SIERRA LEONE: CIVIL WAR: CHILD SOLDIERS FORCED TO FRONTLINES

(14 Nov 1995) English/Nat
It is a civil war that has killed more than 10-thousand people and raged for 5 years.
But it is a conflict that has received little attention from the international community.
The war is in Sierra Leone.
Among the victims of this conflict are the child-soldiers; boys and girls forced to the frontlines by both the military government and the rebels trying to defeat them.
In the no-man's land that divides the warring factions, heavily armed government soldiers capture a rebel.
This rebel is just a boy. He says he is 10 years old and claims he was forced to take up arms. It was not his choice.
SOUNDBITE: Creole
Me and another boy captured a woman and took her to the rebels. We knocked the woman to the ground and cut her throat with a knife.
(Did you stab her?)
No we slit her throat.
SUPER CAPTION: Captured rebel
Government soldiers grilled the youngster for half an hour before leading him away.
This boy is just one of the thousands caught up in Sierra Leone's vicious civil war. Most of the child soldiers have little idea what they are fighting for.
The military government controls the area in and around the capital Freetown. 90 kilometres away from the city, the countryside is littered with burnt out cars and trucks. Homes and villages are deserted.
People have fled to the city or the provincial capital Bo.
There they live in refugee camps and receive food aid from international charities.
But getting food to the people that need it is not easy. Convoys have been attacked by both rebels and government soldiers. Supplies have been stolen, trucks torched and drivers killed.
Impoverished villagers scavenge what they can from the wreckage.
The worst fighting is now in the east of the country. Here government soldiers are struggling to regain control of territory along the border with Liberia.
In the past 2 weeks troops have taken the town of Kailahun, only to lose it again in a rebel offensive.
No-one knows how many children that have been caught up in this war, the number that have been forced to take up arms and fight.
Now the military junta has had a change of heart and stopped enlisting youngsters.
A camp has been set up for them on the outskirts of Freetown.
Ivan Melvin Rogers stopped fighting 2 weeks ago. At 16 he is already a war veteran.
SOUNDBITE: English
I served in the military for four and a half years.
(How old are you?)
I am now 16 years old.
SUPER CAPTION: Ivan Melvin Rogers, Former Child Soldier
There are nearly 400 boys and girls in demobilisation camps across Sierra Leone.
Instead of fighting on the frontlines they now spend their time working in the fields or playing volleyball.
But for some it is difficult to get over what they have witnessed at war.
SOUNDBITE: English
(When was the last time you saw your mother?)
I said I not saw my mother. So that I don't know if she is alive.
SUPER CAPTION:Abubakarr Jilloh, Former child soldier
Abubakarr and some of his new-found friends know little of life without war.
They dream of a time when life will be better.
SOUNDBITE: English
I just want peace in my life
SUPER CAPTION: Abubakarr Jilloh, Former Child soldier
But at the moment there is little chance of that. The civil war that has ripped Sierra Leone apart for the past 5 years shows no sign of ending.

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