The following interview was taken from COLORS magazine, n. 14

Sayon is 14 and undergoing therapy at the UN-funded Children's Assistance Program facility in Monrovia along with 600 other child veterans. (Sayon is from Liberia, not Rwanda, but I thought it belonged in this months discussion)

"I wanted revenge. I watched the rebels kill my father [in August 1990]. We were escaping from Monrovia. He was picked out of a big crowd and accused of being a Samuel Doe soldier. He begged for mercy. He told them he wasn't a soldier and that he didn't want to leave his children. I watched as they tied his arms behind his back and shot him in the head, then in the stomach. He dropped on his face. They kicked his body over and over. I lost my brother and my mother that day. I never saw them again.

I traveled a long distance by myself. As I walked I saw visions of my dad on the ground, fighting death. Then I made a friend who took me to a training base called Camp Sabebo. I was shocked to see hundreds of kids my age. There were lots of girls, too. General Moses Fayrah, the commanding officer, asked me my age. I said I was nine. He shouted, "Get in line!" The AK-47 was really heavy for me the first day. I couldn't run and fire at the same time. I could only fire if I crawled on my stomach. After about two months, I could handle it pretty well.

I was afraid during the first attack, so my officers gave me 10 tablets. After I took them I was so brave that all I could think about was attacking. It was like I was the only man in the whole place. I wasn't afraid of anything.

I killed for the first time when we captured a soldier near Mano River Bridge. My commander ordered me to do it. They tied him up and laid him on the ground. I cut that bitch's throat with my bayonet. I enjoyed it, and my men opened fire in the air to celebrate. They treated me like a hero. After that, I really killed.

The war didn't go well for us. Many of the bigger soldiers died, some ran away. But I didn't. My new commander was a great man, really cruel. I knew this when he killed a guy with battery acid for his diamond ring. The guy burned to his bone and turned white. I had never seen that before. The commander called me Sergeant 'Born to Kill'.

I killed so many people, I can't remember how many. I plucked the eyeballs out of captured soldiers, I put a man in an empty drum and rolled it into the river at Lofa Bridge. I didn't hear it when they begged me. And I don't regret it at all. My only regret is how cheap I sold the stuff I looted, like videotapes and stereo sets.

But things will get better when I become a professional soldier. I want to be a U.S. Marine. When I sit alone, I hear people crying, "Don't kill me." I see them clearly. I know their faces. I have to smoke grass to get a good sleep. When I don't, I see visions all night. I see my enemies with guns looking for me, shouting my name, "Born to Kill, Born to Kill." I get scared a lot at night."