Always underdogs…

Kamna Arora A Chinese proverb says, “One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade.” However, circumstances prevailing in some countries are set to reframe this proverb to, “One generation does the blunder; another bears its brunt.” Thirty-seven million children are trapped in conflict zones, according to a letter organised by Save the Children and signed by 31 Nobel Peace Prize laureates on November 20, 2008, to mark the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The letter said, "War and conflict are perpetrated by adults. But every adult was once a child and grew up with experiences and guidance that shaped their lives.” According to the United Nations Children`s Fund (UNICEF) representative to Sri Lanka Philippe Duamelle, thousands of children are trapped in the Lankan war zone, including about 100 child soldiers recruited by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). During Israel`s recent devastating 22-day onslaught on the Gaza Strip, nearly 257 children were killed and 1,080 injured, the UN figures reveal. According to a 2005 report, the Lord`s Resistance Army, formed in 1987, has abducted over 30,000 children to force them to work as soldiers, some of whom have been killed in battlefields, and others used as labourers and sex slaves since the group’s inception. In 2000, out of around 1.7 million civilians killed in conflicts in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, one-third were children. These are just some of the many instances where children experience the trauma of living in a war zone. After all, what can a child do after being caught in the crossfire of a war between nations, or conflict between government and rebels? Childhood is the window of hope and promise. But a brutalised childhood provides fodder for militias and rebel movements. For instance, in Gaza, successive generations of children have grown up with violence due to their ‘country’s’ conflict with Israel. It was in the late 1980s when many children pelted stones at Israeli soldiers marking a “rebellion against occupation”. The imprints of violence on innocent hearts became darker year after year from then on. In the second uprising that started in 2000, some of the children were reportedly recruited by Hamas as suicide bombers. They were ready to take revenge on the generation that spoiled their lives. But in the process, they prepared the ground for another generation to become suicide bombers. In an informal chat, a 13-year-old boy from Gujarat revealed that he wants to become a policeman, not to protect citizens but to kill people belonging to that religious community whose members killed his parents and raped his sister during the communal riots in 2002. Responding to the question as to why he wants to become a policeman to kill people, he candidly said that a police officer cannot be questioned. Is this what we call the future of a nation? Wars leave scars in the memories of children that can never be erased, they only deepen with time. Young minds that are eager to understand mathematical calculations learn to count dead bodies. Their tender hearts learn hatred. The symbols of peace become the ugly face of violence. In their age of playing with toys, the young ones learn to hide from missiles and gun shots. When they should be learning how to forgive, they start learning how to avenge. Their innocence goes missing somewhere in the world of bloodshed and cruelty. Rather than using their wits, violence becomes their normal way of tackling ordinary challenges of life. Children are the most defenceless victims of any conflict. A number of non-governmental organisations and documentary film directors have tried to convey the pain of children caught in the crosshairs of conflict. But ultimately, what has been done and what can be done? Young kids find themselves nowhere on the agenda of rulers. Why? In a democracy, they do not make a party’s vote bank. Unfortunately, leaders forget that these very children will decide their fate in the coming years. In other forms of government, children are seen as easy targets, who can be moulded into any form to serve their agenda. Whether they die or stay alive, children who witness a war are always losers. If they die, they lose life and if they survive, they lose peace. After war, shattered buildings can be rebuilt, houses can be made again, wounds can be healed, adults can understand the conflict, complications and reasons associated with them; but children… for them, the tale of war teaches them a lesson that is too scary to remember.