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Samuel Baker secondary school in Northern Uganda!
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The making, and unmaking, of a child soldier (The International Herald Tribune)
By Ishmael Beah
"Sometimes I feel that living in New York City, having a good family and friends, and just being alive is a dream, that perhaps this second life of mine isn't really happening. Whenever I speak at the United Nations, Unicef or elsewhere to raise awareness of the continual and rampant recruitmentof children in wars around the world, I come to realize that I still do not fully understand how I could have possibly survived the civil war in my country, Sierra Leone..."
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Taking the war out of a child soldier(NY Times)
Published: May 13, 2007
"The teenager stepped off an airplane at Kennedy International Airport on Nov. 8 and asked for asylum. Days before, he had been wielding an automatic weapon as a child soldier in Ivory Coast. Now he had only his name, Salifou Yankene, and a phrase in halting English: “I want to make refugee."
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Child Soldiers: A global issue(Amnesty International)
"As armed conflict proliferates around the world, increasing numbers of children are exposed to the brutalities of war. In numerous countries, boys and girls are recruited as child soldiers by armed forces and groups, either forcibly or voluntarily. Children are susceptible to recruitment by manipulation or may be driven to join armed forces and groups because of poverty or discrimination..."
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A Legal Debate in Guantanamo on Boy Fighters (NY Times)
Published: June 3, 2007
The situation seems grim for Omar Ahmed Khadr, a boy soldier from Afghanistan detained in Guantanamo Bay. Although his age (just 15 years) questions the suitability of the "traditional" treatment of Guantanamo prisoners, government prosecutors are reluctant to acknowledge any special circumstance.