Duop, a former child soldier who
is around 16, was greeted by his family and neighbors the moment he arrived at
a displaced persons camp in Bentiu, South Sudan.
The teenage boy walked off the plane
with two small rocks jammed into his ears.
He had no bags. His pants were dirty. He
was the size of a man but with the confusion of a child in his eyes. He had
been drafted into a militia, captured by government soldiers, punched, kicked,
whipped and stomped.
And
now, after six long years, he was going home.
Stepping into a Unicef truck and sliding
across the long benchlike seats in the back, he looked terrified.
“Duop, can you hear me?” a Unicef worker asked, using the
boy’s first name. “You’re going to see your mom.”
He is from the Nuer ethnic group and a
village in the country’s north, near the town of Bentiu.
According to The New York Times, One reason
Duop’s last name is not being included in this article is because Unicef
officials said he witnessed many war crimes. The soldiers he saw committing
these atrocities could easily hunt him down.
From numerous accounts pieced
together from family members, it seems that Duop quit school around the age of
9, left home, joined a rebel militia, then joined the government army,
defected, became a rebel again, was captured, beaten and tortured by government
soldiers and then discarded.
His family said that government soldiers
punched him in the head repeatedly and kicked him in the face. He seems to have
lost much of his hearing and the ability to talk. He may also be hearing
voices, said some of the aid workers struggling to bring him out of his shell.
Duop’s mother hadn’t seen him in six years.
Through repeated visits to her village, Unicef tracked her down and brought her
to a displaced persons camp in Bentiu, the only safe place for them to reunite.
The relatives said, it was as if he had
come back from the dead.
“But he’s not the same,” his aunt said.
“He’s deformed.”
photo: Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
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