Rwanda: a case study.

• Position: Includes related article on reuniting Rwandan children with their families

Children have not been spared by the events in Rwanda which caused the serious human rights violations of April 1994 and particularly the massacres; they have been involved both as perpetrators and victims. During the hostilities, both sides made extensive use of children as instruments for committing crimes against humanity, either as civilians or as soldiers.

The massacres were a mass phenomenon; this was deliberate and intended to involve all the strata of the population, including children, as killers "manipulated" by their handlers, often with the encouragement of their parents or members of the militias. Some received the same training as the militia members and behaved like them during the massacres; some, on the contrary, were urged on by adults (parents, neighhours and friends) to kill.

Under arrest

This is why at the end of the hostilities many children were arrested and accused of taking part in the genocide. As of 9 December 1995, 1,711 children were under arrest, accounting for nearly 2 per cent of the entire prison population, which is considerable. Apart from the numbers, something which inevitably gives rise to concern is the age of these children, varying from 17 to 10, or even 7 years of age; worse still, many of them have asserted that they do not regret what they did and are ready to do it again. The concern is all the greater in that their victims were other children; according to a UNICEF report, 47 per cent of the children questioned said they saw other children killing or wounding youngsters. The same was the case among the child soldiers.

Even before the massacres of April to July 1994, many children had been recruited by the two parties to the conflict - the Rwandan Patriotic Army (APR) and the former Rwandese Armed Forces (FAR). "The number of these child soldiers (kadogo) is impressive; it is estimated at approximately 4,820, of whom some 2,000 are in the APR and the rest members of the ex-FAR. Their ages are equally impressive and range from 5 in the case of the youngest to 17 for the oldest. Among the APR child soldiers, 1,500 are aged 10 to 12, and 500 are aged 13 to 17. Where the ex-FAR are concerned, the ages vary: 187 between 5 and 10, 252 between 10 and 15, and 257 between 16 and 18 (based at Bukavu), in addition to 500 to 800, aged 10 to 17 (in the Goma camps)," Mr. Degni-Segui observes.

There can be no doubt of the participation of child soldiers on both sides in the conflict in Rwanda. All participated...