NEWS-Amnesty International cites ch

[Rangoonp@xxxxxxx]

Subject: NEWS-Amnesty International cites child atrocities, seeks minimum

age for soldiers
To: burmanews@xxxxxxxxx, "Burmanet-l@xxxxxxxxxxx" <burmanet-l@xxxxxxxxxxx>
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.0
X-Sender: strider@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Amnesty International cites child atrocities, seeks minimum age for
soldiers

            January 11, 1999
            Web posted at: 2:22 a.m. EST (0722 GMT) 

            LONDON (CNN) -- Detailing
            evidence of widespread abuse
            of child soldiers, Amnesty
            International on Monday called
            on the world community to raise
            the minimum age of military
            recruits to 18. 

            The London-based human
            rights group released a report
            supporting a campaign to raise
            the recruiting age from 15, the
            minimum specified in the U.N.
            Convention on the Rights of the
            Child. 

            Amnesty International says 44 countries, mostly in Africa
and
            Asia, recruit people younger than 18 for military service,
and
            that some 300,000 children currently participate in ongoing
            armed conflicts. 

            Although even the 15-year-old recruiting age is widely
            violated, Amnesty said there would be value in raising the
            standard. 

            "It is often easy for a 12- or 13-year-old to pass for 15.
It
            would, however, be another matter altogether for a 12- or
            13- year-old to pass for 18," according to the report,
called
            "In the Firing Line." 

            The key message, said Amnesty official Mark Lattimer, "is
            that modern warfare has now become in large part a war
            against children and that horrifying fact is no accident." 

            Children suffer brutal initiations 

            Amnesty's evidence from countries as far apart as Burma
            and Uganda shows that child recruits are deliberately
            brutalized and subjected to initiation ceremonies that can
            even involve cannibalism. 

            They endure horrific scenes to harden them to the violence
            they are expected to inflict on others, and to subordinate
            them to authority, according to Amnesty. In some cases they
            are forced to commit atrocities against people known to
            them, the group says. 

            In Uganda child victims of the Lord's Resistance Army rebel
            group are beaten, and used as sex slaves before being

            made to abuse others, the report said. 

            "This is deliberate. The children are often traumatized by
            what they have done and, believing that they are now
            outcasts, they become bound to the LRA," an Amnesty
            statement read. 

            Amnesty's evidence includes accounts of children being
            used to plant and detect landmines, or as spies or decoys. 

            Half of casualties in many conflicts are children 

            According to Amnesty's Maggie Black, 90 percent of
            casualties in modern wars are now civilians, particularly in
            less developed nations; a century ago the figure was only 10
            percent. 

            This means that up to half the casualties are children in
            conflicts in developing nations. Amnesty believes up to 10
            million children have witnessed an act of killing or gross
            brutality at some time in the last decade. 

            This is in addition to the 1.5 million under 18 who have
died
            in conflicts and the four million children who have been
            disabled or maimed. 

            United States opposes raising minimum age 

            The United States, which recruits 17-year-olds for military
            service and has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of
            the Child, has opposed the higher age. 

            The release of the Amnesty report coincided with another
            meeting of the working group of the U.N. Human Rights
            Commission in Geneva, which is deliberating on an "optional
            protocol" to the convention to set the higher minimum age. 

            The protocol, if completed, would be adopted by countries if
            they wished, and would not automatically become part of the
            convention. 

            Other organizations also supporting efforts to raise the age
            of recruits include Human Rights Watch, International
            Federation Terre des Hommes, the International Save the
            Children Alliance, the Jesuit Refugee Service, the Quaker
            U.N. Office in Geneva, and the World Council of Churches,
            which represents Protestant Christian churches with 450
            million members.