Community Security Associate Coordinator. 202. Photo taken in 2008 by Christine Ryan

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203. Mabior Garang de Mabior, Interviewed 2.4.08, p 4. From Bor. He is the eldest son of former SPLA rebel leader Dr John Garang and was associated with the SPLA throughout his childhood. 204. Garang Majak, Interviewed 3.10.07, p 3. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1987. He now works for UNICEF in Rumbek. 205. Diing Bul Arok, Interviewed 20.1.08, p 7. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1995. SSDDRC Community Security Associate Coordinator. 206. Stephen Dut Deng, Interviewed 11.5.07,p 3. Joined the SPLA at age nine. He works in Southern Sudan National DDR Commission as Assistant Special Needs Group Coordinator. 207. Jacob Kuol Mawut, Interviewed 5.12.07, p 4. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1991. 208. Abraham Kur, Interviewed 15.3.08, pp 4–5. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1998. Now works for UNICEF as a child protection officer. 209. Majok Thiel Koc, Interviewed 21.1.08, p 3. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1990. 210. Anjelo Magena Wade, Interviewed 16.3.08, p 8. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1987. He is now working at the Ministry of Information. 211. Taban Charlie Juma, Interviewed 12.4.08, p 2. From Meridi. Joined SPLA age ten in 1995. He started fighting age 12 in 1997. 212. Rambang Paul Giel, Interviewed 22.10.07, p 3. Joined SPLA age 16 in 1992. 213. Peter Kuot Jel, Interviewed 30.1.08, p 7. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. He has worked for UN agencies for five years as a civil engineer. 214. John Madol Puou, Interviewed 17.3.08, p 10. From Rumbek. Joined the SPLA at the age of 16 in 1997. 215. Captain Ngor Ngor Kuany, Interviewed 21.1.08, pp 3, 4, 5. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 14 in 1984. 216. Taban Charlie Juma, Interviewed 12.4.08, pp 6, 8. From Meridi, Western Equatoria. Joined SPLA age ten in 1995. He started fighting age 12 in 1997. 217. Sergeant Aleu Manyok Barach, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 8. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1998. 218. Deng Aleer Kon, Interviewed 3.4.08, p 2. From Duk county in Jonglei state. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. University of Juba studying Community Development. He was a student representative. 219. Tut Nyuon Kueth, Interviewed 5.4.08, p 2. From Nasir County. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1983. Juba University. 220. Sergeant Ngok Lian Ngok, Interviewed 25.11.07, p 3. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1993. 221. Kevin Kueth Tut, Interviewed 9.11.07, p 1. From Bor. Joined SPLA age ten in 1988.

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222. Jacob Kuol Mawut, Interviewed 5.12.07, p 3. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1991. 223. Anjelo Magena Wade, Interviewed 16.3.08, p 2. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1987. He is now working at the Ministry of Information. 224. Sergeant Major Jok William Nyok, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 9. From Bor. Joined SPLA age nine in 1987. 225. Khang Chol Khang, Interviewed 15.4.08, p 4. From Bor County. Joined SPLA age nine in 1986. 226. Simon Akuel Deng, Interviewed 3.11.07, p 4. From Bor. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1991. 227. Benjamin Bol, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 3. From Yirol, Lake state. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1988. Juba University. 228. Taban Charlie Juma, Interviewed 12.4.08, p 4. From Meridi, Western Equatoria. Joined SPLA age ten in 1995. He started fighting age 12 in 1997. 229. Emmanuel Juma, Interviewed 20.3.08, p 3. From Mvolo, Western Equatoria. Joined SPLA at 13 in 1996. 230. Jacque Chiengnyang de Mabor, Interviewed 20.3.08, p 5. From Yirol county. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1995. 231. Philip Malok, Interviewed 20.3.08, p 3. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 13 in 1986. 232. Dut Jacob Dau, Interviewed 3.4.08, p 2. From Twic, Jonglei state. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1987. Juba University, College of Natural Resources. 233. Zalson Khor Zal, Interviewed 9.4.08, p 2. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age ten in 1989. Director for Research and Planning, SPLM General Secretariat. 234. Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande, Interviewed 15.1.08, p 3. From Meridi. Joined age 17 in 1988. 235. Captain Ngor Ngor Kuany, Interviewed 21.1.08, p 2. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 14 in 1984. 236. Khang Chol Khang, Interviewed 15.4.08, p 1. From Bor County. Joined SPLA age nine in 1986. 237. Khang Chol Khang, Interviewed 15.4.08, pp 1–2. From Bor County. Joined SPLA age nine in 1986. 238. Taban Charlie Juma, Interviewed 12.4.08, p 4. From Meridi, Western Equatoria. Joined SPLA age ten in 1995. He started fighting age 12 in 1997. 239. Her name was changed to protect her identity. 240. Rose, Interviewed 1.4.08. Joined SPLA age 12 in 1996. 241. Simon Akuel Deng, Second Interview 15.3.08, p 4. From Bor. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1991. 242. Anjelo Magena Wade, Interviewed 16.3.08, p 5. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1987. He is now working at the Ministry of Information.

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243. Peter Kuot Jel, Interviewed 30.1.08, pp 3–4. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. He has worked for UN agencies for five years as a civil engineer. 244. Benjamin Bol, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 1. From Yirol, Lake state. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1988. Juba University. 245. Emmanuel Juma, Interviewed 20.3.08, p 4. From Mvolo, Western Equatoria. Joined SPLA at 13 in 1996. 246. Taban Charlie Juma, Interviewed 12.4.08, p 4. From Meridi, Western Equatoria. Joined SPLA at age ten in 1995. He started fighting age 12 in 1997. 247. Napolean Adok, Interviewed 14.4.08, p 9. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1983. 248. Majok Thiel Koc, Interviewed 21.1.08, p 2. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1990. 249. John Mayom Deng, Interviewed 15.3.08, p 2. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1991. 250. Stephen Dut Deng, Interviewed 11.5.07, p 2. Joined the SPLA at age nine. He works in Southern Sudan National DDR Commission as Assistant Special Needs Group Coordinator. 251. Abraham Kur, Interviewed 15.3.08, p 3. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1998. Now works for UNICEF as a child protection officer. 252. First Lieutenant Joseph Lam Paulino, Interviewed 25.10.07, p 3. From Acholi. Joined SPLA at age 17 in 1992. 253. Sergeant Major Atem Abuoi Atem, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 1. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1985. 254. Sergeant Major Atem Abuoi Atem, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 2. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1985. 255. Sergeant Major Jok William Nyok, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 4. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1987. 256. Captain Morris Modiloro, Interviewed 2.25.08, p 4. From Juba. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1991. 257. Captain Ngor Ngor Kuany, Interviewed 21.1.08, p 3. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 14 in 1984. 258. Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande, Interviewed 15.1.08, p 5. From Meridi. Joined age 17 in 1988. 259. James Lam Dak, Interviewed 8.4.08, p 2. From Bentu, Unity State. Joined age 12 in 1985. University of Juba studies Community Studies and Rural Development. 260. Thomas Tut Gok, Interviewed 3.4.08, p 3. From Akobo, Jonglei state. Joined age 15 in 1983. Juba University. 261. Jony Lual, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 2. From Malakal, Nasir county. Joined SPLA at age 13 in 1987. Juba University studying Community and Rural Development.

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262. Sergeant Machar Malet Kuol, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 5. From Bor. Joined SPLA at the age nine or ten in 1987. 263. Sergeant Major Atem Abuoi Atem, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 7. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1985. 264. Zalson Khor Zal, Interviewed 9.4.08, p 1. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age ten in 1989. Director for Research and Planning, SPLM General Secretariat. 265. Khang Chol Khang, Interviewed 15.4.08, p 6. From Bor County. Joined SPLA age nine in 1986. 266. Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande, Interviewed 15.1.08, p 5. From Meridi. Joined age 17 in 1988. 267. Simon Akuel Deng, Interviewed 3.11.07, p 2. From Bor. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1991. 268. Captain Ngor Ngor Kuany, Interviewed 21.1.08, p 6. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 14 in 1984. 269. Sergeant Aleu Manyok Barach, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 3. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1998. 270. Captain Ngor Ngor Kuany, Interviewed 21.1.08, p 5. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 14 in 1984. 271. Garang Majak, Interviewed 3.10.07, p 2. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1987. He now works for UNICEF in Rumbek. 272. Philip Malok, Interviewed 20.3.08, p 3. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 13 in 1986. 273. Jonas Acouth Mayom, Interviewed 12.4.08, p 3. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age of nine in 1989. 274. Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande, Interviewed 15.1.08, p 2. From Meridi. Joined SPLA at age 17 in 1988. 275. Lam Tungwar Kueigwong, Interviewed 3.11.07, p 3. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1990. 276. Captain Luka Loku Natana, Interviewed 5.11.07, p 3. From Central Equatoria. Joined SPLA at age 12 in 1990. 277. Philip Malok, Interviewed 20.3.08, p 3. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 13 in 1986. 278. Deng John Agoot, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 5. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. Juba University, Economics and Banking Management. 279. Sergeant Major Jok William Nyok, Interviewed 14.02.08, pp 5, 9. From Bor. Joined SPLA age nine in 1987. 280. Sergeant Aleu Manyok Barach, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 6. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1998. 281. Captain John Amin Badi, Interviewed 10.3.08, p 2. Joined SPLA age 13 in 1991.

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282. Benjamin Bol, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 1. From Yirol, Lake state. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1988. Juba University. 283. Peter Kuot Jel, Interviewed 30.1.08, p 4. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. He has worked for UN agencies for five years as a civil engineer. 284. Garang Majak, Interviewed 3.10.07, p 3. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1987. He now works for UNICEF in Rumbek. 285. Marial Kuol Aguto, Interviewed 1.17.08, p 2. Joined SPLA age 15 in 1991, p 2. Worked for UNMIS and now works for SPLA. 286. Sergeant Machar Malet Kuol, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 11. From Bor. Joined SPLA at the age nine or ten in 1987. 287. Sergeant Major Jok William Nyok, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 3. From Bor. Joined SPLA age nine in 1987. 288. Diing Bul Arok, Interviewed 20.1.08, p 1. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1995. SSDDRC Community Security Associate Coordinator. 289. Sergeant Aleu Manyok Barach, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 7. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1998. 290. Captain Luka Loku Natana, Interviewed 5.11.07, p 2. From Central Equatoria. Joined SPLA at age 12 in 1990. 291. Sergeant Major Atem Abuoi Atem, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 3. From Bor. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1985. 292. Diing Bul Arok, Interviewed 20.1.08, p 2. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1995. SSDDRC Community Security Associate Coordinator. 293. Peter Kuot Jel, Interviewed 30.1.08, p 2. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. He has worked for UN agencies for five years as a civil engineer. 294. Philip Malok, Interviewed 20.3.08, p 1. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 13 in 1986. 295. Majok Thiel Koc, Interviewed 21.1.08, p 3. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1990. 296. Deng Aleer Kon, Interviewed 3.4.08, p 3. From Duk county in Jonglei state. Joined age 15 in 1987. University of Juba studying Community Development. He was a student representative. 297. Majok Thiel Koc, Interviewed 21.1.08, p 2. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1990. 298. Captain Morris Modiloro, Interviewed 2.25.08, p 5. From Juba. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1991. 299. Captain John Amin Badi, Interviewed 10.3.08, p 1. Joined SPLA age 13 in 1991. 300. Lam Tungwar Kueigwong, Interviewed 3.11.07, p 2. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1990.

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301. Mabior Garang de Mabior, Interviewed 2.4.08, p 2. From Bor. He is the eldest son of former SPLA rebel leader Dr John Garang and was associated with the SPLA throughout his childhood. 302. Mabior Garang de Mabior, Interviewed 2.4.08, p 3. From Bor. He is the eldest son of former SPLA rebel leader Dr John Garang and was associated with the SPLA throughout his childhood. 303. First Lieutenant Joseph Lam Paulino, Interviewed 25.10.07, p 4. From Acholi. Joined SPLA at age 17 in 1992. 304. Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande, Interviewed 15.1.08, p 5. From Meridi. Joined SPLA at age 17 in 1988. 305. Marial Kuol Aguto, Interviewed 1.17.08, p 4. Joined SPLA age 15 in 1991. Worked for UNMIS and now works for SPLA. 306. Lam Tungwar Kueigwong, Interviewed 3.11.07, p 2. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1990. 307. Rambang Paul Giel, Interviewed 22.10.07, p 7. Joined SPLA age 16 in 1992. 308. Peter Kuot Jel, Interviewed 30.1.08, p 2. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. He has worked for UN agencies for five years as a civil engineer. 309. Jacob Kuol Mawut, Interviewed 5.12.07, p 4. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1991. 310. Captain Ngor Ngor Kuany, Interviewed 21.1.08, p 1. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 14 in 1984. 311. Jacob Kuol Mawut, Interviewed 5.12.07, p 7. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1991. 312. Sergeant Aleu Manyok Barach, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 1. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1998. 313. Captain Luka Loku Natana, Interviewed 5.11.07, p 4. From Central Equatoria. Joined SPLA at age 12 in 1990. 314. Jacob Mazzier, Interviewed 15.4.08, p 3. From Bor. Joined SPLA age 14 in 1996. 315. Jonas Acouth Mayom, Interviewed 12.4.08, p 2. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age of nine in 1989. 316. Diing Bul Arok, Interviewed 20.1.08, p 2. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1995. SSDDRC Community Security Associate Coordinator. 317. Sergeant Major Atem Abuoi Atem, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 4. From Bor. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1985. 318. Khang Chol Khang, Interviewed 15.4.08, p 3. From Bor County. Joined SPLA age nine in 1986. 319. Nyok Mabil Mijak, Interviewed 25.3.08, p 3. Joined the SPLA at age 14 in 1995.

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320. Peter Kuot Jel, Interviewed 30.1.08, p 4. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. He has worked for UN agencies for five years as a civil engineer. 321. Lam Tungwar Kueigwong, Interviewed 3.11.07, p 7. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1990. 322. Abraham Kur, Interviewed 15.3.08, p 3. Joined SPLA at 14 in 1998. Now works for UNICEF as a child protection officer. 323. Lieutenant Colonel Dut Riak, Interviewed 19.3.08, p 4. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 17 in 1984. Now works for SSDDRC in Rumbek. 324. Rambang Paul Giel, Interviewed 22.10.07, p 9. Joined SPLA age 16 in 1992. 325. Garang Majak, Interviewed 3.10.07, p 2. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1987. He now works for UNICEF in Rumbek. 326. Captain Morris Modiloro, Interviewed 2.25.08, p 2. From Juba. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1991. 327. Anjelo Magena Wade, Interviewed 16.3.08, p 3. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1987. He is now working at the Ministry of Information. 328. Emmanuel Juma, Interviewed 20.3.08, p 6. From Mvolo, Western Equatoria. Joined SPLA at 13 in 1996. 329. Benjamin Bol, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 3. From Yirol, Lake state. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1988. Juba University. 330. Kevin Kueth Tut, Interviewed 9.11.07, p 2. From Bor. Joined SPLA age ten in 1988. 331. Photo taken in 2008 by Christine Ryan 332. Photo taken in 2008 by Christine Ryan 333. Captain Luka Loku Natana, Interviewed 5.11.07, p 3. From Central Equatoria. Joined SPLA at age 12 in 1990. 334. First Lieutenant Joseph Lam Paulino, Interviewed 25.10.07, p 6. From Acholi. Joined SPLA at age 17 in 1992. 335. Napoleon Adok, Interviewed 14.4.08, p 2. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1983. 336. Anjelo Magena Wade, Interviewed 16.3.08, p 8. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1987. He is now working at the Ministry of Information. 337. Napolean Adok, Interviewed 14.4.08, p 4. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1983. 338. Captain Luka Loku Natana, Interviewed 5.11.07, p 6. From Central Equatoria. Joined SPLA at age 12 in 1990. 339. Lam Tungwar Kueigwong, Interviewed 3.11.07, p 6. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1990. 340. Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande, Interviewed 15.1.08, p 7. From Meridi. Joined age 17 in 1988. 341. Sergeant Machar Malet Kuol, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 8. From Bor. Joined SPLA at the age nine or ten in 1987. 342. Lam Tungwar Kueigwong, Interviewed 3.11.07, p 3. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1990.

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343. Mabior Garang de Mabior, Interviewed 2.4.08, p 3. From Bor. He is the eldest son of former SPLA rebel leader Dr John Garang and was associated with the SPLA throughout his childhood. 344. Abraham Kur, Interviewed 15.3.08, p 6. Joined SPLA at 14 in 1998. Now works for UNICEF as a child protection officer. 345. Sergeant Aleu Manyok Barach, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 7. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1998. 346. Philip Malok, Interviewed 20.3.08, p 4. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 13 in 1986. 347. Stephen Dut Deng, Interviewed 11.5.07, pp 1, 5. Joined the SPLA at age nine. He works in Southern Sudan National DDR Commission as Assistant Special Needs Group Coordinator. 348. Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande, Interviewed 15.1.08, p 4. From Meridi. Joined age 17 in 1988. 349. Sergeant Major Jok William Nyok, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 3. From Bor. Joined SPLA age nine in 1987. 350. Sergeant Aleu Manyok Barach, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 5. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1998. 351. Marial Kuol Aguto, Interviewed 1.17.08, p 4. Joined SPLA age 15 in 1991. Worked for UNMIS and now works for SPLA. 352. Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande, Interviewed 15.1.08, p 3. From Meridi. Joined age 17 in 1988. 353. Sergeant Aleu Manyok Barach, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 5. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1998. 354. Sergeant Machar Malet Kuol, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 8. From Bor. Joined SPLA at the age nine or ten in 1987. 355. Captain Ngor Ngor Kuany, Interviewed 21.1.08, p 2. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 14 in 1984. 356. First Lieutenant Joseph Lam Paulino, Interviewed 25.10.07, p 5. From Acholi. Joined SPLA at age 17 in 1992. 357. Sergeant Major Atem Abuoi Atem, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 4. From Bor. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1985. 358. Simon Akuel Deng, Interviewed 3.11.07, p 3. From Bor. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1991. 359. Lam Tungwar Kueigwong, Interviewed 3.11.07, p 4. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1990. 360. Deng Aleer Kon, Interviewed 3.4.08, p 3. From Duk county in Jonglei state. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. University of Juba studying Community Development. He was a student representative. 361. Nuh Jacob Mayendit, Interviewed 08.12.07, p 4. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1988.

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362. Garang Majak, Interviewed 3.10.07, p 3. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1987. He now works for UNICEF in Rumbek. 363. Khang Chol Khang, Interviewed 15.4.08, p 4. From Bor County. Joined SPLA age nine in 1986. 364. John Madol Puou, Interviewed 17.3.08, p 3. From Rumbek. Joined the SPLA at the age of 16 in 1997. 365. Emmanuel Juma, Interviewed 20.3.08, p 3. From Mvolo, Western Equatoria. Joined SPLA at 13 in 1996. 366. Diing Bul Arok, Interviewed 20.1.08, p 6. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1995. SSDDRC Community Security Associate Coordinator. 367. Stephen Dut Deng, Interviewed 11.5.07, p 4. Joined the SPLA at age nine. He works in Southern Sudan National DDR Commission as Assistant Special Needs Group Coordinator. 368. Diing Bul Arok, Interviewed 20.1.08, p 2. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1995. SSDDRC Community Security Associate Coordinator. 369. Captain Luka Loku Natana, Interviewed 5.11.07, pp 2, 7. From Central Equatoria. Joined SPLA at age 12 in 1990. 370. Sergeant Marchelo Makem Wuol, Interviewed 10.11.07, p 2. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1996. 371. First Lieutenant Joseph Lam Paulino, Interviewed 25.10.07, p 2. From Acholi. Joined SPLA at age 17 in 1992. 372. Sergeant Major Jok William Nyok, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 6. From Bor. Joined SPLA age nine in 1987. 373. Captain Morris Modiloro, Interviewed 2.25.08, p 3. From Juba. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1991. 374. John Madol Puou, Interviewed 17.3.08, p 6. From Rumbek. Joined the SPLA at the age of 16 in 1997. 375. Captain Luka Loku Natana, Interviewed 5.11.07, p 4. From Central Equatoria. Joined SPLA at age 12 in 1990. 376. Sergeant Ngok Lian Ngok, Interviewed 25.11.07, p 3. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1993. 377. Majok Thiel Koc, Interviewed 21.1.08, p 4. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1990. 378. Captain Ngor Ngor Kuany, Interviewed 21.1.08, p 5. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 14 in 1984. 379. Captain Ngor Ngor Kuany, Interviewed 21.1.08, pp 3, 4, 5. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 14 in 1984. 380. Taban Charlie Juma, Interviewed 12.4.08, pp 1, 7. From Meridi, Western Equatoria. Joined SPLA age ten in 1995. He started fighting age 12 in 1997.

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381. Khang Chol Khang, Interviewed 15.4.08, p 5. From Bor County. Joined SPLA age nine in 1986. 382. Kevin Kueth Tut, Interviewed 9.11.07, p 2. From Bor. Joined SPLA age ten in 1988. 383. Captain Luka Loku Natana, Interviewed 5.11.07, pp 5. From Central Equatoria. Joined SPLA at age 12 in 1990. 384. Stephen Dut Deng, Interviewed 11.5.07, p 4. Joined the SPLA at age nine. He works in Southern Sudan National DDR Commission as Assistant Special Needs Group Coordinator. 385. Mabior Garang de Mabior, Interviewed 2.4.08, p 5. From Bor. He is the eldest son of former SPLA rebel leader Dr John Garang and was associated with the SPLA throughout his childhood. 386. Zalson Khor Zal, Interviewed 9.4.08, p 1. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age ten in 1989. Director for Research and Planning, SPLM General Secretariat. 387. Kevin Kueth Tut, Interviewed 9.11.07, p 4. From Bor. Joined SPLA age ten in 1988. 388. Captain Ngor Ngor Kuany, Interviewed 21.1.08, p 4. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 14 in 1984. 389. Mabior Garang de Mabior, Interviewed 2.4.08, pp 4–5. From Bor. He is the eldest son of former SPLA rebel leader Dr John Garang and was associated with the SPLA throughout his childhood. 390. Napoleon Adok, Interviewed 14.4.08, p 5. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1983. 391. Captain Morris Modiloro, Interviewed 2.25.08, p 4. From Juba. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1991. 392. Jonas Acouth Mayom, Interviewed 12.4.08, p 6. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age of nine in 1989. 393. Benjamin Bol, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 4. From Yirol, Lake state. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1988. Juba University. 394. First Lieutenant Joseph Lam Paulino, Interviewed 25.10.07, p 6. From Acholi. Joined SPLA at age 17 in 1992. 395. Mabior Garang de Mabior, Interviewed 2.4.08, p 5. From Bor. He is the eldest son of former SPLA rebel leader Dr John Garang and was associated with the SPLA throughout his childhood. 396. Captain Morris Modiloro, Interviewed 2.25.08, p 5. From Juba. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1991. 397. Sergeant Aleu Manyok Barach, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 5. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1998. 398. John Madol Puou, Interviewed 17.3.08, p 7. From Rumbek. Joined the SPLA at the age of 16 in 1997.

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399. Lam Tungwar Kueigwong, Interviewed 3.11.07, p 7. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1990. 400. Marial Kuol Aguto, Interviewed 1.17.08, p 5. Joined SPLA age 15 in 1991. Worked for UNMIS and now works for SPLA. 401. Kevin Kueth Tut, Interviewed 9.11.07, p 3. From Bor. Joined SPLA age ten in 1988. 402. John Madol Puou, Interviewed 17.3.08, p 2. From Rumbek. Joined the SPLA at the age of 16 in 1997. 403. John Mayom Deng, Interviewed 15.3.08, p 5. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1991. 404. Stephen Dut Deng, Interviewed 11.5.07, pp 1–2. Joined the SPLA at age nine. He works in Southern Sudan National DDR Commission as Assistant Special Needs Group Coordinator. 405. Jacob Kuol Mawut, Interviewed 5.12.07, p 4. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1991. 406. Simon Akuel Deng, Interviewed 3.11.07, p 1. From Bor. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1991. 407. Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande, Interviewed 15.1.08, p 1. From Meridi. Joined age 17 in 1988. 408. Napolean Adok, Interviewed 14.4.08, p 7. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1983. 409. Peter Kuot Jel, Interviewed 30.1.08, p 1. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. He has worked for UN agencies for five years as a civil engineer. 410. Marial Kuol Aguto, Interviewed 1.17.08, p 2. Joined SPLA age 15 in 1991. Worked for UNMIS and now works for SPLA. 411. Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande, Interviewed 15.1.08, p 1. From Meridi. Joined age 17 in 1988. 412. Lam Tungwar Kueigwong, Interviewed 3.11.07, p 1. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1990. 413. Sergeant Aleu Manyok Barach, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 1. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1998. 414. Kevin Kueth Tut, Interviewed 9.11.07, p 1. From Bor. Joined SPLA age ten in 1988. 415. Captain John Amin Badi, Interviewed 10.3.08, p 2. Joined SPLA age 13 in 1991. 416. Anjelo Magena Wade, Interviewed 16.3.08, p 3. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1987. He is now working at the Ministry of Information. 417. Anjelo Magena Wade, Interviewed 16.3.08, p 7. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1987. He is now working at the Ministry of Information. 418. Napoleon Adok, Interviewed 14.4.08, pp 6, 8. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1983.

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419. Sergeant Major Atem Abuoi Atem, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 3. From Bor. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1985. 420. Zalson Khor Zal, Interviewed 9.4.08, p 5. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age ten in 1989. Director for Research and Planning, SPLM General Secretariat. 421. Captain Morris Modiloro, Interviewed 2.25.08, p 3. From Juba. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1991. 422. Majok Thiel Koc, Interviewed 21.1.08, p 1. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1990. 423. Mabior Garang de Mabior, Interviewed 2.4.08, p 1. From Bor. He is the eldest son of former SPLA rebel leader Dr John Garang and was associated with the SPLA throughout his childhood. 424. Abraham Kur, Interviewed 15.3.08, p 1. Joined SPLA at 14 in 1998. Now works for UNICEF as a child protection officer. 425. Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande, Interviewed 15.1.08, p 4. From Meridi. Joined age 17 in 1988. 426. Zalson Khor Zal, Interviewed 9.4.08, p 5. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age ten in 1989. Director for Research and Planning, SPLM General Secretariat. 427. Sergeant Major Atem Abuoi Atem, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 1. From Bor. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1985. 428. Simon Akuel Deng, Second Interview 15.3.08, p 8. From Bor. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1991. 429. Lam Tungwar Kueigwong, Interviewed 3.11.07, p 5. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1990. 430. Captain Ngor Ngor Kuany, Interviewed 21.1.08, p 3. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 14 in 1984. 431. Stephen Dut Deng, Interviewed 11.5.07, p 4. Joined the SPLA at age nine. He works in Southern Sudan National DDR Commission as Assistant Special Needs Group Coordinator. 432. Jacob Kuol Mawut, Interviewed 5.12.07, pp 6–7. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1991. 433. Sergeant Machar Malet Kuol, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 6. From Bor. Joined SPLA at the age nine or ten in 1987. 434. Khang Chol Khang, Interviewed 15.4.08, p 5. From Bor County. Joined SPLA age nine in 1986. 435. First Lieutenant Joseph Lam Paulino, Interviewed 25.10.07, p 4. From Acholi. Joined SPLA at age 17 in 1992. 436. Benjamin Bol, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 3. From Yirol, Lake state. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1988. Juba University. 437. Captain Luka Loku Natana, Interviewed 5.11.07, p 1. From Central Equatoria. Joined SPLA at age 12 in 1990.

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438. Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande, Interviewed 15.1.08, p 4. From Meridi. Joined age 17 in 1988. 439. Kevin Kueth Tut, Interviewed 9.11.07, p 2. From Bor. Joined SPLA age ten in 1988. 440. Rambang Paul Giel, Interviewed 22.10.07, p 5. Joined SPLA age 16 in 1992. 441. Garang Majak, Interviewed 3.10.07, p 2. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1987. He now works for UNICEF in Rumbek. 442. Sergeant Aleu Manyok Barach, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 3. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1998. 443. Kevin Kueth Tut, Interviewed 9.11.07, p 2. From Bor. Joined SPLA age ten in 1988. 444. Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande, Interviewed 15.1.08, p 3. From Meridi. Joined age 17 in 1988.

Chapter Four Children’s Expression of Political Agency 445. 446. 447. 448. 449. 450. 451. 452. 453. 454. 455. 456. 457. 458. 459. 460. 461. 462. 463. 464. 465. 466.

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Bieler & Morton 2001, p 27 Wight 1999, p 129 Callinicos 2004, p 2 Wight 1999, p 133 Rosen 2005, p 133; Honwana 2006, p 4 Jabri 2007, p 175 Jabri 1996, p 180 Jabri 2006, p 147 Schapiro 1999, p 737 Watson 2006, p 239 ibid, p 242 ibid, p 247 Linklater 1998, p 220 Watson 2006, p 244 Rosen 2005 Rosen 2005, p 86 Faulkner 2001, p 491 See for example, Human Rights Watch 1994, p. 20; UNICEF 1996. See for example, Human Rights Watch 1995, p 9. Biel 2003, p. 4 Bass 2004, p. 36 Frank Kashandof, Interviewed 19.10.07, p 1. UNICEF, Consultant Child DDR. He had been working for UNICEF for three years and in Sudan for six months. He has worked in both DDR and child protection.

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467. Director Simon Manoja, Interviewed 10.2.08, p 2. Director of Centre for Peace and Development Studies at Juba University. 468. Dean Piedmont, Interviewed 3.11.07, p 2. UNDP, DDR Reintegration Manager, DPT Regional Coordinator. 469. Victoria Ngali, Interviewed 25.11.07, p 4. UNMIS Child Protection Advisor. She has seven years of experience working with child soldiers in Southern Sudan. 470. Sarah Gerein, Interviewed 2.11.07, p 3. Peace Building and Protection Programme Manager, World Vision International. She has been in Sudan for seven months. She works with Southern Sudan military and UNICEF for the demobilisation of child soldiers. Her job is focused on the reintegration of the former child soldiers. 471. Julius Tiboa, Interviewed 12.12.07, p 2. Child Protection & Youth Livelihood Coordinator, International Rescue Committee. 472. Ali Aulia Ramly, Interviewed 28.2.08, p 2. Child Protection & Youth Livelihood Manager, International Rescue Committee. He has been working on the child soldier issue since 1999. When starting his managing post, he had never been to Sudan or worked on the issue of child soldiers in Sudan. His references to Sudan were limited to literature. 473. Emmanuel Zino Riko, Interviewed 5.11.07, p 4. Care and Information Officer, Child Protection, Save the Children UK. He has four years experience working on the topic of child soldiers. 474. As discussed in this chapter, this statement is contradicting the testimonies of the former child soldiers. 475. Simon Manoja, Director of Centre for Peace and Development Studies at Juba University. (Interviewed 10.02.08, p 2) 476. Simon Manoja, Director of Centre for Peace and Development Studies at Juba University. (Interviewed 10.02.08, p 2, 4) 477. Caesar Mazzolari, Diocese of Rumbek – Bishop. (Interviewed 20.03.08, p 2). 478. Santo Domic Chol, Interviewed 5.12.07, p 3. Child DDR Coordinator, Southern Sudan Disarmament Demobilisation Reintegration Commission. He has six years of experience working with DDR of child soldiers. 479. Ayalew Teshome, World Vision International – Operations Director, South Sudan Programme. (Interviewed 15.11.07, p 2). 480. Caesar Mazzolari, Diocese of Rumbek – Bishop. (Interviewed 20.03.08, p 3). 481. Ayalew Teshome, World Vision International – Operations Director, South Sudan Programme. (Interviewed 15.11.07, p 3) 482. Caesar Mazzolari, Diocese of Rumbek – Bishop. (Interviewed 20.03.08, p 2).

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483. Frank Kashandof, Interviewed 19.10.07, p 2. UNICEF, Consultant Child DDR. He had been working for UNICEF for three years and in Sudan for six months. He has worked in both DDR and child protection. 484. Dombek Deng Kuol, Interviewed 16.10.07, p 3. UNICEF, Project Officer for Child DDR. 485. Tim Hayden-Smith, Interviewed 3.11.07, pp 2–3. PACT, Project Manager: Community Security and Early Warning Posts. 486. Peter Wisseh, Interviewed 17.10.07, p 2. UNICEF, Consultant Child DDR. 487. Jonas Acouth Mayom, Interviewed 12.4.08, p 6. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age of nine in 1989. 488. Jacque Chiengnyang de Mabor, Interviewed 20.3.08, pp 2–5. From Yirol county. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1995. 489. Lam Tungwar Kueigwong, Interviewed 3.11.07, p 7. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1990. 490. In 1983 the primary education system began instructing in Arabic whilst the secondary and teriary schools switched to Arabic in 1992. 491. Jonas Acouth Mayom, Interviewed 12.4.08, p 7. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age of nine in 1989. 492. Captain Morris Modiloro, Interviewed 2.25.08, p 2. From Juba. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1991. 493. Deng John Agoot, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 2. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. Juba University, Economics and Banking Management. 494. Otto James Avelimo, Interviewed 25.3.08, p 5. From Nimule, Eastern Equatoria. Joined age 14 in 1994. Works for Save the Children Sweden in Rumbek. 495. John Madol Puou, Interviewed 17.3.08, p 8. Hometown Rumbek. Joined the SPLA at the age of 16 in 1997. 496. First Lieutenant Joseph Lam Paulino, Interviewed 25.10.07, p 3. From Acholi. Joined SPLA at age 17 in 1992. 497. Anjelo Magena Wade, Interviewed 16.3.08, p 8. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1987. He is now working at the Ministry of Information. 498. James Lam Dak, Interviewed 8.4.08, p 3. From Bentu, Unity State. Joined age 12 in 1985. University of Juba studies Community Studies and Rural Development. 499. Captain John Amin Badi, Interviewed 10.3.08, p 5. Joined SPLA age 13 in 1991. 500. Peter Kuot Jel, Interviewed 30.1.08, p 3. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. He has worked for UN agencies for five years as a civil engineer. 501. Taban Charlie Juma, Interviewed 12.4.08, p 5. From Meridi, Western Equatoria. Joined SPLA age ten in 1995. He started fighting age 12 in 1997.

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502. Sergeant Major Jok William Nyok, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 6. From Bor. Joined SPLA age nine in 1987. 503. James Lam Dak, Interviewed 8.4.08, p 3. From Bentu, Unity State. Joined age 12 in 1985. University of Juba studies Community Studies and Rural Development. 504. Garang Majak, Interviewed 3.10.07, p 2. Hometown Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1987. He now works for UNICEF in Rumbek. 505. John Madol Puou, Interviewed 17.3.08, p 12. Hometown Rumbek. Joined the SPLA at the age of 16 in 1997. 506. Abraham Kur, Interviewed 15.3.08, p 3. Joined SPLA at 14 in 1998. Now works for UNICEF as a child protection officer. 507. Anjelo Magena Wade, Interviewed 16.3.08, p 1. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1987. He is now working at the Ministry of Information. 508. Emmanuel Juma, Interviewed 20.3.08, p 2. From Mvolo, Western Equatoria. Joined SPLA at 13 in 1996. 509. Lieutenant Colonel Dut Riak, Interviewed 19.3.08, p 3. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 17 in 1984. Now works for SSDDRC in Rumbek. 510. Lieutenant Colonel Dut Riak, Interviewed 19.3.08, p 4. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 17 in 1984. Now works for SSDDRC in Rumbek. 511. Mayom Maboung, Interviewed 26.3.08, p 5. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1999. Teacher at Deng Nhial Primary School. 512. Samuel Kiir Dut, Interviewed 26.3.08, p 2. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1999. 513. Samuel Kiir Dut, Interviewed 26.3.08, p 3. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1999. 514. Simon Marihal Machuoch, Interviewed 22.3.08, p 4. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 17 in 1996. 515. Deng Aleer Kon, Interviewed 3.4.08, p 1. From Duk county in Jonglei state. Joined age 15 in 1987. University of Juba studying Community Development. He was a student representative. 516. Dut Jacob Dau, Interviewed 3.4.08, p 1. From Twic, Jonglei state. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1987. Juba University, College of Natural Resources. 517. Benjamin Bol, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 2. From Yirol, Lake state. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1988. Juba University. 518. Jony Lual, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 3. From Malakal, Nasir county. Joined SPLA at age 13 in 1987. Juba University studying Community and Rural Development. 519. Sergeant Daniel Majur, Interviewed 20.11.07, p 1. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 12 in 1995. 520. Sergeant Ngok Lian Ngok, Interviewed 25.11.07, p 2. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1993.

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263

521. Jacob Kuol Mawut, Interviewed 5.12.07, p 6. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1991. 522. First Lieutenant Joseph Lam Paulino, Interviewed 25.10.07, p 1. From Acholi. Joined SPLA at age 17 in 1992. 523. Sergeant Machar Malet Kuol, Interviewed 14.02.08, pp 10–11. From Bor. Joined SPLA at the age nine or ten in 1987. 524. Sergeant Major Atem Abuoi Atem, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 6. From Bor. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1985. 525. Sergeant Major Jok William Nyok, Interviewed 14.02.08, pp 4, 7. From Bor. Joined SPLA age nine in 1987. 526. Captain John Amin Badi, Interviewed 10.3.08, p 4. Joined SPLA age 13 in 1991. 527. Kevin Kueth Tut, Interviewed 9.11.07, p 1. From Bor. Joined SPLA age ten in 1988. 528. Majok Thiel Koc, Interviewed 21.1.08, p 5. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1990. 529. Captain Ngor Ngor Kuany, Interviewed 21.1.08, pp 2, 6. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 14 in 1984. 530. Khang Chol Khang, Interviewed 15.4.08, p 2. From Bor County. Joined SPLA age nine in 1986. 531. Peter Kuot Jel, Interviewed 30.1.08, p 3. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. He has worked for UN agencies for five years as a civil engineer. 532. Napoleon Adok, Interviewed 14.4.08, p 3. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1983. 533. Simon Akuel Deng, Second Interview 15.3.08, p 1. From Bor. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1991. 534. Rambang Paul Giel, Interviewed 22.10.07, p 3. Joined SPLA age 16 in 1992. 535. Sergeant Aleu Manyok Barach, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 2. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1998. 536. Sergeant Major Atem Abuoi Atem, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 5. From Bor. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1985. 537. Napoleon Adok, Interviewed 14.4.08, p 3. Joined SPLA at age 11 in 1983. 538. Marial Kuol Aguto, Interviewed 1.17.08, p 6. Joined SPLA age 15 in 1991. Worked for UNMIS and now works for the SPLA. 539. Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande, Interviewed 15.1.08, p 3. From Meridi. Joined age 17 in 1988. 540. Mabior Garang de Mabior, Interviewed 2.4.08, p 6. From Bor. He is the eldest son of former SPLA rebel leader Dr John Garang and was associated with the SPLA throughout his childhood. 541. Albino Paul Kuot, Interviewed 16.3.08, pp 2–3. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at the age of 18. 542. Tut Nyuon Kueth, Interviewed 5.4.08, pp 1–2. From Nasir county. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1983. Juba University.

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543. Captain Ngor Ngor Kuany, Interviewed 21.1.08, p 5. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 14 in 1984. 544. Rambang Paul Giel, Interviewed 22.10.07, p 4. Joined SPLA age 16 in 1992. 545. Sergeant Marchelo Makem Wuol, Interviewed 10.11.07, p 3. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1996. 546. Simon Marihal Machuoch, Interviewed 22.3.08, p 2. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 17 in 1996. 547. Jacob Kuol Mawut, Interviewed 5.12.07, pp 2–3. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1991. 548. Captain Morris Modiloro, Interviewed 2.25.08, pp 1–2. From Juba. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1991. 549. Mabior Garang de Mabior, Interviewed 2.4.08, p 3–4. From Bor. He is the eldest son of former SPLA rebel leader Dr John Garang and was associated with the SPLA throughout his childhood. 550. First Lieutenant Joseph Lam Paulino, Interviewed 25.10.07, p 5. From Acholi. Joined SPLA at age 17 in 1992. 551. Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande, Interviewed 15.1.08. From Meridi. Joined age 17 in 1988. 552. Sergeant Aleu Manyok Barach, Interviewed 1.4.08, pp 1–2. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1998. 553. Captain John Amin Badi, Interviewed 10.3.08, p 5. Joined SPLA age 13 in 1991. 554. John Mayom Deng, Interviewed 15.3.08, p 2. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1991. 555. Kevin Kueth Tut, Interviewed 9.11.07, p 3. From Bor. Joined SPLA age ten in 1988. 556. Captain Ngor Ngor Kuany, Interviewed 21.1.08, p 4. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 14 in 1984. 557. Jacob Kuol Mawut, Interviewed 5.12.07, p 5. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1991. 558. Sergeant Marchelo Makem Wuol, Interviewed 10.11.07, p 2. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1996. 559. Mabior Garang de Mabior, Interviewed 2.4.08, p 4. From Bor. He is the eldest son of former SPLA rebel leader Dr John Garang and was associated with the SPLA throughout his childhood. 560. John Madol Puou, Interviewed 17.3.08, pp 2, 3, 5. Hometown Rumbek. Joined the SPLA at the age of 16 in 1997. 561. Jacque Chiengnyang de Mabor, Interviewed 20.3.08, p1. From Yirol county. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1995.

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265

562. Philip Malok, Interviewed 20.3.08, p 1. From Rumbek. Joined SPLA at age 13 in 1986. 563. Deng Aleer Kon, Interviewed 3.4.08, p 1. From Duk county in Jonglei state. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. University of Juba studying Community Development. He was a student representative. 564. Dut Jacob Dau, Interviewed 3.4.08, p 1. From Twic, Jonglei state. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1987. Juba University, College of Natural Resources. 565. Thomas Tut Gok, Interviewed 3.4.08, p 1. From Akobo, Jonglei state. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1983. Juba University. 566. Deng John Agoot, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 1. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. Juba University, Economics and Banking Management. 567. Jony Lual, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 1. From Malakal, Nasir county. Joined age 13 in 1987. Juba University studying Community and Rural Development. 568. Thomas Tut Lual, Interviewed 2.4.08, p 1. From Nasir, Upper Nile. Joined age 14 in 1994. Juba University, Community and Urban Development. 569. Tut Nyuon Kueth, Interviewed 5.4.08, p 1. From Nasir county. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1983. Juba University. 570. Captain Luka Loku Natana, Interviewed 5.11.07, p 3. From Central Equatoria. Joined SPLA at age 12 in 1990. 571. Captain Luka Loku Natana, Interviewed 5.11.07, p 5. From Central Equatoria. Joined SPLA at age 12 in 1990. 572. Sergeant Marchelo Makem Wuol, Interviewed 10.11.07, pp 1–2. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1996. 573. Peter Kuot Jel, Interviewed 30.1.08, p 5. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. He has worked for UN agencies for five years as a civil engineer. 574. Deng John Agoot, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 1. From Bor. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. Juba University, Economics and Banking Management. 575. Captain Morris Modiloro, Interviewed 2.25.08, p 1. From Juba. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1991. 576. Jony Lual, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 2. From Malakal, Nasir county. Joined age 13 in 1987. Juba University studying Community and Rural Development. 577. Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande, Second Interview, Interviewed 15.1.08, p 4. From Meridi. Joined age 17 in 1988. 578. Tut Nyuon Kueth, Interviewed 5.4.08, p 1. From Nasir county. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1983. Juba University. 579. First Lieutenant Joseph Lam Paulino, Interviewed 25.10.07, p 6. From Acholi. Joined SPLA at age 17 in 1992.

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580. Lam Tungwar Kueigwong, Interviewed 3.11.07, p 8. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age nine in 1990. 581. Jony Lual, Interviewed 1.4.08, p 1. From Malakal, Nasir county. Joined age 13 in 1987. Juba University studying Community and Rural Development. 582. Majok Thiel Koc, Interviewed 21.1.08, p 2. From Aweil. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1990. 583. Taban Charlie Juma, Interviewed 12.4.08, p 4. From Meridi, Western Equatoria. Joined SPLA age ten in 1995. He started fighting age 12 in 1997. 584. Marial Kuol Aguto, Interviewed 1.17.08, p 2. Joined SPLA age 15 in 1991. Worked for UNMIS and now works for SPLA. 585. Sergeant Ngok Lian Ngok, Interviewed 25.11.07, p 4. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1993. 586. Sergeant Ngok Lian Ngok, Interviewed 25.11.07, p 4. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1993. 587. Captain Erik Dau, Interviewed 3.12.07, p 2. From Abei in Bar Al Ghazal. Joined SPLA at age 16 in 1986. 588. First Lieutenant Joseph Lam Paulino, Interviewed 25.10.07, p 2. From Acholi. Joined SPLA at age 17 in 1992. 589. Simon Akuel Deng, Second Interview 15.3.08, p 7. From Bor. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1991. 590. Garang Majak, Interviewed 3.10.07, p 3. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 14 in 1987. He now works for UNICEF in Rumbek. 591. Lieutenant Colonel Africano Mande, Interviewed 15.1.08, p 8. From Meridi. Joined age 17 in 1988. 592. Sergeant Major Atem Abuoi Atem, Interviewed 14.02.08, p 5. From Bor. Joined SPLA age 11 in 1985. 593. Kevin Kueth Tut, Interviewed 9.11.07, p 4. From Bor. Joined SPLA age ten in 1988. 594. Peter Kuot Jel, Interviewed 30.1.08, p 6. From Aweil. Joined SPLA at age 15 in 1987. He has worked for UN agencies for five years as a civil engineer. 595. Jabri 1996, p 77 596. Bhaskar 1989, pp. 34–5 597. Jabri 1996, p 78 598. Giddens 1984, p 25 599. ibid, p 25 600. Jabri 1996, p 65 601. ibid, p 7 602. Giddens 1990, p 106 603. Jabri 1996, p 76

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Notes

ANNEX 3

267

Child Soldier Interviews

604. I conducted a total of 76 interviews with former child soldiers, the details of which are recorded above. The testimonies of most of these individuals have been used in the course of my book, however where testimonies were not used I provide a brief summary of their key arguments. Such individuals are denoted by a * after their name.

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BIBLIOGR APHY

Twum-Danso, Afua, The Political Child’ in Invisible Stakeholders: Children and War in Africa (Pretoria, 2005) Bass, Loretta E, Child Labor in Sub-Saharan Africa (London, 2004) Beshir, Mohamed Omer, The Southern Sudan: Background to Conflict (London, 1968) Bhaskar, Roy, Reclaiming Reality: A Critical Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy (London, 1989) Biel, Melha Rout, ‘The Civil War in Southern Sudan and Its Effect on Youth and Children’, Social Work and Society vol. 1, issue 1 (2003) Biel, Melha Rout, African Kids: Between Warlords, Child Soldiers and Living on the Street (Oxford, 2004). Bieler, Andreas & Morton, Adam David, ‘The Gordian Knot of Agency-Structure in International Relations: A Neo-Gramscian Perspective’, European Journal of International Relations vol. 7, no. 1 (2001), pp. 5–35 Boyden, Jo & de Berry, Joanna (eds), Children and youth on the Front Line: Ethnography, Armed Conflict and Displacement (Oxford, 2004) Brocklehurst, Helen, Who’s Afraid of Children? Children, Conflict and International Relations (Hampshire, 2006) Callinicos, Alex, Making History: Agency, Structure and Change in Social Theory (Leiden, 2004) Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, (2008) Child Soldiers Global Report, Available from: http://www.child-soldiers.org/library/global-reports (Acce ssed 29.06.11) Cohn, Ilene & Goodwin-Gill, Guy, Child Soldiers: The Role of Children in Armed Conflicts (Oxford, 1994) Collins, Robert O., Civil Wars and Revolution in the Sudan: Essays on the Sudan, Southern Sudan, and Darfur 1962–2004 (Hollywood, Calif, 2005) Cramer, Christopher , Civil War is Not a Stupid Thing: Accounting for Violence in Developing Countries (London, 2006)

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Bibliogr aphy

269

Daly, M. W. & Sikainga, Ahmad Alawad (eds), Civil War in the Sudan (London, 1993) de Waal, Alex, ‘Contemporary Warfare in Africa’, in Mary Kaldor & Basker Vashee (eds), Restructuring the Global Military Sector Volume One: New Wars (London, 1997) Duffield, Mark, Global Governance and the New Wars: The Merging of Development and Security (London, 2001) Faulkner, Frank, ‘Kindergarten killers: Morality, Murder and the Child Soldier Problem’ Third World Quarterly vol. 22, no. 4 (2001), pp. 491–504. Furley, Oliver, Conflict in Africa (London, 1995) Giddens, Anthony, The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration (Cambridge, 1984) Giddens, Anthony, ‘R. K. Merton on Structural Analysis’, in Jon Clark, Celia Modgil, Sohan Modgil (eds), Robert K. Merton: Consensus and Controversy (London, 1990) Honwana, Alcinda, Child Soldiers in Africa (Philadelphia, 2006) Holt, P. M. & Daly, M. W., A History of the Sudan: From the Coming of Islam to the Present Day (Essex, 2000). Human Rights Watch, The Lost Boys: Child Soldiers and Unaccompanied Boys in Southern Sudan (New York, 1994) Human Rights Watch, Easy Prey: Child Soldiers in Liberia (New York, 1995) Human Rights Watch/Africa, Children of Sudan: Slaves, Street Children and Child Soldiers (New York, 1995) International Criminal Court, Rome Statute, Avaliable at: http://untreaty.un.org/ cod/icc/statute/romefra.htm (Accessed 29.6.11) Jabri, Vivienne, Discourses on Violence: Conflict Analysis Reconsidered (Manchester, 1996) Jabri, Vivienne, ‘The Limits of Agency in Times of Emergency’ in Jef Huysmans, Andrew Dobson, and Raia Prokhovnik (eds) The Politics of Protection: Sites of Insecurity and Political Agency (London, 2006) Jabri, Vivienne, War and the Transformation of Global Politics - Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies (Hampshire, 2007) Johnson, Douglas H., The Root Causes of Sudan’s Civil Wars (Oxford, 2003) Jok, Madut Jok., War and Slavery in Sudan (Philadelphia, 2001) Kessler, Peter (1996), ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind’, Refugees, UNHCR, issue 103. Avaiable at: http://www.unhcr.org/publ/PUBL/3b5549d74.html (Accessed 03.04.09) League of Nations (1924), Declaration of the Rights of the Child, Available at: http://www.unicef.org/specialsession/rights/path.htm (Accessed 14. 04.07) Lesch, Ann Mosely, The Sudan – Contested National Identities (Oxford, 1998). Linklater, Andrew, The Transformation of Political Community: Ethical Foundations of the Post-Westphalian Era (Cambridge, 1998) Martin, Randolph, ‘Sudan’s Perfect War’, Foreign Affairs, vol. 81, no. 2 (2002), pp. 111–27

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McIntyre, Angela, Invisible Stakeholders: Children and War in Africa (Pretoria, 2005) O’Ballance, Edgar., Sudan, Civil War and Terrorism, 1956–99 (London, 2000) Peterson, Scott, Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda (London, 2000) Rosen, David M., Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in War and Terrorism (London, 2005) Schapiro, Tamar, ‘What Is A Child?’, Ethics, vol. 109, no. 4 (1999), pp. 715–8. Singer, Peter W., Children at War (New York, 2006) UNICEF (1996), ‘The State of the World’s Children: Children in War’, Available at: www.unicef.org/sowc96/4uproot.htm (Accessed 14.4.07) UNICEF (2007), The State of the World’s Children 2007: Executive Summary, Available at: http://www.unicef.org/publications/files/The_State_of_the_ Worlds_Children_ 2007_Executive_Summary_E.pdf (Accessed 14.4.07) United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (1989), Convention on the Rights of the Child, OHCHR, Geneva. United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (2000), Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, OHCHR, Geneva Wakoson, Elias Nyamlell, ‘The Politics of Southern Sudan 1972–83’ in Daly, M. W. & Sikainga, Ahmad Alawad (eds), Civil War in the Sudan (London, 1993) Watson, Alison, ‘Children and International Relations: A New Site of Knowledge?’, Review of International Studies, vol. 32, no. 2 (2006), pp. 237–250 Wight, Colin, ‘They Shoot Dead Horses Don’t They?: Locating Agency in the Agent-Structure Problematique’, European Journal of International Relations, vol. 5 (1999), pp. 109–142 Wöndu, Steven & Lesch, Ann, Battle for Peace in Sudan: An Analysis of the Abuja Conferences 1992–1993 (Oxford, 2000)

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INDEX

aerial attack 61 age 1, 3, 18, 20, 22, 33–35, 41, 49–61, 67–68,70–71, 195–196, 216 agency 5, 18–19, 33, 43, 154–213 aid AIDS 1 apolitical 6, 167 Arab 8–10, 46, 63–65, 70, 72, 75, 77, 79, 81–82, 89–90, 93, 95, 108, 120, 123, 165, 170–194, 200–204, 206–207 Arabisation 10, 176, 196, 203, 206 battlefield 106, 108, 207 childhood 5, 20, 35, 41, 50, 104, 110, 156–157 Cold War 3 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) 15–16, 24, 74, 90, 123, 126, 137, 162 Conflict Studies 156, 221 conscription 2–3, 22, 47, 67, 70, 76–77, 79–80, 85, 154, 216–217 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) 2, 18, 31, 49, 156

index.indd 271

Democratic Republic of Congo 3, 42–44, 160 Diocese of Rumbek 17–18, 224, 243–244 disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) 18–20, 23–27, 29–32, 39, 117, 130–131, 138, 141, 143, 149–150, 219–220 Duffield, Mark 5, 11, 15 education 34, 39, 48, 51, 63, 74, 78, 80, 88, 97–102, 105–106, 113, 123– 125, 127–128, 131–132, 138–142, 144–148, 152, 159, 161, 165, 169, 171–175, 190, 192, 195–197, 204, 206, 209–210, 217, 220 Ethiopia 3, 8, 22, 42–43, 48, 59, 62–63, 68–69, 71–72, 74, 77–78, 85, 91, 93, 99, 114, 118, 131–132, 139, 160, 179, 182, 186–188, 190, 194, 199, 210 Faulkner, Frank 3 female child soldiers 75–76 force 21–22, 31, 33–34, 38, 42, 44, 47–48, 59, 66–68, 76–86, 91–92, 101, 103, 106, 122, 134, 136–139,

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272

THE CHILDREN

force (cont.) 143–144, 151–152, 154, 158, 160, 164, 167, 174–176, 178, 182, 196– 198, 201, 203–4, 210, 216–217 freedom 10, 12–13, 64–65, 76, 81, 92, 96–99, 102, 109, 112, 122, 126, 136, 157, 164, 174–175, 182, 190, 195–205, 207, 210, 217–219 Furley, Oliver 3 Giddens, Anthony 212–213 High Executive Council (HEC) 11 Honwana, Alcinda 3–4, 155 human rights 4, 7, 13–14, 47, 144, 160–161, 174, 196, 203 Human Rights Watch (HRW) 13 Intergovernmental Authority of Development (IGAD) 15 international approach 19, 30–31, 141, 215, 221 International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) 15, 118 International Criminal Court (ICC) 2 International Rescue Committee 18 Islamicisation 171–177, 219 Jabri, Vivienne 156, 212–213 Johnson, Douglas H. 9–10 Jok, Madut Jok 9, 14 Jonglei canal 11–12 Kenya 15, 48, 85–86, 120, 132, 148 Kessler, Peter 48 Khartoum 10, 12–13, 46–47, 62, 64, 66, 69, 80, 162, 173–174, 184, 189, 192–194, 196, 203–204, 206 League of Nations 2 Lesch, Ann 9–10

index.indd 272

OF

WAR

Liberia 3, 42–45, 133, 137, 160 Linklater, Andrew 157 Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) 134 The Lost Boys 44 Martin, Randolph 22 McIntyre, Angela 3 Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) 14 media 25, 29, 132–135, 191, 220 Middle East 8 missile 61 Mozambique 3, 22, 43–44 natural resources 9, 11–12, 18, 44, 166, 181 non-governmental organization (NGO) 1, 15, 17–21, 23–24, 26, 28–37, 41, 46, 49, 78, 85, 87, 97–100, 102, 104–106, 117, 130–131, 132–134, 136–139, 141–142, 144, 148–149, 151–152, 154, 158, 160–169, 177–178, 195, 209, 211, 214–221 Nile river 8, 11–12, 68, 82, 109, 173 OHCHR 2, 49 oil 9–12, 15–16, 166, 177–178, 219 Operation Lifeline Sudan 14–15 Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict 2–3, 49 OXFAM 14 Pact 18, 26 peace talks 13 Peterson, Scott 44, 48 poverty 1, 32, 37, 44, 62, 97, 104, 160, 183 refugee 48, 66, 74, 85, 160, 224 Rome Statute 2 Rosen, David 4, 6, 155, 159

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INDEX Save the Children 138: UK 18, 25; Sweden 18, 27, 31, 225 Schapiro, Tamar 156 Second Civil War 3, 11–12, 14, 171, 220, 240 Sierra Leone 3–4, 42–44, 160 slavery 4, 14, 32, 47, 187 small arms 1, 3–4 Southern Sudan Disarmament Demobilisation Reintegration Commission Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) 12–13, 15–16, 38, 68, 81, 85, 105, 114, 150, 163, 179, 183, 202, 206 trauma 27, 33, 41, 43–45, 76, 127, 139, 142–144, 160, 178, 219 Uganda 3, 8, 42, 44, 84, 224 UNICEF United Nations Childrens’ Fund (UNICEF) 14, 17–18, 22–24, 26, 28–30, 32, 39, 47, 138–140, 152, 160–161

index.indd 273

273

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 18, 227 United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) 18, 24, 162, 222, 228, 234 University of Juba 17–18, 224 victim 18–20, 33, 36, 43, 45, 48, 79, 83, 91, 107, 115, 134, 158, 197, 208–209, 214 violence 4, 11, 22, 35, 44, 68, 87, 106–107, 159–160, 169, 177–178, 181, 183, 212, 219, 234 Wakoson, Elias Nyamlell 14 Watson, Alison 157 weapons 3–4, 62, 180, 208 Wight, Colin 155 Wöndu, Steven 13 World Vision International 18, 228, 242

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index.indd 274

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