(AFP) – Wincing with pain every time he walks, Bijay Rai is constantly reminded of his decision to join the Maoist army aged 14, as one of Nepal’s thousands of child soldiers. Rai voluntarily took part in the Maoist’s decade-long insurgency, launching attacks on government and army posts, because he believed they were fighting for Nepal’s millions of poor and oppressed. But 20 years since the war began, and almost 10 years after it ended, Rai, unable to hold a job because of the bullet shards embedded in his arms and legs, said he feels betrayed and abandoned by the Maoist leadership.
