News When Children See War As Better Than Peace

[MyPTSD]

For most people, the end of a war offers relief, hope, and an end to violence. This may not be the case for children born of wartime rape, however, who often endure continued brutality in the post-war period.

Dead Link Removed

 

[Deadman]

When I was in Rwanda the government had a unit of children who were orphaned by the genocide. If I recall correctly they were officially designated as 99 Brigade. We called them Hell's Children. They knew nothing but war. The few I managed to talk to all said they didn't know how they would survive if there wasn't war.

 

[Freedomfighter]

Yeah, those children do not really know what a normal life is. That goes on in so many countries, drilling the kids to be soldiers at a very early age.

It is disheartening when watching such developments.

 

[Friday]

What pisses me off about this article is the repeated concept of "perceptions".

The fact that children and youth identify the state of war and captivity -- when violence, upheaval, starvation, deprivation and ongoing terror were at its height -- as better than life during peacetime is highly disconcerting and demonstrates the extent of their perceived post-war marginalization," says Professor Denov, a leading expert on war-affected children and author of Child Soldiers: Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front.

The findings underscore the need for support services to reverse the perception that war is better than peace. Specifically, youths stressed the need for livelihood programs targeting their socioeconomic marginalization, support for school fees, psychosocial support and community sensitization and reconciliation programs.

It's not a perception, when it's a fact, for a whole helluva lot of kids; their lives were better in every conceivable way.

When your life is equally at risk, now & then? The idea of peacetime being safe is pure bullshit. It's not safer, when your life is either still at risk, or in a lot of cases at more risk. In no small part because now you're alone, have no backup, and just as many -if not more- people hate you and want you dead; and the vast majority are given free rein to take out all their wartime grievances on you. A helluva lot of NGOs relocate child soldiers, just because of that, and whether that actually lessens the immediate threat to life varies depending on who you talk to / where they're sent / luck more than anything else. But they're still largely... Alone. Which is a cruelty a lot of adult soldiers don't survive, being cut off from the pack. Much less kids who always had pack.

So what are the other factors in play, if peacetime doesn't equal safety & security? Maslows basic needs? Taken care of during war, not taken care of during peacetime. How is that better? It's not. Respect, responsibility, reliability? Have it during war, but relegated to being "just a child" during peace? FFS. The average wartime 10yo I would trust more than a suburban 30yo.

One can just keep on ticking items down the list. When *everything* or *very nearly* is better? That ain't perception. That's fact.

Changing the perceptions ??? f*ck that. Change the facts.

***

What's curious to me about the article is it saying that there's not a lot of research done on rape babies lives after war. Maybe comparatively? But Asia has *tons* of research into it. Granted, most Asian countries are a lot more racist than most western countries. Not just talking Asian/White children left over for the French & American wars in Asia, but the countless incursions by Asian nations into other Asian nations. Japan & Korea are in the front of my head, but the Khmer Rouge, & other genocides also leap readily to mind. So maybe they just mean English / Western research? Or very specifically African research (and since the DRC has been a clusterf*ck for generations, now, and some years the birth rate is in the 80s & 90s as being rape based, there's no damn excuse // except, you know, it's hard to collate data when people are shooting at you, and hey, TIA. Different rules always apply). IDK.

 

[Deadman]

They have to say perception. Its not palatable for NGOs that it may be possible for these kids to be better off during war. Unfortunately it is very difficult to change the situation. What skills do you offer a kid in a country like SL when all he/she knows is war? Many can't read or write. Unemployment is high. Guns rule and they have guns.

 

[Deleted member 28740]

US, nephews have only known war through media, but that has been their entire life through media and politics. How they view war and the impact, they love to play video games. The reality of the impact of war on real live humans is not comprehended.