DATE=5/10/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=ASIA-CHILD SOLDIERS
NUMBER=5-46286
BYLINE=GARY THOMAS
DATELINE=BANGKOK
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A coalition of social activists is scheduled to
meet in Nepal next week to discuss ways to enact a global
ban on the use of children as soldiers. The activists say
the use of children in armed conflicts is widespread in
Asia. As VOA correspondent Gary Thomas reports from
Bangkok, they also say it is not just rebel opposition
groups that indulge in the practice.
TEXT: A report by the Coalition to Stop the Use Of Child
Soldiers says there is what it calls "widespread and
considerable" use of children as combatants by both
governments and opposition groups in Asia.
Speaking in Bangkok, coalition spokesman Rory Mungoven said
across the region, children under age 18 have been pressed
into service - often forcibly - by organized armies and
rebel groups alike.
/// MUNGOVEN ACT ///
Asia ranks close behind Africa in the appalling use of tens
of thousands of children who are being used literally as
cannon fodder in almost every conflict of the region.
/// END ACT ///
He says Cambodia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and especially
Burma - also known as Myanmar -are the worst offenders.
/// OPT MUNGOVEN ACT ///
Burma alone is one of the single largest users of child
soldiers in the world. Children in their early teens are
serving in the Burmese military, some of them voluntary -
attracted by the power and prestige of military service -
but many of them forcibly conscripted. Street children,
orphans, are particularly vulnerable. Equally, children
are involved in many of the ethnic groups pitted against
the regime as we have seen in numerous incidents here on
the Thai-Burma border.
/// END OPT ACT ///
Mr. Mungoven says children have also been exploited as
soldiers by separatists in Aceh in Indonesia, rebels in Sri
Lanka, and by the group currently holding Western hostages
in the Philippines.
The coalition groups together 10 social justice and human
rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch. It is holding its fourth conference on the
issue in Katmandu next week. Previous conferences were
held in Europe, Africa, and Latin America.
Mr. Mungoven says the group wants to see a legally
enforceable global ban on the use of anyone under 18 as a
soldier.
/// MUNGOVEN ACT ///
Our goal is to put the use of children as soldiers, the use
of children as weapons of war, on the same moral and legal
footing as land mines, as chemical weapons, as biological
weapons, as something that is simply beyond the pale in
conflict situations.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Mungoven says although there is impetus to enact a ban,
there is opposition from industrialized countries, such as
Britain and the United States.
/// REST OPT ///
/// MUNGOVEN ACT ///
Interestingly, it has been countries in Asia and Africa,
countries like Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, even China, who
have been leading the international debate on this issue. ,
They have been pushing for a higher standard of protection,
often in the face of opposition from the more developed
countries like the U-S, the U-K, and others, who want to
continue to draw under-18s into their armed forces.
/// END ACT ///
Britain allows 16 year olds to enlist and the United States
accepts 17 year olds into the armed forces. But both
require parental consent.
Mr. Mungoven says the use of children is particularly
appealing to military or rebel groups because of their
susceptibility to conditioning.
/// MUNGOVEN ACT ///
But even in industrialized countries, even in countries
outside of conflict, there is one common factor in the
recruitment of children that is particularly insidious.
And that is, as military psychology studies show, it is
much easier to condition young people to kill, to condition
young people to obey their superiors loyally. And this
applies equally in rebel groups and the armed forces of the
most modern industrialized states alike.
/// END ACT ///
Representatives from 15 countries in the region and more
than 100 non-governmental organizations are scheduled to
attend the Katmandu conference when it opens Wednesday.
(signed)
NEB/HK/GPT/JO
10-May-2000 06:20 AM EDT (10-May-2000 1020 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
