The future of our community

   

 Why are children, the future of our community, if not the world itself, being singled out in today’s war?

   Paradoxically, it is precisely because they are so precious to us. To destroy what is of highest value to someone is clearly an effective form of terrorism: to kill and injure children is to rob a family or an entire group of its future.

   And today, more than ever, children themselves are bearing weapons in armed conflicts. Often, the young recruits undergo heavy indoctrination mixing religious fervor with national pride to intensify the call to duty; school and media reinforce the message. Handicapped children were used as human mine detectors to explode mines in the path of advancing tanks.

   The lack of food and protection has turned many a child into a soldier. “I have a gun, food, and a place to sleep,” one nine-year-old Ugandan recently told a member of the UNHCR, “that’s more than I had in my village. If I’d stayed there, I’d probably be dead by now.”