"My child shall be protected": a former child soldier's commitment to his son.

• Author: Yue, Qiushi

if a war breaks out, my child shall be protected," said Willson Khama as he lay dying from tuberculosis six years ago.(1) Willson was only thirty-five years old and had spent almost half of his life as a child soldier with a guerilla group in Liberia during the country's civil war from 1989 to 1996. He wanted to make sure that his son would never have to go through what he had experienced.

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Willson Khama was known as Rambo to his fellow child soldiers. After escaping the life as a child soldier, Willson changed from a fearless, strong, and skillful killer to a man who tried to avoid confrontation.

Prior to the outbreak of the first civil war in Liberia, Willson enjoyed a quiet childhood in a small town called Ball Mines near Monrovia. His family was living in a gated community and was well off. Amidst the conflict, one day, a group of rebels barged into his home and slaughtered his parents. Willson, just fourteen years old, was forced to watch his parents murdered and all of his family's possessions taken by the rebel group.

Willson fled to Monrovia with his friends, all of whose parents were also killed. The ransacked town was left behind in flames, screams, and blood. Just outside of Monrovia, Willson and his friends were stopped by other friends who blocked the road and robbed civilians of their money and food. They assured Willson that if he joined their rebel group, it would mean security, safety, and food. Willson felt he had no choice but to join. His first job as a child soldier was as a compound guard for the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFI.), one of the three factions engaged in the country's power struggle, and led by Charles Taylor.

Willson was asked to clean clothes and weapons, and to run errands for his seniors, some of whom were child soldiers themselves. He also spied on what was going on in the town. The information he provided caused people to disappear. Day and night, he received training on how to handle such weapons as the AK47 and, as part of his training, was forced to watch the brutal torture and killing of the group's enemies.

When the NPFL took over Monrovia in 1992, Willson became a frontline child soldier. He was by then fifteen years old. Willson's guerilla "education" taught him to be heartless. Killing others became a means for revenge and to obtain justice against the rebel groups that killed his parents.

In addition to his famed fearlessness, drugs enabled Willson to commit...