Previous Story
Poisoning the Fountain of Youth
|
Posted on Jan 16 2001
In Sierra Leone, both the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and pro-government forces continue to forcibly recruit children into their ranks. The RUF forces children to carry military equipment and to loot goods and engage in fighting. Rape of abducted girls is routine. Children continue to be subject to all forms of violence, primarily by RUF, including amputation, rape and abduction.
This abominable practice of using child soldiers can be witnessed in other countries as Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Burundi, who recruit children as young as twelve years and force them to act as spies, lookouts, scouts, porters and help loot property.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is estimated to have about 12,000 child soldiers. The DRC continues to recruit and use child soldiers with the full support of their foreign backers! Ugandan People’s Defense Forces also continues to recruit and train child soldiers. Many of them under the age of fifteen!
Although Africa continues to experience the most widespread use of child soldiers, they are also being used in other parts of the world. In Nepal children, both boys and girls as young as fourteen, are recruited by the Communist Party of Nepal. Sadly many of these children are abducted from their homes and forced to become child soldiers. In Sri Lanka, fourteen and fifteen-year-old girls who resisted were isolated, taken to a room, stripped and assaulted.
It is gratifying to learn that back in September, representatives from 132 governments, youth, non governmental and international organizations, and other experts participated in
