Author: Teresa Rehman
Publication: Tehelka
Date: August 2, 2008
URL: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main40.asp?filename=Ne020808jackboots_toolarge.asp
Introduction: Militant groups in Manipur are
forcibly recruiting children to fill their ranks
Subadani, 40, a distraught mother lies in
her bed, insensate. At times she whispers plaintively "I want my son
back". While conducting a frenetic search for her youngest son, AK Ajay,
missing since July 6, she fainted and had to be hospitalised. Later, the militant
group, People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (General Secretary) (PREPAK
(GS)) delivered a shocker. Ajay, the 13-year-old student in Class 8, was one
of many "recruits who had joined out of their own volition", they
claimed.
AK Milan, Ajay's older brother, an undergraduate,
takes over from where the mother cannot. "Our house is near National
Highway 39, also known as the Indo-Myanmar Road. My brother was fishing at
a pond outside. He was called by two other young men who had come riding a
bicycle. He spoke to them for a bit and went with them. He never came back."
Boys in the locality said they had never seen those men before. Later, they
found out that another 13-year-old boy, AK Bipanchandra, from the adjoining
village of Thoubal Kiyam Siphi Amurijam, had also gone missing under mysterious
circumstances.
On July 9, 2008, PREPAK called Bipanchandra's
father and told him that the two boys were with them. Bipanchandra's father,
a constable in the Manipur police asked PREPAK to release the children. He
was warned not to mobilise people and told that the boys would be freed. Later,
the police too stated that the boys were in the militant group's custody.
Looking at his unconscious mother, Milan says,
"She was demoralised and exhausted after she returned from meeting some
of my brother's abductors". Ajay and Bipanchandra's families were summoned
by the militant group to Namphalong in Myanmar on July 15.
"They told us that both the boys were
in their safe custody and threatened with dire consequences if the protest
rallies organised by the parents against recruitment of children by militant
groups didn't stop. One of the mediators identified himself as Sunil, the
Recruiting Officer (RO) of PREPAK (GS)," adds Milan. The parents were
not allowed to meet their children and were instead told that their sons would
be trained and educated by the outfit.
Khoijam Medha, 42, mother of Bipanchandra
says, "We'll respect these militants only if they release our children.
My son was a bright student and wanted to join the Navy." In fact, Medha
had appealed to the outfit to sign an agreement that they would release the
boys when she went to meet them at Myanmar. "They simply laughed it off,"
she laments.
Milan adds that his family, residents of Thoubal
Kiyam Siphai Khongahanbi village in Thoubal district, some 16 km from Manipur's
capital, Imphal, can barely make both ends meet. Ajay's father AK Ibothe,
45, is an auto driver and a local agent for kerosene distribution. Milan says,
"Our life has literally come to a standstill and we have spent over Rs
15,000 on my mother's treatment and on looking for my brother. My brother
is 13 - too young and immature to even understand what a militant group means.
In fact, this is the first time that we had such a close brush with a militant
group. How can they say he went on his own volition?"
Parents are panic-stricken over the abductions
and are unhappy over the role of security forces. Over 20 children have gone
missing in the past few months and many more cases might be unreported. Local
residents claim that militants are trying to lure gullible youngsters with
promises of mobile phones and luxury goods. Civil society organisations and
meira paibis (women activists) have protested the recruitment of child soldiers
in Manipur, which has more than 15 militant groups.
The Women's Committee of the United NGOs Mission,
Manipur (UNM) appealed to armed groups to formulate a common 'code of conduct',
refrain from recruiting children and respect the United Nations' Convention
on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol. "We are totally
against child soldiers. We appeal to all the militant groups to keep children
away from arms. We also clearly state that there are international conventions
which should be respected by militant outfits as well as the state,"
says N. Nonibala, a member of UNM.
According to Human Rights Watch, the average
child soldier is aged 13-17, while some are as young as eight or nine. Most
are unwilling militants, abducted from their villages to serve as guerrilla
fighters, or in supporting roles in armed conflicts in more than 50 countries.
They bear arms in battle, serve as human mine detectors, participate in suicide
missions and act as spies, messengers or lookouts.
Wasbir Hussain, director, Centre for Development
and Peace Studies, Guwahati says, "[The abduction] is unprecedented in
Manipur and has incurred the wrath of the common people. This also shows that
militancy is slowly degenerating into mindless terrorism. The children and
their parents will undergo psychological trauma. In addition, for the first
time, civil society groups which normally protest excesses by security forces
are unanimous in condemning an act by a militant outfit. The support base,
if any, of these militant groups will erode if they don't mend their ways."
In fact, alarmed by mass protests and growing
agitation among the masses, PREPAK (GS) invited some journalists to their
secret hideout on July 19 and clarified
that though some of the children were in their custody, they were not meant
to be recruited as 'child soldiers'. Sukham Nanda of the Imphal Free Press,
one of those who trekked to the militants' headquarters in Myanmar, states
that 20 children were paraded before them and that Ajay and Bipanchandra were
among them. Nanda says, "The children told us they had come willingly
and that nobody had abducted or lured them. They claimed that they wanted
to be revolutionary soldiers and serve their motherland and appealed to their
parents not to raise a hue and cry over their recruitment. They also claimed
that they were getting special care and attention at the camp."
NANDA REVEALS that the militants clarified
that they are aware of the international humanitarian conventions on the protection
of rights of women and children and assured the reporters that these children
would be allowed to return once they had been given military training and
education. "They said that these children from economically weaker sections
of society will be provided proper education and honed into 'perfect men'
and that they have informed their families of their whereabouts," adds
Nanda.
However, Anjuman Ara Begum, a researcher on
International Humanitarian Law at Guwahati University says that legally, children
below the age of 18 cannot give valid consent as they don't understand the
implications or consequences of such consent. "Common Article 3 of the
Geneva Convention, 1949 places an obligation on both State and non-State actors
in an internal armed conflict situation not to target women, children and
non-combatants. The recruitment of children violates this."
Meanwhile, there are parents across Manipur
who remain traumatised. N. Mohila, a vegetable vendor and mother of 14-year-old
Ningombam Sharda, lies in shock at RIMS hospital in Imphal. Sharda and her
classmate Longjam Jenevi, who had vanished mysteriously, recently appeared
on a local cable television channel claiming that they were safe in PREPAK's
hideout. Jenevi's mother Bidyapati Leima claims that her minor daughter was
lured by the militant group and wants her back. What will be the fate of the
child soldiers of Manipur?