Newspaper Child Soldier- Alice

The child soldiers of Sierra Leone

Al-haji Sawaneh, a boy of Sierra Leone, was abducted by Seirra Leonean rebels. He then was forced to fight as a soldier and obey the commands of them. When he took part in tactical ambushes, people saw the talent of him. He was actually good at those and the potential made the commanders to involve him in the fighting and he became a member of the infamous S.B.U., Small Boys Unit. Deliberately, they provided light weighted guns to the young children who cannot carry heavy weapons well. As a result of the hard training and the infamous rumors, thousands of children who were actually engaged in the program gained negative reputation for being an unquestioning obedience and their cruelty. They took part in Sierra Leone's civil war that took about 10years and committed numerous violence and crimes. The children force act out violence such as opening a woman's belly half just to check if the baby is male or female. According to Sawaneh, the weapons that the SBU owned are captured and gathered from the government troops. Also, they put great effort to get the weapons such as using the method of trading the weapons with diamonds. The availability of the weapons after all resulted in the transformation of one of the Africa's most resource-rich nations to a country with the lowest life expectancy.

The article shows several of aspects about the child soldier and the bigger picture of the effect of the child soldier in the country. Child Soldier is most of the time presented as the severe case of violence and cruelty. Through the real life experience that a boy as a child was kidnapped by one of the commanders of the SBU and later on scouted as a fighter of the war. A young child was forced to fight and murder people without the free will to refuse. They were too young and weak to stand up: they would have died if they did.
To add, the issues of the weapons, their use, and the influence of the availability of weapons are shown. Through observation and analysis of the general issue, the writer comes up with an educated prediction and commentary.
Since the medium is newspaper article, it is a report on the issue that the reporter did investigation on and what he or she has pretty much information about. Therefore, it is more credible to believe in what the author says and the content seems more reliable than any other words. Thus, the interview and the information that the article carries on to present are persuasive. Also, it attaches the readers emotionally to sympathize the child soldier while they have offensive mind toward the S.B.U.