Breakthrough on child soldiers

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Friday commended Uganda for granting “full access to a political and military training camp housing child soldiers from the DRC, and for agreeing that all soldiers in the camp under the age of 18 will be handed over to UNICEF for care and protection.” This action represented “a major breakthrough” for ending the recruitment of child soldiers by all sides in the DRC,” the agency stated. On Tuesday, 13 February, representatives from UNICEF, the UNHCR, UNDP, Save the Children alliance and selected NGOs would be given “full and unlimited access” to the camp, to determine how many of 693 individuals flown from the Bunia area of eastern DRC several months ago for military training were, in fact, children. For full statement, go to: http://www.unicef.org/newsline/ The soldiers, currently undergoing training at Kyankwanzi National Political Education School in central Uganda, would be collected from the school from Tuesday for assessment, resettlement and reunification with their families, the independent Ugandan daily ‘Monitor’ reported on Monday. Uganda’s backing for rebels in eastern DRC included the training of soldiers, it said. UNICEF has established a task force to cover all aspects of the release and reunification, including assessment, tracing and resettlement, according to a UN press statement. Brigadier Steven Kashaka, Chief of Personnel of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), said it was not the intention of the army to recruit children. Addressing a two-day sensitisation workshop for senior officers, he said the Ugandan army was committed to protecting children’s rights, the semi-official newspaper ‘New Vision’ reported at the weekend.