Colombia's Child Soldiers Our World

children as they attempt to find their way back to their families and

society. Some of the stories and images in the programme may be

distressing. Thousands of children have fought on the front lines of

Colombia 's war will stop after 50 years of conflict, peace talks are

under way. Children are handing in weapons. Having fled the rebels,

they act out what it was like on the frontline.

Many now live normal lives, but cannot forget how they were trained

to kill. I am travelling across Colombia to

meet the children recruited as fighters. With exclusive access to

the people and places turning these young competence into citizens, I

will find out what the future holds for Colombia 's child soldiers. ``

young competence. I am travelling to the cloud forest

of western Colombia. Here among the copy plantations and banana trees is

a sanctuary for children who only months earlier fled to the rebel

groups fighting in this country 's civil war. These boys wanted to show

us how they were taught to stalk the lush undergrowth. And what to do

when they came under attack. It looks like a game, until they

start talking about what they had seen.

Carlos, now 16, was made commander by the rebel group he fought for.

We have had to protect his identity, because he has already received

death threats for speaking out against his former leaders.

This video is thought to have been filmed by the gorillas themselves,

and shows what appears to be the training of child recruits. ``

guerillas. Colombia civil war is an ideological battle, in which

children have been recruited by all sides. Thousands have been killed.

Carlos is now under government protection on this farm in the cloud

forests. We are the first foreign journalists to be allowed inside.

Here, children are schools, taught new skills to build trust. They are

turned from soldiers into citizens. Some 5000 former child soldiers have

already entered rehabilitation programmes like this. Now, the

number deserting the rebels is increasing. The fact that these

teenagers come from the most marginalised section of society, it

makes the work of protecting them much harder. Time and again, I am

hearing the same stories from teenagers like these, that they had

little choice but to join the ranks of guerillas groups like the SAR a

queue `` FARQ. Yolanda is from an impoverished area, part of a group

most likely to be recruited. She is so traumatised by what happened, she

will only talk of about her experiences with a counsellor.

Like many of the children here, Yolanda may not see her family for

years to come. It is too dangerous for her to go back to the village.

She will remain here until she turns 18, or until a foster home can be

found for her. Carolina has worked with many former soldiers like that.

She says that only by removing them from the situation completely can

they find their feet again. Is there a paradox because a lot of

the children you see will not only have been victims of the guerillas

groups, they will have become the perpetrators of the violence that

goes on in Colombia? Former child soldiers offer hope for

the future to the new arrivals. This woman was recruited by the largest

group `` guerillas group, FARQ, she was there for 12 years.

She is one of the success stories. She has broken with a violent past.

She wanted to show me how different life is now. She now lives near the

capital, Bogota, with her two daughters and younger sister. After

seven years in rehabilitation, she has set up a home with money from

the government. As a young girl, joining the guerillas seemed like

the only option available. It was a brutal way to go `` grow

up. She was trained to perform abortions on the girls, teenage

recruits who became pregnant to try to escape.

She said the girls had a particular use in the guerillas.

Some child soldiers were executed by their own commanders. She told me

new recruits were forced to watch. Our peace talks in Colombia now,

years since the civil war began. The fighting in some areas continues. I

am on my way to an area where the FARC are still in operation. The

recruitment of children is still very real. The Army is campaigning

to try and stop children from joining the guerillas. They have no

trouble drawing a crowd with Mrs of music and prizes. The children form

a captive audience but they perhaps don't know how vulnerable they are.

The Army has a message for them to hear.

I says that the FARC gets children by using incentives like mobile

phones. The armour gets outflanked and tracksuits to keep the children

in line. `` the Army gives out mobile phones and tracksuits. Both

the military and the guerrilla groups want to win at the young

people in the country and persuade them to not fallen to the hands of

the other side. This football match is supposed to keep children out of

trouble. The parents are worried about more than the final score.

Why you would guerrillas want to recruit children?

In towns like this, informants from both sides are set to infiltrate the

population . Full stop most people don't trust the government and don't

want to be rehabilitated. They seek a different type of century. ``

sanctuary. I come to a community for former

guerrillas run not by Colombian authorities but by a charity. Nice

to meet you. This is where you live. Can I have a look? Can you show me

around? Children here get a taste of responsibility and help to run it.

They mix with each other to become musicians.

And everybody has a task? Everybody has to do certain things? OK. There

is an endearing sense of community here and after all of the things

these teenagers have had to endure, they get a few years break, a

sanctuary to take a break from the harsh alumni. When this boy was 14,

he was a commander. It is a left`wing group. Now he runs the

kitchen stall. How did it feel to be a commander at age 14?

So, there was a turning point? What made you leave the guerrilla group?

Families rarely visit the rehabilitation camps out of fear of

retribution but today, this boy's cousin has visited. He has come up

with nuns from his home town. This community is run by a man who

told me he is suspicious of the government's efforts to protect

former child soldiers. The government's record in this war

has been far from clean. Parts of administrations have been accused of

funding and groups, right`wing paramilitaries set up to counteract

the guerrillas. I was surprised to hear that vulnerable children might

recently have been used as informants. I have come to the

capital to put the allegations to the bias Minister of defence. As the

military ever had to use children, people under 18, as a means to

gather information, as informants, as you like in rural communities

could Chamakh no, it is prohibitive. `` in rural communities? We have the

collaboration and Corporation of adults. `` cooperation. And they

have been very effective in the struggle against the FARC. He went

further, stressing that the government policy is working. If you

look at the numbers, the numbers are increasing. This year it was 20%

compared to the year 2000 will. The Ministry of Defence has been

implementing in these areas and it is effective. We are weakening the

members of the FARC. The vice Minister couldn't tell me how many

more children may still be fighting for the guerrillass. Those who leave

the rebels don't always have an easy way back into society. That is a

huge gap between rich and poor. Many people are stigmatised by the child

soldier past. She now works for the government and

says there is still a lot of work to do.

The challenge of reintegrating the thousands of child soldiers is

enormous. In many ways, it is down to the former combated is to rebuild

society. If peace comes, raising the horrible memories that so many have

experienced on the front lines could take many, many years.

For most of us, this night would be as cold as it was last night. There

is more cloud around. The South and south`east of the country will have

a chilly night. There will be missed around among the clear areas. You

will be some frost in some areas. Watch out for areas of fog in the

south and the South Midlands. It could linger well into the second

half of the morning. It is hard to tell when it will