Fleeing the Jurisdiction

54% of Sierra Leone’s population at the outset of the civil war was under the age of eighteen. This conflict is notorious for the use of child soldiers, many abducted and given ideological training before being sent for frontline duty in so-called Small Boy and Small Girl Units. Charles Taylor is known to have proselytised on the loyalty of soldiers raised to such service. By way of caveat, I should note that the extent to which such units operated, and in what capacity,  remains under question. Certainly the prospect of an eight year old effectively using an AK-47 merits skepticism. The effect of such combatants, however, some reputedly as young as eight, cannot be underestimated. Though far from an expert on the psychosocial ramifications of wartime trauma, I can hazard some hypothesis that an immature and perhaps easily manipulated view of events might breed a collective disjuncture, a sense of unreality. Reading the grotesque deeds of rebels who have dubbed themselves, inter alia, Superman and Rambo, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the conflict, for all its palpable and horrifying consequences, for many took place in some fantastic, otherworldly landscape constructed to avoid the alternative shroud of greed and cruelty. Though I would never suggest that institutionalised Peter-Panery excuses the truly nightmarish misdeeds that have become the international face of this shattered country, it does go some way to explaining the shameful bewilderment and disbelief with which many ex-combatants, now grown men,  confront their participation. It is like they have woken up from a dream of killing to find blood on their hands. Ironically, due to the war, the proportion of Sierra Leoneans under the age of eighteen is now higher than ever before.