ABSTRACT
At the height of the oppression between 1985 and 1986, punishment of the young in police cells, in prisons and in a variety of other places such as Security Branch headquarters, both authorized and unauthorized, wetre not different from the punishment meted out to adults. There was widespread suffering among the young yet among those formally committed to political activism there was a widespread subscription to a particular stance with regard to pain. A major consequence both of the received attitudes toward pain and of the need for secrecy was that children and youth took it upon themselves to keep from their families as much information as they possibly could. In not sharing, children closed avenues of relief in giving expression to their experiences. Many stood against the wishes of their families in becoming embroiled in politics. The continuum stretched from the purposeful separation of children from their families to the intentional killing by state forces of children.
