A year ago I was walking home to my village after gathering grain for my family and some men came along in a truck and two jumped out and grabbed me and pulled me into the truck. They showed me a gun and pushed me down in the back and told me to be quiet so I said nothing. That night I was locked up and they kept me that way for three days until I was starving hungry and they took me out and gave me a big feed. they laughed and told me that I was a man now because I was a soldier and if I tried to run I would be a traitor and I would be locked up again and killed. After that they taught me to shoot a big heavy gun and sometimes they went into a place where they killed people and I went with them. Sometimes we hid from other soldiers and I didn’t know them and didn’t know why I should hide.
A week ago we were walking to a place to kill people and take their food and suddenly there were other soldiers and they were shooting at us so we started running towards them and firing our guns. My best friend who was three months younger than me was shot and his arm came off but he didn’t know it because his belly was open and he didn’t move and my other friend went crazy and put his gun on continuous and screamed as he swung it round and I know it was going to cut me open but I saw a man shoot him, one of our men shooting his own soldier.
I don’t want to die because I’m only eleven and wonder what it is like to be a man and strong so you can do what you want but my mind is a little crazy too and maybe I do want to die. All the other children were killed but I ran away and hid and I don’t have a gun any more but I’ve got a uniform and they’ll know who I am. Who can help me? They looked real bad – my friends.
This is just a story but it reflects the life of hundreds of thousands of children, boys and girls, in the war zones of the world. Can you imagine how that would be? When you were 9 or 10, being taken away and forced to fight? Watching people kill and be killed and being forced to do the same. Not knowing when you were going to die. There will be more on my site, http:athousandarms.com and links to agencies trying deal with the problem and trying to rescue some of these poor mind-broken kids.