![]() In these countries, recruitment by government armed forces are a matter of course. The countries that recruit children in their armies in Africa include Angola, Burundi, Congo-Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra-Leone, Sudan and Uganda. Their state of mind make it very dangerous for governments to continue to recruit children in the army. But these youths are also children, though with confused notion of criminal responsibility. It is true youths with guns can become monsters, that they may terrorise, rather than defend, local people. It is this contradiction - the appearance of an harmless and normal child, who likes to play with toys, on the one hand, and a dangerous death machine, who kills with pleasure and glee, on the other hand, that horrified me. ![]() On the other hand, these child soldiers were unpredictable, wild, ruthless and dangerous. These Kadogos were simple kids, they appeared harmless, particularly when playing cards by the road-side, or playing with whatever toys they could lay their hands on. In the course of my legal practice in Uganda, I travelled extensively by road, to many parts of the country, passing through numerous road blocks manned by Kadogos. Today, children are found in the ranks of government soldiers and guerrilla movements. By 2nd September 1990, when the Convention on the Rights of the Child came into force, participation of children in armed conflict in Uganda had become almost state practice. Many of the "Road Blocks"(Checkpoints) through out Uganda were manned by child soldiers. Later, during the 1980s, use of child soldiers, otherwise known as 'Kadogos'(-the little ones-) in Uganda, became a common phenomenon. I first met a child soldier in 1979, in Kampala, Uganda, soon after the overthrow of dictator Gen. Formerly I felt sorry and angry about the fate of child soldiers. Over the years, my views on child soldiers have changed.
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