“You’ll Learn Not To Cry”:
Child Combatants in Colombia

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
MAP
GLOSSARY


1. SUMMARY
• Child Combatants with the FARC-EP
• Child Combatants with the UC-ELN
• Child Combatants with Paramilitaries
• Girl Combatants
• Recruitment Methods
• Legal Standards
  
  
2. RECOMMENDATIONS
• To the Government of Colombia
• To the United States Government
• To the European Union
• To the United Nations
  
  
3. CHILD COMBATANTS IN COLOMBIA
• The FARC-EP
• Camilist Union-National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional, UC-ELN)
• Paramilitary Forces
  
  
4. RECRUITMENT: RULES AND PRACTICE
• The FARC-EP
• The UC-ELN
• The AUC
  
  
5. JOINING UP
• Joining the Guerrillas
• Joining the Paramilitaries
• Forcible Recruitment
  
  
6. LIFE IN THE RANKS
• Daily Routine in the Guerrilla Forces
• Contact with Family
• Rest and Recreation
• Religion
• Life in Paramilitary Camps
  
  
7. GIRLS
• Recruitment
• Daily Life
• Sexual Harassment and Abuse
• Birth Control and Abortion
  
  
8. TRAINING
• Training in the Guerrilla Forces
• Paramilitary Training
• Gas Cylinder Bombs
• Landmines
  
  
9. DISCIPLINE AND PUNISHMENT
• Discipline in FARC-EP Camps
• War Councils
• Other Executions
• Discipline in the UC-ELN
• Discipline in the AUC
  
  
10. COMBAT
• Combat in the FARC-EP
• Operation Berlin
• Paramilitaries in Combat
  
  
11. PARTICIPATION IN SUMMARY EXECUTIONS AND TORTURE
• Killing to Order: Summary Executions in the FARC-EP and the UC-ELN
• Street Corner Justice: Killings by the Militias
• Torture in the FARC-EP
• Paid Killers: Child Paramilitaries
  
  
12. KIDNAPPINGS
    
    
13. THE GOVERNMENT FORCES
    
    
14. DESERTION, CAPTURE, AND AFTER
• Treatment at Capture
  
  
15. RESCUED FROM WAR: GOVERNMENT REHABILITATION PROGRAMS FOR CHILD COMBATANTS
• The Legal Framework of Government Assistance Programs
  
  
16. LEGAL STANDARDS
• International Humanitarian Law
• Human Rights Law
  
  
APPENDIX: Log of Human Rights Watch Interviews of Former Child Combatants

COLOPHON

September 2003       ISBN 1564322882

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