Description
This paper analyses the conflict and post conflict experiences of former child soldiers previously recruited by non-state armed groups in South Asia. International humanitarian narratives of child soldiering enforce a child victim/non-agent characterisation , which assumes that children have qualitatively distinct experiences and needs to adult combatants. However, this paper argues that the lived experiences of child soldiers is framed by a child-adult interconnection, which is evident in their actions as social and political agents. This paper draws on primary source of data (n=80) based on semi-structured interviews conducted with former child soldiers recruited to the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) and the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Elam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka, over a six month period in 2018. The findings are structured into conflict and post-conflict experiences. In conflict, while victimised by their recruitment as children, they exercised ‘adult’ forms of agency in their armed roles and responsibilities, including developing political commitment. Secondly, in post conflict settings, a child soldiers’ social and political outcomes in both formal institutional and informal processes of demobilisation, is characterised by the re-establishment of adult power over the child subject across formal institutional environments, and through their informal social experiences of return. The findings contribute to a more fine-grained view of children's identity and agency in conflict.
