Amnesty International stresses need to help child soldiers

Amnesty International has called on donor nations to provide adequately for the needs of an estimated 21,000 former child soldiers who are currnently being disarmed in Liberia. The international group released a report on child soldiers in Liberia on Monday as the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child opened its thirty-sixth session. "The children of Liberia have been killed, made orphans, maimed, abducted, deprived of education and health care - and recruited and used as child soldiers," Amnesty said in a statement accompanying the release of its report. "All parties to the conflict - the former government of Liberia and the two armed opposition groups, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) - have used child soldiers", it stressed. "There are an estimated 21,000 child soldiers - both boys and girls - in Liberia. They include not only children who have been given guns and forced to fight or forced to carry arms and ammunition, but also girls who have been abducted, raped and forced to provide sexual services," Amnesty said. "With little or no training, they were sent directly to the front line where many were killed or wounded. Those resisting recruitment or refusing to comply with their commanders' orders risked being beaten or killed. Girls described how they had been abducted, raped - often by several combatants - and forced to become the sexual partners of their abductors," it added. UN officials in Monrovia told IRIN on Monday that fewer than 2,000 of the nearly 28,000 combatants disarmed so far were children. They said 1,819 child soldiers, comprising 1,514 boys and 305 girls under the age of 18 had been disarmed by May 10 and were being sheltered at care centers around the country. Clive Jacknik, head of the UN disarmament and demobilization programme, said plans were in hand for a vigorous family tracing program to reunite them with their families. Last week, Jacknik told reporters that the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) would soon disclose full details of how former child soldiers would benefit from the process of disarmament, demobilisation and rehabilitiation that has been in full swing since mid-April. "We are trying to see that they get the correct benefits in a correct manner. The full process of how those benefit go to the children will be confirmed soon", he said. Amnesty stressed: "The needs of former child soldiers, their families and communities do not end with disarmament and demobilization; rehabilitation and reintegration are complex and long-term and require sustained funding and support. Education is crucial and is invariably the priority of former child soldiers themselves". "Recruitment and use of child soldiers violates children's rights and is a war crime," Amnesty added. "Although recruitment of children violates both international human rights and humanitarian law, no-one in Liberia has yet been brought to justice for these crimes." it lamented. Amnesty said delays in the deployment of UN peacekeeping troops throughout Liberia had prevented UNMIL from "moving ahead rapidly with disarmament and demobilization of combatants, including child soldiers". Many were still roaming in areas beyond the peacekeepers' reach, it added. General Daniel Opande, the UNMIL force commander, said recently that the deployment of his troops, which began in October, would be completed in June. UNMIL now has over 14, 000 troops on the ground, but has still not reached its full authorised strength of 15,000. It has not yet established a presence in many areas along the eastern border with Cote d'Ivoire. Recently, the Japanese government announced a grant of US$3.6 million for the rehabilitation of Liberian child soldiers.