Children shouldn't know about war, says former child soldier

Traveling drama troupe teaches peace through theatre

DEBRA FIEGUTH
CW Senior Writer
- Winnipeg -

Tamba Jimmy has a visible and telling scar to remind him of the time he tried to flee from the Sierra Leonean rebels who had captured him and put him to work as a child soldier: on his chest are carved the letters "RUF," standing for Revolution United Front.

Forced into the movement as an 11-year-old, Tamba was trained as a communications officer because he could read and write. But he didn't like being a soldier.

"I tried to escape from them," he says. "That became sad news for me. On my way I fell in an ambush."

His captives told him, "We will give you something you will never forget in your life." He's now embarrassed to take off his shirt to play soccer, lest his fellow players find out about his past.

Now an articulate 16-year-old, Tamba is part of a theatre troupe that is bringing a message of peace to Canadian schools and churches. He wants Canada to know that war-and especially war that involves children-is not right.

"According to my experience and also according to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child," he explained in an interview, "children under 18 are not to be soldiers. They're not supposed to know anything about the military."

They know too much

Sadly, the world's children know far too much about war, a fact that was made clear over and over again during the International Conference on War-Affected Children, held in Winnipeg. There are currently about 300,000 child soldiers participating in conflicts around the world. Two million children have died in wars over the past decade, and another five million have been left physically disabled.

Sierra Leone is one of the worst affected countries, where rebels have cut off the arms or legs of thousands of people, including children and babies, and where public torture and killing are daily fare.

About 10,000 armed rebels are holding hostage a country of 4 million people, says Paul Carrick, founder and director of CAUSE Canada, a Christian organization that is sponsoring the Peace Theatre tour. "This is an outrage."

CAUSE Canada has continued to work in Sierra Leone throughout the bloody conflict, providing vocational training, occupational therapy, social skills for amputees, counseling for former combatants and other services.

"Our commitment to Sierra Leone is strong," says Carrick, quoting Romans 12: 21. "We will overcome evil by doing good."

Peace Theatre, explains coordinator and actor Sean Krausert, teaches conflict resolution skills. "It uses theatre because it's very accessible, especially to kids. It doesn't depend on literacy or education." That's important in a country where most children haven't had a chance to go to school.

Krausert worked with a group of young people from St. Michael's Centre, a home near Freetown operated by Italian Roman Catholic priest Giuseppe Berton. Krausert taught the peace-through-drama process to two of the caregivers at the centre, then came back to Canada with three youths from Sierra Leone, including Tamba, to bring the message to Canadians.

"It's very much a good news tour," he says.

For Tamba Jimmy, living at St. Michael's Centre and touring in Canada is both good news and bad news.

"I've lost my parents five years ago," he says. "I don't know where they are. I'm a little bit happy because the program is taking care of us. But I'm not happy because I'm not in a family.

"Who will open his home to me and take care of me as his son and take me back to him? If you are denied by your parents, who will say come to me? Nobody else. It's very difficult."