SPECIAL REPORT: REBEL HELD

Child Warriors

To many youths who are orphaned or whose parents serve in the rebel army,
joining the FARC seems an attractive option. But they often overlook the
dangers.

BOGOTA, Colombia -- When counselors at a secluded youth shelter on the
outskirts of Bogota prepare the evening snack of popcorn, the noise jogs
the memories of the teen-age residents.

"When they hear the corn popping, they say: 'That's what it sounds like in
combat,'" says child psychologist Marcela Bernali.

Flashbacks from Colombia's civil war are routine for the 25 boys and girls
who live at the government-run center. Ranging in age from 14 to 17, the
youngsters all saw front-line duty as members of the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, or FARC, before deserting or being captured by the army.

Yesania, 15, who like other residents gives only her first name for fear of
rebel reprisals, cursorily recounts being wounded in a mortar attack.

Carolina, 17, lifts her skirt to reveal bullet scars on her right thigh and
left ankle.

"I don't know if I ever killed anyone," she says. "You just shoot. It was
like being in a dream."

Since Colombia's civil war began 37 years ago, all sides in the conflict --
the army, the guerrillas and illegal right-wing paramilitary groups -- have
periodically drafted minors.

But in recent years, analysts say, the FARC has stepped up its efforts to
bring youngsters into its ranks.

According to Julian Aguirre, an expert on the issue at the Colombian
government's Family Welfare Institute, about 30 percent of the FARC's
fighters today are younger than 18, compared with perhaps 15 percent a
decade ago.

"I've talked with more than 100 kids who have disarmed over the past six
months," says Carel de Rooy, the UNICEF representative for Colombia. "I've
seen 12- and 13-year-old girls who were very thin. You have to ask: What
tactical advantage can there be to bring kids of that age into the war?"

According to a recent report by a group of international human rights
organizations called the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, armed
groups often recruit youngsters "because of their very qualities as children."

"They can be cheap, expendable and easier to condition into fearless
killing and unthinking obedience," the report says.

Many experts attribute the FARC's rapid growth in recent years, in part, to
a rebel campaign that targets minors.

Aguirre believes the guerrillas began the effort in a desperate attempt to
keep pace with the paramilitaries, the vigilante forces that attack the
rebels and their civilian supporters.

The right-wing paramilitary groups have expanded even faster than the FARC
in recent years, with their ranks more than doubling in size since 1997 to
about 8,100 fighters. During the same period, the FARC grew from 15,000 to
17,000 troops.

The paramilitaries, who often recruit former army soldiers as well as
guerrillas, pay their fighters up to $350 a month. In contrast, the FARC
does not offer salaries to its troops.

Aguirre says the rebel organization may be having trouble attracting adult
recruits.

The FARC's growing reliance on children became clearer last fall during the
Colombian army's Operation Berlin, in which the military routed a guerrilla
unit of 240 fighters near Bucaramanga.

According to Gen. Martin Carreno, commander of the army brigade that
carried out the attack, half of the FARC unit's members were minors.

"All of the FARC fronts recruit kids. They are the first ones that they
throw into battle," says Carreno, as he paces in front of a military map.

Of the 73 guerrillas killed in Operation Berlin, 27 were minors, he says.
Another 60 youngsters, ranging in age from 11 to 17, either deserted or
were captured by the army.

In a video made by the military after the operation, an injured 14-year-old
guerrilla named Ingrid writhes in pain on a hospital bed. The girl says she
was shot in the hip by a fellow rebel when she tried to surrender to the army.

"They shouldn't recruit kids," Ingrid says in the videotaped interview.
"They should recruit older people and leave kids alone."

Aguirre estimates that 40 percent of the minors in the FARC are forced into
service and that 60 percent join voluntarily.

Some are orphans who have nowhere else to go, he says. Many have fathers,
mothers or siblings in the FARC and view enlisting as a kind of legacy.
Others sign up to escape extreme poverty or to flee domestic violence and
sexual abuse.

To such youngsters, Aguirre says, the FARC may seem like a surrogate
family. "Here, we have everything we need," says 15-year-old Jennifer, as
she sits on her bed at a FARC camp and sucks on hard candy.

Jennifer recalls the paramilitary raid that killed her 23-year-old brother
and uprooted the rest of her family from their home in northern Colombia.
The survivors resettled in a Bogota slum, where Jennifer worked as a maid
and a baby-sitter.

The FARC seemed an attractive option, she says, so she traveled to a
guerrilla-controlled region in southern Colombia known as the despeje,
Spanish for "cleared-out area," to enlist.

Nearly three years ago, President Andres Pastrana withdrew government
troops from the 16,000-square-mile zone to promote peace talks with the
FARC. The region is now one of the rebels' most fertile recruiting grounds.

Oscar Calle, a high school math teacher in the despeje town of Mesetas,
says armed guerrillas have barged into his classroom to recruit students.

"They say: 'We want to speak to the 11th grade,'" he says.

As a result, some worried families have sent their children to schools
outside the zone. In the past year, enrollment at the town's high school
has dropped from 250 to 125 students.

Still, many teens who live in the zone have volunteered to join.

Some people believe the youths may not fully realize the dangers of joining
the guerrillas, because the rebel-controlled area seems so peaceful. The
only guerrillas they see are relaxing in restaurants or patrolling the
streets.

"They never imagine that they'll be sent into battle," says a municipal
worker in Mesetas who does not want his name revealed.

Aguirre points out that many of the youngsters forced to join the FARC end
up deserting.

Between 1996 and 1999, the number of minors who fled or were captured by
the army totaled about 100 annually. Last year, the number jumped to 244,
Aguirre says.

Desertion from the FARC, even for minors, can be punished by death. Those
who have been captured or who have managed to escape often avoid going home
immediately for fear that local guerrillas will recognize them.

For that reason, the Colombian government has set up a handful of halfway
houses for children. The youngsters receive schooling, perform odd jobs and
try to make a gradual adjustment to civilian life. They are allowed to stay
at the shelters until they turn 18.

Carolina, the 17-year-old at the Bogota center, fled the FARC last winter.
She says she joined the rebels voluntarily at age 15 and worked as a spy in
the city of Cali.

She spent her time flirting with soldiers and police to learn about troop
movements. At one point, Carolina says, she managed to enter an army base
and walk out with a suitcase of uniforms.

When Carolina became pregnant, the FARC pressured her to have an abortion,
she says, but she refused. After she gave birth, she tried to quit the
FARC, but the guerrillas threatened to take away her child. A few months
later, she managed to escape with her daughter by turning herself into the
army.

"The guerrillas take advantage of us," Carolina says.

But some youngsters at the Bogota shelter seem to prefer their former
lives, says Bernali, the child psychologist.

"They miss the adrenaline rush of battle," she says. "We have to channel
their energy into work and sports."

FARC rules cite 15 as the organization's standard recruiting age, even
though some of its fighters are much younger.

For most of the past century, that age has stood as the internationally
accepted minimum for participants in armed conflicts. At the United
Nations' Special Session on Children, to be held in September in New York,
however, delegates are to debate raising the age limit to 18.

The Colombian army stopped recruiting minors two years ago.

"Wars ought to be fought by professional soldiers," Aguirre says.
"Governments must guarantee young people the conditions for growth and
development."

But when asked when the FARC will stop recruiting people younger than 18,
Manuel Marulanda, the organization's leader, replies: "When the fighting
stops."