by Roméo Dallaire ~ Random House Canada ~ Review: Halifax Herald, March 2011
It is becoming common to read about ‘child soldiers’ forced to fight in the ranks of warring factions in distant countries. These children are used by armies as weapons of war, often sent in as the first wave in combat. They are expendable and they commit atrocities beyond imagining.
There are many reasons armies use children as weapons. “Children … are easy and cheap to maintain. They eat and drink less, they are not paid, they do not have to be particularly well clothed, sheltered, armed or logistically sustained ... There are no rights for child soldier, only privileges.”
In his new book, They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children, Roméo Dallaire exposes the terrible circumstances of child soldiers. These children are taken from their families, brainwashed with drugs and violence, raped and forced to perform acts of violence beyond comprehension. If they falter, they are beaten or sometimes shot, often by another child. They have nowhere to turn, and there is none to help.
Children are hard to fight against and rebel armies count on this. Adult soldiers hesitate to shoot or harm a child. “Not only do children present moral dilemmas for legitimate forces, but they also throw the ‘game of war’ into a tailspin.”
They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children is a call to action. Dallaire’s writing is dispassionate and calm and yet the urgency of his message is aimed at us all. Protection of children is a responsibility of the world, he says. We must stop this now. We must agree how to take action so not one more child loses what all our children deserve – a childhood.
Roméo Dallaire’s first book, Shake Hands with the Devil, won the Governor General's Award for non-fiction. He has received numerous honours and awards and has spearheaded the Child Soldiers Initiative, a partnership of organizations working to eliminate the use of child soldiers in armed conflicts.
