Forward Rwanda – Reintegrating Rwandese Child Soldiers

Suda Perera describes her recent experiences working with child ex-soldiers in Rwanda

Children in Kigali today can enjoy their childhood A young ex-soldier with his new family Boys in the Child Rehabilitation Centre in Muhazi performing a ceremonial dance

Kigali today is a far cry from the massacres and mayhem that plagued the 100 days of genocide in 1994, during which 1 million people were brutally beaten, raped and killed. Especially in April [which is when the Genocide began in 1994] there is an obvious sense of sorrow and mourning in the air, as people remember the horrors of what happened fourteen years ago. However, this does not obscure the fact that the country is rapidly developing. The Rwandan government is providing assistance to genocide survivors, promoting unity and reconciliation, and working to ensure peace and stability and encourage economic development and investment into Rwanda.

However, while working at the Rwanda Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission for two months, I realised that there is a whole generation of young people, still very much affected by conflict, who are receiving little or no help. Many charities are helping those children orphaned during the genocide, but often overlooked by the international community are those children whose families had fled Rwanda after 1994 to the Democratic Republic of Congo. These children are from the families of the perpetrators of the genocide, which in itself tends to deprive them of concern, but one must remember that they too are innocent victims. Often they have lost their parents [either their parents are killed, or they somehow get separated from them] and are left to fend for themselves in the hard conditions of the jungle. As such, many vulnerable children find themselves easily recruited, usually against their will, into the armed groups of the Congo; a violent, brutal and exploitative life devoid of basic necessities such as food, shelter and education and, perhaps most significantly, deprived of a childhood.

The government of Rwanda is currently working very hard to try and repatriate those Rwandese children fighting in the Congolese jungle, and while working for the Rwanda Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission, I was able to meet some recently repatriated child ex-combatants and learn about their traumatic experiences. “You don’t live in the jungles,” I was told by Fabien, a 17 year old boy formerly a young corporal in the Mai-Mai armed group, “You survive. It’s survive or die in the Congo.” We’re sat on a sheltered platform in the Child Rehabilitation Centre in Muhazi, a tranquil and tidy camp overlooking the beautiful Lake Muhazi, where recently repatriated child soldiers come to be rehabilitated before entering Rwandan civilian life. There are about 25 boys sitting round, drawing on maps for me and telling me about their experiences. They seem pretty happy and there’s an incredible sense of camaraderie between them. It’s hard to believe that some of these boys, just three or four months ago were killing, raping and looting – they just seem like young boys. It’s often easy to forget that those children, who unwillingly participate in war, are as much victims as those civilian children who are affected.