The skanner., May 22, 2013, Page 8, Image 8

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Dallaire
continued from page 3
and lived what is happening to 80 percent of
humanity. And bring that passion back and
change it.
TSN: Sir, about a year ago – as you were
just talking about this new media – we saw
a viral video that became a news story in
itself, and it was about Joseph Kony. You’ve
been doing work around the issue of child
soldiers; you created the Will to Intervene
Project. Can you talk a little bit about the
work you are doing today and how every-
day people can plug into it – because there
is obviously a deep hunger right in this
country to try to make a difference there.
RD: I think the awareness in this particu-
lar cause can have legs, where maybe other
causes are more difficult to explain or diffi-
cult to engage people in. We’re talking
about young boys and girls who have been
turned into weapons of war because of the
proliferation of small arms, and because of
their availability. Adults in these conflict
zones, in these imploding nations, are using
the simplest tool – yet it’s become the most
effective tool of combat in these developing
countries.
So the argument that I present is that in
our country we put everything in motion
when we have an Amber Alert, when we
have one of our own who is abducted or
something like that. And yet we are stand-
ing by and letting over 200,000 children at
any time of the year to be used and abused
and drugged up and raped and so on, as
weapons of war. And they are now the pri-
mary weapon of these wars.
And this is where, I think I can argue, that
it’s not good enough to simply rehabilitate
and reintegrate them after, we’ve got to
actually prevent this. We’ve got to reduce
these numbers and that’s why my research
and the research we’re doing in the field is
important.
I actually sent a team into Sierra Leone
yesterday because the president of Sierra
vidually or through what
Leone has given us the
this new power base is
mandate to retrain his
around the world which
whole army, all his
is the NGO community –
police forces, and to
they can influence public
influence the content of
opinion and policies.
the curriculum of pri-
These kids can either join
mary schools in regards
one or create their own,
to how to prevent the
and through them be able
recruitment of child sol-
to coalesce tremendous
diers.
amounts of influence in
We give new tactics
order to create these
and methodologies to the
international policies and
police and to the military
certainly influence public
when they face child sol-
opinion.
diers — without having
And that’s where I
to kill them. And so
think the effort’s got to
we’re actually into a
be, encourage them to
five-year program there
Gen. Romeo Dallaire
join and engage in
and we’re spreading it
NGOs, go out there for a
out throughout sub-
Saharan Africa right now, and actually week, a month, get your boots dirty, come
back, and with that zeal, that passion, of
neutralizing that weapon.
So when we talk in terms like that we are what you’ve seen and heard and felt and
specifically talking about the peers of our tasted, you can create through the revolu-
children and pulling them out of the war tionary communications a coalescing of the
zones, out of being the weapons of war, and youth that influence ultimately their par-
...we are standing by and letting over 200,000
children at any time of the year to be used
and abused...as weapons of war
more importantly, preventing them from
becoming one.
ents, and start that attrition of the use of
children as weapons of war.
TSN: And what can we do to help with
that because I’m guessing everyone’s on
board with you.
RD: Your optimism is the greatest
encouragement. What you can do in fact is
rather interesting – is encourage the youth
of our nations to be engaged. Because I
believe that their engagement – either indi-
TSN: So I know people are going to read
this and they are going to rush right to their
phone or computer to sign right up. Are
there any organizations that you know of
that are NGOs that are actually providing
people with the opportunity to plug in that
way?
RD: Well there is the Child Soldier Initia-
Page 8 The Portland Skanner May 22, 2013
tive itself, out of Dalhousie University
which is leading the charge in the countries
where conflict is going on. We’ve been
working through Rwanda, Botswana, South
Africa; we’ve been training even into coun-
tries like Cote D’Ivoire. We are looking at
this new phenomenon of child pirates,
where they’re using the youth of Somalia to
be pirates, so we’re actually looking at
resolving that problem. So one is, support
that Child Soldier Initiative and it’s on the
web, it’s easy to find.
And then secondly, we do work with cer-
tain NGOs who I think are the more
progressive ones in trying to reinforce our
efforts. And that would be UNICEF Interna-
tional, although that is a UN agency. And
Save the Children. They are, to me, excel-
lent – my experience in the field in Sierra
Leone and of course Rwanda reflects that.
TSN: Are there other colleges with a
Romeo Dallaire scholarship for their stu-
dents?
RD: Well that’s very interesting. There is
one that is being done at Dalhousie, and it’s
from the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldier Ini-
tiative that’s got a scholarship for two
students every year. The funds for that were
put together by the Royal Military College
of Canada – your equivalent to West Point.
And they climbed Kilimanjaro and collect-
ed over $30,000, and their effort continues.
And these cadets realize that one day they
may have to face child soldiers. By support-
ing us they hope to actually reduce that
possibility. It’s a long term effort – perse-
verance – and the fact that this is not
building a school; this is preventing, ulti-
mately, countries to recruit children to
destroy schools. And that’s what we’re after.
For more information on Dallaire’s work
go to www.childsoldiers.org. To get
involved in NGOs, go to www.unicef.org,
or www.savethechildren.org.