Child Soldiers
Do we know the truth?

Those who respect the rights of humans, definitely object the use of children in war and child soldiers in any part of the world for any purpose.

Although Nepal is not a country known for child soldiers, there are two situations which remain unexplored. The possibility of violating child rights in the form of child soldiers may exist. The historical case, of Nepali children in the British Army and the second, more recent trend, of children in the Maoist movement clearly show such violations.

There is a long history (of about 200 yrs ago) of recruiting Nepali youths in the British Gurkha Army. There are many books, articles and poems written about the bravery of the British Gurkha Soldiers. There are many people in the west who know about the Gurkha Army but yet do not know about Nepal. If we go to many rural villages, we can find local physical exercise centres. Children do physical exercises as a preparation to get recruited into the British Gurkha Army.

During the Dashain festival, we have the practice of putting tika and the elders blessing the children. In some ethnic groups, seniors bless their children by saying "God help you my son! May you become a Malaya lahure (British Army) as soon as possible and if not, then at least Indian lahure (Indian Army)" "Bhagaban le timro bhalo garun! sake samma chandai nai Malaya lahure banes! tyo nabhaey lahure samma ta bani hales"

There are many cases where blessings became true. Boys often got recruited at an age lower than the criteria agreed between the British and Nepal Government. According to the official criteria, the British Army recruitment in Nepal has always been that boys should be at least eighteen years old to get recruited. At the same time the British Army is said to strongly prefer to recruit young boys. For example the age of recruitment in UK is 16 rather than 18. Also, according to many ex-Gurkha soldiers the British preferred young recruits. An ex.-British Army soldier who has already worked as a galla (selector/ recruiter), told me that senior British Army Officers would be happy if they could get younger boys. I have also heard from many that the British would check the quantity of hair on the legs of would be recruits - the less the better.

After interviewing some ex. British Army who have served as British Gurkha army soldiers since they were young children. The story of two of then are presented here:

Rohit Bahadur Gurung (name changed) was born in Lamjung district (western Nepal) in 1958. He had just completed his primary education from the local school. He and his friends were more interested in physical exercise than school. All his relatives and himself had dreams of having a life in the Malaya Lahure (British Army). It was in 1972, the Galla came to his village to select boys for the British Gurkha Army. He was selected and went to Pokhara for another examination. He passed all exams and was selected for training. At that time, he was just 14. He left his village and country and went for training. The Galla taught him to remember and tell the British Officer, "I am already 18 years old" "I am Hindu". Rohit went to Hong Kong and joined his training. One day he met his uncle (he was also in the British Gurkha Army),who also was in a training field. His uncle could not recognize him, because he had became darker and thinner due to sunburn and the tough trainings. His uncle came to him and asked, "Are you Rohit?" He replied with salute "Yes! Sir……Kaka (Uncle)".

Rohit said, "We under aged people were treated well during training and force. Force provided us milk. We had to drink milk everyday." However, when I asked about his satisfaction, he started raising different issues like discrimination between Nepali and British Nationals in the British Army. He said that he was not able to be well established by the earnings form his service with the British Army. So, he decided to go to Brunei to earn money. He got retried in 1991. Now he is in Brunei as an employer in a private sector.

Sivaram Pun (name changed) was born in a village near Rupa lake, Pokhara in 1954. He was also a service man in the Gurkha British Army. His father used to work as a Galla in Nepal. So, it was easy for Sivaram to get recruited in the British Army. Since it was his father's final year to work as a Galla, he decided to recruit Sivaram (1968). Sivaram was just 14 years old then. He was selected very easily and had to take the final test. In the final test, a doctor (Major of British army) suggested his father to recruit Sivaram after a year or so. But his father did not listen. Finally, Sivaram joined the British Army. During his selection process, his father repeatedly told him to mention some important things like "I'm over eighteen years, I am a Hindu" to the British officers

There after, he went to Singapore for training and was selected for the Band Force. Then he went to Hong Kong and then Britain for the Crown Service. He worked for the British Army for 21 years. According to him, he had a very easy and enjoyable job in the Band Force and Crown Service. He had a lot of friends in the army, they were around 16/17 years old.

Because of many factors, child solders were a part of the British Army. The main causes behind that were -- job with the British Army became a first choice in some ethnic groups of Nepal. For that people chose to lie about their age to get recruited as early as possible. There was no way to verify people’s age because Nepal adopted birth registration and provided citizenship certificates only in the late 70s. It also seems from the case studies, that special attention was given to strengthen weaker or younger members of the army by giving them milk and this seems to suggest an acceptance of young children in the British Army.

After going through many case studies, it is clear that the British and Nepal Governments were aware and sensitive to the danger of accidentally recruiting children as soldiers. Nowadays, a citizenship certificate is needed to get recruited as a Gurkha soldier and this provides a check on the age of recruits. But the problem here is that Nepal has a very poor birth registration system. It is quite easy to change date of birth as per need and choice in citizenship certificate. So, still there is a greater chance of recruitment of Nepali children as child solders in foreign and our own armed forces.

Another serious and important issue to raise regarding children in armed conflicts is about use of children in internal conflicts. In many countries domestic armed conflicts are going on. Nepal is also facing domestic armed conflict in many districts called Maoist Movement or People’s War (although the Nepali government only recognises it as a ….).. It is known informally that the numbers of teenage children from schools and communities are underground (Bhumigat) and taking part in the armed conflicts. Real situation and pulling and pushing factors of those children have not been analyzed yet. Exploration of the situation and analysis of pushing and pulling factors and a campaign to rescue children from that situation is an important task ahead for activists and the state as a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, 1989).

As we read in different publications, Maoist has clearly said that they respect and follow the Geneva Convention and International Humanitarian Law. If it is the truth, they should also respect the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). CRC strongly objects to the use of children in armed conflicts, war and as child soldiers, which is globally defined as the worst and intolerable form of child labour and a big violation of children’s rights.

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