Comment: IS violently punishes children who refuse to join

It’s the cruelty that haunts me, writes Evan Williams about his Dateline story on IS recruiting children as young as eight and punishing those who don’t obey.

'Omar' had his hand and foot cut off as punishment for refusing to join IS. Source: SBS Dateline

It’s the fact that grown men could disfigure 14-year-old Omar the way they did in the name of a religious state, and leave him in driving pain, poverty and despair for the rest of his life that I find the most upsetting.

These kinds of punishments have not been unknown, of course, but I had imagined they had been lost to the mists of the medieval period. Then again I think that’s the point.

He was tied down and hacked at as a deliberate and clear warning to other children and teenagers not to resist IS and to remind them that by age 16 they are all expected to join the IS army in some form, either as spies and supporters or fighters.

My story for Dateline tells how IS is indoctrinating thousands of young children under its control in Syria and Iraq with its extreme doctrine.

It’s putting them through rigorous military and psychological training to become the next generation of IS shock troops.

The testimonies we gathered from children who had all been first hand witnesses to different stages in this process indicate a frightening potential change in the future military map of the Middle East.

If we consider that IS has around four million people under its control and that they are actively recruiting, indoctrinating and training the large proportion of teenage boys within that population the true potential scale is staggering.

But it’s not just boys. We also speak to a woman who was until a few weeks before we met her a teacher within IS who mentally prepared girls as young as ten to seek death as their religious duty.

She said she and other teachers were instructing the girls that they should rush to die for IS because they should – and will – all die martyrs engaged in jihad.

This still from an IS video shows one of the groups of recruited children. Source: Islamic State Video

Most shockingly of all we heard how children as young as eight have already become suicide bombers for IS - and how many children not much older are rushing to volunteer for these missions after being subjected to a relentless display of IS suicide attacks and violence both on large screens in town squares and by being forced to repeatedly witness actual executions.

We are told by children who experienced it how the indoctrination in what they call ‘religious military camps’ aims to instil an unquestioning commitment to ‘listening and obeying – even if it means I will die’ in the young recruits.

They talk about how they are induced, coerced and bribed to join IS and how they are encouraged to inform on relatives and parents who do not support IS.

Clearly the testimony reveals an organized, structured military training process that aims to develop what IS would see as totally loyal, ideologically pure and unquestioning future warriors.

The IS videos show large groups of children being trained. Source: Islamic State Video

From the accounts we have received it appears clear this is occurring across the IS territory in both Syria and Iraq.

The potential long-term consequences for the region – and beyond - are clear.

The female teacher told us the children are taught that their main target is the ‘infidel’ government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – for now.

But she says they have longer-term plans to attack the west when they can – a claim revealed in the virulently anti-west threats featuring through the propaganda films of child soldiers released by IS themselves.

Children are seen in the IS videos being trained to use firearms. Source: Islamic State Video

Of course, there are many who don’t believe the propaganda or whose parents provide the right counter balance to their thinking to maintain independent thought until they can get them to safety outside IS territory.

Some of these children told how they used to like IS until they repeatedly started threatening boys to join and help them. There is a chance much can be stopped or undone.

But as we saw in the punishment of 14-year-old Omar, the price for resisting can be far greater than anyone might be prepared to bear, leaving many children with little choice but to sign up as the future foot soldiers and suicide bombers of the Islamic State.

See the full story of the IS Child Recruits:

How To Help

An appeal has been set up to help 14-year-old 'Omar' - click here to find out more.