TAUGHT TO KILL

TAUGHT TO KILL

by Betsy Seeton

He boarded our bus with a rifle slung over his shoulder demanding money for our passage through an arbitrary road side check point. He was just a kid – not more than fourteen or fifteen years old. He looked like he could be my next door neighbor’s son. He was one of many child soldiers who made up the Maoist army in Nepal in 2006.

This was just before the historic peace agreement was signed. I was living in Nepal at the time and was on my way to a river trip near the Tibet border. An agreement with the teen soldier was struck and our bus moved on, but the image of this young boy was burned into my memory and singed my heart. It prompted me to learn more.

When people roll their eyes at these tough issues or get that glassy 'feigned interest' stare when I get on my soap box about the ills of human trafficking or child soldiers, I turn to my website and write as if people do care; as if people might actually read this. It helps to never lose hope that change can come. It also helps to witness change in the making. If you’re reading this, know that you’re a part of that change simply because you care enough to listen.

Beneath the layers of our western culture, of what can arguably be called a life of great over indulgence and self absorption, I believe most people would stop bad stuff from happening if they felt like they could. They just don’t know how. I get that. I also get that the world's troubles are overwhelming and our own lives present plenty of challenges. But, and this is important, but we must try to inspire change and be part of the change because we’re all interconnected and we are all affected by the injustice in this world. Perhaps the best reason of all is this: it’s simply the right thing to do.

Before change can be made, people must care enough to learn what’s happening. The fact is children are being forced into killing or be killed wars right this minute.

Meet Moses Rubangangeyo. At the age of 15 he was abducted by the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) where he served for nine years under their command. He was abducted at gunpoint from his boarding school at Gulu in the middle of the night by 29 LRA soldiers. “They attacked us, tied our hands together, and we were forced to move off into the night. After two days on the move, they gathered us together, picked two people at random – one of whom was my brother – and killed them in front of us to make sure we were too afraid to escape. Then we were beaten – each person was given 50 strokes to mark us as LRA soldiers.”