[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index
][Thread Index
]
NEWS-Amnesty International cites ch
- Subject: NEWS-Amnesty International cites ch
- From: Rangoonp@xxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 22:32:00
Subject: NEWS-Amnesty International cites child atrocities, seeks minimum
age for soldiers
To: burmanews@xxxxxxxxx, "Burmanet-l@xxxxxxxxxxx" <burmanet-l@xxxxxxxxxxx>
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.0
X-Sender: strider@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Amnesty International cites child atrocities, seeks minimum age for
soldiers
January 11, 1999
Web posted at: 2:22 a.m. EST (0722 GMT)
LONDON (CNN) -- Detailing
evidence of widespread abuse
of child soldiers, Amnesty
International on Monday called
on the world community to raise
the minimum age of military
recruits to 18.
The London-based human
rights group released a report
supporting a campaign to raise
the recruiting age from 15, the
minimum specified in the U.N.
Convention on the Rights of the
Child.
Amnesty International says 44 countries, mostly in Africa
and
Asia, recruit people younger than 18 for military service,
and
that some 300,000 children currently participate in ongoing
armed conflicts.
Although even the 15-year-old recruiting age is widely
violated, Amnesty said there would be value in raising the
standard.
"It is often easy for a 12- or 13-year-old to pass for 15.
It
would, however, be another matter altogether for a 12- or
13- year-old to pass for 18," according to the report,
called
"In the Firing Line."
The key message, said Amnesty official Mark Lattimer, "is
that modern warfare has now become in large part a war
against children and that horrifying fact is no accident."
Children suffer brutal initiations
Amnesty's evidence from countries as far apart as Burma
and Uganda shows that child recruits are deliberately
brutalized and subjected to initiation ceremonies that can
even involve cannibalism.
They endure horrific scenes to harden them to the violence
they are expected to inflict on others, and to subordinate
them to authority, according to Amnesty. In some cases they
are forced to commit atrocities against people known to
them, the group says.
In Uganda child victims of the Lord's Resistance Army rebel
group are beaten, and used as sex slaves before being
made to abuse others, the report said.
"This is deliberate. The children are often traumatized by
what they have done and, believing that they are now
outcasts, they become bound to the LRA," an Amnesty
statement read.
Amnesty's evidence includes accounts of children being
used to plant and detect landmines, or as spies or decoys.
Half of casualties in many conflicts are children
According to Amnesty's Maggie Black, 90 percent of
casualties in modern wars are now civilians, particularly in
less developed nations; a century ago the figure was only 10
percent.
This means that up to half the casualties are children in
conflicts in developing nations. Amnesty believes up to 10
million children have witnessed an act of killing or gross
brutality at some time in the last decade.
This is in addition to the 1.5 million under 18 who have
died
in conflicts and the four million children who have been
disabled or maimed.
United States opposes raising minimum age
The United States, which recruits 17-year-olds for military
service and has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of
the Child, has opposed the higher age.
The release of the Amnesty report coincided with another
meeting of the working group of the U.N. Human Rights
Commission in Geneva, which is deliberating on an "optional
protocol" to the convention to set the higher minimum age.
The protocol, if completed, would be adopted by countries if
they wished, and would not automatically become part of the
convention.
Other organizations also supporting efforts to raise the age
of recruits include Human Rights Watch, International
Federation Terre des Hommes, the International Save the
Children Alliance, the Jesuit Refugee Service, the Quaker
U.N. Office in Geneva, and the World Council of Churches,
which represents Protestant Christian churches with 450
million members.