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4 - ‘Becoming RUF’: The making of a child soldier

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2010

Myriam Denov
Myriam Denov
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montréal
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Summary

I am beginning with the young. We older ones are used up … We are rotten to the marrow. We have no unrestrained instincts left … But my magnificent youngsters! Are there finer ones anywhere in the world? … Look at these young men and boys! What material! With them I can make a new world.

(Adolf Hitler, cited in Rempel 1989, p. 2)

The rebels attacked my village and I was separated from my parents … [They] threatened to kill me if I made any attempt to run away. I didn't want to die so I joined them. I was afraid of being around these dangerous men with all kinds of weapons … I had no mom, no dad, sister or brother … I was alone for the first time in my life.

(Boy)

The making of an RUF child soldier is undoubtedly a complex and multi-faceted process that occurred gradually over an extended period of time. This chapter sheds light on the important context in which this process of RUF militarization began, and the means through which the transmogrification of disoriented youngsters into often obedient and militarized members of the RUF deepened. Drawing upon participants' narratives, the chapter explores boys' and girls' experiences with recruitment and the militarized training they received.

Type
Chapter
Information
Child Soldiers
Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front
 , pp. 96 - 120
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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