2007年VOA标准英语-Former Child Soldier Testifies Before US Congre

By Deborah Tate
Capitol Hill
24 April 2007

U.S. lawmakers are considering legislation aimed at cracking down on the recruitment and use of child soldiers by other countries.  A former child soldier in Sierra Leone's civil war testified before a Senate panel Tuesday about the horrors he faced after rebels forcibly recruited him to fight for their side.  VOA's Deborah Tate reports from Capitol Hill.

Ishmael Beah (Feb 2007 photo)

Ishmael Beah was only 13 when he became a child soldier for the rebel Revolutionary Union Front in Sierra Leone.   He says he had no choice;  it was either join or be killed.  His family had been killed in the civil war, and he had no other means of survival.

Now 26 years old, the soft-spoken Beah told his story to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who listened with rapt attention.

"I could not shoot the gun at first," he recalled.  "But as I lay there watching my friends getting killed, the seven-year-old boys crying for their mothers as life departed their little bodies, and the blood from my friends who had died, covering my hands and face, I began shooting.  Something inside me shifted, and I lost compassion¹ for anyone.  After that day, killing² became as easy as drinking water. I had lost all sense of remorse³.  Our commanders gave us drugs, marijuana, cocaine⁴, and brown-brown, a concoction⁵ of cocaine and gunpowder⁶, before battle to anesthetize us to what we had to do."

Three years after he was recruited by the rebels, Beah was rescued by a grassroots rehabilitation⁷ organization for child soldiers.  He immigrated⁸ to the United States and now lives in New York.

Beah has written a book about his experience, A Long Way Gone:  Memoirs⁹ of a Boy Soldier, and is an advocate for former child soldiers.

He came to Capitol Hill to urge changes in provisions of U.S. immigration law that prevent child soldiers who flee civil war from obtaining asylum¹⁰ or refugee status in the United States.

"Not only do we need to pressure governments to immediately cease its use of child soldiers, we need to also convince our own government to provide the humanity so sorely lacking, by not detaining those former child soldiers so fortunate to come to the United States," he noted¹¹.

Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat¹², agreed that reforms to immigration law should be considered.   Durbin has sponsored legislation known as the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2007, which aims to press governments to end recruitment and use of child soldiers.  The measure would limit U.S. military assistance to countries identified in the annual State Department Human Rights reports as recruiting or using child soldiers.

"I am sorry to say that recruiting and using child soldiers is not a crime under U.S. law," he said.  "So the U.S. government is unable to prosecute¹³ perpetrators who are found in our country."

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, says the bill is a step in the right direction.

"The loss of U.S. military backing would be a powerful political blow to these governments, and a strong motivator to ending any involvement in child recruitment," he noted.

Roth says the legislation could also have an indirect impact on recruitment and use of child soldiers by rebel groups.

"There is little hope of curbing¹⁴ child recruitment by rebel armies as long as they can justify¹⁵ their use of children by pointing to child recruitment by governments," he added.  "The stronger we can make the international norm against the use of child soldiers, the harder it will be for rebel groups to pay the political price of using them."

There are an estimated 300,000 child soldiers in the world.  Among the countries where child soldiers are known to be recruited and used are Burma, Laos, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Uganda, Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo.

1 compassion   

n.同情，怜悯

参考例句：

• He could not help having compassion for the poor creature.他情不自禁地怜悯起那个可怜的人来。
• Her heart was filled with compassion for the motherless children.她对于没有母亲的孩子们充满了怜悯心。

2 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

3 remorse   

n.痛恨，悔恨，自责

参考例句：

• She had no remorse about what she had said.她对所说的话不后悔。
• He has shown no remorse for his actions.他对自己的行为没有任何悔恨之意。

4 cocaine   

n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂）

参考例句：

• That young man is a cocaine addict.那个年轻人吸食可卡因成瘾。
• Don't have cocaine abusively.不可滥服古柯碱。

5 concoction   

n.调配(物)；谎言

参考例句：

• She enjoyed the concoction of foreign dishes.她喜欢调制外国菜。
• His story was a sheer concoction.他的故事实在是一纯属捏造之事。

6 gunpowder   

n.火药

参考例句：

• Gunpowder was introduced into Europe during the first half of the 14th century.在14世纪上半叶，火药传入欧洲。
• This statement has a strong smell of gunpowder.这是一篇充满火药味的声明。

7 rehabilitation   

n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位

参考例句：

• He's booked himself into a rehabilitation clinic.他自己联系了一家康复诊所。
• No one can really make me rehabilitation of injuries.已经没有人可以真正令我的伤康复了。

8 immigrated   

v.移入( immigrate的过去式和过去分词 )；移民

参考例句：

• He immigrated from Ulster in 1848. 他1848年从阿尔斯特移民到这里。 来自辞典例句
• Many Pakistanis have immigrated to Britain. 许多巴基斯坦人移居到了英国。 来自辞典例句

9 memoirs   

n.回忆录；回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数)

参考例句：

• Her memoirs were ghostwritten. 她的回忆录是由别人代写的。
• I watched a trailer for the screenplay of his memoirs. 我看过以他的回忆录改编成电影的预告片。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

11 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

12 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

13 prosecute   

vt.告发；进行；vi.告发，起诉，作检察官

参考例句：

• I am trying my best to prosecute my duties.我正在尽力履行我的职责。
• Is there enough evidence to prosecute?有没有起诉的足够证据？

14 curbing   

n.边石，边石的材料v.限制，克制，抑制( curb的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Progress has been made in curbing inflation. 在控制通货膨胀方面已取得了进展。
• A range of policies have been introduced aimed at curbing inflation. 为了抑制通货膨胀实施了一系列的政策。

15 justify   

vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护

参考例句：

• He tried to justify his absence with lame excuses.他想用站不住脚的借口为自己的缺席辩解。
• Can you justify your rude behavior to me?你能向我证明你的粗野行为是有道理的吗？