[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.

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