Central Africa
"I feel so bad about the things that I did. It disturbs me so much that I inflicted death on other people. When I go home I must do some traditional rites because I have killed. I must perform these rites and cleanse myself. I still dream about the boy from my village that I killed. I see him in my dreams, and he is talking to me, saying I killed him for nothing, and I am crying."
(16-year-old girl after demobilization from an armed group)
Democratic Republic of the Congo
"When they came to my village, they asked my older brother whether he was ready to join the militia. He was just 17 and he said no; they shot him in the head. Then they asked me if I was ready to sign, so what could I do - I didn't want to die."
(A former child soldier taken when he was 13)
"They gave me a uniform and told me that now I was in the army. They even gave me a new name 'Pisco'. They said that they would come back and kill my parents if I didn't do as they said."
(17 year old former child soldier in 2006)
"Being new, I couldn't perform the very difficult exercises properly and so I was beaten every morning. Two of my friends in the camp died because of the beatings. The soldiers buried them in the latrines. I am still thinking of them."
(A former child soldier interviewed in 2002)
Iraq
"I joined the Mahdi army to fight the Americans. Last night I fired a rocket-propelled grenade against a tank."
(A 12 year-old boy in Najaf, 2004)
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