me he was conscripted by force in to the Sudanese army in the summer of 2002 . He thought he was being taken for six months ' national service and then would be released . The conversation was slow going at first . We were both holding off from delving into the sordid details he 'd come to discuss . His answers were short , he told me he got no pay from the army , only food and drink . He said he was rounded up in an army truck from a market in Darfur and trained to kill . He said he was armed with Kalashnikovs and told to '' shoot targets . '' Watch ex-soldier describe brutal attacks on children to Nic Robertson '' Then , he says , his officers told him `` we will be taken to a patrol and then soon after that we were asked to join other people to go and burn and kill people '' . That 's when he says he realized he was n't getting national service training , that in fact , he was being forced into war against his will , with his own people . ``
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- I wanted to believe the man in front of me was n't a rapist . I knew he was a former Sudanese soldier , I knew he wanted to talk about rape in Darfur . A humanitarian group working on Darfur issues had introduced him to us . They told us his testimony was important to hear . A woman left homeless by conflict in Darfur walks along railway tracks . Last year in Darfur aid workers told me children as young as five were being raped in the huge displacement camps that are home to several million Darfuris . In some camps , they told me , rape had become so common that as many as 20 babies a month born from rape were being abandoned . As I sat inches from Adam -- not his real name -- I feared the revulsion I knew I would feel at my own questions as I asked about rape and his involvement . I have interviewed rape survivors in Darfur . I have two daughters . I am a human being with a conscience . It would be hard to listen to his replies . He told