OCR Text |
Show A ‘Better’ Life Through Violence Manyyouths choose military over life of drugs, prostitution and the gun barrel dragging be. The daughterofa dirt farmerin a landruled by gunsandcocaine, Luz Dari did not haveto be told whohad Killed the seven villagers whosebodies bloodied thesoilat herfeet. Word had been passed. It was a warning from the rightwing paramilitaries challenging hind.’ Theyplay war gamesearly, and for real.” No Childhood: It is not so much that these armies rob Colombia’s youth of their childhood; most simply never have one. Colombia has been at warwithitself for almostthe entire second half of the century. In the past decade alone, civil strife has killed 35,000 people and displaced nearly a million becomea guerrilla at 14 because she did not get along with her mother’s new boyfriend and because the guerrillas promised to train her as a nurse. Her career ended when she was forced to wield her skills with a knife againsta 14-year-old comrade. Last year, Marta’s best friend and fellow guerrilla was accused ofbeing a traitor,triedin a jungle tribunal and sentenced to death. Commanders suspicious of Mar- the guerrillas for dominance of Colombia’s southern reaches. others. Half of the displaced are children. Luz Dari sees subsistence in her new surroundings. At 14, she ta’s loyalty forced her to come alongfor the execution.It was to be a lesson on what happens to “They said they were guerrillas,” sherecalled. “They weren't. the skills she has added to coca is a hardened guerrilla. Among “] had to go. A commandant, anotherguy andI,,”she said. “The processing are launchingan artillery bomb fashionedfrom a propane tank, throwing fragmentation grenadesandthefiner points of handling a Galil assault rifle. By her reckoning, she’s got it made. “It's good, the way they treat you,” she said, her Galil across her lap and a 9-mm Ruger tucked in her waistband as she guarded a hole was dug, with the dirt beside Theywerecivilians.” The massacre struck the last blow to a childhood that consisted of little more than dodging violence and tending her family's tiny plot of yucca, corn, bananas and their only really profitable crop — coca. Fromthe time she could stoop to pick, Luz Dari had been a raspachin, a coca picker, her tiny hands yellowed from tearing coca leaves, crushing them and then pouring the nox- ious mix of lime andkerosenethat leachesout the addictive alkaloids that are turnedinto cocaine. By the ageof 11, Luz Dari had abandonedthat life and joined the communist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC,the larger and more powerful of two rebel groupsfighting the govern: mentin Colombia.Betteratleast to have a gun whentheparamili- taries return, she reasoned.Better to side with the ones who seemed to care about the peasants and their crops, legal or otherwise. “In these areas, children have three alternatives,” explained Jose Raul Garcia, head of the Colombian Red Cross’ youth programs. “You can join the guerril la, join the paramilitaries or bece raspachines.” “They're forgetting prostitution,” added Lina Gutierrez, a top assistant with the Colombian Family WelfareInstitute, which is scramblingto devise a program to deal with child soldiers. Tender Age: As many as 6,000 children like Luz Dari have made at a tender age the same choice among evils in Colombia, according to U.N. estimates. They constitute a burgeoning andlargely unaddressed human-rights crisis i ion with no shortage of atrocities. In Uganda and Sierra Leone, ruthless warlords kidnap youths into their personal war machines. In Colombia, miseryis the pri. abandonment and dismal educa mary mec m driving the child-soldiering machine. Abuse, tional prospects are enough to drivethe innocent into the armsof any oneof the three factions bloodying the countryside left ist guerrillas, right-wing paramil itaries and the regular armed you find three footprint Camilo Lopez, social workerin the guerril coca-growing strongholds. said, ‘What do you mean?’ Hesaid, ‘Twofootprints roadblock in a FARC-controlled area of southern Colombia.“Here, they don’t pay you, but they give you everything: the clothes, the joots.”” Better Off: talkative children. it. I heard two shots, andshefell. And later they threw her in the hole. They wanted meto get in the hole,too. “They passed me a knife and told me to cut her open so she wouldn't swell up and push the ground up. It was something terrible. I felt strange. I had never seen anyonedying that way, at my own feet, agonizing and moving, moaning. It horrified me. And to touch her,to touch dying person, it horrified me. She was oneof my best friends. She was 14 years old.” Some parents, ex- hausted by their poverty, hand overtheir childrento the guerrillas. Given up for adoption as an infant, Patricia, (a pseudonym to protect her real identity), was passed off again at the age of 12, when her adoptive mother con- vincedher she wouldbe better off with the guerrillas. “T didn’t have any idea of what the revolution was or whatit was to fight for the people,” Patricia said from a safe house, where she has lived since running away from the guerrillas in February. “To die from a gunshot, no, to go out and fight for the people? I couldn't think that way.” A gunshot woundto the shoulder in fact got Patricia thinking about leaving two yearsago. But it was not until February that she acted, escaping with soldier she hadfallen in love with while he was held prisoner by her squad. She does not know herownbirth date, and only knows sheis 18 be- cause thatis what the doctors who examined hertold her. Even in the most stable fami lies, parents in Colombia fear they will lose their children to the simple attraction of a uniform, steady meals and power. In San Vicente, war has chased away even the cattle and jobs are scarce. Idle teens mill in the two open-sided pool halls, while others buzz through the muddy streets on dirt bikes. Their other choices for en tertainment outlets include three bordellos and a cockfight ring by Militias: Nearly half of Colombia’s minors in combat, about 3,000, are in the FARCor the smaller National Liberation Ar my. And as much as half the members of some paramilitary units are minors, often forcibly taken bythese right-wing militias as they sweep throughvillages in Marta (afictional name used to protect her identity) opted to “We don’t see the necessity to capability to fill all the positions with adults. A minoris a problem for us. We want maturesoldiers.” Franco's announcement of the policy shift coincided with a highprofile visit to Colombia by Olara Otunnu, the U.N. special repre- sentative for children and armed conflict, who had been lobbying for the change. Revolutionary Logic: The revolutionary logic, which does not necessarily coincide with in- commonin rebel groups in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatema- promised Otunnuit will stop re- America, child soldiers were la. With those wars over, Colombia stands out as the region's worst practitioner of child soldiering, followed by Peru, where the Shining Path guerrillas still forciblyrecruit children. Minors, however,still join governmentforces in nine countries in Latin America, including Bra- zil, Chile, Cuba, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru and Colombia. FARC, meanwhile, followsits own ternational humanitarian law. says heis 15, and a natural-born housing. In school, you have td pay from the chalkboard on. Thq a tribute to his mentor, Jairo. He killer. “It's just that some are born to join the guerrillas, so you join the war, and no one can stop you from becoming a guerrilla,” he said, shrugging. For him that was four years ago, at age il. Jair was fresh Colombian Army: With international pressure mounting, the Colombian Army this year announced it no longer will accept conscripts under 18, though they can join the National Police, a commontarget ofleftist guerr. Comandante Jairo Martinez, the FARC’ssecuritychief for San Vicente, sat in an abandoned cattle pen that served as an overnight camp and scoffed at the international campaign to remove all mi- nors from combat. “People who propose those things speak very pretty,” he said. “You see them ontelevision or conference, but that doesn’t hide the fact that it only creates false expectations. The youth don’t have a future. They can barely survive.For that reason, there are three paths that await a young person in Colombia: prostitution, : ALLBTE's, FULL SHELLS & CANALAIDS || DIGITALLY RE-PROGRAMMABLE * FULLY GUARANTEED *& WE OFFER A FULL RANGE OF CONVENTIONAL INSTRUMENTS, | kee 4 295°a (Compare w/$2,995), 4 FROM $190 - $895 * EXTRA DISCOUNT WHEN PURCHASING 2 HEARING AIDS *& 0% FINANCE PROGRAMS AVAILABLE aos S i CALL TODAY FOR YOUR FREE HEARING TEST & CONSULTATION! icra 1568 So. Hind Dc #720 424-2849 30WesCenter t, 373-6821 : The Nutcracker Nutcracker/Sleeping Beauty gift packages also available! For informationcall 323-6966 Larth GRANDAD S Prove November 3 3-5 p.m i HARRIS HEARINGCENTERS | December 10-30 a Proto lageFraby Boston Learn about oka ea(c KAA ALOR dameolake)KS whotrain other doctors. no i veer || A beautiful and At ARIS, our doctors specialize in refractive eye surgery, Unlike some other doctors at other institutes, all ARIS surgeonsare experiencedinall procedures, including Lasth and the newest, non-laser treatment known as INTACS™ research study at nocost call Dr. Ferguson at the Pharmacology ResearchClinic 3 (Compare w/S2.595) COMPLETELY IN CANALS | Ballet West's Ogden City Mall/ Trechouse Museum November 2 3-5 p.m 261-8930 handsstill fixed on an AK-47 as sault rifle, a weapon nearly ag Call 355-ARTS today! ZCMIMall November| Noon-2 p.m. www.protocare.com anything. So. . .” he shrugged plentiful as the plow in Latin America. Thad Don’t miss the magic! at Deseret Book RESEARCH CLINIC government doesn’t help you fo1 visited with top FARC leaders, WU ee ee PHARMACOLOGY exploited,”hesaid. “Listen to me, the peasant doesn’t have goog E>05% OFF HEARING DSi the same June day when Otunnu Grandud’s Prayers of the ——$—_— Trials quickly. “You see how the people ard badrr Thus far, the group has only Meet DOUG woo or unwantedside effects from Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa or Prozac If you are 18 or older, and wouldlike to participatein this off the farm, scared to be awa: from homeand only vaguely fa¥ miliar with the Marxist ideolog of the FARC. But he is learning cruiting teens below age15. But on AROS AB none range Dr. James M. Ferguson is conducting a research study of an investigational medication for people who suffer unpleasant drugsor, for the one who saves himself from drugs or prostitution, well, he finds the path of the guerrilla.” Acting as bodyguard for Martinez was a sinewy young guerrilla whose nom deguerreis Jair, {hear them] on the radio or in a River, a swift and muddy cocaine highway leading south through a veinof tributaries to the Amazon. tivelureof the revolutionary life. Its consequencesoften don't make themselves apparent until later. illas. have minors,” Brigadier General Manuel Guillermo Franco Paez, commanderof the army's recruitmentbrigade,said. “We have the guerrilla hot spots, according to human-rights workers. In the 1980s, when civil war erupted throughout Central the steep banks of the Caguan Digging a Hole: It is easy for Colombianyouth to see the rela Viorel Florescu/Newsday Jairo Martinez,left, FARC security chief for San Vicente del Caguan, joined the rnovementthree} decades ago,at age 16. His 15-year-old bodyguard, called Jair, becamea guerrilla four years ago. 9 NEWSDAY SAN VICENTE DEL CAGUAN, Colombia — The reasonsto pick Up a gun werelaid out, seven ina Lom, for 10-year-old Luz Dari to Out F Ta Coen aT |