YouSaid · the spoken record

Nzita

lines on the record
10
first
2015-03-25
most recent
2015-03-25
sittings or episodes
1
sources
un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “I would like to stress the importance demobilization and reintegration programmes. I cannot conclude my statement without commending the tireless efforts of the United Nations and all the organizations devoted to the protection of children, especially UNICEF and the departments of child protection of the various peacekeeping missions, in particular that of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, along with the diplomatic missions in my country, my country's own missions and those of civil society. Without them, we would be what our recruiters wanted us to be. I hope they feel duly recognized by my humble contribution to this debate and that this meeting will be the occasion to set in motion solid strategies capable of saving the thousands of children who await our help.”

    2015-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7414 (2015) · source

  2. “As a Goodwill Ambassador for the implementation of the action plan and through my NGO, and with the support of diplomatic missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, I have spent recent months leading outreach meetings in schools in order to combat the recruitment of children into armed conflicts and to invite Congolese youth to commit themselves to assisting and facilitating social reintegration of former child armed forces and armed groups over the long term. I also travel throughout the world to share my experience and to spread awareness about the problem of child recruitment. To be a child soldier is to be torn from one's life as a child and to be forced to become an adult. In order to succeed in reclaiming one's life path, a former child soldier should be Viewed as a person in need of healing.”

    2015-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7414 (2015) · source

  3. “While awareness-raising about the problems is important at the international level, it is also essential at the local level. We must dismantle false beliefs and we must develop a consensus in post-conflict countries, so that everyone understands that the place of a child is with his or her family, in school, and not on a battlefield or supporting military operations. Everyone must know that children must be protected.”

    2015-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7414 (2015) · source

  4. “In October 2012, by signing an action plan with the United Nations, the Government of the Congo committed itself to bringing an end to and preventing the recruitment of child soldiers in the Forces armees de la republique democratique du Congo (FARDC). For me, who was a member of an armed group that was integrated into the FARDC, the commitment of the Government of my country to bring an end to the recruitment and use of children is historic, and represents an opportunity that has the potential to protect the lives of thousands of children. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo the progress of the Government forces are undeniable, but there are still dozens of armed groups, particularly in the east of the country, that continue to recruit thousands of children.”

    2015-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7414 (2015) · source

  5. “I am dedicating my life to helping children and to helping my country to rebuild a better future. In my country there are still thousands of children who are living through an anxiety that I know all too well. Personally, I decided to fight to the end so that what I went through myself will no longer happen to others. A little more than a year ago, I was appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador for the implementation of the action plan to end child recruitment into the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and, more broadly, to end the recruitment and use of children by armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I am also an ambassador for the campaign "Children, Not Soldiers" and for the Congolese campaign "No More Kadogo".”

    2015-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7414 (2015) · source

  6. “In that regard, it is important to emphasize that, although my years as a child soldier were an ordeal for me and other child soldiers, demobilization and reintegration enabled me to rebuild myself psychologically in order to face life with confidence and to turn the page on my past. I was able to resume my studies and take control of my life. I also attempted to tell the story of what I lived through in my book, IfMy Life as a Child Soldier Could Be Told. Urged on by this confidence, I decided to create a non-governmental organization (NGO) called Peace for Childhood, which does a lot of work to promote and protect the rights of the child. For those who would like to know more about our association they can go to our website: https://paixpourlenfance.wordpress.com.”

    2015-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7414 (2015) · source

  7. “The hardest thing was to see young children of my age playing on a football field not far from the plot of land where I was standing guard. And at night, when I was standing guard in the cold outside the gate, I saw again the image of those children playing, and pain filled my heart. My eyes full of tears, I asked myself very softly: "Oh God, what did I do that I cannot be like them?" Fate intervened and in 2006 I was able to be demobilized and was called upon to be reintegrated into the society through a programme run by the national commission for disarmament and reintegration, with the assistance of the international community, the Congolese Government and civil society.”

    2015-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7414 (2015) · source

  8. “We transported cases of ammunition, we walked thousands of kilometres on foot withjust one belief: we must fire on everything that moves lest we be fired upon ourselves. Innocent lives were destroyed for no reason. Allow me to reiterate my apologies for all the harm that we caused to our fellow human beings. I continue to regret it. In order to make us more capable of performing that dirty work, our recruiters succeeded in awakening in us animal instincts that were slumbering there. In magic ceremonies, they convinced us that we were invincible, but reality always showed us that the opposite was true. Many of my brothers-in-arms are no longer alive after having climbed very high on the ladder of violence. I was associated with the group for 10 years, and I waged war for 3 of those years.”

    2015-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7414 (2015) · source

  9. “I still have difficulty in finding the right words to describe this ordeal, which stole my childhood from me. I was a victim of recruitment by the armed group called Alliance des forces democratiques pour la liberation du Congo-Zaire, created in North Kivu to overthrow the dictatorial regime of President Mobutu. I was 12 years old. I and several of my friends were forcibly recruited in our school, and we waged war, in spite of ourselves, in order to overthrow the Mobutu regime. The recruiters gave us expedited training. We were sent to the front. We killed, we looted and we destroyed infrastructure that was useful to the population. We did everything that we were asked to do, violating the rules of international humanitarian law.”

    2015-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7414 (2015) · source

  10. “First, I would like to thank the presidency for giving me this opportunity to come and speak here. It is a great honour for me to be speaking for the first time before the Security Council in order to make my modest contribution and share my personal experience, as well as the experience of my compatriots with whom I endured the ordeal of forced recruitment. But before that, I would like to express my full appreciation to the people and organizations who have worked, and who continue to work, so that the voice of the child victims of recruitment into armed groups, who are Victims of war, are heard, and the scourge of recruiting children into armed groups and armed forces can be eradicated. As I speak to the Council today, I must say that I have lived through these torments myself.”

    2015-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7414 (2015) · source