(The Guardian) – Damaris picked up her first AK-47 rifle when she was 14 years old as a new member of Colombia’s leftist Farc rebels. She had barely turned 16 earlier this year when she was wounded in a skirmish with Colombian government forces, taking shrapnel from a grenade in the neck and torso. Damaris says she joined the Farc of her own free will, sneaking out of the rural home where she lived with her parents and five brothers and sisters. “I like carrying a rifle. I’m proud to be a guerrilla,” she told the Guardian in a recent interview in a jungle camp. But Damaris’s presence in the ranks of an armed group is a grave violation of human rights and international humanitarian law and as part of a deal to end Colombia’s 52-year civil war, the Farc at the weekend freed 13 child soldiers from their ranks, turning them over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
