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World
though obligated by international ‘WAS THE SUICIDE
convention to rehabilitate child soldiers,
ignores Yezidi boys and jails Sunnis as BELT YOU HAD TO
young as 13. There’s also uncertainty
about the numbers involved. Out of the WEAR HEAVY?’
roughly 6,400 Yezidis taken by ISIS,
1,855 children had returned as of mid- —FATHER PATRICK DESBOIS, in
February. Of the boys, around 300 interviews with Yezidi boys forced to
ticked the box on the form admitting become ISIS child soldiers
that they had fought for ISIS. But al-
Qaidi of the Kurdish government’s
kidnapped affairs department thinks the
number is much higher.
“Some 1,200 kids between the ages
of 13 and 17 were taken to the military
bases to be trained to be fighters,” he
said, citing interviews with hundreds and Desbois’ nonprofit intervened to
of returnees. “Those kids who are still keep the child from going to jail. After
in captivity and being trained are a counseling and sport and art therapy,
threat to the whole world ... These Desbois says, the child has returned to
kids, ideologically and practically, have his community.
been prepared to attack,” al-Qaidi said. “The best deradicalization program
“They are made into a bomb, ready to be is a successful integration program,”
triggered by ISIS.” says David Manicom, Assistant Deputy
Father Patrick Desbois, a Catholic Minister at Immigration, Refugees and
priest who runs a nonprofit called Citizenship in Canada. He declined to
Yahad - in Unum, has recorded interviews say whether the 1,400 mostly Yezidi
with more than 100 Yezidi survivors, fo- survivors of ISIS the country has taken
cusing primarily on the children and how in included child soldiers, but noted that
they were trained to believe they would trauma is so common that therapists
carry on after the ISIS territorial “ca- have learned not to leave a child alone
liphate” is gone. The French cleric’s Ye- with an adult for any length of time,
zidi team keeps track of new arrivals. For because of how violently it upsets the
interviews, a cameraman, photographer, child living with memories of abuse.
translator, Desbois and a former Belgian Questions of justice, meanwhile,
police investigator all pack into a tent or remain unresolved. In northern Iraq,
drafty sitting room and start the ques- Judge Ayman Mostafa is trying to build
tions. “Was the suicide belt you had to a case against ISIS for war crimes to the
wear heavy?” Desbois will ask. Kurdish High Commission on Recognition
Desbois says he uses some of of Genocide. But he has no power to indict
the accounts to explain to officials or prosecute its fighters, and a genocide
from other Western countries that charge can be brought only by a U.N.
the children they are welcoming body, which Iraq regards coolly because
could be dangerous if not carefully it will not consider capital punishment.
“deprogrammed” and healed. He tells All the while, thousands of ISIS fighters
the story of one boy now resettled in the have simply returned to the fabric of their
West whose social-media posts swing old lives, living openly in Mosul and Tel
from anger that ISIS killed his mom to Afar. That’s one of the main reasons that
slogans that ISIS will rise again. hundreds of thousands of Yezidis won’t go
As evidence that his program can home—they know who awaits them there.
rehabilitate the lost boys of ISIS, The Yezidi boys know it too. psychologist from the Kurdish nonprofit
the priest offers the story of another SEED. “The second time, he was beating
returnee. At a camp near Duhok, the for his ParT, S. no longer tries to run up his mother violently.”
boy rounded up former child soldiers away from home. Months of slow, careful Adil worked to teach S. about where
and started a gang that built several attention from a team of therapists his own emotions were coming from—
improvised explosive devices. The working with him and his mom have how a surge of adrenaline fuels a faster-
bombs were spotted and the plot brought him a long way. “The first time beating heart, stoking emotion and driv-
foiled, and the Yezidi community I met him, he ran away,” said Adil, the ing his anger higher. The idea was to
62 Time June 3–10, 2019
