HELMAND (SW): Naqibullah is a 15-year-old boy who entered a checkpoint in Nad Ali district of Helmand last year as an informant for the Taliban.
I interviewed him at the Children’s Rehabilitation Center. Naqibullah said the Taliban had forced him to enter the Afghan National Army and be an informant for them.
Eventually, he was arrested for espionage by the security forces and now he repents, though he has repeatedly said that he had no other choice except to obey the Taliban’s orders.
In first paragraph of Article 25 of the ‘Law on Combating the Human Trafficking and Smuggling of Immigrants’, it is stated that whenever the criminal offense is against a child, with his consent, he will be handed over to his parents and his legal guardians; in the absence of the legal guardian, he will be kept at a social services center. For this reason, many delinquent and deceived children have been kept in the Children Rehabilitation Center.
During my interview with Naqibullah, I met another boy called Khan Agha who is 14 years old. He said he has seen many children who have been forced to work for the Taliban. According to Khan Agha, spying and planting landmines are the only work that the children can do for the Taliban. He himself was trained for one year on how to correctly place landmines.
Gul Khan, another boy who is a bit older than Naqibullah and Khan Agha, is from Sangin district of Helmand province, and has been living in the Children Rehabilitation Center for 3 years. He said he is not sure if he will cooperate with the Taliban or with the government after being released.
Gul Khan said that most residents of Sangin district are supporters of Taliban and he had joined the Taliban to fight against the Americans as well.
“Nobody wants to be killed for 5000 or 10,000 AFN or Pakistani Rupees, Americans have occupied Afghanistan and Jihad is a must”, he added.
The words of this young boy raise the question of how easily the Taliban and other armed groups could influence the children and exploit them in the name of Jihad.
To get my answers, I first went to the Directorate of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled (MoLSAMD) of Helmand province, and interviewed Mohammad Aman Nekmal, Director of Labor and Social Affairs. He said every month the government receives the cases of abuses of children by militants, and these cases have been referred to the district prosecutors’ office.
According to Mr. Nekmal, no party to the war should use children, however, the Taliban have been committing war crimes by using children in the battlefields as child soldiers for different purposes.
In paragraph 2 of Article 3 of ‘Law on Combating the Human Trafficking and Smuggling of Immigrants’, it has been stated that domination of children for the purpose of exploitation including the use of children in armed conflict is considered human trafficking.
To elaborate on the legal ramification of this issue, I interviewed Hafez Ahmad Nusrat, one of the civil society activists in Helmand province. He said that both the government and the Taliban have been taking advantage of children in the war in Helmand. “Recruiting children and using them in the armed conflict is considered human trafficking under the law”, he added.
The stories of these children planting landmines and working as informants for Taliban are only a small part of the dark face of the war in Helmand. However, the most important question, which I am sure is on the minds of each child being used as child soldiers as well, is that how can they be integrated back into the society after being released from these Rehabilitation Centers.
ENDS
