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38–737 PDF 2007

S. HRG. 110–176

CASUALTIES OF WAR: CHILD SOLDIERS AND THE

LAW

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE LAW

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY 

UNITED STATES SENATE

ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

APRIL 24, 2007

Serial No. J–110–29

Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary

(

(II)

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY 

PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont, Chairman 

EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts 

JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR., Delaware 

HERB KOHL, Wisconsin 

DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California 

RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin 

CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York 

RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois 

BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland 

SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island 

ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania 

ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah 

CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa 

JON KYL, Arizona 

JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama 

LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina 

JOHN CORNYN, Texas 

SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas 

TOM COBURN, Oklahoma 

BRUCE A. COHEN, Chief Counsel and Staff Director 

MICHAEL O’NEILL, Republican Chief Counsel and Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE LAW

RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois, Chairman 

EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts 

JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR., Delaware 

RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin 

BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland 

SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island 

TOM COBURN, Oklahoma 

JON KYL, Arizona 

LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina 

JOHN CORNYN, Texas 

SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas 

JOSEPH ZOGBY, Chief Counsel 

MARY CHESSER, Republican Chief Counsel 

(III)

C O N T E N T S

STATEMENTS OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Page

Brownback, Hon. Sam, a U.S. Senator from the State of Kansas, prepared 

statement .............................................................................................................. 56

Coburn, Hon. Tom, a U.S. Senator from the State of Oklahoma ........................ 4

prepared statement .......................................................................................... 70

Durbin, Hon. Richard J., a U.S. Senator from the State of Illinois .................... 1

prepared statement .......................................................................................... 73

Feingold, Hon. Russell D., a U.S. Senator from the State of Wisconsin ............. 4

prepared statement .......................................................................................... 76

WITNESSES 

Beah, Ishmael, Author, New York, New York ...................................................... 6

Hughes, Anwen, Senior Counsel, Refugee Protection Program, Human Rights 

First, New York, New York ................................................................................. 13

Mettimano, Joseph, Director, Public Policy and Advocacy, World Vision, 

Washington, D.C. ................................................................................................. 16

Roth, Kenneth, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, New York, New 

York ....................................................................................................................... 11

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 

Responses of Ishmael Beah to questions submitted by Senator Durbin ............. 28

Responses of Anwen Hughes to questions submitted by Senators Coburn 

and Feingold ......................................................................................................... 30

Responses of Joseph Mettimano to questions submitted by Senator Coburn .... 34

Responses of Kenneth Roth to questions submitted by Senators Durbin, 

Coburn and Feingold ........................................................................................... 36

SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD 

Amnesty International USA, New York, New York, statement .......................... 42

Beah, Ishmael, Author, New York, New York, statement ................................... 49

Center for Defense Information, Rachel Stohl, Senior Analyst, Washington, 

D.C., statement .................................................................................................... 57

Center for International Human Rights, David Scheffer, Director, Chicago, 

Illinois, statement ................................................................................................ 63

Hughes, Anwen, Senior Counsel, Refugee Protection Program, Human Rights 

First, New York, New York, statement .............................................................. 78

Mettimano, Joseph, Director, Public Policy and Advocacy, World Vision, 

Washington, D.C., statement .............................................................................. 87

Roth, Kenneth, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, New York, New 

York, statement .................................................................................................... 94

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CASUALTIES OF WAR: CHILD SOLDIERS AND 

THE LAW 

TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2007

U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE LAW, COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, Washington, D.C. 

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in room 

SD–226, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Richard J. Durbin, 

Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding. 

Present: Senators Durbin, Feingold, Whitehouse, and Coburn. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. RICHARD J. DURBIN, A U.S. 

SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS 

Chairman DURBIN. This hearing will come to order. This is the 

Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. Our hearing today 

is entitled ‘‘Casualties of War: Child Soldiers and the Law.’’

In Italy, long ago, a young boy who followed the knights into battle on foot was known as ‘‘enfante,’’ collectively as the ‘‘enfanteria.’’ 

It was this Italian ‘‘enfanteria’’ which became our English word ‘‘infantry.’’

Good morning and welcome to ‘‘Casualties of War: Child Soldiers 

and the Law,’’ the third hearing of the Subcommittee on Human 

Rights and the Law. After a few opening remarks, I will recognize 

other Senators in attendance for opening statements, and then we 

will turn to our witnesses. 

This is the first time in Senate history there has been a Subcommittee focused on human rights, and this is the first ever congressional hearing on the urgent human rights crisis of child soldiers. That fact alone demonstrates the need for this new Subcommittee. 

As this hearing’s title suggests, during times of war both the rule 

of law and children are victims. There is a clear legal prohibition 

on recruiting and using child soldiers, and yet around the world, 

hundreds of thousands of boys and girls are used as combatants, 

porters, human mine detectors, and sex slaves. While most serve 

in rebel or paramilitary groups, some government forces use child 

soldiers as well. In countries like Burma, Uganda, and Colombia, 

children’s health and lives are endangered, and their childhoods 

are sacrificed. 

I would like to begin this hearing with a brief video that will provide some background on the child soldiers crisis. Look very carefully at the faces of these combat-hardened soldiers. 

[DVD played] 

2

Mr. BEAH. ‘‘When the war began, everything changed. I lost my 

immediate family, you know, which is sad. They were killed in the 

war.’’

Ms. BECKER. ‘‘There are many different ways that children end 

up as solders. Some of them were literally recruited by force and 

taken at gunpoint or kidnapped from their homes in the middle of 

the night. Other children join in groups out of desperation.’’

Mr. BEAH. ‘‘In the beginning, it seemed, you know, it was a place 

to go for safety. They provided us food, shelter, some basic necessities, and we helped in the kitchen. But our relationship quickly 

changed to being forced in this war. There was a constant awareness about, you were either in the war front fighting or they were 

killing somebody in front of you to further traumatize you. It’s not 

just a child carrying a gun, that’s a child soldier.’’

Ms. BECKER. ‘‘Child soldiers can include kids who are working as 

messengers, as guards, as spies. They could be cooks in a military 

camp. But too often, child soldiers are actually combatants on the 

front lines of combat. They could include an 8-year-old recruited by 

paramilitaries in Colombia. It includes young boys in Burma, recruited, you know, into the National Army. It could be girls recruited by the Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda. For a 

lot of girls, the burden is an extra one. They are not only used as 

combatants and for all the support roles that boys normally fill, but 

oftentimes they’re sexually exploited.’’

Mr. BEAH. ‘‘It’s not accepted to recruit children at all. As a child, 

we are caught up in this madness. It limits you from knowing yourself as a human being and it causes you suffering, basically. It just 

brings suffering to everyone.’’

Ms. BECKER. ‘‘Currently in the world there about 20 countries 

where children are actively fighting. In 10 of those countries, governments are involved either by recruiting children directly into 

their own armed forces or by supporting militias or paramilitaries 

that use children. Of these 10 countries, 9 of them are currently 

receiving U.S. military aid. This is an opportunity for the U.S. to 

use its leverage and its influence as a military super-power to 

bring pressure against these governments to ensure that they take 

the action that is needed to keep children out of their forces and 

to demobilize children in their ranks.’’

Mr. BEAH. ‘‘These are not some kind of other human beings. 

They’re the same as anyone in America, in Europe, anywhere. 

They’re children whose lives are being taken away most times, 

some of them whose childhood is taken away from them, and 

that’s—they can be—you know, things can be done to prevent 

that.’’

Ms. BECKER. ‘‘It has to be crystal clear that using children in 

warfare is unacceptable, and that anyone who does it is going to 

have to pay a price.’’

[end video] 

Chairman DURBIN. Today we will discuss the tragedy of child soldiers and why the law has failed so many young people around the 

world. 

Cicero wrote, ‘‘In times of war, the law falls silent.’’ The American legal system rejects that notion. There is no wartime exception 

to our Constitution. International human rights law, created priVerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:09 Dec 04, 2007 Jkt 038737 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\GPO\HEARINGS\38737.TXT SJUD1 PsN: CMORC
3

marily by Americans and based largely on American legal principles, take the same position. Fundamental rights must be protected, even during wars or other armed conflicts. 

Yet, so often in times of war or perceived threat, human rights 

are sacrificed. No better example exists than the tragedy of child 

soldiers. The law provides special protections to children, the most 

vulnerable members of our society, but during wars they are often 

the most exploited. 

Over 110 countries, including the United States, have ratified 

the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Child, 

which prohibits the recruitment and use of child soldiers. But if the 

law is not enforced, it is meaningless. This Subcommittee has 

found similar problems when it comes to genocide and human trafficking. When there is no accountability for violating the law, governments and rebel forces can violate human rights with impunity. 

During today’s hearing, we will discuss legal options for holding 

accountable those who recruit or use child soldiers. The Special 

Court for Sierra Leone is prosecuting nine people for using child 

soldiers, and the International Criminal Court’s first prosecution is 

against Thomas Lubanga of the Democratic Republic of Congo for 

recruiting and using child soldiers. These are positive developments, but they pale in comparison to the scale of the child soldier 

crisis. The average perpetrator runs very little risk of being prosecuted. 

One option we will discuss today is for national courts to play a 

greater role in prosecuting perpetrators. I am sorry to say that recruiting and using child soldiers is not a crime under U.S. law, so 

the U.S. Government is unable to prosecute perpetrators who are 

found in our country. 

Immigration law is another important tool for holding individual 

perpetrators accountable. Today we will discuss whether the U.S. 

Government has sufficient authority to deport or deny admission to 

an individual who has recruited or used child soldiers. 

Governments must also be held accountable. That is why Senator 

Sam Brownback and I have introduced the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2007. This legislation would limit U.S. military assistance to countries clearly identified in the State Department’s 

Human Rights Report as recruiting or using child soldiers. 

Our bill would ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars are not used to 

support this abhorrent practice by government or government-sanctioned military and paramilitary organizations. U.S. military assistance could continue under this bill, but it would be used only 

to remedy the problem by helping countries successfully demobilize 

their child soldiers and professionalize their forces. 

We must work to eliminate the use of child soldiers, but as long 

as the practice persists, we must also ensure that the law facilitates and encourages the rehabilitation and reintegration of these 

young people back into civilian life. 

Sometimes the law contributes to the stigmatization of former 

child soldiers. For example, there are provisions in our immigration 

laws which brand former child soldiers as terrorists, preventing 

them from obtaining asylum or refugee status in the U.S. We must 

give the Government flexibility to consider the unique mitigating 

circumstances facing these children and allow child soldiers to 

4

raise such claims when they seek safe haven in our country. We 

also should support programs that provide psychological services, 

educational and vocational training, and other assistance to these 

traumatized young people. 

As I have said before, this Subcommittee will focus on legislation, 

not lamentation. I look forward to working with the members of 

the Subcommittee to ensure that our laws treat former child soldiers fairly, and hold accountable those who recruit and use them, 

and that these laws are enforced. 

We have to prove Cicero wrong. Even during times of war, the 

law should never fall silent for the most vulnerable among us—our 

children. 

[The prepared statement of Senator Durbin appears as a submission for the record.] 

I would now like to recognize Senator Coburn, the Ranking Member of the Committee. 

STATEMENT OF HON. TOM COBURN, A U.S. SENATOR FROM 

THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA 

Senator COBURN. Senator Durbin, first of all, let me thank you 

for your leadership, not just in this area but in others. I truly appreciate it. I have a statement for the record, and I would like to 

have it submitted. 

I have read the summaries and the excerpt on Ishmael. It is very 

touching. It is tragic. You display leadership beyond all comprehension in your valor and your courage, and I commend you. 

I also have in the back of my mind, as a medical missionary in 

northern Iraq, seeing 9-year-old boys carrying AK–47s. So it is just 

not in the areas where we have outlined it, but it is in a lot of 

other areas of the world. 

Again, I would re-emphasize my compliment to you, Mr. Chairman, for your leadership in this, on genocide, and other areas. I believe you are going to make a difference, and I am here to help you 

do that. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Senator Coburn appears as a submission for the record.] 

Chairman DURBIN. Thank you, Senator Coburn. 

I would like to recognize Senator Feingold. 

STATEMENT OF HON. RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, A U.S. SENATOR 

FROM THE STATE OF WISCONSIN 

Senator FEINGOLD. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I also 

thank the Ranking Member. I want to thank you for holding this 

important hearing and for introducing, along with our colleague 

Sam Brownback. the Child Soldiers Prevention Act. This legislation 

is a critical step toward ending the use of child soldiers around the 

globe by prohibiting U.S. military assistance to countries recruiting 

or using child soldiers in hostilities. 

I would also like to thank all the witnesses here today who have 

experienced or witnessed what child soldiers are forced to endure 

and who each devote and have already devoted tremendous time 

and energy to fighting injustice. Thank you for coming to teach us 

5

about this tragic practice, one that has gone on far too long in too 

many places. 

The Child Soldiers Prevention Act takes a multifaceted approach 

to dealing with this problem and encourages more robust programming for the demobilization, disarmament, and rehabilitation of 

child soldiers in the communities from which they come. I am 

please to cosponsor this bill because I feel very strongly that the 

United States must do more to end the exploitation of children, 

whatever form this abuse takes and wherever it occurs. By helping 

to ensure that U.S. military assistance is only provided to countries 

whose policies respect human rights, this bill will send a strong 

message that the use of child soldiers is not acceptable. 

The exploitation of children violates the most basic human rights 

of one society’s most vulnerable populations, and yet for far too 

long, children have been not only the passive victims of military 

campaigns, but also active if unwilling participants. In Burma, 

Laos, Sri Lanka, Colombia, and particularly in African countries 

like Uganda, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, children as 

young as 8 are routinely abducted and forced to participate in acts 

of extreme violence, sometimes against their own families. They 

are forced to carry out murders, mutilations, and other human 

rights abuses, even as abuses are inflicted upon them. 

Many child soldiers are also subject to coerced drug addiction, 

physiological manipulations, and sexual abuse. At least one-third of 

the estimated 300,000 child soldiers today are girls who are often 

enslaved for sexual purposes by militia commanders. 

Even when hostilities cease, these children continue to suffer the 

loss of their childhood, loss of their connection to their families and 

to their communities and to the tools that are necessary to pursue 

a nonviolent life. Often uneducated, traumatized, and stigmatized, 

many of these young people remain trapped in cycles of brutality 

and abuse long after the militias are disbanded. 

In the past two decades, as the Chairman has indicated, the use 

of child soldiers has gone from being merely morally reprehensible 

to being a criminal violation of international law. The U.S. has 

demonstrated its commitment to ending the use of child soldiers 

around the world by ratifying and implementing the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, on the involvement of children in armed conflict, and last winter, Congo’s National Assembly transferred a former militia leader to the International Criminal Court to face charges of recruitment of child soldiers. 

Next month—and this is the case that I am most familiar with, 

having been there and watched this, the case of Sierra Leone—the 

Special Court of Sierra Leone is expected to deliver the first two 

convictions on charges of enlisting children to actively participate 

in hostilities, which the Court considers ‘‘a serious violation of 

international humanitarian law.’’

These are all important steps across multiple levels toward ending impunity for this reprehensible practice. The conscription and 

abuse of child soldiers is not new, but a growing awareness of what 

these young people are forced to endure and the lasting damage 

cause requires that we work diligently here at home as well as in 

the international community to monitor and end the use of child 

6

soldiers, hold governments accountable for their violations, and improve programs of prevention and rehabilitation. 

The use of child soldiers poses a threat to the stability and security of communities, countries, and society at large. Any of these 

abuses should be a priority for the U.S. and for governments 

around the world, and, again, I sincerely thank you, Mr. Chairman, 

for your leadership on this and the bill and holding this important 

hearing to raise awareness and encourage action to protect children 

around the world. 

[The prepared statement of Senator Feingold appears as a submission for the record.] 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman DURBIN. Thank you, Senator Feingold. 

I would like to ask the witnesses to please stand and be sworn. 

Raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm the testimony you 

are about to give before the Committee will be the truth, the whole 

truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? 

Mr. BEAH. I do. 

Mr. ROTH. I do. 

Mr. HUGHES. I do. 

Mr. METTIMANO. I do. 

Chairman DURBIN. Thank you. Let the record reflect that the 

four witnesses answered in the affirmative. 

Our first witness, Ishmael Beah, is the author of ‘‘A Long Way 

Gone: Memoirs of a Child Soldier.’’ ‘‘A Long Way Gone’’ is a No. 1 

New York Times best seller, currently featured at your local 

Starbucks. For those who have not read this important book, I urge 

you to do so. 

Mr. Beah is a former child soldier, but he is much more than a 

victim or a survivor. He had the courage, as Senator Coburn has 

said so well, and the resiliency of spirit to share his horrific experiences with the world. He has transcended these experiences to become one of the world’s best-known and most effective anti-child 

soldier advocates. 

Mr. Beah was born in Sierra Leone in 1980. He moved to the 

United States in 1998 and finished his last 2 years of high school 

at the United Nations International School in New York. In 2004, 

he graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in political science. 

Mr. Beah is a member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s 

Rights Division Advisory Committee. He has spoken before the 

United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, and a lot of 

other places. 

Mr. Beah, thank you for taking time off from your successful 

book tour to come here. It is this Committee’s distinct honor to 

have you with us today. Please proceed with your opening statement. 

STATEMENT OF ISHMAEL BEAH, AUTHOR, ‘‘A LONG WAY GONE: 

MEMOIRS OF A BOY SOLDIER,’’ NEW YORK, NEW YORK 

Mr. BEAH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good morning. Good 

morning to Ranking Member Coburn and Mr. Feingold as well and 

members of the Subcommittee and everyone present here. 

I am here today to tell you about my experiences as one of the 

thousands of children who was forced to fight as a child soldier in 

7

the Sierra Leone civil war. It isn’t easy for me to recount these experiences, so I hope that you can give me your undivided attention. 

As I speak to you, there are thousands of children from ages 8 to 

17 in Burma, Sri Lanka, Congo, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Colombia, 

just to name a few places, that are being forced to fight and lose 

their childhoods and their families. They are maimed and they lose 

their humanity, and these are the fortunate ones. Those who are 

less fortunate are killed in the senseless wars of adults. I want you 

to think of them and to simultaneously think about your children 

between those ages and whether you would want them to be subjected to the kinds of suffering, pain, and victimization that I and 

others underwent that I am about to describe to you. 

I was 11 years old when the war began in Sierra Leone. Prior 

to that I had a normal life; I went to school, played soccer, went 

swimming, and did my homework. But after the war started, I remember seeing a tide of people carrying their belongings and their 

malnourished children walking through the streets of my town 

every morning. They were clearly on a path to somewhere else. At 

the time I couldn’t comprehend what made those families walk 

hundreds of miles from their homes, and why they were still terrified and preferred sleeping in the bushes instead of spending the 

night in my town. War simply wasn’t my reality at that time. 

A year later, following the attack on my town and having been 

separated from family, my older brother, a friend, and myself were 

in Mattru Jong, a neighboring town near my home where we had 

been waiting for news of members of our families, when we first 

heard a single gunshot. A few minutes later, we heard many more 

gunshots coming from all around us. Instinctively we began running. The gunshots made it difficult for us to think, and there was 

chaos in town as people ran, screaming and trampling whoever was 

in their way. 

As we ran from the sound of the gunshots, we saw children who 

were alone, shirtless, following the crowd, screaming and crying for 

their parents. We saw mothers wailing for their lost children with 

so much pain in their voices that I felt my veins tighten and my 

skin twitch. But all of their cries were in vain. To stop and help 

someone was asking for death as the rebels were firing at civilians 

to stop us from leaving town. Each time the gunshots intensified, 

my body trembled. A woman running ahead of me was clearly unaware of the trail of blood that followed her—the child she carried 

on her back had been shot and killed. There were bullets coming 

from everywhere, every direction, and people were struck down in 

front of me as I ran for my life. 

I was 12 years old and was on the run for several months after 

the war reached me. I saw dead bodies strewn by the sides of 

roads, witnessed killings, and passed through abandoned villages 

where the air smelled of blood, and where vultures and dogs feasted on dead bodies. I had been separated from my older brother during an attack and was now with a group of friends from school. 

The news that my family was in the village where I was headed 

was the only thing that kept me alive during that period. Knowing 

they were alive and well gave me the strength to continue running, 

even at times when I would go for a week without eating anything. 

But when I finally made it to the outskirts of that village, I found 

8

that the rebels had arrived before me. They attacked and burned 

the village to the ground. They murdered all of my family and everyone who was there. 

Some of the people were shot in the head; others tied and burned 

alive. Some women and children were locked in houses that were 

set on fire. Later, after the rebels had left, I began walking in the 

ruins of the village. But I only went a few paces before my knees 

gave up under me and I fell to the ground. I was in too much pain 

and shock to cry; I felt myself beginning to harden. I had lost the 

strength to carry on. I felt that there was no reason to stay alive 

anymore. 

Not long afterwards, I found myself in a village occupied by the 

Sierra Leonean Army. At first, my friends and I helped in the 

kitchen to cook for the soldiers. They gave us food, a place to sleep, 

some basic necessities, and a feeling of security. But after a while, 

the soldiers announced that they wanted to recruit more able bodies as they had lost many men to the rebels who constantly tried 

to attack the village we were staying in. We were told that our responsibilities as boys were to fight in this war or we would be 

killed. I was 13 years old. Neither my friends nor I had any choice. 

It was either join or be killed. We had no family and no other 

means of survival. We were forcibly recruited and taught how to 

use the AK–47s, M–16s, machine guns, G3s, rocket propelled grenades, et cetera, for less than a week, and then we were sent into 

battle. Many of my friends were shot dead in front of me as many 

of us didn’t know how to use the guns very well and were paralyzed by fear. 

I will never forget my first day in battle. We were led into the 

forest by the adult soldiers to ambush the rebels. My squad had 

boys who were as young as 7, who were dragging guns that were 

taller than them as we walked to the front lines. We formed an ambush by a swamp and waited for the rebels. Upon their arrival, the 

lieutenant ordered us to open fire. I couldn’t shoot my gun at first. 

But as I lay there watching my friends getting killed, the 7-yearold boys crying for their mothers as life departed their little bodies, 

and the blood from my friends who had died covering my hands 

and face, I began shooting. Something inside me shifted and I lost 

compassion for anyone. After that day, killing became as easy as 

drinking water. I had lost all sense of remorse. 

Our commanders gave us drugs—marijuana, cocaine, and Brown 

Brown: a concoction of cocaine and gunpowder—before battles to 

anesthetize us to what we had to do. They showed us war movies 

like ‘‘Rambo: First Blood’’ to fuel our thirst for war and our sense 

of invincibility. There was also tremendous coercion wherein if the 

child didn’t carry out orders from the commander, that child was 

killed. The tools used to force us to commit atrocities were the 

guns. There were too many of them, and they came from all parts 

of the world. There were M–16s, which are guns primarily made 

in the U.S; G3s, German weapons; and AK–47s, just to name a few. 

For over 2 years, all I did was take drugs, fight, and kill or be 

killed. At the time it felt as though there was no way to stop. I 

never imagined that I would be able to leave that life behind, as 

I had been cutoff from all other realities except for that of the war. 

9

But I did get out of that madness with the help of Children Associated with War, which was sponsored by UNICEF and other nongovernmental organizations. I wouldn’t be alive today if it weren’t 

for the presence of nongovernmental organizations that believed 

that children like myself, due to our emotional and psychological 

immaturity, had been brainwashed and forced to be killers, and 

above all, that we could be rehabilitated and reintegrated into society. Healing from the war was a long-term process that was difficult but very possible. It required perseverance, patience, sensitivity, and a selfless compassion and commitment from the staff 

members at my healing center. Effective rehabilitation of children 

is in itself a preventive measure, and this should be the focus, not 

punitive measures against children that have no beneficial outcome 

for the child and society. 

I and many others are living proof that it is possible for children 

who have undergone and experienced such horrors to regain their 

lives and become ambassadors of peace. My experience and those 

of other survivors exemplifies the resilience of children and the capability of the human spirit to outlive life’s worst circumstances, if 

given a chance and the right care and support. 

In the United States, many people criticize the United Nations, 

its affiliates, and generally NGO’s. For some of us these are the 

only organizations that are willing to speak for our plights, to raise 

awareness about our sufferings, and to help us recover when no 

one comes to our aid. Their work must be strengthened rather than 

chastised. 

In, addition it is important and life saving not only to have international legal standards that ban the use of children in war, but 

they must be strengthened and supported by nations affected and 

those not affected by these appalling tragedies. With the presence 

and enforcement of these legal standards, United Nations and 

NGO workers will have the courage and conviction to confront commanders who use children in war and ask them to release those 

young fighters. If such legal standards hadn’t been in place, I 

wouldn’t be here. I would be dead. But the problem continues, 

which is why I urge you to join in prevention efforts by supporting 

the prosecution of those who recruit children; strengthening international laws to ban the use and sale of small arms, a good number 

coming from the United States, that end up in the hands of children; and, finally, condemning and curtailing all support to nations 

that recruit children or allow such practices to occur on their territory. 

One thing that history has taught us is that when we ignore 

such problems as the use of children in war, they become bigger 

and more complex problems that later affect us and that we then 

might be unable to solve. If you do not help these children now, 

they will grow into adults who will become the leaders of their nations who will have no understanding of ethical and moral standards, and, ladies and gentlemen, whether you like it or not, your 

children, the future leaders of this country, will have to face them 

and deal with them. 

When you go home tonight to your children, your cousins, and 

your grandchildren and watch them carrying out their various 

childhood activities, I want you to remember that at that same moVerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:09 Dec 04, 2007 Jkt 038737 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\GPO\HEARINGS\38737.TXT SJUD1 PsN: CMORC
10

ment, there are countless children elsewhere who are being killed, 

injured, exposed to extreme violence, and forced to serve in armed 

groups, including girls who are raped—leading some to have babies 

of commanders—all of them between the ages of 8 and 17. As you 

watch your loved ones, those children you adore most, ask yourselves whether you would want these kinds of suffering for them. 

If you don’t, then you must stop this from happening to other children around the world whose lives and humanity are as important 

and of the same value as all children everywhere. 

In conclusion, I would like to add that yesterday I was involved 

for the first time in an aspect of advocacy for former child soldiers 

in a way I have not been before. I testified in an immigration court 

hearing in New York City on behalf of a former child soldier from 

Cote d’Ivoire. I was called as a witness both because of my personal 

experience as a child soldier as well as my knowledge on the general conditions child soldiers face all over the world. 

Similar to the stories of many former child soldiers, the young 

man on whose behalf I testified has real promise. I know from my 

work with the attorneys on his case that he is a highly intelligent 

and very decent person, despite what he was forced to participate 

in during the conflict in his home country. 

Yesterday was one of the few bright days this person has had in 

many years. The judge granted his asylum claim because of the position taken by this country’s own government, though it is far 

from certain that this former child soldier is in store for a happy 

ending here in the United States. Sadly, and really, inexplicably, 

the Department of Homeland Security already indicated it very 

well may appeal the judge’s grant of asylum. For the entire case, 

the Department of Homeland Security has maintained that this 

young man, who at age 15 was forcibly taken by rebels who fed 

him massive amounts of drugs and political rhetoric, while compelling him at, in essence, gunpoint to train and take up arms, that 

this young man is actually himself a persecutor. In taking this extreme position, the Government has ignored the international consensus that these children generally are victims, not persecutors. 

And because the Government has taken this view, this young man 

was detained for almost the entire 6 months since he came to the 

U.S. seeking asylum. He was kept in an adult facility outside of 

New York City and brought to court in chains and handcuffs. I saw 

this for myself yesterday. He was treated like a criminal. His decriminalization, if you can call it that, was undertaken in a jail in 

the U.S. His crime—he wanted to escape a war that destroyed his 

family and his childhood. 

I mention this case because I encourage the members of the 

Committee to consider the wider scope of the issue of child soldiers. 

I, of course, applaud the Committee for its efforts and interest in 

this area. We need, though, the most holistic approach possible if 

the children are to be saved. Not only do we need to pressure governments to immediately cease its use of child soldiers, we need to 

also convince our own Government to provide the humanity so 

sorely lacking by not detaining those former child soldiers fortunate enough to come to the U.S. And we certainly should ensure 

that the U.S. Government does not accuse these victims, such as 

11

the young man who will now have to fight this appeal and continue 

to live in fear of being sent back to a war zone. 

I thank you very much for your time. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Beah appears as a submission 

for the record.] 

Chairman DURBIN. Mr. Beah, thank you very much for your testimony. We will have other statements from members of the panel, 

and then we will ask a few questions. 

Mr. Kenneth Roth is the next witness, He is the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, a post he has held since 1993. From 

1987 to 1993, Mr. Roth served as Deputy Director of Human Rights 

Watch. Previously, he was a Federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and the Irancontra investigation of Washington. He worked in private practice 

as a litigator, and graduated from Yale Law School and Brown 

University. Mr. Roth was drawn to human rights causes in part by 

his father’s experience fleeing Nazi Germany in 1938. 

Mr. Roth, thank you very much for joining us, and we look forward to your testimony. 

STATEMENT OF KENNETH ROTH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 

Mr. ROTH. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and Ranking 

Member Coburn. Human Rights Watch welcomes the creation of 

this standing Senate Committee focused on human rights and the 

law, and applauds your vision in particular, Senator Durbin, for 

recognizing the important contribution that this Committee can 

make. We are glad to help in launching the Committee and its important work. I also want to thank you for focusing on the very important issue of the exploitation of children as soldiers around the 

world and for giving Human Rights Watch the opportunity to address the Committee today. 

I would like to focus my testimony on two aspects of the child 

soldier issue: first, the importance of prosecuting people who recruit or use child soldiers; and, second, opportunities for the United 

States to use its military assistance program as leverage to discourage the recruitment or use of child soldiers. 

In the last decade, significant progress has been made in establishing criminal responsibility for the recruitment or use of child 

soldiers. A prohibition against recruiting and using children under 

the age of 15 in hostilities was first codified in the 1977 Additional 

Protocols to the Geneva Conventions. Then, in 1998, governments 

negotiating the so-called Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court recognized that the prohibition had achieved the status 

of customary international law. They agreed that the conscription, 

enlistment, or use in hostilities of children under the age of 15 

should be considered a war crime under the Court’s jurisdiction, 

whether carried out by members of national armed forces or by 

non-state armed groups. 

In May 2004, international jurisprudence on this issue advanced 

further when the Appeals Chamber of the UN-backed Special Court 

for Sierra Leone ruled that the prohibition on the recruitment and 

use of children under the age of 15 had crystallized as customary 

12

international law prior to 1996, and the Court found that the individuals responsible bear criminal responsibility for their acts. 

With these developments, individual commanders now have 

begun to be prosecuted for the crime of recruiting and using child 

soldiers. As you mentioned, Senator Durbin, the use of child soldiers is included in the indictments against each of the nine defendants currently being tried by the Special Court for Sierra 

Leone, including former Liberian President Charles Taylor. The 

International Criminal Court also recently initiated prosecution of 

Thomas Lubanga of the Democratic Republic of Congo for the recruitment and use of child soldiers, paving the way for the first 

ICC war crime trial. In addition, the ICC has indicted the leadership of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army for the same offense. 

As trials proceed and convictions are handed down, these prosecutions will send a clear message that commanders cannot recruit 

children without serious consequences. Even though no deterrent is 

ever perfect, these prosecutions offer the possibility of saving substantial numbers of children from the horror of combat and military recruitment. 

Unfortunately, few countries have criminalized the recruitment 

or use of child soldiers under their national criminal codes. The 

U.S. Criminal Code, for example, does not address the issue, even 

of an individual who has recruited or used child soldiers in another 

country and then seeks safe haven in the United States. 

Mr. Chairman, I urge this Committee to consider action to 

amend the U.S. Criminal Code to make the recruitment or use of 

children in violation of international law a punishable crime, 

whether committed here or abroad, and to establish jurisdiction 

over U.S. citizens or non-nationals present in the United States 

who commit this crime. 

Precedent for such an approach already exists in Federal law, including the torture provisions in the U.S. Criminal Code and the 

Genocide Accountability Act, which you yourself introduced and 

that was adopted by the Senate earlier this year. Both of these 

measures allow for the prosecution of either U.S. citizens or nonnationals present in the United States, even if their crimes were 

committed outside of the United States. 

The second issue I would like to address is the opportunity that 

the U.S. Government has to use its military assistance programs 

as leverage to end other governments’ recruitment or use of child 

soldiers. 

According to the most recent State Department Country Reports, 

of the 20 countries around the world where children are currently 

fighting as soldiers, governments are implicated in 10. For example, in Colombia, paramilitaries with longstanding ties to Colombian military units recruit children as young as 8 to fight against 

the guerrillas, sometimes forcing them to mutilate and kill captured rebels. 

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Human Rights watch found 

just last month that hundreds of children had been recruited by 

the newly formed Congolese army brigades in North Kivu and are 

being deployed to the front line in operations against local armed 

groups. 

13

In Uganda, the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army has abducted thousands of children into its ranks, but children have also been found 

in the ranks of the Ugandan national army. Last year, the U.N. reported that more than a thousand children had been recruited into 

government-sponsored local defense units in Uganda’s northern 

districts. 

In Sri Lanka, as the civil war has escalated over the past year, 

an armed group linked to the government, known as the Karuna 

Group, has abducted hundreds of boys to fight the rebel Tamil Tigers, who also continue to recruit children. 

Mr. Chairman, Human Rights Watch strongly supports the Child 

Soldiers Prevention Act of 2007, introduced last week by you and 

by Senator Brownback. The Act would restrict U.S. military assistance to governments that have been identified by the State Department’s own reporting as using child soldiers, whether in their own 

armed forces or by supporting paramilitaries or militias that themselves use child soldiers. While the amount of U.S. military assistance is often not large, the loss of U.S. military backing would be 

a powerful political blow to these governments and a strong 

motivator to end any involvement in child recruitment. 

Although many child soldiers are found in rebel armies that receive no U.S. support, there is little hope of curbing child recruitment by rebel armies as long as they can justify their use of children by pointing to child recruitment by governments. The stronger 

we can make the international norm against the use of child soldiers, the harder it will be for rebel groups to pay the political price 

of using them. That norm-building process must begin with governments. 

In conclusion, the Child Soldiers Prevention Act would provide a 

powerful incentive to governments to end the recruitment and use 

of child soldiers and to demobilize children from their armed forces. 

It would also assure the American people that U.S. tax dollars are 

not supporting the exploitation of children as soldiers. 

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Roth appears as a submission for 

the record.] 

Chairman DURBIN. Thank you very much, Mr. Roth. 

Our next witness is Anwen Hughes, who is an attorney with 

Human Rights First. She is senior counsel of that organization’s 

Refugee Protection Program. She helps oversee Human Rights 

First’s pro bono representation for indigents seeking asylum. Previously she was a staff attorney for Legal Services in New Jersey, 

where she represented recipients of public benefits and coordinated 

legal services for the elderly. Ms. Hughes received her J.D. from 

Yale and her B.A. from Yale as well. 

Ms. Hughes? 

STATEMENT OF ANWEN HUGHES, SENIOR COUNSEL, REFUGEE 

PROTECTION PROGRAM, HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST, NEW YORK, 

NEW YORK 

Ms. HUGHES. Thank you very much. Chairman Durbin, Ranking 

Member Coburn, and members of the Subcommittee, thank you for 

inviting me here today to offer the views of Human Rights First on 

how our immigration laws are treating former child soldiers and 

14

those who conscript them. On behalf of Human Rights First, I also 

want to thank you, Chairman Durbin, for your leadership in the 

creation of this new Subcommittee which acts as an important signal that this country understands its human rights treaty obligations as part of our law. 

There has been testimony already today on ongoing efforts and 

progress that is being made to prohibit the use of child soldiers and 

to hold accountable those who abuse the rights of children. And 

with the possible exception of people who conscript children for 

service into their own national armies, our immigration laws also 

provide ample basis for excluding those who recruit or use child 

soldiers in violation of international law. That is the good news. 

The bad news is that those same provisions, which are bars 

based on very broad definitions of terrorist activity and terrorist organizations, are also being interpreted to exclude from protection 

children who escape from being soldiers and seek safety in the 

United States. Even as we work to prohibit and to condemn the use 

of child soldiers as a violation of children’s rights, our immigration 

laws are being interpreted to target the victims of those same 

abuses and exclude them from protection. 

Our organization provides legal representation to refugees seeking asylum in this country, and I remember in the late 1990’s 

interviewing several young people who, while still teenagers, had 

been taken captive by the RUF in Sierra Leone. This was the rebel 

army there at the time. In some cases, these rebels had killed the 

children’s entire families before abducting the kids, and when they 

managed to escape from the rebels, the children were targeted by 

terrific civilians and also by government forces as suspected rebels. 

Many people in this situation fled into neighboring Guinea, but 

then Guinea turned on its refugees, and some of them, with nowhere else to turn, fled to the United States. 

At that time, some were granted asylum here and were able to 

begin new lives. But they would not be so lucky now. These kids’ 

forced service to the rebels consisted of hard labor for the most 

part, carrying heavy crates on forced marches through the forest, 

and in the case of girls, getting raped. But even as the international community has worked to prohibit the use of child soldiers, not only in active combat but also as cooks, as cleaners, as 

porters, as sex slaves and so on, our definition of ‘‘terrorist activity’’ 

under the immigration laws has expanded to include all of these 

activities, so that even kids who are lucky enough to be forced only 

into non-violent activity are now being tagged with the same terrorist label as their former captors. This is psychologically harmful 

to all refugees, but particularly to child soldiers, who often face the 

same stigma in their home communities. 

The second problem former child soldiers face is that the Government agencies that decide asylum and refugee claims, as in the 

case that Ishmael was referring to earlier, are failing to recognize 

any defenses or exceptions to this wildly expanding statute. So the 

children who were forced to do what they did or were too young at 

the time to appreciate what they were doing, or both, will be 

barred from protection despite these facts. 

This is a problem of interpretation, not a problem with the current statute, or at least it should not be. Defenses and exceptions 

15

should be considered to be implicit in the statute, and, in fact, up 

until around 2004, a number of lawyers representing the Department of Homeland Security in Immigration Court were agreeing 

with this position in litigation. Unfortunately, the current trend 

has been toward a unified refusal to recognize that the terrorism 

bars were not meant to target 12-year-olds or, for that matter, 

adults who act under duress. 

I also want to emphasize that in talking about child soldiers 

wrongly subject to exclusion under these provisions, we are talking 

about the children who have been rehabilitated and who are seeking the protection of refugee status or asylum so that they can continue to put their lives and their psyches back together. We are 

talking about people no one is seriously arguing pose a threat to 

us. Anyone who actually does pose a threat to the security of this 

country is barred from asylum under a separate provision of the 

law. 

While authority exists under the statute to waive some of these 

provisions as an unreviewable matter of executive discretion, the 

implementation of that waiver authority has been extremely slow 

and also incomplete. Also, it does not cover any child who is actually a combatant, who actually fought for a rebel army. And, finally, there is no waiver authority for some of the other bars that 

child soldier cases sometimes trigger. 

For example, our organization has been representing a young 

man who was jailed and tortured at the age of 13 by his own government, which then forced him into its national army. He was 14 

years old at the time. He was sent to the front where he was made 

to shoot at people in the distance, some of whom may have been 

civilians. He does not know if he hit anybody. He does know that 

another child who refused to shoot was executed in front of his 

eyes, as was another child who tried to escape. This young man, 

while still a child, fled to the United States and told our Government all about this. The Department of Homeland Security has 

been opposing his application for asylum for years on the grounds 

that his actions as a child and under duress make him a persecutor 

of others. There is no waiver for this bar to protection. This young 

man is a great person, and he has done a remarkable job of putting 

a life together for himself here. But he has no security, and everything he does he does under a cloud of deportation hanging over 

his head. 

We will soon be filing an application for asylum for another 

former child soldier whose case is likely to end up in indefinite 

limbo based on the erroneous interpretation of these bars to asylum. I cannot tell this child how long it will be before this problem 

is fixed and she can really feel save here-6 more months, 1 more 

year, 2 more years? That is a long time when you are 15 years old. 

Those who use child soldiers often use atrocious means to convince them that they can never go home. Right now our immigration laws prevent them from finding shelter here either. This situation urgently needs to change. If the relevant Federal agencies will 

not recognize defenses and exceptions as inherent in the current 

statute, Congress should act to make clear that its intention in 

passing these laws was not to turn the very harm refugees have 

16

suffered into a ground for excluding them from the protection they 

need. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Hughes appears as a submission 

for the record.] 

Chairman DURBIN. Thank you. 

Our last witness is Joseph Mettimano, Director of Public Policy 

and Advocacy for World Vision. I might just add parenthetically 

that as I have traveled, I often ask in the countries where I travel 

about the NGOs. World Vision enjoys a very good reputation for excellent work around the world. 

Mr. METTIMANO. Glad to hear it. 

Chairman DURBIN. I am glad you are here today representing 

them. 

Prior to joining World Vision, Mr. Mettimano served as the Deputy Director of Public Policy and Advocacy with the U.S. Fund for 

UNICEF. Before that, he held other positions in the nonprofit sector and the broadcasting industry. Mr. Mettimano holds a B.A. 

from Temple University. 

Thank you for joining us. Please proceed. 

STATEMENT OF JOSEPH METTIMANO, DIRECTOR, PUBLIC 

POLICY AND ADVOCACY, WORLD VISION, WASHINGTON, D.C. 

Mr. METTIMANO. Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. I 

want to thank you and Senator Coburn for inviting me to testify 

at this very important hearing, but more importantly, I want to 

thank both of you for your ongoing leadership and commitment to 

protect children, both here in the United States and around the 

world. 

I also want to note that it has been a real pleasure working with 

your staff on this bill, Senator Durbin. Shannon Smith has just 

done a fantastic job stewarding this bill through the process. 

My colleagues on the panel already have provided a wealth of information on the topic of child soldiers and illuminated both the 

legal and very personal impact that this issue has around the 

world. My goal today, hopefully, is to provide the Committee with 

the perspective of an operational humanitarian organization on 

this topic. As you noted in your comment, around the world, World 

Vision is working in communities where this is a problem, so I 

would like to talk a little bit about our programs and what are 

some of the challenges that we encounter in addressing this issue. 

In addition, I would like to just provide a few thoughts as a child 

advocate here in Washington, D.C. 

First, let me just give a quick profile of the organization that I 

represent. World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization. 

We were founded in 1950, and today World Vision is the largest, 

privately funded, international humanitarian organization based in 

the U.S. and one of the leading nongovernmental organizations in 

the world. We have 23,000 staff serving the poor in nearly 100 

countries, and in 2006, we provided assistance to more than 100 

million people around the world. 

As a child-focused organization, it is both imperative and inescapable that we address several forms of child exploitation, everything from sexual exploitation through exploitative child labor and 

17

including the issue we are talking about today—child soldiers. Our 

work with child soldiers is really focused primarily on prevention, 

demobilization, rehabilitation, and reintegration of those who are 

impacted by this problem. 

Needless to say, it is an exceedingly difficult problem to address 

in the field. As has already been noted, many of these children are 

forcibly recruited by either rebel groups or state-run military organizations. Others may not but continue to serve in armed conflict 

nonetheless. Many of these kids are exploited as a result of their 

poverty. In some communities, children have very few options. 

They may not be able to get three square meals a day unless they 

are participating and joining one of these military groups. So oftentimes, as a result of their poverty, they are exploited and enticed 

to join one of these military groups. It is really just an unfortunate 

situation for many kinds in these communities. 

I want to note that children suffer higher mortality rates, disease 

rates, and injury rates in combat situations than adults so. And the 

lasting effects of war and abuse may remain with these kids for 

long periods of time after the shooting stops. 

Both girls and boys often are stigmatized and traumatized by 

their experience, as many are forced to commit atrocities against 

their own families and their own communities. Sometimes they are 

left without a place to go when the bullets stop flying. 

Given the horrific nature of this abuse, there are a range of 

interventions that are needed, some of which World Vision is doing 

and many of our partners are engaging in. First and foremost is 

the need to identify who these kids are and get them demobilized. 

Getting them away from conflict situations and providing them 

with protective shelter so they are protected from the organizations 

that they are engaged with. 

Second, obviously these kids require a substantial amount of 

medical treatment and psychosocial support. A number of children 

who are in our programs have bullet wounds, knife wounds, other 

battle injuries. But more often than not, they all have psychological 

trauma. 

Third, if reintegration is possible, that is the next step in the 

process, preparing these kids to return back to normal life. That is 

done through peer counseling, job training, and informal education, 

most of which World Vision is engaged with. And then we start the 

process of family tracing and reunifications, hopefully trying to get 

these children back with their families and in their communities. 

And, fifth, it is very important that we address the very specific 

needs of the girls who have been affected by armed conflict. As has 

already been noted, many of these girls serve double duty, both as 

combatants and as sex slaves to rebel commanders or other military leaders in the units that they are a part of. Several of these 

girls end up with children as a result of this exploitation, and 

many also have sexually transmitted diseases. 

For World Vision, prevention is the key. We believe that prevention is the absolute best intervention. We would rather see these 

children not exploited in the first place rather than having to do 

long after-care. 

One of our strongest programs is located in northern Uganda, actually, in Gulu, a northern district in Uganda. World Vision runs 

18

the Children of War Program, which is a counseling center for 

former child soldiers and adults who were abducted as children. It 

is the largest and most well established rehabilitation center in all 

of Uganda. It opened in 1995, and the center provides abducted 

children with temporary shelter, AIDS education, food, medical 

treatment, psychosocial counseling, vocational counseling, spiritual 

nurture, and helps to facilitate the smooth reunion of the children 

with their families. I am proud to say that more than 15,000 children have gone through our center since it opened in 1995. 

Based on our experience, let me give you an idea of the kinds of 

situations that we deal with. I am sure the panel and members of 

the Committee are likely aware of the 21-year conflict that has 

been going on in northern Uganda. This conflict has terrorized the 

region, destroyed the lives of an entire generation of children, and 

hindered overall development of the country since it started. According to Human Rights Watch and the Coalition to Prevent Child 

Soldiers, the northern Uganda conflict today has one of the highest 

rates of child soldier usage in the world. 

For the past 21 years, the children of northern Uganda have 

been made pawns in a deadly game of war between the Lord’s Resistance Army—the LRA—and the Government of Uganda. Well 

more than 25,000 children have been used as child soldiers in this 

conflict since its inception. 

Senators, indeed the face of this war in northern Uganda is children. More than 80 percent of the LRA is made up of abducted children at this time. In addition, there are allegations that the Ugandan Army—or UPDF, Ugandan People’s Defense Force—has used 

child soldiers as well. For years, there have been mass hostage 

takings by the LRA, where tens of thousands of children have been 

abducted and forced to become soldiers. ‘‘Kill or be killed’’ is the reality for every one of these children. And in the case of girls, as 

we mentioned, being sexually exploited comes along with the territory of being abducted into the LRA. 

This environment has resulted in stories like that of ‘‘William,’’ 

an 11-year-old boy in Uganda who was forced to kill five people as 

part of his indoctrination with the LRA, with which he served for 

2 years. The first time William killed someone, he, along with other 

children, were forced to bite to death one child who had attempted 

to escape from the LRA. After the victim died of blood loss and 

shock from the biting, William and others were then required to 

swallow the dead child’s blood. It was a warning to him and others 

not to try to escape, or they would face the same torture. 

I also want to tell you about a friend of mine by the name of 

Grace Akallo, a former child soldier who testified on behalf of 

World Vision before the U.S. House of Representatives last year. In 

October 1996, the LRA attacked St. Mary’s College, a girls’ boarding school in Aboke Town in northern Uganda. They abducted 139 

girls, including Grace, and she was 15-years-old at the time. She 

and the other girls that were captured were then trained on how 

to assemble, disassemble, clean, and use guns. They were held in 

slavery by both the northern Sudanese Government and by the 

LRA. Grace and her classmates were forcibly given to senior LRA 

commanders as so-called wives and then repeatedly raped. Five of 

Grace’s friends died in captivity, many are infected with HIV/AIDS, 

19

and 11 years later, two of her friends are still held hostage by the 

Lord’s Resistance Army. Fortunately, both William and Grace 

eventually escaped and received support. 

Right now, with the support of the United Nations and countries 

from the Africa region, peace talks are underway between the warring parties, so-called Juba peace talks. We are very hopeful that 

this may lead to peace, but after 21 years of death, destruction, and 

broader regional instability, the international community needs to 

maintain an active presence and support for these talks. In particular, all parties involved have requested the presence of the U.S. 

Government at the talks in Juba. 

Uganda is just one chapter in this story, Senator. 

Unfortunately, similar situations exist around the world. Today 

an estimated 250,000 children are serving in armed conflict in 20 

countries. These child soldiers include both boys and girls, sometimes as young as 8 years old. 

The challenges for NGO’s like World Vision and others are many. 

First and foremost, just our limited access to getting to these kids, 

limited influence in getting these children demobilized. We are operating in a war zone. It is very difficult to get these kids out of 

combat. 

Second is implementing programs in a conflict setting; ability to 

successfully get to resources, ability to operate safe centers is very 

challenging. 

Third, you can imagine the psychological and physical trauma 

that these victims endure. Sometimes it is well beyond our means 

to be able to successfully bring about a full healing to many of 

these children. 

And then there are the many other problems: preventing the 

child from getting re-recruited if they leave our center; protecting 

children from retaliation, keeping in mind that they committed 

atrocities against their own communities and their own families; 

and then reunification of children with their communities. 

More specifically, the challenges for reintegration include just the 

continued conflict and instability in their respective regions, lack of 

educational and vocational opportunities, and the situation of girls 

who now have children as a result of the conflict; lack of adequate 

funding for psychosocial programs and community followup. Followup is also imperative. Again, all of this is occurring in the backdrop of violent conflict. 

While organizations like World Vision can continue to work to 

protect and rehabilitate children, our ability to mitigate and resolve 

conflict is quite limited. We can help bring physical and emotional 

wounds to healing, but we cannot stop the war or change the policies of the governments or organizations that use children in conflict. 

From our perspective, the international community, especially 

world leaders such as the U.S. Government, can and should play 

a more engaged role through diplomatic efforts, program funding, 

assisting peace negotiations, and leveraging resources. 

Over the years, I am glad to say that the U.S. Government, and 

the U.S. Congress in particular, has provided millions of dollars in 

program funding, ratified treaties, and passed relevant resolutions 

20

For example, the U.S. Government is a state party to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The 

United States is also a state party to ILO Convention 182. In addition, the United States has enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. This along with a range of resolutions passed by 

both the House and the Senate have been helpful. However, most 

recently, actually last week, the U.S. Senate under your leadership, 

Mr. Chairman, introduced another piece of legislation that provides 

a key element of a strategy to combat this problem. As you know, 

while many child soldiers are found among armed non-state actors, 

the State Department reports that 10 countries are implicated in 

the use of child soldiers. Some of these governments recruit children directly into their own armed forces, while others are directly 

linked to militias that use children in warfare. The U.S. Government provides military assistance to nine of these ten countries, 

whether it is a small amount of funding for military training or 

hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons or military systems. 

I am very confident that most U.S. taxpayers would agree that 

U.S. tax dollars should not be used to support the exploitation of 

child soldiers. Nor should U.S. weapons end up in the hands of 

children abroad. 

You and Senator Brownback have introduced the Child Soldier 

Prevention Act of 2007 to encourage governments to disarm, demobilize, and rehabilitate child soldiers from government forces 

and government-supported paramilitaries by restricting various 

forms of U.S. military assistance to these governments and to get 

them to end any involvement in this practice. 

Chairman DURBIN. Mr. Mettimano, if I could ask you to wrap up. 

Mr. METTIMANO. Yes. I am right now, sir. 

Rightly, this bill is directed at national governments that receive 

military assistance to help them professionalize their forces and to 

ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars are not used to finance the exploitation of children. 

We at World Vision believe this bill will provide strong incentives 

for foreign governments to end any involvement in the recruitment 

of child soldiers and, notably, also encourages the U.S. to expand 

funding to rehabilitate child soldiers around the world. 

Mr. Chairman, I applaud you for your leadership on this important piece of legislation and on human rights issues around the 

world. We at World Vision stand ready to work with you on our 

common goals. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Mettimano appears as a submission for the record.] 

Chairman DURBIN. Well, thank you very much, and as I said earlier, World Vision is a major player in this, and the rehabilitation 

efforts I have heard about as I have traveled make a big difference. 

Mr. Beah, we have thousands of soldiers coming back from war—

from Iraq and Afghanistan and other places—and about one out of 

three of them come back with a condition known as post-traumatic 

stress disorder. The stress that they have been under in combat, 

separation from their families, the things that they have witnessed, 

and the things that they have done haunt them, sometimes for 

years after they return. 

21

When I listened to you describe what you had personally been 

through, the separation from your family, losing your family, the 

horrible violence that you witnessed, can you tell me whether that 

type of psychological situation is something that you had to deal 

with personally? 

Mr. BEAH. Yes. Well, I went through rehabilitation for 8 months 

after I was removed from the conflict, so I had to deal with that. 

But even, you know, I think a lot of people think that healing from 

this kind of war is sort of an immediate process. I think it is a 

long-term process, and with time you learn to live with the memories and you transform them into something positive, which is what 

I have done. But these things, what I saw, what I was forced to 

be a part of, are things I will never forget. But I think children who 

live through this, what they come to learn is that those things become instructional tools for them to know what not to do because 

they understand deeply what violence truly is and what it does to 

the human spirit, what it does to communities, and what it does 

to human beings in general. 

Chairman DURBIN. I guess you would have to say that you, despite this terrible experience, have been fortunate since to have a 

helping hand to put your life back together. Have you been in 

touch with any of those who were with you, other child soldiers in 

Sierra Leone? Do you know what has happened to them? 

Mr. BEAH. I was in Sierra Leone last year, and I was able to find 

some friends who had been at the center with me or some that I 

have known through the war. There are a few who have been able 

to emigrate to other countries, who live abroad, and there are few 

living in Sierra Leone who are still going to school. And there are 

those who, because during the height of the war when I was able 

to live because of the American family that I was able to get, some 

who didn’t have that opportunity were dragged back into the war 

again. So some of them are completing another second phase of rehabilitation. So there are some of those instances. 

But, you know, I truly believe that if children are given the right 

care and support and if they are prevented from re-recruitment, 

they can actually regain themselves. It is not just about healing the 

child. It is also about creating something substantive for the child 

after they heal so that they will be able to take charge of their life. 

I think it is very important. 

Chairman DURBIN. Do you know if the people of Sierra Leone are 

following this prosecution that I mentioned in my opening remarks, 

where nine people have been accused of using child soldiers and 

are being prosecuted in the courts of that country? 

Mr. BEAH. People are—in the beginning, when the Special Court 

was formed and the commission, there was a strong interest in it, 

but I think from my personal experience of it and from the people 

I have spoken to, when Charles Taylor was moved to the Hague, 

I think that dealt a blow to a lot of people because I think people 

wanted that trial to take place in Sierra Leone or in West Africa 

so that—because that is what has been missing in that subcontinent for a while. The rule of law and justice being administered to 

people, however big or powerful they are, has failed people since 

the 1960’s. So people wanted that to happen, and that would have 

helped repair the judicial system. But when that was taken, I think 

22

a lot of people lost interest in, you know, sort of the effectiveness 

of this thing. But people are still interested and people—not as 

many as we would want. 

Chairman DURBIN. Ms. Hughes, Senator Coburn and I both 

thought that after your testimony we should have direct contact 

with the Department of Homeland Security to ask them about this 

wrinkle in the law, the PATRIOT Act, that you have talked about 

that is causing such injustice. And as I understand your testimony, 

the ‘‘material support’’ language in the PATRIOT Act would lead 

those who are coerced, such as child soldiers, to be treated the 

same as those who are coercing. Is that right? 

Ms. HUGHES. That is right—I mean, that is wrong, and that 

makes no sense and that is unfair. But that is the way the law is 

being interpreted. And that is true not only of the material support 

provisions in the law, but also in other provisions of the law that 

are also bars to refugee status, for example, the persecutor bar as 

well. 

Chairman DURBIN. And could you tell me, did I also understand 

your testimony to say that in some instances the recruiter might 

be treated more favorably than the coerced child? 

Ms. HUGHES. In the particular situation where the recruiter was 

a governmental recruiter, then there is an interesting wrinkle in 

the terrorism bars where, although they are extremely broad, the 

one thing they do require is that the activity, the terrorist activity, 

be unlawful in the country where it was carried out. And that is 

being interpreted to exclude governmental conduct, basically. 

Chairman DURBIN. Thank you. 

Senator Coburn? 

Senator COBURN. I am interested in when somebody presents for 

asylum, what is the availability to those that have not undergone 

rehabilitation, as they present for asylum, what is available to 

them? I understand, especially from reading the excerpts of your 

book, that there is a great impact that happens in the field in 

terms of rehabilitation with World Vision and others. But what 

happens if somebody is here for asylum and has not been rehabilitated? What do they do? Does anybody want to answer that? What 

is available to them? As you outlined, your friend who is being held 

in chains and is now under—I guess Homeland Security is going 

to appeal the decision on your friend or the person that you testified for. 

Mr. BEAH. Yes. 

Senator COBURN. Has he undergone rehabilitation? And what 

was available to him for that? 

Mr. BEAH. In the United States, actually nothing is available because what happens, when he arrived, because his mother was able 

to get him out and put him on a plane with a fake Swiss passport, 

and when he arrived, he said, ‘‘I want asylum.’’ And they basically 

called immigration. 

So immediately in the U.S., when you arrive with those cases, instead of rehabilitative measures or taking care of you becoming the 

first step, the first question becomes: Why are you illegal, and how 

can we deal with that? Not, How can we rehabilitate you and then 

take care of your case? 

23

Senator COBURN. So basically we need a special track in this 

country for children soldiers who are seeking asylum. 

Mr. BEAH. Well, not all of them come that are not rehabilitated, 

but those who—

Senator COBURN. But those that do not—or let’s say that you are 

coming, rehabilitated or not, what we have heard in the testimony 

from Ms. Hughes and Mr. Roth and Mr. Mettimano is that we do 

not have a system set to handle this right now in a compassionate, 

discerning way. What we do is let the harsh words of the law apply 

very vigorously through somebody’s interpretation, intended or otherwise, and so consequently we may pass this bill, but if we do not 

do anything about changing the actual system on how people come 

through here and how they are met and how they are dealt with 

in terms of recognizing what they come from, it is going to be for 

naught. 

So I would like to hear whatever suggestions you might have, 

and you do not have to do that now, but you might put into writing 

to Senator Durbin and me what you would see. In other words, 

given the law, the PATRIOT Act, given also the immigration 

changes that were there with the REAL ID, what needs to be 

tweaked to be able to accomplish that in a compassionate way, recognizing that there still may be terrorists in a group of this, but 

to give us both the compassion we need as a country, but also the 

protection that we need as a country. I wondered if you might do 

that for us. 

Ms. HUGHES. We would be happy to. There have been legislative 

measures proposed that would make explicit in the Act the notion 

of mitigation and defenses and exceptions that we think should be 

implicit in the Act already. And so that would be an important step 

not only for child soldiers, but also for other refugees who are facing equally compelling pressure, because we obviously do not want 

a situation where the child soldier who makes it onto the plan is 

provided with protection, but the mother who paid money to a rebel 

group to get his release is barred. 

Senator COBURN. Right. And we also want to make sure that 

somebody coming here for asylum that was a child soldier that has 

not been rehabilitated, if they get asylum and we do not have a 

way to help them with the rehabilitation, what have we let loose 

if somebody has not been through that process, much like Ishmael 

has? 

You know, I read the poignant characterization of you in this 

adopted family where you were. Was her name Helen? What was 

the lady’s name? I read this last night late, so I am having trouble. 

She said, ‘‘Why don’t I become your family?’’ What was her name? 

Mr. BEAH. Esther. 

Senator COBURN. Esther. You know, the fact that everybody 

needs an Esther. Everybody needs an Esther that has gone through 

that, somebody that is going to reach down in and re-establish 

human bonding of compassion and caring. 

Mr. Chairman, thank you for the hearing. We will have a couple 

of written questions that we would like to submit, and I very 

much—and I am going to ask the Chairman to have a hearing with 

Homeland Security and Immigration here so that we can actually 

find out why the change in status. Was it totally based on the law? 

24

And with your recommendations and that hearing, maybe we can 

actually do the tweaks. We need to hear both sides of the story, but 

maybe we can do the tweaks to appropriately handle this. 

Chairman DURBIN. I thank you, Senator Coburn, and some of the 

issues raised in the human trafficking hearing, which I know you 

have seen some reports on, can also be addressed by Homeland Security. 

Senator COBURN. I would also like to ask to be named as a cosponsor of the bill. 

Chairman DURBIN. I am going to ask unanimous consent for that 

to occur, and I think I just received it. So you are now a cosponsor 

of the bill. Thank you very much. 

Mr. Roth, a moral dilemma is taking place in Uganda where both 

sides are exploiting children. How do we achieve peace and justice 

in those circumstances? 

Mr. ROTH. I think that there are many people who falsely assume that you have to grant amnesty in order to have peace, and 

certainly the murderous Lord’s Resistant Army, the leadership that 

has been indicted by the International Criminal Court, is trying to 

advance that simplistic view. I think our experience, though, is 

that peace without justice will not be peace. The best example is 

to look at what happened in Sierra Leone, where there was initially an amnesty given to the Revolutionary United Front because 

it said you cannot prosecute us if we are going to have peace. The 

government gave in, and the rebel group used about 2 years to 

rearm and relaunch the war with further use of child soldiers and 

further atrocities. Frankly, that sort of small example can be replicated across the continent. 

If you send the signal that no matter how vicious you are, no 

matter how many child soldiers you enlist and deploy into combat, 

when push comes to shove and it is time for a peace accord, you 

just say, ‘‘Sorry, you know, no peace unless you give me an amnesty,’’ you are going to end up encouraging that kind of misuse of 

children again and again and again. 

So the only way to have lasting peace in Uganda or lasting peace 

across the continent is to be serious about this crime that now exists at the international level that we hope will exist now at the 

national level as well, and to prosecute particularly the leadership 

who are responsible. This does not mean prosecute every single 

person who has been involved, but the leadership which has been 

indicted by the ICC should have its day in court and spend a good 

long time in prison. 

Chairman DURBIN. I will not go into it, but it raises the terrible 

ethical challenge in Sudan, where I believe the Khartoum government has been reluctant to allow U.N. peacekeepers to come into 

the Darfur region for fear that they will gather evidence against 

that same government in terms of their criminal misconduct. 

Mr. ROTH. I have heard that argument, but let me, if I could, put 

it another way. Khartoum got away with murder and mayhem and 

atrocities for 21 years in southern Sudan, and they said, you know, 

‘‘OK, we will agree to peace in southern Sudan. Just don’t prosecute us for what we did there.’’ And the international community 

bought that deal, and that paved the groundwork for the atrocities 

25

that are now taking place in Darfur. Because they got away with 

it once, they will get away with it again. 

The only way to prevent the proliferation of these kind of atrocities is to draw the line and to say when you have committed these 

crimes, we now have the institution to prosecute you, and you will 

be prosecuted. 

Chairman DURBIN. I certainly hope that everyone feels as I do, 

which was one of the elements behind the Genocide Accountability 

Act, that we do not want the United States to be a safe haven for 

those who are guilty of war crimes anywhere in the world. They 

have to believe that there is not a comfortable place for them to 

live in this country, that they can be prosecuted for their misconduct. 

Mr. Mettimano, when I listened to Mr. Beah’s testimony, he 

talked about being anesthetized with drugs during much of his experience as a child soldier. And I think about what World Vision 

is trying to do to try to bring back these young people from the horrible, atrocious lives they have lived and the violence that they 

have witnessed and perpetrated. 

How do you deal with that in addition to drug addiction which 

may have been created in this same experience? 

Mr. METTIMANO. As I noted in my comments, it presents a very 

difficult challenge and, frankly, many children never fully recover 

from their experiences as a child soldier, and it is just compounded 

if drugs are involved because it hinders sort of the cognitive process with kids being able to work through what they experienced, 

or it can at least protract the process significantly. 

Part of our program, both in northern Uganda and other places 

where we have encountered this, including Sierra Leone, has just 

included ongoing, intensive drug rehabilitation like you may find in 

other places. But the process typically is going to last a lot longer 

because you are dealing not only with drug treatment, but physical 

wounds that are being healed, deep emotional wounds, depending 

on the age of the victim, and all that is being done in isolation. 

Typically there is no family support network around these children, 

so it is a very difficult and complex process to work through. 

Chairman DURBIN. What is your success rate on rehabilitation of 

these young people? 

Mr. METTIMANO. In general, about 98 percent, and in Uganda it 

has been about 92 percent of the 15,000 that have gone through 

our center. 

Chairman DURBIN. And Mr. Beah tells a story of losing his family during the course of this. 

Mr. METTIMANO. Right. 

Chairman DURBIN. I would imagine that story is repeated many 

times by those who are being helped by your organization. So as 

they leave, still children, where do they go? What is the next step? 

Mr. METTIMANO. It depends on the age of the victim. If they are 

still under age 18, what we try to do is if they can go back to their 

nuclear family or their community, we try to get them in foster 

placement basically with another family in their home community 

or in an area that is near their home so they are still within familiar boundaries. 

26

If the person is of adult age, we try to give them all the skills 

that they need to mainstream their life: give them job training 

skills, we give them informal education, and place them in a place 

where they will be able to restart their life and they will not be 

under constant threat of retaliation because of their crimes. 

Chairman DURBIN. Mr. Beah, do you know what happened to 

your captors, those who took you away and made a soldier of you 

at that early age? 

Mr. BEAH. No. I am not sure what happened to them. During the 

course of the war, there were a few who were killed, but after that, 

I was removed from it. I do not know what happened to those. 

Chairman DURBIN. Well, I would like to say that I am going to 

wrap up this hearing, but as I said at the outset, we address some 

very serious and poignant issues in this Subcommittee, but I do not 

want the Committee hearing to end with people saying, ‘‘Isn’t it a 

darn shame?’’ This is about doing something, passing legislation, 

changing policy, trying to address these issues. I will repeat what 

I said earlier: It is not about lamentation; it is about legislation. 

There are three specific things that have come out in this hearing that I want to work on. The first is on asylum seekers, and I 

do believe that that provision of the PATRIOT Act relative to material support of terrorism needs to be revisited. If we cannot see the 

distinction between those who are coercing children into this situation and those who are coerced, the children, then the law is clearly 

not what we want it to be and needs to be addressed. That is No. 

1. 

Number two is to give prosecution authority within the United 

States for those who are guilty of crimes involving child soldiers 

overseas, again, so that no one can view the United States as a 

safe haven if they have been engaged in this conduct either officially in a governmental capacity or in any other capacity. 

And, finally, the bill, which Senator Sam Brownback and I have 

introduced, this is going to be more challenging because I want to 

tell you, when you look at the list of the nine or ten countries involved, there are some there that are considered friends of the 

United States and cooperative with the United States. And we 

have to be very blunt with them that cooperation will mean that 

they also forswear the use of child soldiers in their own countries. 

And if they fail to do so, they will pay a price, that the military 

assistance will be relegated to efforts to remedy this problem; and 

if they do not remedy it, then military assistance may be reduced 

or cutoff. 

That is not an easy task in this Congress because there will be 

many people who argue that so many other good things are happening, we should not push this issue. But those are the three 

things: asylum, prosecution authority, and military assistance, foreign military assistance to countries involved in using child soldiers. 

I do want to do a little bit of housekeeping here before I bring 

this to an end. I want to note that—if I can find it among my papers here. I want to place in the record written statements from 

the Center for Defense Information, Amnesty International, and 

David Scheffer, Northwestern Law School professor and former 

U.S. Ambassador for War Crimes Issues. Without objection, and 

27

since there is no one here, there will be no objection—Senator 

Whitehouse? 

Senator WHITEHOUSE. No objection. 

[Laughter.] 

Chairman DURBIN. Good. We are glad that you are here. We are 

just about to wrap up the hearing, but I want to give you a chance, 

Senator, if you would like to make a statement or ask a question. 

Senator WHITEHOUSE. No. I am happy to meet the panel at the 

end. 

Chairman DURBIN. Well, thank you for joining us here. Thank 

you very much. 

The hearing record will remain open for a week for additional 

materials from interested individuals and organizations. Written 

questions for the witnesses will also be submitted by the close of 

business 1 week from today. We will ask the witnesses to respond 

promptly, if they can. 

As we close the hearing, I would urge everyone listening to contemplate the question and challenge that Ishmael Beah posed to all 

of us today. As a father and grandfather, I listened to your words 

very carefully because you said: would we want our children and 

grandchildren to endure the pain and suffering that Mr. Beah and 

other child soldiers face? 

As Mr. Beah reminded us, the lives of child soldiers are just as 

important as those of our own kids and grandkids. We have a 

moral obligation to take action to help these young people and to 

stop the abhorrent practice of recruiting and using child soldiers. 

Mr. Beah, thank you for being here today. Thank you for this 

long journey that you have made that brought you to this hearing 

room and I’m sure that you will continue to be a strong advocate 

for changing this terrible situation. It is a great honor to have you 

in the hearing room as well as the other witnesses. 

Mr. Roth, thank you for the continued work that you have done. 

Ms. Hughes, fighting on the front lines, in the courtrooms and 

at the hearings for a lot of people, I thank you for that. 

Mr. Mettimano, again, my best to World Vision and the many 

other NGOs that do such fine work. 

This hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 11:22 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.] 

[Questions and answers and submissions for the record follow.]

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