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War has always been brutal. It has always ruined the lives of soldiers and has always brought suffering to civilians. But in recent year’s wars has changed its face. Today’s wars are mainly civil wars, wars between opposing groups of citizens of the same country. And civil wars often last longer, leave the population more traumatized and destroy countries more thoroughly than wars fought between nations. “Civil wars are cruel, bloody operations that result in thousands of deaths, sexual assaults, and forced exile and in the most extreme cases, genocide”. Indeed, when neighbours are pitted against neighbours, the wounds may take centuries to heal.
Since the end of the cold war relatively few wars have been fought between national armies. “All but three of the major armed conflicts registered from 1990-2000 were internal.” Granted, internal conflicts may seem less threatening and may be largely ignored by the international media but the pain and destruction caused by such hostilities are devastating all the same. Millions of people have died in internal conflicts. In fact, during the last two decades nearly five million people lost their lives in just three war-torn countries- Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan. In the Balkans, fierce ethnic fighting cost the lives of almost 250,000 people and prolonged guerrilla warfare in Colombia which has left 100,000 dead.
Nowhere is the brutality of civil war more evident than in its effect on children. During the last decade over two million children lost their lives in civil conflict, according to the UNHCR. Another six million were wounded. A growing number of children have been turned into soldiers. Says a one-child soldier: “they gave me training. They gave me a gun. I took drugs. I killed civilians, lots. It was just war….. I only took orders. I knew it was bad. It was not my wish.”
Many children in countries where civil war has become a way of life are growing up without ever having known peace. They live in a world where dialogue takes place through the mouths of guns. 14-year old Siaka says, “So many people have been killed. No longer can you hear the singing of birds, only the sound of the children crying for a lost mother or father, a brother or a sister.” What fuels the fires of such cruel civil wars? Ethnic and tribal hatred, religious differences, injustices and political turmoil are all significant factors. Another root cause is greed-greed for power and greed for money. Political leaders often motivated by greed, stir up the hatred that fuels the fighting. A report published by SIPRI states that many participants in armed conflict “are motivated by personal gain.” The report adds, “Greed is manifested in many forms from the large-scale diamond trading by military and political leaders to village-pillage by youth with guns”. The ready availability of cheap but lethal weapons adds to the carnage. About 500,000 deaths a year, mainly women and children are attributed to so called, small arms. In one African country an AK-47 assault rifle can be bought for the price of a chicken. Sad to say in some places rifles are becoming almost as plentiful as these domestic birds. Worldwide there are now an estimated 500 million small arms and light weapons- 1 for every 12 persons alive. In low tech but brutal civil wars 90 percent of the casualties are civilians rather than combatants. “It is clear that increasingly, children are targets not incidental casualties of armed conflict.” Says Graca Machel, the United Nations Secretary General’s Expert on the impact of armed conflict on children.
Rape has become a military tactic. In some war torn areas, insurgents rape virtually every adolescent girl found in the village they overrun. The goal of such rapists is to spread panic or to destroy family ties. Famine and disease follow in the wake of war. A civil war means that few crops will get planted and harvested, few if any medical services will function and little international aid will get to the needy. One study of an African civil war revealed that 20 percent of the casualties died from disease and 78 percent from hunger. Only 2 percent died as a direct result of the fighting.
On an average every 22 minutes someone loses a limb or his life by stepping on land mine. There are an estimated 60 million to 70 million land mines scattered about 60 countries. People are forced to flee their homes. Around the world there are now 50 million refugees and displaced persons half of them children. “We are only 12 years old. We can’t influence politics and the war but we want to live, we wait for peace. Will we live to see it?” say a class of fifth grade school children at a Liberian refugee camp. “We want to attend school and to visit our friends and family without fear of abduction. I hope the government will listen. We want a better life. We want peace.”
These poignant words convey the heartfelt hope of young people who have suffered for years as a result of civil strife. Their only desire is to live a normal life. But concerting hope into reality is no easy task. Will we ever live to see a world without war? In recent years, there have been international efforts to resolve some civil wars by pressuring opposing sides to sign a peace accord and keeping forces to effect such agreements. But few nations have the money or the inclination to police faraway countries where deep-seated hatred and suspicion make any agreement between warring factions fragile at best. Not infrequently, the flames of conflict flare up again just a few weeks or months after a cease-fire is signed. As the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute points out,” peace is difficult to achieve when combatants have the will and capacity to continue to fight.” Ultimately, though it is hatred and greed rather than bullets and rifles that fuel the flames of war.
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Rashid
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Harsh world Chii Torti | Apr 15th, 2004
What can I say except that the world has taken a step for the worse? After reading through write-up I heard that lonely cry calling for mankind to make a rethink and save the younger ones from believing the gun is the only way to talk!
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