Angola

Real lives

Freeing the child within: child soldiers in Angola

LUANDA, 16-1-2002 (UNICEF)

Frederico was a good student. Bright, articulate, perhaps top of his class. The 14-year-old was especially proficient in science, and wanted to be a doctor. But in 1993 Frederico's doctoral dream was severed when rebel soldiers kidnapped him, forcing him to spend the next nine years fighting in Angola's bloody civil war. In the context of things, Frederico was vaguely fortunate. He survived. But with the April 2002 peace accords ending almost three decades of conflict in Angola, UNICEF is pursuing much more for Angolan children, than simple survival.

Frederico, and thousands of former child soldiers like him, are anxious to trade their guns for games, their bombs for books, and their hurt for hope. And UNICEF Angola is working relentlessly to ensure their passage to a normal life is swift and secure.
A better future for Angola's child soldiers was critically advanced when the Angolan Government agreed to regard under-age combatants as children, not soldiers. In this way UNICEF Angola secured the immediate and unconditional release of all under-age soldiers from military life.

This was a telling result for the children. Lessons learned, both in Angola and other parts of war-torn Africa, show the demobilization of child soldiers to be both difficult and faulty. The greatest benefit to former child solders is gained by giving them a new, typical beginning. As such, by being immediately freed of their 'soldier' status, Angolan children were allowed to take their first steps toward a normal life.

'In any armed conflict, the children are always the main victims and the great defeated,' says Mario Ferrari, UNICEF's representative in Angola. 'The international experience shows us that, although good programmes can be developed to help children in war time, only the life in an environment of complete peace will bring the essential therapy for their full psycho-social recovery and development.'

Of course there will also be special services available to former child soldiers. During their time in gathering camps, areas were set aside exclusively for children, allowing them to play sport and mingle together. These Child-Friendly spaces offer psychosocial support to child soldiers and all children affected by the conflict. They double as key centres for education, mine awareness and family tracing.

When UNICEF spoke with Frederico, he had one immediate wish: 'I want to go home,' he told us. 'I want to see my family'. At the cessation of hostilities, UNICEF and its partners took immediate steps to support the return of Frederico and all child soldiers to their families. A special child protection strategy for children in the UNITA quartering areas was developed with the Government. The strategy included expansion of the Family Tracing and Reunification Program to the quartering areas, to expedite their safe return. The vast majority of former child soldiers were among more than three million Angolan children without national ID cards. As such they did not exist officially as citizens, and were thereby excluded from access to education and health. In the context of the Child-Friendly Spaces, UNICEF also supported a national birth registration campaign, resulting in 1.46 million children being issued with birth certificates.

During 2002, technical assistance by UNICEF to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Reintegration led to acceleration in family tracing and reunification and for the development of a national policy on separated children. Capacity building activities were conducted to support the creation of a community-based system for the identification of separated children, involving national and international NGOs as well as churches and traditional authorities. As a result of a joint effort involving national and international NGOs as well as churches, a first group of 48 ex-child soldiers (from Angola's Armed Forces and the rebel group UNITA) were reunited with their families in October 2002. Provincial child protection networks were set up allowing for collective action to deal with issues such as violence, abuse, exploitation and discrimination against children, gross violations of child rights.

Negotiations between UNICEF and the Angolan Government over child soldiers were understandably intricate, although throughout the conflict UNICEF maintained a simple line: that the Angolan Government apply its own law which is unyielding on the protection of children; and that Angola, a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, guarantees compliance with the Optional Protocol to the CRC, which prohibits the recruitment of children.

As a significant symbol of their intention to release child soldiers, in June 2002 the Angolan Armed Forces sent 60 child soldiers from the main Army barracks in the capital Luanda, to their respective homes. Equally importantly, the Government has committed to consider ex-child soldiers non-eligible for the future armed forces, when they reach the age of recruitment of 18. Similarly, they have promised not to conduct the regular new annual recruitment in 2002 and 2003.

Of course former child soldiers who are today still under 18 years of age, make up just a small portion of all former child soldiers. The Angolan conflict lasted 27 years, and involved thousands of Angolans forced to forfeit their youth. To ensure a better future for all, UNICEF in conjunction with the Angolan Government, and a network of child rights organizations, is establishing vital programmes to revitalize reintegration opportunities for children and adolescents in Angola. Through churches and NGOs, the Government, with support of the World Bank, will provide various forms of skills training and income generation projects for former soldiers. With time and money it is hoped ex-combatants can once more learn to live off their land, becoming self-sufficient and enjoying the deserved rewards of peace.

The new year is a momentous one for Angola. With peace comes enormous hope and responsibility. AID agencies can now venture into vast, previously inaccessible area of the country, opening up assistance to millions more Angolan children, often in dire need. Vital funds from the European Union, totally US$8.8million – targeted towards the critical sectors of health, education, nutrition and child protection – are indispensable if a fresh start is truly to be offered.

Perhaps the most fundamental component of lasting rehabilitation in Angola will be achieved by assisting all Angolan children to go to school and be educated, as children. In March this year, UNICEF launches its Back to School Campaign, aiming to integrate approximately 20 percent of all Angolan primary school age children presently out of the school system. War-affected children, including former child soldiers will be a priority, with a Peace and Life Education (ELP) programme specifically for out-of-school children in newly accessible areas and gathering areas. ELP aims to provide those children who have no access to formal classrooms with learning-through-playing opportunities. Children will be organized in small groups coordinated by local volunteers and will be able to work with materials that facilitate participatory learning. Meanwhile the Back to School Campaign will embrace and empower Angolan children, encouraging them to participate in affairs, enhancing their goals and self-esteem.

'Some will study hard and become lawyers, others we hope will become much needed teachers,' says Abubacar Sultan, UNICEF's child protection officer in Angola. 'And some like Frederico, harbour dreams of becoming doctors. Whichever path they take, UNICEF will endeavour to ensure they all enjoy the simple pleasures of childhood.'