[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 90 (Wednesday, June 16, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4976-S4977]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CHILD SOLDIERS
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, in December of 2008, the Trafficking
Victims Protection Reauthorization Act became law. The act includes a
provision that I put in the bill with Senator Sam Brownback, Republican
of Kansas, to address the problem of child soldiers, specifically the
Child Soldier Prevention Act.
The goal of this language was simple and straightforward: U.S.
military assistance should not go to finance the use and exploitation
of children in armed conflict. The law not only expresses American
values by rejecting any use of child soldiers by foreign governments,
but also provides leverage through our Foreign Military Assistance
Program to encourage governments to address this heinous practice.
Moreover, under the Child Soldiers Accountability Act and Human
Rights Enforcement Act, it is unlawful to knowingly provide material
support to the use of child soldiers. Tragically, according to Amnesty
International, hundreds of thousands of children around the world are
still being used as child soldiers. These boys and girls wield
automatic weapons on the front lines of combat. They serve as human
mine detectors. They participate in suicide missions. They carry
supplies, they act as spies, messengers, lookouts, and sex slaves. They
endanger their own health and the lives of others and sacrifice their
childhood in the process.
As chairman of the Judiciary Committee's Human Rights and the Laws
Subcommittee, one of the first hearings we held was focused on the
scourge of child soldiers. We heard moving testimony from a remarkable
young man named Ishmael Beah. Mr. Beah is a former child soldier from
Sierra Leone and author of the best selling book, ``A Long Way Gone:
Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.''
Some Americans may recall this book because it was featured at
Starbucks for a long period of time. You find it at bookstores as well.
I will never forget what Mr. Beah told the Human Rights Subcommittee,
and I want to quote him. Here is what he said:
When you go home tonight to your children, your cousins,
and your grandchildren, and watch them carrying out their
various childhood activities, I want you to remember that at
that same moment, there are countless children elsewhere who
are being killed, injured; exposed to extreme violence and
forced to serve in armed groups, including girls who are
raped . . . As you watch your loved ones, those children you
adore most, ask yourselves whether you would want these kinds
of suffering for them. If you don't, then you must stop this
from happening to other children around the world whose lives
and humanity are as important and of the same value as all
children everywhere.
We have a moral obligation to respond to Mr. Beah's challenge.
Children suffer high mortality, disease, and injury rates that are
higher in combat situations than adults. The lasting effects of war and
abuse remain with them long after the shooting stops. Both girls and
boys are stigmatized and traumatized by their experience, and left with
neither family connections nor skills to allow them to transition
successfully to productive adult life.
Over the last decade, 2 million children have died in armed
conflict--10 years, 2 million children died in armed conflict, 6
million injured.
Further troubling is that children have served as soldiers for
governments that have in the past received the assistance of the U.S.
Government. With the passage of the Child Soldier Prevention Act, my
hope was that this practice would come to an end.
Imagine my surprise when I saw on the front page of the New York
Times this week that Somalia's transitional federal government, which
the U.S. supports financially as part of its larger counterterrorism
strategy, is brazenly using child soldiers. Mr. President, I know you
have a young son and you probably saw this photograph. But imagine, if
you will, two young boys, identified in this photograph in Somalia, 12-
year-old Adan Ugas, and 15-year-old Ahmed Hassan, holding automatic
military weapons and working for the transitional Federal Government of
Somalia.
When I was a little boy, 12, 10, we used to play with guns, but they
were all toys. This is the real thing. These are children. As Ishmael
Beah said: Try to picture your son or daughter in that situation, their
childhood robbed and scarred for life from being drawn into horrific
violence.
The fact that they are working for a military financed by the United
States is appalling. In fact, according to human rights groups and the
United Nations, the Somali Government is fielding hundreds of children
on the front lines, some as young as 9 years old. A Somali Government
official quoted in the Times article said: We were trying to find
anyone who could carry a gun.
I read that article. It talked about these little boys who, the guns
were so heavy, they were switching the strap from one shoulder to the
next. They were talking about these little boys with these automatic
weapons challenging people in vehicles to stop or they would shoot
them.
They asked one of these little boys: What do you really love in life?
He said: I love my gun. A Somali Government official acknowledged the
fact that this is happening, an official of a government which we are
supporting.
I understand Somalia is in a difficult neighborhood in the world, and
one of the most dangerous places. It is trying to emerge from years of
lawlessness, and the fledgling government does need support. I have met
with refugees who have fled the chaos of Somalia in hopes of a better
life.
In fact, this last Saturday I met with refugees in Chicago from
Somalia. But the law is clear. American tax dollars must not be used to
fund the use of child soldiers. Period. I urge the Department of State
and the Department of Defense to immediately halt the U.S. support for
any such activities and to work with the Somali Government to terminate
the use of child soldiers, and reintegrate these children back into a
normal, peaceful family life.
I have written our Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and urged her
to recognize that though the Somali transitional government is trying
to bring some measure of stability to their war-torn country, it should
not do so on the backs of its most precious commodity, its children,
and certainly not with the help of American taxpayers.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record
a letter to Secretary Clinton on this topic.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
June 16, 2010.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
Department of State, Washington, DC.
Dear Secretary Clinton: I write with great concern over a
June 14 report in the New York Times that U.S. military
financing to the Somali Transitional Federal Government is
being used to pay for the use of child soldiers. Such
assistance would appear to be in violation of the Child
Soldier Prevention provision of the Trafficking Victims
Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 which prohibits U.S.
military assistance to governments of a country that use
child soldiers. Moreover, under the Durbin-Coburn Child
Soldiers Accountability Act and the Durbin-Coburn Human
Rights Enforcement Act, it is unlawful to knowingly provide
material support to the use of child soldiers.
As you know, the tragic use of child soldiers continues to
a problem around the world. Amnesty International estimates
that globally more than 250,000 children are fighting in
active conflicts. These young boys and girls fight on front
lines of combat, serve as human mine detectors, participate
in suicide missions, carry supplies, and act as spies,
messengers, lookouts, and sex slaves--endangering their
health and lives. Quite simply, they are robbed of their
childhoods.
Furthermore, the lasting effects of war and abuse remain
with them for years--too often for a lifetime. Former child
soldiers are stigmatized and traumatized by their experience
and left with neither family connections nor skills to allow
them to transition successfully into productive adult lives.
We should be doing everything we can to not only end military
support for governments that engage in this troubling
practice, but to also
[[Page S4977]]
help such children reintegrate into their families and
society.
I recognize that the Somali Transitional Federal Government
is trying to bring some measure of stability to that war torn
country. However, it should not do so on the backs of its
precious children, and certainly not with the help of the
American taxpayer.
Thank you for looking into this matter.
Sincerely,
Richard J. Durbin,
U.S. Senator.
____________________