Scale up efforts to prevent use of child soldiers, NGO says

A UK-based NGO, Save the Children, has urged the multinational force currently mobilising in Bunia, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), to take an active role in efforts to prevent use of children by armed groups in the region. In a statement issued on Monday, the NGO said the situation in Ituri District was so catastrophic that efforts aimed at preventing the use of children by armed groups needed to be increased at national and international levels. The UN Security Council adopted a resolution on 30 May, authorising the deployment of a multinational force to help secure Bunia. France offered to lead the 1,500-strong force and an advance team has already arrived in Bunia to prepare for the arrival of the remaining troops. They are expected to deploy fully within two weeks. "Since Bunia plunged into violence and chaos about a month ago, it is difficult to escape the impression that the town has been taken over by children," the NGO said. "Groups of heavily armed children - some in their pre-teens - now dominate the town and terrorise its residents." The NGO said atrocities of an enormous scale have been committed in Bunia, including random killings, rape, looting and arson. "Children have been the immediate authors of many of these crimes. But, the gun-toting children are themselves being controlled by adults," it said. Fighting erupted in Bunia on 7 May after the Ugandan army that had been occupying the town withdrew. At least 300 people have died in the violence and hundreds of thousands displaced. Save the Children, which has been focusing on child soldier issues in eastern DRC since 2002, said Bunia's armed children were victims of war. "So far, over 1,000 children have been successfully demobilised and most have gone back to their families," it said. It added the events in Bunia had highlighted an appalling trend, that of increased use of children in armed conflict. Explaining that warlords were increasingly aware that under international humanitarian law they may have to answer "tomorrow for crimes committed today", the NGO said the use of children conveniently distanced them from these acts. The NGO efforts to prevent recruitment of child soldiers and to prepare local communities for the reintegration of such children included the training of military commanders of rebels groups on children protection issues and the UN Convention of the Rights of Children. This approach was used in the Kivu provinces, it said. It added that the approach was effective in obtaining the release of children. "Unfortunately, little progress has been made in Ituri," the NGO said. "The disorganisation of armed groups and generalised anarchy has not permitted the establishment of such programmes." The NGO said many of the militias continued to deny they use child soldiers, and "conditions make it impossible to guarantee the community reintegration of demobilised children with any degree of safety".