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- The Citizen Voices Team
Le bruit des os qui craquent - Drama
by Suzanne Lebeau
Excellency,
Dear friends,
Five years ago, I was shocked by the images and accounts I saw in a documentary on child soldiers. It told of 300,000 children integrated into regular or rebel armed forces in at least 41 countries.
These children are 6, 8, 10 and 15 years old. They are taken from their families and robbed of their childhood, thrown into civil wars to do the tasks that adults are too scared or revolted to do. They are armed with outdated weapons and given boots so big they trip when they wear them. They are humiliated, drugged and assaulted into perfect obedience, paid with a single cigarette. They are thirsty, hungry and scared. Scared of being killed and scared of not killing fast enough . . .
I was unable to forget or pretend I did not know what was happening. I wrote, obsessed with the images I had seen and those I imagined, forgetting the faceless statistics, to try to understand the suffering of bodies growing up in this daily suffering, the suffering of souls looking for a guardian in this incredible mess. Elikia suddenly appeared, a little woman with a brush cut who slings her suffering over her shoulder with her Kalashnikov.
She dictated every word to me and it is her cry for help that I brought to the stage.
I had only words to fight the indifferent and guilty silence. You have the power, Excellency, to convince political institutions. Please, take the time to read Elikia’s notebook . . .
