EDITORIAL COMMENT: Abusing children for political gain sick The use of children in Wednesday’s illegal demonstration by opposition activists led by Partson Dzamara has sparked outrage with the Government, lawyers and human rights organisations calling for action against the protest organisers
The use of children in Wednesday’s illegal demonstration by opposition activists led by Partson Dzamara has sparked outrage with the Government, lawyers and human rights organisations calling for action against the protest organisers

The use of children in Wednesday’s illegal demonstration by opposition activists led by Partson Dzamara has sparked outrage with the Government, lawyers and human rights organisations calling for action against the protest organisers

When former South African president and Umkhonto we Sizwe freedom fighter Thabo Mbeki was about 9 or 10 years of age, he tried to join his father’s political party, the African National Congress.

To raise enough money for membership fees, Mbeki collected empty cool drink bottles and sold them to a local shopkeeper. Noble as his cause was, he was turned away when he arrived at the recruitment centre.

He was too young to join the struggle.

At the height of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, hundreds of children were kidnapped from Manama Mission in Gwanda and force-marched by three Zipra guerrillas into neighbouring Botswana en route to Zambia where they would train as freedom fighters.

Zapu leader and Zimbabwe’s founding father, the late Dr Joshua Nkomo had to plead with his soldiers for the children’s return.

While the older children in the group voluntarily joined the struggle, others were sent to civilian camps.

As Child Soldiers International puts it, it is immoral for children to be used in adult wars. The despicable use of children during a protest to demand the release of missing MDC-T activist Itai Dzamara was in clear violation of child rights.

Never mind the unfounded accusations that Government is holding Dzamara. Let’s assume, just for today, that the demo was just. Would that make the use of children as human shields right?

And this from so-called human rights activists.

Those children, whose pictures were surprisingly published by some sections of the private media and a number of online platforms, were exploited as child soldiers to fight an adult war.

While they were carrying cupcakes and flowers and not AK47s just like the child soldiers we are used to seeing in the Great Lakes Region, the children were used for support roles and put in the line of fire.

Child soldiers can be used in support roles such as porters, spies, messengers, lookouts; or they can be used for political advantage as human shields and/or in propaganda.

Said Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Prisca Mupfumira in a statement yesterday: “The use of children in the protest violates Article 36 of the UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights and Welfare of Children) which provides for the protection of children from any form of exploitation which includes being taken advantage of; in this case it is clear that the organisers of this protest took advantage of these children to get a sympathetic ear.”

The silence of so-called human rights groups, child rights organisations, rights lawyers and their foreign funders is also telling.

They are too caught up in the regime change agenda to care about little defenceless children who do not even understand what a demonstration is. What more can we expect from the United Kingdom where the minimum enlistment age to join the army is 16?

The long arm of the law must catch up with shameless violators of child rights, Zimbabwean and international laws.

While Sheffra and Patson Dzamara claim to be traumatised by the disappearance of a husband and brother, respectively, they too are not immune to the law. They must face the music. Zimbabwe is not a banana republic.

Government must act on this madness.

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