:00:00. > :00:00.children as they attempt to find their way back to their families and
:00:00. > :00:08.society. Some of the stories and images in the programme may be
:00:09. > :00:11.distressing. Thousands of children have fought on the front lines of
:00:12. > :00:16.Colombia 's war will stop after 50 years of conflict, peace talks are
:00:17. > :00:22.under way. Children are handing in weapons. Having fled the rebels,
:00:23. > :00:36.they act out what it was like on the frontline.
:00:37. > :00:40.Many now live normal lives, but cannot forget how they were trained
:00:41. > :00:59.to kill. I am travelling across Colombia to
:01:00. > :01:08.meet the children recruited as fighters. With exclusive access to
:01:09. > :01:12.the people and places turning these young competence into citizens, I
:01:13. > :01:14.will find out what the future holds for Colombia 's child soldiers. ``
:01:15. > :01:51.young competence. I am travelling to the cloud forest
:01:52. > :01:54.of western Colombia. Here among the copy plantations and banana trees is
:01:55. > :01:57.a sanctuary for children who only months earlier fled to the rebel
:01:58. > :02:11.groups fighting in this country 's civil war. These boys wanted to show
:02:12. > :02:14.us how they were taught to stalk the lush undergrowth. And what to do
:02:15. > :02:33.when they came under attack. It looks like a game, until they
:02:34. > :02:52.start talking about what they had seen.
:02:53. > :03:12.Carlos, now 16, was made commander by the rebel group he fought for.
:03:13. > :03:17.We have had to protect his identity, because he has already received
:03:18. > :04:16.death threats for speaking out against his former leaders.
:04:17. > :04:19.This video is thought to have been filmed by the gorillas themselves,
:04:20. > :04:27.and shows what appears to be the training of child recruits. ``
:04:28. > :04:30.guerillas. Colombia civil war is an ideological battle, in which
:04:31. > :04:42.children have been recruited by all sides. Thousands have been killed.
:04:43. > :04:47.Carlos is now under government protection on this farm in the cloud
:04:48. > :04:52.forests. We are the first foreign journalists to be allowed inside.
:04:53. > :05:05.Here, children are schools, taught new skills to build trust. They are
:05:06. > :05:08.turned from soldiers into citizens. Some 5000 former child soldiers have
:05:09. > :05:12.already entered rehabilitation programmes like this. Now, the
:05:13. > :05:20.number deserting the rebels is increasing. The fact that these
:05:21. > :05:22.teenagers come from the most marginalised section of society, it
:05:23. > :05:27.makes the work of protecting them much harder. Time and again, I am
:05:28. > :05:32.hearing the same stories from teenagers like these, that they had
:05:33. > :05:48.little choice but to join the ranks of guerillas groups like the SAR a
:05:49. > :05:54.queue `` FARQ. Yolanda is from an impoverished area, part of a group
:05:55. > :05:58.most likely to be recruited. She is so traumatised by what happened, she
:05:59. > :07:16.will only talk of about her experiences with a counsellor.
:07:17. > :07:20.Like many of the children here, Yolanda may not see her family for
:07:21. > :07:24.years to come. It is too dangerous for her to go back to the village.
:07:25. > :07:31.She will remain here until she turns 18, or until a foster home can be
:07:32. > :07:36.found for her. Carolina has worked with many former soldiers like that.
:07:37. > :07:37.She says that only by removing them from the situation completely can
:07:38. > :08:16.they find their feet again. Is there a paradox because a lot of
:08:17. > :08:22.the children you see will not only have been victims of the guerillas
:08:23. > :08:23.groups, they will have become the perpetrators of the violence that
:08:24. > :09:22.goes on in Colombia? Former child soldiers offer hope for
:09:23. > :09:28.the future to the new arrivals. This woman was recruited by the largest
:09:29. > :09:51.group `` guerillas group, FARQ, she was there for 12 years.
:09:52. > :09:59.She is one of the success stories. She has broken with a violent past.
:10:00. > :10:10.She wanted to show me how different life is now. She now lives near the
:10:11. > :10:16.capital, Bogota, with her two daughters and younger sister. After
:10:17. > :10:35.seven years in rehabilitation, she has set up a home with money from
:10:36. > :10:36.the government. As a young girl, joining the guerillas seemed like
:10:37. > :11:00.the only option available. It was a brutal way to go `` grow
:11:01. > :11:03.up. She was trained to perform abortions on the girls, teenage
:11:04. > :11:34.recruits who became pregnant to try to escape.
:11:35. > :11:57.She said the girls had a particular use in the guerillas.
:11:58. > :12:00.Some child soldiers were executed by their own commanders. She told me
:12:01. > :13:45.new recruits were forced to watch. Our peace talks in Colombia now,
:13:46. > :13:58.years since the civil war began. The fighting in some areas continues. I
:13:59. > :14:03.am on my way to an area where the FARC are still in operation. The
:14:04. > :14:12.recruitment of children is still very real. The Army is campaigning
:14:13. > :14:20.to try and stop children from joining the guerillas. They have no
:14:21. > :14:29.trouble drawing a crowd with Mrs of music and prizes. The children form
:14:30. > :14:33.a captive audience but they perhaps don't know how vulnerable they are.
:14:34. > :15:08.The Army has a message for them to hear.
:15:09. > :15:16.I says that the FARC gets children by using incentives like mobile
:15:17. > :15:25.phones. The armour gets outflanked and tracksuits to keep the children
:15:26. > :15:32.in line. `` the Army gives out mobile phones and tracksuits. Both
:15:33. > :15:35.the military and the guerrilla groups want to win at the young
:15:36. > :15:53.people in the country and persuade them to not fallen to the hands of
:15:54. > :16:00.the other side. This football match is supposed to keep children out of
:16:01. > :16:23.trouble. The parents are worried about more than the final score.
:16:24. > :17:01.Why you would guerrillas want to recruit children?
:17:02. > :17:12.In towns like this, informants from both sides are set to infiltrate the
:17:13. > :17:17.population . Full stop most people don't trust the government and don't
:17:18. > :17:25.want to be rehabilitated. They seek a different type of century. ``
:17:26. > :17:40.sanctuary. I come to a community for former
:17:41. > :17:44.guerrillas run not by Colombian authorities but by a charity. Nice
:17:45. > :17:55.to meet you. This is where you live. Can I have a look? Can you show me
:17:56. > :18:03.around? Children here get a taste of responsibility and help to run it.
:18:04. > :18:21.They mix with each other to become musicians.
:18:22. > :18:32.And everybody has a task? Everybody has to do certain things? OK. There
:18:33. > :18:35.is an endearing sense of community here and after all of the things
:18:36. > :18:47.these teenagers have had to endure, they get a few years break, a
:18:48. > :18:54.sanctuary to take a break from the harsh alumni. When this boy was 14,
:18:55. > :19:00.he was a commander. It is a left`wing group. Now he runs the
:19:01. > :19:26.kitchen stall. How did it feel to be a commander at age 14?
:19:27. > :20:15.So, there was a turning point? What made you leave the guerrilla group?
:20:16. > :20:20.Families rarely visit the rehabilitation camps out of fear of
:20:21. > :20:24.retribution but today, this boy's cousin has visited. He has come up
:20:25. > :20:38.with nuns from his home town. This community is run by a man who
:20:39. > :20:39.told me he is suspicious of the government's efforts to protect
:20:40. > :21:16.former child soldiers. The government's record in this war
:21:17. > :21:20.has been far from clean. Parts of administrations have been accused of
:21:21. > :21:25.funding and groups, right`wing paramilitaries set up to counteract
:21:26. > :21:29.the guerrillas. I was surprised to hear that vulnerable children might
:21:30. > :21:34.recently have been used as informants. I have come to the
:21:35. > :21:38.capital to put the allegations to the bias Minister of defence. As the
:21:39. > :21:46.military ever had to use children, people under 18, as a means to
:21:47. > :21:56.gather information, as informants, as you like in rural communities
:21:57. > :22:08.could Chamakh no, it is prohibitive. `` in rural communities? We have the
:22:09. > :22:20.collaboration and Corporation of adults. `` cooperation. And they
:22:21. > :22:23.have been very effective in the struggle against the FARC. He went
:22:24. > :22:29.further, stressing that the government policy is working. If you
:22:30. > :22:35.look at the numbers, the numbers are increasing. This year it was 20%
:22:36. > :22:39.compared to the year 2000 will. The Ministry of Defence has been
:22:40. > :22:48.implementing in these areas and it is effective. We are weakening the
:22:49. > :22:51.members of the FARC. The vice Minister couldn't tell me how many
:22:52. > :22:55.more children may still be fighting for the guerrillass. Those who leave
:22:56. > :23:10.the rebels don't always have an easy way back into society. That is a
:23:11. > :23:11.huge gap between rich and poor. Many people are stigmatised by the child
:23:12. > :23:53.soldier past. She now works for the government and
:23:54. > :24:43.says there is still a lot of work to do.
:24:44. > :24:51.The challenge of reintegrating the thousands of child soldiers is
:24:52. > :25:04.enormous. In many ways, it is down to the former combated is to rebuild
:25:05. > :25:07.society. If peace comes, raising the horrible memories that so many have
:25:08. > :25:52.experienced on the front lines could take many, many years.
:25:53. > :26:00.For most of us, this night would be as cold as it was last night. There
:26:01. > :26:03.is more cloud around. The South and south`east of the country will have
:26:04. > :26:12.a chilly night. There will be missed around among the clear areas. You
:26:13. > :26:20.will be some frost in some areas. Watch out for areas of fog in the
:26:21. > :26:25.south and the South Midlands. It could linger well into the second
:26:26. > :26:26.half of the morning. It is hard to tell when it will