America urged to withdraw military aid to Sudan
By Julius N. Uma
June 16, 2010 (JUBA) — As Sudan joined the rest of the continent to mark the day of the African Child yesterday, a US-based human rights body has urged America to withdraw its military assistance to the North African country over its alleged failure to abide by recent calls to end rampant use of child soldiers.
In a damning report, entitled “US: Step Up Pressure on Allies Using Child Soldiers,” Human Rights Watch urged the US to put pressure on governments identified by the State Department as using child soldiers to either end the practice or lose US military assistance.
The other countries, according to the State Department’s 2010 annual report on Trafficking in Persons, are Chad, Burma, DR Congo, Somalia and Yemen, all accused of using child soldiers in their armed forces or supporting allied militias that use child soldiers.
In recent years, however, each of these countries mentioned, with the exception of Burma, reportedly received military assistance from Americans, usually in the form of military training.
“Americans don’t want their tax money used to put weapons into the hands of children,” Jo Becker, the Children’s Rights Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch said, while adding that, “Cutting off US military assistance to countries using child soldiers should make their governments think twice about exploiting children for warfare.”
In 2008, the US Congress adopted the Child Soldiers Prevention Act, signed into law by former President George W. Bush. The Act, among other things, prohibits foreign military financing, military training, and several other categories of US military assistance to governments using child soldiers, based on the findings of the Trafficking in Persons report.
According to Human Rights Watch, in 2009, the US provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in military training to Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and forces in South Sudan.
Yesterday, the United Nations Security Council reportedly debated a report issued by the UN secretary-general last month, which identified more than 50 government and non-state armed groups in 13 countries that use child soldiers in violation of international law.
The secretary-general, it further said, identified 16 groups or forces as “persistent violators” that had recruited child soldiers for at least five years or more, including the government armed forces of Burma, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army.
“The US and other governments need to step up their response to end the use of child soldiers,” Becker said, adding that, “Armed forces and rebel groups that continue year after year to use children as soldiers should face severe consequences, including sanctions.”
TOUGHER LEGISLATION
A US law enacted in 2008 reportedly prohibits several categories of US military assistance to such governments, effective October 1, 2010, unless the president invokes a national interest waiver.
The revelation comes less than a week after Sudan joined six other African countries that signed the N’Djamena Declaration; a binding document that outlines the commitments to and reinforces international standards for the protection of children.
The N’Djamena Declaration encompasses instruments such as, the Optional Protocol to the CRC on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC), the Optional Protocol to the CRC on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (OPSC), and the Paris Commitments (and Paris Principles and Guidelines) on the Recruitment and Use of Children by Armed Forces and Armed Groups.
This historic commitment was part of the closing ceremony of a regional conference organized by the Chadian Government and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) based on the theme: “Ending Recruitment and Use of Children in Armed Forces and Groups Contributing to Peace, Justice, & Development.”
Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic, Niger and Nigeria are the other countries that made commitment towards ending recruitment of child soldiers and to support social reintegration.
Sudan Tribune has, however, learnt that only Chad and Sudan have so far signed and ratified the OPAC, while Cameroon and Nigeria have signed, but have not yet ratified. On the contrary, Central African Republic and Niger have neither signed nor ratified the protocol.
(ST)