ethnopolitical conflicts Keywords: violence, women and children - victims of armed confrontations

O. B. GROMOVA

Candidate of Historical Sciences

African children are becoming victims of armed conflict on a large scale. Tens of thousands of children and adolescents are killed as a result of military operations, are injured, maimed and mentally traumatized. Millions of children in "hot zones" become homeless, forcibly displaced and refugees who have lost contact with their parents and other people close to them.

In North Kivu Province (DRC), children accounted for the majority - 60% of all displaced persons. 150,000 children have fled with or separately from their parents from Darfur, Sudan, to Chad.¹ Defenseless children are exposed to all the hardships of war: lack of food, drinking water, disease, hunger, limited access to education, as well as to medical and humanitarian assistance. Hence the high rate of child mortality in both refugee camps and war zones.

One of the most serious consequences of political instability has been the mass orphanhood of African children - due to the death of their parents in war, death from AIDS or starvation, the breakdown of families, the loss of children while fleeing, or as a result of their abduction to be forcibly turned into soldiers or sex slaves. Thus, in Liberia, at the height of the armed conflict at the end of 1996, there were about 50 thousand dead children, 300 thousand of whom died. refugee children and almost 50 thousand orphans ². Abandoned children, orphans are forced to earn their own food. Thousands of young vagabonds congregate on the streets of cities - hungry, without protection or help from relatives or the community.

Closely linked to the practice of abducting children (in camps for displaced persons and refugees, in villages, schools, etc.), sexual violence against adolescents has become widespread in the general chaos and "madness of war". In addition, children, like women, are subjected to various forms of humiliation and exploitation, and are subjected to extreme brutality and sexual abuse by all opposing forces, in violation of international humanitarian law.

In Liberia, the escalation of civil conflict in 2003 was accompanied by an increase in abductions, rapes and forced recruitment of children, even ten-year-olds, as soldiers.

In villages in northern Uganda, parents tried to protect their children from attacks by the Lord's Salvation Army (LRA), kidnappings, and "mobilizations" by sending them overnight to the city, where young victims of the conflict remained on the streets until morning, sometimes in hospitals or similar institutions, and returned home in the morning. AFD rebels have abducted tens of thousands of children, mostly during raids on territories adjacent to their bases along the borders with the CAR, DRC and Sudan. After being tortured and abused, children were used as soldiers, sex slaves, servants, scouts, or "human goods". This armed group is also active in the north-east of the DRC, where it abducts children and forces them to kill, rob and maim civilians.

Overall, it is estimated that by the middle of the first decade of the twenty-first century, almost 120,000 children were forcibly drawn into armed conflicts in Africa.³

Girls increasingly became the main targets of abductions. The practice of selling girls as concubines was widespread in Angola, Burundi, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Uganda and the DRC. In Liberia, for example, many abducted girls became the" wives " of commanders, officers, and soldiers. Child prostitution has increased in areas of armed conflict. There are also cases (in Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, DRC, South Sudan) when teenagers 14-15 years and younger were victims of sexual harassment by humanitarian workers and UN peacekeepers.

The challenges that girls have faced and continue to face during the armed conflict include physical and psychological violence, hard work in displaced persons ' camps and rebel bases, and poor health, especially due to early pregnancy in the event of rape. In Burundi, the majority asked for-

Ending. For the beginning, see "Asia and Africa Today", 2010, N 8.

The girls killed by the militants were schoolgirls under the age of 15. In the DRC, UN experts estimate that 65% of all victims of sexual violence were adolescents, mostly girls, and 10% of victims were children under the age of 10 ^.4

As a result of rape, often gang rape, subsequent pregnancy and the birth of a child, girls suffer from injuries and severe reproductive diseases. They are also at great risk of becoming infected with HIV and AIDS. Young girls are often targeted for abuse not only because they are vulnerable, but also because of the erroneous assumption that they are not infected with sexually transmitted diseases and that sex with them can cure AIDS. The lives of young victims tend to be tragic: they are abandoned by their families, rejected by the community. Moreover, they are still children themselves, and they are forced to raise the child on their own.

CHILDREN GO TO WAR

The phenomenon of child soldiers has been a real disaster for African countries. An unprecedented number of children in conflict zones are systematically and actively used as "cannon fodder"by both insurgents and Government armies. Human Rights watch estimates that Africa accounts for almost a third of the world's child soldiers, and that the largest" children's " army was operating in the DRC until recently.⁵

In some conflict-affected countries, children accounted for a significant proportion of those involved in the fighting, despite the fact that the practice of abducting and forcibly recruiting persons under the age of 18 is in direct violation of international humanitarian law and international conventions on the rights of children.⁶ In Liberia, UNICEF estimates that one in ten children was involved in military operations during the civil war.⁷ In Chad, the heads of displaced persons camps forcibly removed boys aged 9-15 from their parents to sell to armed groups or the militia to turn them into soldiers. Thousands of refugee children from camps in eastern Chad have been recruited by both the rebels and the Government army, even in the presence of EU troops (EUFOR).

Fighters of the Sudanese Janjaweed militia made their way from Darfur to Chad to recruit boys. UNICEF estimates that almost 10,000 children ^were forcibly "mobilized" there in 2008.8 In Sierra Leone, children accounted for up to 12% of the rank and file of rebel groups during the civil war.⁹ Thousands of forcibly recruited Sierra Leonean children from 6 to 17 years of age, armed, drugged, participated in violent crimes.¹⁰

In countries such as Angola, Burundi, DRC, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda, Liberia, Ethiopia, and Mozambique, abductions, sexual violence, and the recruitment of children, sometimes as young as 7 or 8 years old, were common during internal conflicts. In Burundi, Tutsi youth military units were formed from children and adolescents.

In mid-2006, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent a report to the Security Council on the situation of children in Sudan, in which he drew attention to the egregious facts of their killing and maiming, recruitment into armed groups as soldiers, as well as sexual abuse and abduction. Gross violations of children's rights were reported not only in western and southern Sudan, but also in the country as a whole, and the national armed forces, the Sudan National Liberation Army, the Janjaweed militia, the AFD and the Chadian opposition forces were identified as perpetrators. The South Sudanese authorities were directly responsible for the recruitment and use of children in the Sudan National Liberation Army. ¹¹

In Angola and Mozambique, child soldiers who were previously abducted during raids on villages and separated from their families fought throughout the long years of civil war. In Mozambique, the RENAMO rebel group held more than 10,000 children in its ranks, even as young as 6 years old.¹²

In the DRC, the conflicting parties used child soldiers for their own purposes, in every possible way preventing international humanitarian organizations from defending their rights and withdrawing them from the conflict zone. In the east of the country, at the epicenter of the conflict, children accounted for up to 40% of the personnel of some armed groups.¹³

Child soldiers took part in military operations not only on the territory of their own country, but also in neighboring States. In the West African region, for example, child soldiers from Liberia were recruited to fight in the armed conflict in Côte d'Ivoire. Given the transparency of most African State borders, when fighting resumes in one of the countries in the region, the transfer of child soldiers to another conflict-prone area is quite easy.

Children who are in the power of kidnappers have a limited choice: to be killed or join the ranks of the rebels (militia) and start killing themselves. Escape attempts usually end badly, and children who are caught are tortured and killed. Their "consent" to "voluntary" participation in military operations, robbery, acts of violence and reprisals against civilians is explained not only by the instinct of self-preservation and fear for their lives, but also by the poor state of the family, loneliness, orphanhood, and often the desire inherent in boys to experience the "risk of war", to become an " infusion-

a strong man, a fearless fighter, as opposed to" weak " civilians. Children who have experienced suffering are often willing to bring it to others.

Teenagers abducted in early childhood and living among soldiers in an environment of violence for more than one year have witnessed reprisals against their parents, murders of fellow tribesmen and other acts of cruelty. Under the influence of circumstances, they turned into criminals, murderers, robbers, rapists and drug addicts.

Russian journalist V. Ivlieva tells about her meeting with a Ugandan boy who spent seven months with the AFD rebels, who confessed: "I still don't know how many people I killed. How can you tell whose last stick hit was?.. After all, we were told to beat the whole crowd, and each time-to death. " ¹⁴

Thus, in the conflict zone, a young generation is being formed - illiterate, without education or any professional skills, but for which the Kalashnikov becomes an essential item, giving boys confidence in their abilities and faith in permissiveness. Given the abundance and availability of Kalashnikovs, children quickly become soldiers, but they are inexperienced, undisciplined and pose a security threat not so much to the "enemy" as to the civilian population. Child soldiers are associated with aggression, growing up, and maturity. What separates them from the world of childhood, from which they have not yet emerged, is the possession of weapons and the right to kill. But physically and psychologically, they cannot, as adults, be held accountable for their actions. The existence of child soldiers, who are both victims and criminals, shows a serious undermining of traditional social and moral foundations.

The demobilization of thousands of underage soldiers after the resolution of the conflict, which, moreover, did not always mean the establishment of genuine peace, did not lead to an end to violence, brutality against children and their forced or voluntary recruitment into opposition armed groups or the Government army. In Chad, where the demobilization of child soldiers began after a peace agreement was reached between the Government and various rebel groups, the resumption of conflict in late 2007 led to a suspension of this process and an increase in the number of newly recruited children. First of all, this concerns remote areas on the border with Sudan, where more than 250 thousand Darfurian refugees are concentrated.

In the DRC, after the signing of the peace agreement in 2006, about 18,000 children were "removed" through the mediation of the UN peacekeeping contingent from opposition armed groups. At the same time, a significant part of them, not wanting to hand over their weapons, remained in the province of North Kivu15. Faced with poor living conditions in transit camps for the demobilized, insufficient nutrition, and problems of post - war life - domestic difficulties, poverty, unemployment, lack of prospects, and the cruel attitude of others-children again "signed up" for military detachments and went to war. Some were sent as mercenaries to other unstable regions-Liberia, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Sierra Leone. Thus, for a huge number of teenagers, war turned into a "way of survival".

Children who, for some reason, have not been able to take up arms again after the conflict has been resolved, continue to engage in their "usual" business of looting and violence against the civilian population. It is precisely because of children-former soldiers and war criminals-that the parameters of violence have dramatically expanded since the end of the wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the DRC16. Faced with the realities of violent daily life, children who are former participants in armed conflicts easily return to violence and prostitution, forming the backbone of urban criminal gangs and groups engaged in illegal business.

The military experience had a severe impact on the physical and moral condition of children who were in military detachments and knew no other life than robbery, robbery and violence. An entire generation in countries like Sierra Leone and Liberia grew up in civil wars that lasted more than 10 years. Child soldiers, witnesses to the horrors of war crimes and" heroes " of violence, cannot easily put aside their past and remain the most vulnerable members of society, often suffering from serious mental disorders. The emotional anxiety, anxiety, emptiness, and guilt they experience are often compensated for by aggression. They do not adhere to African traditions of respect and reverence for their elders, which is reflected, in particular, in numerous cases of rape of adult women. The participation of children in military operations has negative consequences not only for them, but also for the whole society, which is afraid of recent underage fighters who are accustomed to respect only the force of arms. It is difficult to integrate such children into peaceful life, to force them to study and work.

The negative impact of prolonged armed conflict on children requires the authorities to take effective measures to demobilize and disarm them. The challenge of bringing thousands of children back to normal life is daunting, starting with their reunion, if possible, with their parents.-

They are now responsible for the re-education of former soldiers.

In Sierra Leone, one of the goals of the Parliamentary commission for the investigation of crimes committed during the civil war, established in 2000, was to develop and implement rehabilitation programs for those involved in the conflict. During the peace period, fearing that children might be recruited into some armed groups in their own or neighboring countries, the authorities began to send them to special rehabilitation camps for six months, where treatment, primary school education, and vocational training (sewing, construction, auto mechanics, etc.) were organized for children. [ due to a lack of funds, the scale of activities of these centers was insignificant.

There were also special shelters for orphaned children who lost their parents during the war. They could also receive basic vocational training and psychological support there. Young mothers were trained in child care skills.

A child psychological rehabilitation center also operated in one of the northern regions of Uganda. Various segregations and social organizations in different countries participated in the creation of centers to provide children who returned from the war with the necessary medical and psychological assistance, as well as the opportunity to learn literacy and the basics of a profession.

It should be noted that local communities are involved in the social reintegration of demobilized children in some regions - Sierra Leone, Liberia, and South Sudan. Community and large-family structures, committees of elders, and religious societies play a significant role in organizing school education and vocational training for children, as well as in preventing re-recruitment into armed groups.

There is no doubt that the effective implementation of government programs for the rehabilitation of direct participants in armed conflicts directly depends on the opportunities provided to them by the State to obtain education, employment, vocational training and medical care.

African Governments have the primary responsibility to address the challenges of protecting children's rights, as required by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children, adopted in 1990 and entered into force in 1999. But the countries of the region that have survived armed conflicts and wars will not do without the support and assistance of the international community represented by the UN and its divisions - UNICEF, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), etc., as well as international humanitarian and human rights organizations.

Currently, thanks to the efforts of the African and international communities to resolve and prevent political conflicts, there is a slight decrease in tension and a reduction in military operations on the continent. At the same time, there are still many socio-political and economic factors that can ignite new or exacerbate old conflicts and contradictions in different parts of the continent, and lead to the destabilization of the political situation. New conflicts, if they arise, will serve as a basis for the resumption of violence against women and children. In the hope that all armed conflicts on the continent will be resolved as soon as possible and definitively, the African Union has declared 2010 the "Year of Peace and Security" in Africa. The AU calls for finding new ways and means to overcome the differences that lead to rampant violence. Among them are the acceleration of democratization processes, the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, and the active involvement of women in the socio-political and economic life of individual countries and the continent as a whole. There is a clear need to strengthen international mechanisms for protecting the most vulnerable groups in African society, and to strengthen inter-African and international cooperation in providing assistance and support to women and children who are victims of military conflicts.

¹ African research bulletin. Political, socialand culturalseries. Exeter, 2008. Vol. 45. N 6. P. 17581; N 11. P. 17768.

² What women do in wartime. L., N.Y., 1998. P. 134.

³ African research bulletin... 2006. Vol. 43. N 5. P. 16668.

⁴ www.HRW.org

⁵ Ibid.

⁶ Most African countries have a minimum age of 18 years for military recruitment. In Angola, it is reduced to 17 years, in Burundi and Rwanda to 15-16 years (for volunteers), and Uganda allows admission to the army from the age of 13 with parental consent. In South Africa, children from the age of 15 can be used directly in an armed conflict when declaring a state of emergency. Mozambique has lowered the wartime age limit to 18. - African research bulletin... 2006. Vol. 43. N 5. P. 16667.

⁷ UN. Economic and Social Council. Advisory services and technical cooperation in the field of human rights. E/CN.4/2004/113. 16 February 2004. N.Y., 2004. P. 3.

⁸ African research bulletin... 2008. Vol. 45. N 6. P. 17581;...2009. Vol. 46. N 4. P. 17947.

⁹ Beyond to cooperate: conflict, peace and people in Sierra-Leone. Geneva, 2000. P. 114.

¹⁰ African research bulletin... 2006. Vol. 43. N 5. P. 16667.

¹¹ Kompas, Moscow, 2006, No. 35. From 59, 60.

¹² IDS Bulletin. Oxford, 2009. Vol. 40. N 1. P. 63.

¹³ African research bulletin... 2007. Vol. 41. N 10. P. 17256.

¹⁴ Iskusstvo voiny [Art of War], Moscow, 2008, No. 2 (7), p.62.

¹⁵ www.UNICEF.org; African research bulletin... 2009. Vol. 46. N 4. P. 17947.

¹⁶ UNICEF, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organizations are also working to address the problems of African children affected by armed conflict. UNICEF, for example, works continuously to free children associated with warring parties and search for lost families, and provides assistance to children through disarmament and demobilization measures, as well as providing them with food, medical treatment, psychosocial support, and rehabilitation. - African research bulletin... 2008. Vol. 45. N 6. P. 17578.

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