Girl, Interrupted

Put the movie and Wynona Ryder out of your head for a moment and try to remember what your life was like as a teenager here in the U.S…I can’t speak for the boys, but for us girls, it often consisted of loud music, shopping malls, fast food, and daily commiseration with BFFs (best friends forever) as to the generally sad state of adolescence.

I met someone in the course of my ICC advocacy this past spring—a fifteen year-old girl from an eastern village in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in Central Africa. For security and privacy reasons, I’ll call her Shuku. She was vibrant and beautiful, with a noticeable grace and maturity that far exceeded her age. I don’t think Shuku has seen “Girl, Interrupted,” but if she had, I wonder what she would think of the challenges that the young American girls in that movie faced. I think she would laugh her contagious laugh and tell me something in French (her second language) that would remind me why she’s like no other girl I’ve met. Shuku’s experiences as a teenager haven’t consisted of shopping malls and fast food. Shuku is a former girl soldier.

The DRC is the third largest country in the continent of Africa. It shares its borders with Central African Republic (CAR), Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, and the Republic of the Congo (also known as Congo Brazzaville). The International Criminal Court (ICC) is currently investigating mass atrocities in three of these neighboring countries(Sudan, Uganda, and the Central African Republic). The ongoing violence in the DRC is also the subject of an ICC investigation; the trial of Congolese rebel leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is currently underway in The Hague. The charges? The use and recruitment of child soldiers.

The DRC gained its independence from Belgium in 1964. The years following independence were not free of violence. But the past twelve years have been particularly devastating for the people of the DRC. Since 1996 the DRC has been brutalized by two wars. The First Congo War took place from 1996 to 1997, when then President Mobutu Sese Seko was overthrown. The Second Congo War erupted in 1998 and “ended” in 2003 when the Transitional Goverment took over (I put ended in quotes because violence continues to break out in the DRC, particularly in the East). The Second Congo War was one of the deadliest in modern African history and has been called the “African World War.” The War engulfed eight different African countries and over 20 armed rebel groups. Nearly 4 million people died from violence, starvation, and disease. Millions more have been displaced and have set record (forced) migration numbers. The DRC is home to the largest United Nations peacekeeping mission in the world.

The DRC situation was the ICC’s first investigation and was initiated at the request of the DRC government in 2004. On January 29th of this year, Mr. Lubanga Dyilo was charged with three counts of enlisting, forcibly recruiting, and sending child soldiers into combat, all war crimes under the ICC’s Rome Statute. Some ICC opponents and proponents alike have criticized the Court for charging Mr. Lubanga Dyilo, the founder and leader of the rebel group Union de Patriotes Congolais (UPC), only with charges relating to child soldiers. Some rights activists argue (correctly) that these charges do not cover rape and other forms of sexual violence to which girl soldiers in particular have been subjected. The ICC can definitely do more to include gender-based crimes in charges against individuals like Mr. Lubanga Dyilo. Still, I’m compelled to point out that the lack of additional charges against Mr. Lubanga Dyilo in no way detracts from the singular heinousness of forcing an eleven year-old to fight, machete in hand, on the front lines.

I’m also encouraged by the fact that since the beginning of the case, the Court’s Chief Prosecutor, Mr. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has made clear that the investigation in the DRC is ongoing and Mr. Lubanga Dyilo will likely not be the last suspect to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the DRC case (check out my IJ Wire for the latest story on forthcoming DRC indictments).

I am proud to say that the ICC is not alone in tackling the use of child soldiers in armed conflict. On April 19^th, Senator Richard Durbin (D-Il) introduced a Bill called the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2007. The Bill has 19 Co-sponsors—both Democrat and Republican—and aims to limit U.S. military aid and training to governments that use children in hostilities. The week after the Bill was introduced, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, which Senator Durbin chairs, addressed the issue of child soldiers and heard testimony from leading child rights groups. The Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee has shown commendable leadership on the issue of child soldiers. Now it’s our turn. Here are three things you can do in less than five minutes that will send a clear message: Americans will not stand for the use of children in armed conflict, anywhere.

1. Check out www.ajedika.org. AJEDI-Ka is a DRC-based non-profit organization that is dedicated to demobilizing and reintegrating child soldiers in DRC and neighboring countries. Make sure to click on the clip of the documentary, “Duty to Protect: Justice for Child Soldiers in the DRC” (produced by AJEDI-Ka Executive Director and filmmaker Bukeni Beck).

2. Find your Senators’ phone numbers at www.senate.gov and tell them to support the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2007. It’s time we use our foreign aid leverage in a positive way. Click here for the latest status of the Bill.

3. Educate yourself: set up a Google News Alert with the keywords “child soldiers” and get the latest news and analysis from sources like Human Rights Watch, World Vision, and the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers.

This blog is dedicated to Shuku, whose grace and bravery continues to humble an inspire me. Merci Beaucoup, Shuku.