CHILD'S PLAY


some countries to this day. In 2007, Human Rights Watch


T


(HRW) reported that an estimated 200,000-300,000 chi ldren were serving as soldiers for both governments and militant groups around the world. Although the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated in 2003 that most chi ldren serving as soldiers or militants are over the age of 15, but are under 18, many are far younger than this. A historical example is Iran, where during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88), boys as young as 12 were enlisted into the army. The issue of under-15s being


recruited into a sovereign state’s army is one thing; even more controversial is the issue of chi ld members of mi l itant / terrorist groups. The most reported examples of chi ld mi l itants – of both genders – in both groups best descr ibed as ter ror ist organisations and those often designated as rebel groups, come from Uganda, Sri Lanka, Palestine and Colombia. Thus this form of organised mass child abuse can be found in every corner of the globe. Children are recruited into


militancy, often by force or coercion, or after their parents have been killed by the militant group, to provide cheap, easy to influence combatants for a group’s missions. Girls in particular are often also used as sex slaves and as domestic labour. Children can be used as decoys against unsuspecting security forces and used as human shields; can access certain areas more easily as they invite less suspicion and are smaller and more agile so can more easily enter secure sites; they do not demand wages, need as much food, and may be more easy to coerce into dangerous acts as they may not have a good understanding of their own mortality.


AUGUST 2010


hroughout history, armies have used children to fight their battles and this continues in


Country Overview


Afghanistan Teenage boys have been fighting with


the Taliban in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in 2001. Omar Khadr, a 15-year-old Canadian citizen (who is the son of the late Ahmed Said Khadr, an Egyptian-Canadian aid worker and associate of Osama Bin Laden in the 1990s) was captured by US forces there in 2002, and is still being held at Guantanamo Bay. A propaganda video of boys marching in camouflage and chanting martyrdom slogans was issued in 2009 by the Taliban. The video included a tribute to a 14-year-old fighter who had killed a US soldier.


Colombia In 2005, Human Rights Watch estimated


that 11,000 children were involved with either left-wing or right-wing militia groups in Colombia, with the majority fighting for the two main left-wing groups – FARC and ELN. A 2001 FARC training video showed boys as young as 11 working with missiles.


Iraq A 2009 UN report stated that the Iraqi


Insurgency, following the 2003 invasion, had used child combatants and noted a suicide attack against Kirkuk’s police commander by a boy aged 10-13 years. Coalition forces have been forced to take child insurgents as captives. The LA Times reported in 2007 that some child insurgents were being held at US-run rehabilitation camps in Iraq, staffed by Iraqi instructors.


Nepal During the Nepalese Civil War, the


Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) recruited thousands of children, usually between 12 and 16 years old, to its armed wing - the People's Liberation Army. By the end of the war in 2008, 12,000 soldiers were below the age of 18, and Human Rights Watch has estimated that the majority of the current militia joined as minors. The United Nation Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) has verified that there


were nine thousand child soldiers in Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) cantonment training camps. Children were used as soldiers, messengers, cooks, porters and suppliers. Regardless of role, all children received rudimentary military training concerning explosives, so they would be able to recognise and avoid land mines. The current Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), however, denies that any of its soldiers during the war were under the age of 18.


Pakistan In 2008, authorities in northwest


Pakistan’s tribal Swat Valley investigated allegations of children being recruited by militants in the region. An NGO in the area claimed that between 25 and 30 madrassa (Islamic religious school) students had been trained to carry out attacks, including suicide attacks. Since then, many incidences of child militants, who had been recruited as members of extremist Islamist Jihadi groups in Pakistan’s tribal north have come to light. In May 2010 the Washington Post published an article on an army-sponsored rehabilitation school in Waziristan for young ex-militants captured by the army or brought there by their families. It is run by a neuropsychologist and as well as having a normal school curriculum, also encompasses a de-radicalisation programme and the opportunity for authorities and psychologists to gain an insight into the recruitment and indoctrination process of young militants.


Palestine In 2004, the Coalition to Stop


the Use of Child Soldiers (CSUCS) reported that there was no evidence of the systematic recruitment of children by Palestinian armed groups, but that children are used as messengers and couriers, and in certain cases as fighters and suicide bombers in attacks on Israeli military personnel and civilians, and that all the main groups used children in this way: Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.


v CounterTerrorGazette

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