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St. Cloud State University
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Children fight war
By Joe Palmersheim
Published:
Monday, October 28, 2002
A small crowd gathered to hear the Rev. Victor Mosele speak about the use of child soldiers in Sierra Leone's civil war.
Mosele was not discouraged, however.
"Well, the Lord Jesus made do with only twelve," he said.
A missionary in Sierra Leone for over 30 years, Mosele saw the horrors the country's 10-year civil war wreaked upon the people involved, especially the children.
The lecture began with Mosele explaining the difficulties of spreading the word of God.
"I was once told something at first I didn't believe, but then realized to be true," Mosele said. "The greatest obstacle to spreading Christianity is the Christians themselves. Just be yourselves��good Christian people."
The film Mosele showed was called, "Robbed Childhood: Child Soldiers," and it began with scenes juxtaposing children playing on a beach with children being beaten by soldiers.
There were about six thousand children employed as soldiers by the rebel faction (R.U.F). At a very young age, they were trained to kill and gouge out eyes using bayonets.
The civil war ended on July 7, 1999 when a cease-fire was arranged. Since that time, there has been an effort to return the child soldiers from the jungles to their families.
Missionaries, such as the Rev. Joseph Burton who was interviewed for the film, played a part in this effort which has brought about mixed results. Some children have no homes to go back to, and for others, parents can't be found.
There are also those whose parents don't want them back. Some have a long road of rehabilitation ahead because they are traumatized by what they have seen and done. At the time of the film, there were 225 children in foster homes.
These were mostly younger children, Burton said.
"When they reach fifteen, there really is no hope for them," he explained. "No one classifies a fifteen-year old as a child."
There was, however, a group of 45 children who had the opportunity to return back to the jungle to fight with rebels.
Six went back; the rest refused.
"These children refused to take an oath of violence," Burton said. "We must take it upon ourselves to show them a better future. They want to rebuild their lives."
The evening concluded with a question-and-answer session in which Mosele spoke of his own time of imprisonment (five months) by the rebel soldiers, and the details of his escape from the child soldiers guarding him.
