They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children

March 15, 2011

A retired Canadian general's impassioned call for action to eliminate the world's most "cost-effective and renewable weapon system in existence today": the child soldier.

Dallaire (Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, 2004), founder and head of the Child Soldiers Initiative (CSI), writes that he first encountered child combatants while leading the international peacekeeping mission in Rwanda in 1993. Ever since, he has been haunted by the fact that some 250,000 children—40 percent of them girls—are being robbed of their innocence while serving with government and rebel forces in world conflicts. All under 18, and some as young as eight, child soldiers have fought in more than 30 conflicts in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and other regions. While human-rights conventions and laws prohibit such use of children, writes the author, little has been done to enforce them. Dallaire's troubling book, written out of evident frustration over the world's failure to act, draws on six years of CSI research. He writes that children who grow up poor, undernourished and often orphaned in areas of conflict are regularly recruited by ruthless adult military leaders offering money, drugs, uniforms, chants and rallies that give a sense of belonging. The children are readily available in overpopulated countries, and lightweight assault rifles and other easy-to-use weapons can be obtained for them without difficulty. Girls, often overlooked in discussions of this topic, are valued not only as combatants but also as cooks, nurses and sex slaves. After indoctrination and grueling training, the children become vicious frontline killers. Three chapters are fictional narratives in which Dallaire conjures the horrors of soldiering from a child's point of view. The author outlines steps to prevent the recruitment of children for warfare and urges readers to help create the political will to act against recruiters and arms dealers.

A blunt, angry cry: "What has humanity created?"

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May 1, 2011

Dallaire (Special Adviser to the Canadian Government on War Affected Children and the Prohibition of Small Arms Distribution; Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda) writes poignantly about the horrific practice of using children as soldiers, presenting a stirring rallying call to eradicate the scourge wherever it is found. Dallaire's experiences as the commander of the UN mission to Rwanda during the 1994 genocide alerted him to the problem of child soldiers and created his personal passion--almost bursting from the pages--for fighting it. His authority and articulate prose are the clear strengths of his book. Unfortunately, rather than offer case studies or accounts in the voices of real child soldiers, he employs a lengthy fictional narrative, a choice that is disconcerting and ineffective as a literary device or as a tool of persuasion. VERDICT A powerful but flawed work. Despite its drawbacks, readers interested in this tragic component of many armed conflicts around the world will appreciate Dallaire's coverage of a tremendously difficult issue. His message is important enough and his voice strong enough to overcome the book's limitations.--Rachel Bridgewater, Reed Coll. Lib., Portland, OR

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2011
Dallaire (Shake Hands with the Devil, 2005) has been a soldier in the Canadian Armed Forces and a UN peacekeeper on hand to witness the atrocities of genocide in Rwanda. Haunted by the faces of children killing and being killed, he founded Child Soldiers Initiative to get to the root of why so many nations have been using children as warriors in more than 30 conflicts around the world. The prime factors are overpopulation and desperate poverty that make of children, boys and girls, an endless supply of cheap, easily manipulated soldiers, and the existence of adults ruthless enough to use them. Drawing on 15 years experience and research, Dallaire explores the wrenching dilemma consisting of the reluctance to shoot children though they are armed and the guilt and horror attendant on killing them. In some chapters, Dallaire fictionalizes the childs perspective on abduction, recruitment, and indoctrination. In others, he adopts the UN peacekeepers perspective. He also examines the kinds of changes needed to eliminate the use of children as weapons.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)