CHILD'S PLAY
Its 2004 report said there were at least nine documented suicide attacks by Palestinian under-18s between 2000 and 2004. Israel Defense Forces said that between 2000 and 2003, the height of the Second Intifada, 22 shooting / explosives attacks were carried out by children under the age of 18, as were 40 attempted suicide bombings. Chi ldren regularly throw stones and other weapons – sometimes including Molotov cocktails – at Israeli troops, but not as part of militia groups; only as young citizens living under hostile occupation. Amnesty International has stated that Palestinian children may be driven to joining armed groups out of a desire to avenge relatives or friends killed by the Israeli army, or through propaganda or manipulation. Those groomed for suicide attacks may be coerced with religious indoctrination. In 2002, during a search of the
house of a Hamas militant in Hebron, a photo showing a Palestinian infant wearing a suicide belt was discovered. This image gained much attention around the world and prompted much controversy.
Sierra Leone During the country’s long civil war
(1991-2001), the Small Boys Unit of the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and boys in the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, committed acts of violence including amputation, torture, murder and rape. Many of these boys were forced into the group under death threats to them and their families, following the murder of their families in attacks by the group or were found abandoned.
Somalia This lawless, failed state has many
children among the ranks of its various militia groups. In May 2010, press reports, quoting UNICEF, the International Crisis Group and HRW, stated that recruitment of child militants in the country was on the rise by both militia groups, particularly the largest Islamist
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militia, al-Shabab (which means ‘The Youth’ in Arabic) and government forces, with some as young as nine years old being recruited.
Sri Lanka During the decades long conflict
between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan government, thousands of children were in the ranks of the LTTE, a considerable number as frontline troops. Many were recruited through abduction. After international pressure, in 2003, the group announced it would no longer recruit child fighters, although UNICEF and HRW accused it of recruiting orphans from the 2004 Asian Tsunami. In 2007, the group agreed to release all of its child militants. The breakaway government- backed Karuna rebel group has been accused by civilians and human rights groups of abducting children as well and conscripting them into its ranks. The LTTE was defeated by the Sri Lankan military in May 2009. In July 2009, the Colombo Times reported that 400 former LTTE child militants were undergoing rehabilitation in state-run camps, where they follow academic, vocational and citizenship courses. But this is just a fraction of the number of child recruits in both the LTTE and Karuna group and many former child – and adult – militants are being forced to leave the country due to threatened retribution by the majority Sinhalese.
Turkey CSUCS lists the Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK) as a group known to use child militants. In 2006, a rise in violent protests – namely stone- throwing at security forces by Kurdish youths – led to the passing of a law which tried underage defendants in the same way as adults in relation to terrorism-related crimes. Consequently, hundreds of youths have been designated as terrorists for taking part in violent pro-PKK demonstrations. As CTG went to
press, the Turkish parliament is in the process of preparing a bill to reverse this legislation. In May 2010, Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende reported that the PKK had 14-16 year olds in its training camps.
Uganda The rebel, ideological Lord’s
Resistance Army (LRA) has abducted over 30,000 children from villages it has attacked and conscripted them into the group, since it was formed in 1987. Girls are often forced into sexual slavery for older commandoes. The International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted LRA leader Joseph Kony, and four other commanders, in 2005 for war crimes, including the forced enlisting of children.
Al-Qaeda and the use of children
Although none of al-Qaeda’s major attacks and plots have involved the use of children, in 2008, Pakistani security officials said that the group had established a network for recruiting boys as young as 12 from across central Asia – particularly in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - as well as the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. In May 2007 a Pakistani security official showed a clip to CBS News of a young boy severing the head of a man. Videotapes seized during US raids on suspected al-Qaeda hide-outs in Iraq in 2008 show militants training boys as young as 10 to kidnap and kill civilians. One tape showed a young boy wearing a suicide vest. U.S. military officials said they believed the videos were being used as propaganda to recruit more boys, and depicted war as a game. In 2007 an 11-year-old boy went to the home of a sheikh with a box of chocolates that blew up, killing several people. U.S and Iraqi officials said they could not estimate how many children were under al-Qaeda’s control in the country.
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