Child Soldiers: a conversation with General Romeo Dallaire - I’m Just the Messenger | S3, Ep 4 — Transcript

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1. 0:00the youth were militia um were doing the
2. 0:04the bulk of the slaughtering child
3. 0:06soldiers boys and girls used and
4. 0:09exploited in war to Mark redand day
5. 0:12we'll talk to renowned Child Soldier
6. 0:13Advocate General Romeo deir and Child
7. 0:16Soldier expert Dr Shelley Whitman about
8. 0:18this ongoing crisis and how we can work
9. 0:21together to stop it
10. 0:23[Music]
11. 0:30the Rwanda genocide as we know was one
12. 0:32of the darkest chapters of the 20th
13. 0:34century and it's also a situation in
14. 0:37which you as a professional Soldier
15. 0:39first really
16. 0:40encountered the issue the problem of
17. 0:43child soldiers can you share a little
18. 0:45bit more about that experience it is
19. 0:49incredible that going into a conflict
20. 0:52Zone uh to hopefully Implement a peace
21. 0:56agreement and as a military un Force to
22. 1:00discover that uh the scale of use of
23. 1:04Youth children uh in the conflict can
24. 1:08throw you off realizing that they were
25. 1:10children uh and that the adults are very
26. 1:13willingly putting them in the front
27. 1:14lines and how do we handle that do we do
28. 1:17we actually uh use as with other
29. 1:21combatants uh lethal force that was one
30. 1:24of the major shocks that came out of it
31. 1:26plus the fact that the youth were
32. 1:29militia
33. 1:30um were doing the the bulk of the
34. 1:32slaughtering and so they were right in
35. 1:35the midst of it and how do you stop that
36. 1:37and ultimately uh at the International
37. 1:40Conference on protection of CH War
38. 1:43affected children in 2000 led by Lloyd
39. 1:46axworthy so on that I was able to
40. 1:49articulate more clearly uh this horrible
41. 1:53scenario of the Youth of children uh to
42. 1:56conduct and to sustain conflict many
43. 1:59Canadians might have the perception that
44. 2:01child soldiers or War affected children
45. 2:03are you know young boys that have been
46. 2:04kidnapped given a gun and forced to
47. 2:06fight but we know it's more complicated
48. 2:08than that right there's this imagery
49. 2:11that many have in their heads of a boy
50. 2:14with an AK-47 in an African context has
51. 2:17traditionally been the way that it's
52. 2:19been portrayed and even you know the
53. 2:22movies portray it that way Etc as well
54. 2:24in popular media and what we understand
55. 2:27is that actually it's far more pervasive
56. 2:30than that in terms of thinking through
57. 2:32this problem because on the one hand we
58. 2:35do have significant numbers of girls
59. 2:37that are recruited and used also and not
60. 2:41just for sexual purposes also being used
61. 2:43in combat functions and other functions
62. 2:46such as
63. 2:47indoctrination or um aspects related to
64. 2:51um suicide bombers Etc and and that's
65. 2:54something that we have uh witnessed but
66. 2:57I also wanted to make sure that
67. 2:59everybody understands that it's not just
68. 3:01about the child who's being used in a
69. 3:03Frontline context uh which is kind of
70. 3:06like the the ultimate worst case
71. 3:09scenario that we understand uh when we
72. 3:12think about it and from the perspective
73. 3:14that General deir was relaying but it is
74. 3:16also about all of those support
75. 3:18functions and it's the earlier
76. 3:20association with those armed groups that
77. 3:22we might need to do a lot more work can
78. 3:25you give us a sense as to why this
79. 3:27continues to happen today and how
80. 3:29prevalent it is we're talking of tens of
81. 3:33thousands of children uh of children and
82. 3:37of youths who are used and abused by
83. 3:41this recruitment into State and
84. 3:44non-state actors in conflicts around the
85. 3:48world and also uh those who are being
86. 3:51recruited into extremist
87. 3:53scenarios uh like Isis and so on so we
88. 3:57were into into Latin America we've seen
89. 4:00it in in like in Colombia or in the the
90. 4:04the Africa extensively you know from the
91. 4:07Congo to uh you to South Sudan to to
92. 4:11right now BM right we're we're involved
93. 4:14there that's why we created a a center
94. 4:16of excellence to in Africa to help uh
95. 4:19prevent that we we're into the Middle
96. 4:22East extensively we see the youth we
97. 4:24were in Jordan watching children being
98. 4:28recruited 13y olds being being recruited
99. 4:30into the free Syrian Army so it is it is
100. 4:34a
101. 4:35prevalent element of conflict of our era
102. 4:39and and uh the number of conflicts you
103. 4:41can go up to as far as 50 uh are nearly
104. 4:46all nearly everyone has a a youth or
105. 4:50children engagement at one point or
106. 4:52another in the conflict we actually have
107. 4:55data now that we understand that the
108. 4:59recruitment use of children prolongs a
109. 5:02war by at least three times as long if
110. 5:06we can prioritize the prevention of
111. 5:08their Recruitment and use of children we
112. 5:11can also shorten and even potentially
113. 5:14prevent conflict from happening in the
114. 5:16first place organizations like World
115. 5:18Vision are engaged in supporting child
116. 5:22soldiers and uh rehabilitating them you
117. 5:25know my own experience with World Vision
118. 5:26I've seen this firsthand in the Central
119. 5:28African Republic we have a series of
120. 5:30Peace clubs working with demobilized
121. 5:32children we've also seen how former
122. 5:35Child soldiers have been be able to put
123. 5:37on a different path through vocational
124. 5:39training through our rebound program in
125. 5:41places like the Eastern Democratic
126. 5:42Republic of the Congo uh General de tell
127. 5:45us a little bit about the work that the
128. 5:47Del Institute is doing to both prevent
129. 5:50child soldiers from being conscripted
130. 5:52and also helping former Child soldiers
131. 5:54it is very much oriented in re-educating
132. 5:57the the militaries and the Security
133. 6:00Forces police forces in the new think
134. 6:03regarding children and new Tactical
135. 6:05skills and knowledge of course as well
136. 6:08as building the communities and bringing
137. 6:11the military and the communities closer
138. 6:13together to be able to function
139. 6:15prevention is a key part to our work and
140. 6:17that's where we build capacity with uh
141. 6:21security sector actors so that they
142. 6:23understand their role in prevention
143. 6:25we're trying very much to get uh the
144. 6:28security sector to and they have a role
145. 6:30to become protectors and not just a role
146. 6:34as Warriors we're building that capacity
147. 6:37at a national level so it's their Buy in
148. 6:39they become the um teachers to
149. 6:43themselves on these matters they become
150. 6:45The Advocates they in and put it into
151. 6:48their doctorate into their training
152. 6:50systems and then they become those who
153. 6:52are advocating this to other countries
154. 6:54and nations in their regions we don't
155. 6:56work on Rehabilitation but we partner
156. 6:59with organizations like yours our piece
157. 7:01is creating that dialogue between the
158. 7:04security sector and the humanitarian and
159. 7:07human rights organizations and filling
160. 7:09an understanding where we can um create
161. 7:13a different uh approach to what
162. 7:16prevention means we created our training
163. 7:19materials to consult with former Child
164. 7:22soldiers would this have worked what
165. 7:24were the scenarios that you were
166. 7:26encountering Etc and that's at the very
167. 7:28heart of of our approach as well as
168. 7:31working with um security sector who've
169. 7:34been in these contexts what is your
170. 7:36message to Canadians about how we can
171. 7:38end this problem once and for all
172. 7:40Canadians have a leadership role in the
173. 7:44world in advancing the cause of the
174. 7:48children being the stabilizing elements
175. 7:53that ultimately can bring peace so there
176. 7:58there is a need to to take on things
177. 8:01like Canada did when Shelly was
178. 8:03instrumental in producing the Vancouver
179. 8:05principles uh on prevention of
180. 8:07recruitment of children and and in
181. 8:10conflicts that that Canada bought into
182. 8:13that and has been helping in moving that
183. 8:16declaration and we've got over a 100
184. 8:18countries involved but now it's it's a
185. 8:21matter of how do you how do you
186. 8:23implement this how do you operationalize
187. 8:25that and that that's where uh the will
188. 8:29of people has got to influence the
189. 8:31political
190. 8:32processes it is not an era of the high
191. 8:37technology purely classic use of force
192. 8:42and classic use of diplomacy that's
193. 8:44going to end these problems but in fact
194. 8:46it's something very very much more human
195. 8:49and much more down into the basics of
196. 8:53what a community is and that is how do
197. 8:56you protect your children the
198. 8:57realization that a priority prority of
199. 9:00our foreign policy and our defense
200. 9:02policy and our International Development
201. 9:04is how do you build the Youth of the
202. 9:08world the children of the world to be
203. 9:11the ambassadors and the emissaries and
204. 9:14the sustainment of Peace by getting them
205. 9:18not only protection but preventing them
206. 9:20from ultimately not being able to live
207. 9:23their full lives within the rights that
208. 9:25have been declared theirs uh by the UN
209. 9:29[Music]