CIAO DATE: 08/04

State Department Reports on the Use of Child Soldiers

Victoria Garcia

Center for Defense Information

April 2004

On Feb. 25, 2004, the U.S. State Department released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights. The reports detail information on 196 countries compiled by Foreign Service Officers abroad, domestic and international human rights groups, academics, activists, jurists and journalists that work to recount human rights conditions around the globe. These annual reports point “to the areas of progress and draw attention to new and continuing challenges” in the human rights realm, and are to be “used as a resource for shaping policy, conducting diplomacy and making assistance, training and other resource allocations.”

While each report has traditionally assessed internationally recognized human rights as per the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including respect for the integrity of the person, civil liberties, political rights, and workers rights, the report also includes a section on the use of child soldiers. In accordance with the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of FY 03, the human rights reports include a description of the “nature and extent of the compulsory recruitment and conscription of individuals under the age of 18” by all armed groups in every country, and what steps have been taken by the governments of the respective countries to eliminate such practices. The reports must also list which countries have ratified the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which:

• Requires states to “take all feasible measures” to ensure that members of their armed forces under the age of 18 years do not participate in hostilities;

• Prohibits the conscription of anyone under the age of 18 into the armed forces;

• Requires states to raise the age of voluntary recruitment from 15 and to deposit a binding declaration of the minimum age for recruitment into its armed forces; and

• Prohibits the recruitment or use in hostilities of children under the age of 18 by rebel or other non–governmental armed groups, and requires states to criminalize such practices.

This year’s reports highlight 28 countries currently using child soldiers; among the worst violators are Burma, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sri Lanka and Uganda.

Below are excerpts from the 2003 State Department Human Rights Reports relating to the use of children in armed conflict.

For excerpts from the 2002 State Department Human Rights Reports relating to the use of children in armed conflict please click here.

Afghanistan

[C]redible reports [reveal] that both the Taliban and the Northern Alliance used child soldiers [in 2003]. In previous years, Northern Alliance officials publicly said that their soldiers must be at least 18 years of age, but press sources reported that preteen soldiers were used in Northern Alliance forces. In May [2003], Afghan President Hamad Karzai issued a decree that prohibited the recruitment of children and young persons under the age of 22 to the Afghan National Army.

Angola

All 35 ex–UNITA [União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola] gathering areas set up under the April 2002 ceasefire to voluntarily quarter demobilized UNITA troops were closed by June [2003]. According to government figures, a total of 377,511 persons were housed in the camps, including 91,693 demobilized soldiers and 285,818 dependents. Unlike in the previous year, there were no reports that camps were forcibly emptied; however, Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticized the demobilization process for not adequately including women and child soldiers.

Some children reportedly continued to be recruited into the armed forces as a result of the absence of civil registration and the inability to prove dates of birth [in 2003]. According to Ministry of Justice, 2,182,902 children were registered between August 2001 and July [2003]; however, at least 1 million more remained unregistered. HRW criticized the government for excluding children who served as soldiers and “wives” during the war from the demobilization process, and for not providing children adequate reintegration assistance and other benefits promised to former soldiers. Between January and October [2003], the [United Nations Children’s Fund]–supported National Family Tracing and Reunification Program successfully reunited 1,479 separated children with their families and trained 539 tracing activists in 10 provinces.

Unlike in previous years, there were no reports that the government or UNITA forcibly recruited persons for military service.

Burma

In violation of international humanitarian law, both Army and insurgent units used forced conscription, including conscription of children.

According to a 2002 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, government troops conscripted children as young as the age of 11.

Active insurgent groups included the Chin National Front, the Naga National Council, the Arakan–Rohingya Solidarity Organization (ARNO), the SSA–South [Shan State Army], and the KNU [Karen National Union] (including its affiliate the Karen National Liberation Army). UNICEF [United Nations Children’s Fund], AI [Amnesty International], and HRW reported that insurgent groups as well as government forces recruited child soldiers.

The official age of enlistment in the ostensibly all–volunteer Army is 18 years. Unlike in previous years, there were no reports that the authorities rounded up orphans and street children in Rangoon and other cities and forced them into military service. During [2003], diplomatic representatives received a new report that in October 2002 an M.P.–Elect [Member of Parliament–Elect] from Karen State filed a report to the police that a 15–year–old boy was missing minutes after arriving in Rangoon railway station. The Rangoon police suggested looking for him at the Hmawby Army recruit camp near Rangoon, where the M.P.–Elect found three sets of parents also looking for their children. Six boys were brought forward and the M.P.–Elect was able to identify and retrieve the boy. In October [2003], diplomats received a credible report that there were several thousand child soldiers in the Burmese Army.

The ICFTU [International Confederation of Free Trade Unions] reported that, on a daily basis, the government forced hundreds of thousands of men, women, children, and even the elderly to work against their will, generally without payment. Work ranged from road and railway construction and repair to serving as military porters to farming fields confiscated by the military. Military porters could be starved, beaten or killed if they fell behind or tried to escape.

[Burmese] law does not specifically prohibit bonded labor by children; while there are no reports of bonded labor, children were subjected to forced labor. The authorities reportedly rounded up teenage children in Rangoon and Mandalay and forced them into porterage or military service. In June [2003], the ICFTU reported that the government most often recruited children when adults were not available in sufficient numbers. In rural areas, if the father in a family was either away or had been killed, then the mother had to send a child to respond to a government order for a forced labor contribution. The government has not ratified ILO [International Labor Organization] Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labor.

Burundi

In November 2002, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that numerous children between 14 and 16 years of age had been kidnapped and were serving as soldiers with the CNDD/FDD [Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie–Forces de defense pour la democratie].

Under [Burundian] law, the country’s minimum age for military recruitment is 16, although the transitional government has stated that no one under 18 was recruited. However, according to UNICEF [United Nations Children’s Fund], [since 1993] approximately 14,000 children had carried, or were still carrying, arms in the ranks of government forces or armed opposition groups. During the year, there continued to be reports that security forces, including the FAB [Burundi Armed Forces], and rebel groups recruited, pressured, and employed child soldiers. Local NGOs reported that an estimated 4,500 children were serving as soldiers in the FAB, 2,000 in the Guardians of Peace, and 3,500 serving [in] rebel groups.

On Oct. 31, [2003], UN Secretary General Kofi Annan reported that both security forces and rebel groups continued to recruit or use children. Most of the children serving in the Army were not in combat units, although some were, according to the head of the Army’s demobilization program. There were also reports that soldiers guarding refugee camps and military bases forced children to perform labor. HRW reported that security forces routinely enlisted children as young as 12 years old as “doriya,” or “ear agents,” to work for the transitional government as intelligence gatherers, looters, lookouts, scouts and porters.

HRW reported that the Guardians of the Peace recruited and armed children to provide a quasi–police presence in public places such as markets; some of these children reportedly were sent to the frontlines.

Children voluntarily attached themselves to military units. Most of these children were orphans or IDPs [Internally Displaced Persons] who had no independent means of survival. Some observers believed the FAB allowed these children to perform menial tasks such as cooking in Army encampments. Some children joined the military voluntarily by using fraudulent documents such as birth certificates.

According to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, there continued to be reports that a CNDD–FDD faction with bases in eastern DRC forcibly recruited children to be combatants, looters, porters, and laborers; some of the children were as young as 8 years old. There were also reports of rebel forces that abducted primary school–age children and teachers for forced labor, both as combatants and as camp followers or servants. These reported abductions occurred in the provinces of Makamba, Gitega, Muyinga and Ruyigi.

In July [2003], several girls and boys aged 10 to 14 years old fought as soldiers in an FNL [Forces nationales de liberation] attack on Gitoke, a neighborhood in Bujumbura, according to AI [Amnesty International]. At the conclusion of the battle, residents found the bodies of between 10 and 20 children among the dead.

The transitional government worked to demobilize and protect children serving in the armed forces and rebel groups during [2003]. For example, in March [2003], the transitional government established a Permanent Committee for the Execution of Demobilization and Reintegration of Child Soldiers to accommodate and demobilize children in the service of rebel groups and the Army. The government demobilization program was formally launched in October [2003]; however, at year’s end, no child soldiers had formally been demobilized under the government program. By year’s end, the program had begun verifying lists of child soldiers and had identified partner NGOs and church groups to sensitize communities and ensure that children would be rehabilitated. UNICEF described the transitional government as “very cooperative” on working to eliminate the use of children in or around military or rebel camps.

There was a lack of reliable and comprehensive data on trafficking during [2003]. However, according to a June [2003] interview conducted by HRW in Bujumbura, Guardians of the Peace were forced into military trucks and taken away to participate in military operations. In addition, according to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, CNDD–FDD rebels abducted children from refugee camps and schools in Tanzania and subsequently trafficked them across the Tanzania border into the country; the CNDD–FDD also reportedly trafficked children to bases in the DRC to be trained for combat and to rest after combat operations. According to AI, these children were forced to carry supplies, fetch water, cook, march in front of troop columns, and serve as combatants.

In addition, the trafficking of child soldiers by both the CNDD–FDD and the FNL within the country was a problem. The transitional government has acknowledged the need to address this practice.

The Ministry of Reinsertion, Repatriation, and Reintegration and the Ministry of Institutional Reform, Human Rights, and Parliamentary Relations were responsible for combating trafficking. The transitional government supported public awareness campaigns and programs to prevent trafficking, and by [the end of 2003], it had instituted a program for the demobilization of child soldiers.

Central African Republic

During the [6–month] rebellion that culminated in the March [2003] coup, soldiers loyal to the Patassé government and Gen. [François] Bozizé#8217;s rebel troops committed serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law, including widespread looting, rape, disappearances, inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment, and the recruitment and use of children as soldiers.

There were approximately 5,000 street children between the ages of 5 and 18 residing in Bangui.

On Feb. 5, [2003], many street children were enrolled in security forces to fight against Bozizé’s rebellion. Capt. Paul Barril, French mercenary and special advisor to President [Ange–Félix] Patassé, recruited teenagers aged 12 to 15 for military activities on the battlefield, according to various sources. After a few days of military training, they received $100 and were sent to reinforce the pro–government MLC [Congolese Liberation Movement] rebels in Damara and Bossembele. Many of them were killed.

Chad

Although the use of child soldiers was prohibited by [Chadian] law, [the United Nations Children’s Fund] estimated that there were approximately 600 child soldiers in [Chad], within both the government military service and rebel groups. Unlike in previous years, there were no reports of the military conscripting children [in 2003].

Colombia

Although paramilitaries continued to recruit minors, paramilitary groups turned over at least 75 minors to government authorities during the year, either as signs of good faith or as conditions of formal demobilization. For example, on June 26, [2003], paramilitaries operating in Meta and Vichada departments turned over 15 child soldiers to government authorities. In conjunction with the BCN’s [Cacique Nutibara Bloc] formal demobilization in Medellin, 48 child soldiers were demobilized separately and turned over to government social services.

The country’s two largest left–wing guerrilla organizations are the 13,500 member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a terrorist organization, and the 3,500 member National Liberation Army (ELN), also a terrorist organization. The FARC and ELN systematically violated international humanitarian law by committing unlawful killings, kidnapping civilians and military personnel, torturing captives, and recruiting child soldiers.

Since 1999, persons under 18 are prohibited from serving in the public security forces. However, both paramilitaries and guerrillas [continue to use] child soldiers. In September [2003], HRW [Human Rights Watch] released a comprehensive study on child soldiers in Colombia that reported that approximately 11,000 children were members of illegal armed groups; UNICEF [United Nations Children’s Fund] reported that the number was as high as 14,000. Both paramilitaries and guerrillas forcibly recruited minors as combatants. For example, in April [2003], a captured child soldier from the FARC described how he was coerced into joining the guerrillas by a FARC recruiter who gave him food for his family and later insisted that the teenager either repay him or join the insurgency.

Paramilitary groups released some child soldiers as a sign of good faith in anticipation of demobilization negotiations with the Government. On June 27, [2003], security forces in Sucre department captured retired Army Sgt. Omer Eligio Gonzalez, who was in charge of recruiting minors for paramilitaries.

Although many minors were forcibly recruited, a 2002 study by UNICEF found that 83 percent of child soldiers volunteered. Limited educational and economic opportunities and a desire for acceptance and camaraderie increased the appeal of service in armed groups. Nevertheless, many children found membership in guerrilla and paramilitary organizations difficult, and the MOD [Ministry of Defense] reported an increase in the number of minors deserting illegal armed groups. As of Oct. 29, [2003], at least 301 children had surrendered to state security forces during the year. FARC child deserters reported that local guerrilla commanders threatened to kill their families should they desert or attempt to do so. A reinsertion program for former child soldiers administered by the ICBF [Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar] provided assistance to 725 children during [2003].

Congo, Democratic Republic of

The government supplied and coordinated operations with Mai Mai and other militia groups, who committed numerous, serious abuses, including killings, rape, torture, the kidnapping of civilians, and the recruitment of children as combatants.

The forcible recruitment of soldiers, including children, continued to be a serious problem [in 2003]. Combatants abducted women and children and forced them to perform labor, military services and sexual services.

In areas not under central government control, rebel forces, Mai–Mai forces, Hutu militias, and other armed groups committed numerous abuses, including summary executions, civilian massacres, acts of cannibalism, torture, looting and burning of houses, attacks on civilian areas, the forcible recruitment and use of child soldiers, and rape.

There continued to be reports that various armed groups abducted women and children from the villages they raided to perform labor, military services and sexual services. Many of the victims have since disappeared.

Armed groups continued to recruit children from the areas in which they operated despite claims that they had stopped the practice.

On April 3, [2003], Lendu militias, using primarily child combatants, committed numerous atrocities in Drodro, Ituri District. The abuses included: 408 summary executions, including many women and children; 150 stores and numerous homes looted; massacres using edged weapons, machetes, axes, firearms; and the burning to death of persons. It is likely that the number of fatalities was higher than stated because the UN High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCHR) was not able to carry out a complete investigation.

The armed gorces continued to have child soldiers in their ranks despite commitments to demobilization. By August [2003], only 280 child soldiers had been released, out of a total 1,500 children scheduled for demobilization from 2001. There were no reports that the government actively recruited children; however, according to Amnesty International [AI], there were numerous reports that it provided military support to armed groups such as the Mai Mai and the RCD–ML [Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie–Mouvement de liberation], which continued to recruit and use child soldiers.

The government participated in an international program to prevent children from becoming child soldiers and to combat child labor. The government continued to collaborate with UNICEF [United Nations Children’s Fund] to demobilize child soldiers in the military. During [2003], the government held workshops to facilitate the reintegration of former child soldiers into their home communities as part of its ongoing demobilization program enforced by the National Bureau for Demobilization and Reintegration.

Armed groups continued to abduct and forcibly recruit children to serve as forced laborers, porters, combatants, “war wives” and sex slaves. Although most leaders of armed groups publicly opposed the recruitment of child soldiers, and publicly supported demobilization efforts, armed groups increased child recruitment efforts during [2003]. According to UNICEF, as many as one–third of the country’s children may have been forced to take up arms. There were at least 10,000 child soldiers in Ituri alone, many of whom were very young, including a 7–year–old boy who served with PUSIC [Party for Unity and Safeguarding of the Integrity of Congo].

All armed groups in the east, including the North Kivu Local Defense Forces, continued to recruit children [during 2003]. Children made up a large percentage, and in some cases the majority, of soldiers in an armed unit. For example, reliable reports indicated that children accounted for at least 40 percent of UPC [Union of Congolese Patriots], FAPC [People’s Armed Forces of Congo], FNI/FRPI [Front for National Integration/ Patriotic Force of Resistance in Ituri], and APC [Congolese Popular Army] forces, and up to 50 percent of Mundundu–40 forces.

Children were voluntarily and forcibly recruited; however, no reliable data was available on the number of children recruited willingly versus forcibly. Although a large number of Ituri’s child soldiers enlisted voluntarily, most “volunteer” children came from families who were victims of killings or village attacks, and had lost some or all of their family and community safety net during the conflict. Many children joined an armed group based on their ethnic origins and their places in shifting military alliances; however, most made calculated decisions about their “best chances for survival” and aligned with whichever group looked most likely to support them.

For example, according to AI, in April [2003], a 12–year–old Hema enlisted in the UPC after Lendu combatants killed his sister, and underwent 5 weeks of combat training at Katoto. On May 11, [2003], in Bunia, his superiors ordered him to kill a number of civilians who were considered enemies. There were a number of cases of recruitment targets and campaigns, forced recruitment, and recruitment of former child soldiers who had been demobilized. Many children were abducted from their families and from schools by various armed groups, including young girls who were frequently forced to served as “war wives” and sex slaves for soldiers. For example, in January [2003], RCD/G officials forcibly abducted children from a local school in Kalehe, North Kivu. Idjwi Island, located in the middle of Lake Kivu, in South Kivu has been the site of intense child soldier recruitment, some of which was by force, since June [2003]. The RCD/G [Congolese Rally for Democracy–Goma] deliberately targeted former child soldiers who had left the Army or been officially demobilized. For example, AI reported that a 17–year–old who was originally recruited by the RCD/G in 1998 but later fled the Army was in hiding after RCD/G soldiers went several times to his house to forcibly recruit him. Another 16–year–old former soldier was forcibly recruited, at gunpoint, in front of his family.

According to AI, militias often used children they recruited as “cannon fodder.” Many children were sent to the front lines of combat to serve as decoys, scouts and bodyguards, and forced to commit abuses such as rape, killings, and cannibalistic and sexual acts with enemy corpses. In January, a large number of children were killed during armed clashes in Uvira. In February [2003], more than 40 child soldiers were killed in Ituri, in clashes at Lipri and Songolo. In May and July [2003], the PUSIC sent at least 250 children to Uganda for military training and there were reports that RCD/G sent children to Rwanda for military training.

Children were treated brutally if they failed to obey orders. Some were beaten or placed in detention for falling asleep while on guard duty, failure to obey orders, or desertion. In detention, they were often tortured and otherwise ill–treated. In addition, a number of children who were captured in battle suffered torture and imprisonment. According to a credible source, in April [2003], a 16–year–old UPC combatant was involved in a battle against FNI forces south of Bunia. During the battle, he was captured, severely beaten, and had his front teeth knocked out with a rifle butt. Further beatings resulted in broken ribs and lesions. He was then thrown into a “Mabusu,” or underground prison pit, for 3 weeks before he escaped.

Child soldiers have also been victims of extrajudicial executions. For example, on May 25, [2003], according to AI, a child soldier was arrested in Uvira, South Kivu by the RCD/G after allegedly killing a soldier while trying to steal his radio. He was not tried, and was executed in public the same day.

Girl soldiers [are] often assaulted, raped, and infected with HIV/AIDS. In Ituri, girls have been utilized as foot soldiers, domestics and sex slaves. In some cases, sexual abuse was of a limited duration or was carried out in a sporadic manner, many times with different victimizers. For example, in October and November [2003], the UPC and FNI forcibly abducted girls in Djugu Territory. Credible reports indicated that the UPC beat a woman to death after she tried to prevent her 15–year–old daughter from being forcibly taken. In addition, on Nov. 30, [2003], two girls, aged 14 and 15, were reportedly taken by the same unit to be used as sexual slaves. There were also reports that beginning in September girls as young as 14 years were regularly abducted by members of the FNI.

Other girls were subjected to repeated rape over longer periods with one victimizer. These girls were commonly referred to as “war wives,” who often served both as fighting elements in active combat and sexual slaves for their commanders.

Rebel groups and militias demobilized some child soldiers with assistance from MONUC [United Nations Mission in the DRC], UNICEF, and NGOs; militias often did so when they could no longer feed the children. For example, between March and August [2003], RCD/ML demobilized approximately 80 children at a demobilization center outside Beni, North Kivu. In August, at least 37 children, including five girls under the age of 15 were released from the RCD/G Kavumu training camp and demobilized. However, demobilization efforts have been hampered in South Kivu by hostile attitudes of some RCD/G commanders and re–recruitment efforts. For example, AI reported that on July 19, [2003], a local human rights activist in Uvira was briefly detained and ordered to refuse to accept any children at the demobilization center, which his NGO managed.

In August [2003], RCD/G authorities in Uvira, South Kivu, announced on the radio that NGOs were no longer allowed to assist in the demobilization of children; however, NGOs were not prevented from assisting.

On Dec. 3, [2003], UN forces freed at least 34 women and girls who were being used as sex slaves from Lendu militia camps near the town of Djugu, northwest of Bunia; the women and girls, who were between the ages of 12 and 23, were kept in underground prison cells.

RCD/G soldiers continued to forcibly conscript adults and children, often forcing those they had arbitrarily arrested to train and serve with RCD/G forces.

Child soldiers, among other vulnerable children, have been involved in the illegal exploitation of natural resources in Ituri District to the benefit of their militia commanders. For example, there were credible reports that children aged between 10 and 18, many of them associated with the FNI, worked in gold mines in Djugu Territory. Active or former child soldiers, mostly between the ages of 11 and 15, also worked in gold mines in UPC–controlled area of Iga Barriere on behalf of their UPC commanders, who paid them very low wages to dig for them. Credible reports indicate that in the mining areas of Mongbwalu, Iga Barriere, and Centrale, an elevated number of re–recruitments of former child solders took place to secure mine labor for the armed groups, including the UPC and FNI. There continued to be reports that children worked in coltan mines, often because of economic necessity.

The government repeatedly has severely criticized the abduction of women and children by armed groups in areas of the country not under government control. In May 2002, the government filed a case against Rwanda in the World Court, accusing Rwandan soldiers of killing, raping and kidnapping civilians in the country.

Congo, Republic of

During the 1997–2001 civil conflict, there were reports that children were recruited as soldiers for service in the war in the Pool region by both government and Ninja forces. In addition, following the 2002 shootings in Brazzaville, there were unconfirmed reports of street children being recruited for military service in the Pool region. The government denied that recruitment of child soldiers was authorized and stated its opposition to child soldiers; however, unofficial sources indicated that the children were not forced, but rather enticed by offers of money and new clothing. There were no such reports since the signing of the March Peace Accords. During [2003], the local office of the International Labor Organization (ILO) formally launched a child soldier program.

Côte d’Ivoire

[C]orroborated reports [reveal] that [the Rebel “New Forces” (NF), composed of Patriotic Movement of Côte d’Ivoire (MPCI), Ivoirian Popular Movement of the Greater West (MPIGO), and Movement for Justice and Peace (MPJ), who retained control in Bouake, Korhogo, and the northern half of the country] forcibly conscripted locals to join their ranks. Those who refused reportedly disappeared. Many of the conscripts were youth or children, although there also were reports that many volunteered to join the rebels.

In May [2003], UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, [Olara Otunnu], visited Abidjan and said that conflicts, poverty and education disruptions were putting children in danger. A knowledgeable UN representative reported that in government–held territory, it was common for pro–government militias to recruit children, both on a voluntary and a forced basis.

There were credible reports that the rebel forces that controlled the north and the west used child soldiers, whom they recruited and armed after September 2002. NGOs reported that in the west, rebel forces were actively recruiting child soldiers from refugee camps and other areas. In the north, many rebel soldiers volunteered at ages 15 or younger.

With the continuing crisis, the government, UN agencies, and international humanitarian agencies concentrated on child soldiers and children displaced because of the war.

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Like others in society, children were the objects of intense political indoctrination; even mathematics textbooks propound party dogma. In addition, foreign visitors and academic sources reported that children from an early age were subjected to several hours a week of mandatory military training and indoctrination at their schools.

Guinea–Bissau

[Guinean] law provides for compulsory military service for persons between 18 and 25 years old; however, boys under the age of 16 could volunteer for military service with the consent of their parents or tutors.

Iraq

[Saddam Hussein’s] regime held 3–week training courses in weapons use, hand–to–hand fighting, rappelling from helicopters, and infantry tactics for children between 10 and 15 years of age. Camps for these “Saddam Cubs” operated throughout the country. Senior military officers who supervised the course noted that the children held up under the “physical and psychological strain” of training that lasted for as long as 14 hours each day. Families reportedly were threatened with the loss of their food ration cards if they refused to enroll their children in the course. Similarly, authorities reportedly withheld school examination results to students unless they registered in the Fedayeen Saddam organization. Each year the regime enrolled children as young as 10 years of age in a paramilitary training program.

Israel and the occupied territories

Palestinian terrorist groups used minors to prepare attacks or carry them out and as human shields [in 2003]. These youths were recruited to throw pipe bombs and plant explosives. On January 11, [2003], two Palestinian youths attempted to infiltrate the Israeli Netzarim settlement in Gaza. The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] captured both youths after shooting and wounding one of them. Neither was armed.

Liberia

Government and rebel forces forcibly conscripted persons, including children, to serve as porters, forced laborers, combatants and sex slaves. There were credible reports that the commanders of these children used narcotics and cocaine to induce the children to fight and to kill. The various armed militias continued to recruit forcibly from IDP [Internally Displaced Persons] camps and schools and deploy underage soldiers, including girls. Some children were as young as 9 years old. There were an estimated 15,000 child soldiers in the country. UNICEF [United Nations Children’s Fund] reported that in some factions, 70 percent of combatants were children. In June [2003], government forces attempted to forcibly conscript dozens of young men from the streets of Monrovia, and take them to military camps where they were to be armed and sent to fight. There were credible reports that the LURD [Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy] engaged in similar forced recruitment and deployment tactics. Thousands of child soldiers have yet to be demobilized or disarmed.

There were thousands of children living on the street of Monrovia; however, it is difficult to tell who were street children, ex–combatants, or IDPs. Approximately 100 under–funded orphanages operated in and around Monrovia; however, many orphans lived outside these institutions. These institutions did not receive any government funding, but relied on private donations. Nearly all youths witnessed terrible atrocities, and some committed atrocities themselves.

All existing military groups have abducted or otherwise compelled large numbers of children to serve as soldiers, sex slaves and in other service capacities.

[Liberian] law does not prohibit trafficking in persons, and there were reports that persons were trafficked to, from and within the country. There were reports of forced labor, including by children, and the recruitment of child soldiers. Citizens, including children, have been trafficked to the Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, the Gambia and the United Kingdom, in some cases for commercial sexual exploitation.

Libya

Despite the Penal Code’s prohibition on slavery, citizens have been implicated in the purchase of Sudanese slaves, mainly southern Sudanese women and children, who were captured by Sudanese government troops in the ongoing civil war in Sudan.

Nepal

During [2003], including during the ceasefire, Maoists continued their campaign of torturing, killing, bombing, forcibly conscripting children, and committing other gross abuses, targeted at government agents but also including civilians.

Although their activities were focused on the security forces, the Maoists continued to kill and torture civilians and politicians. The insurgents killed 255 civilians during the year. For example, on Feb. 19, [2003], armed Maoists stormed onto the property of an elementary school in Baglung District to conduct “training.” Two children, ages 7 and 12, were shot and killed in the course of the “training.”

According to the government, human rights groups, and the media, Maoists conscripted civilians, including children, into service and have used abducted civilians as human shields during attacks on army and police posts.

There have been numerous reports that Maoists recruited teenagers to serve as porters, runners, cooks, and armed cadre. During the ceasefire, the Maoists reportedly abducted hundreds of rural teens and children, requiring them to attend training and indoctrination programs and/or join their ranks.

There were reports that the Maoists use children, including girls, as soldiers, shields, runners, and messengers.

Paraguay

During [2003], the government took steps to reduce the illegal conscription of minors, the mistreatment of recruits, and the unexplained deaths of recruits. The government’s Inter–Institutional Committee, including judges, attorneys, legislators, and NGO representatives, continued its visits around the country during the year to inspect conscripts’ records and identify any minor soldiers. The committee had the power to investigate and report on abuses and conditions.

The government established review procedures for military recruits to prevent future enlistment of minors, although it was unclear whether they were implemented. The government ordered all military officers responsible for recruiting to ensure that all conscripts met the legally minimum mandated requirement age of 18 for military service. The armed forces no longer allowed 17–year–olds to enlist with parental permission, and they experienced considerable success in implementing the policy. However, there were reported violations, including allegations that military recruiters encouraged underage recruits and assisted them in obtaining false birth certificates.

Peru

Sendero Luminoso [Shining Path] held indigenous families captive in remote areas, using their labor, including that of children, to grow food crops and coca.

Philippines

A large, well–funded Communist insurgency continued to operate in various regions of the country; its military arm, the terrorist New People’s Army (NPA), committed numerous human rights violations, including political assassinations, kidnappings, and torture. [In 2003] [t]he small, terrorist Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) committed some kidnappings and killings, including summary beheadings of hostages and local residents. The NPA and ASG continued to use children both as soldiers and as noncombatants.

Children were targeted for recruitment as combatants and noncombatants by the terrorist NPA and ASG. The NPA claimed that it assigned persons 15 to 18 years of age to self–defense and noncombatant duties; however, there were reports that the NPA continued to use minors in combat. An official from the Office of the Presidential Advisor on the Peace Process estimated that children made up as much as 19 percent of the NPA’s fighting force. In the last several years, the AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] on numerous occasions captured or killed NPA fighters who turned out to be minors.

The ASG also recruited teenagers to fight and participate in criminal activities. There were reports that a significant number of ASG members staffing the groups’ camps were teenagers. The AFP said that some Islamic schools in Mindanao served as fronts to indoctrinate children, and that the ASG used children as couriers and spies. In February [2003], the DSWD [Department of Social Welfare and Development] reported that seven former “child warriors” ages 11 to 15 admitted to having fought with the ASG against the AFP on Basilan island.

Rwanda

[In 2003] [t]he government continued to detain ex–combatants who returned to the country as part of the ongoing peace process between Rwanda and the DRC; detainees were placed in a reintegration program, which lasted from 8 to 12 weeks. These returnees included some children. The children generally [served] as porters for ALIR (now called the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR); few were serving as combatants for FDLR. Child soldiers were held separately from the adult combatants. Detainees at the demobilization camp at Mutobo frequently received visitors and sometimes were allowed to go home for visits.

During [2003], there were numerous credible reports that RCD/G [Congolese Rally for Democracy-Goma] forces in the DRC forcibly recruited and transferred to the country numerous Kinyarwandan–speaking Congolese Hutus, including children, for military training. The government denied that any such activities occurred.

Both the government and non–state militias have used children as soldiers in past conflicts. However, the government no longer recruited children into its security forces. The government’s program of demobilization and reintegration continued during the year, with a number of child soldiers being among those moved through the program back to civilian life. The government participated in an International Labor Organization (ILO)– International Program for Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) program to prevent the involvement of children in armed conflicts and support the rehabilitation of former child soldiers. There were credible reports that in some regions, children were recruited to work for the LDF [Lesotho Defense Force]; however, these were isolated cases.

There were reports that Congolese children were transferred to [Rwanda] for military training.

There continued to be reports that Rwandan–backed Congolese militias operating in the DRC abducted men, women, and children for forced labor and sexual exploitation, and to serve as combatants. Unlike in [2002], there were no reports that RDF [Rwandan Defense Forces] troops abducted women and children from villages they raided to perform labor, military services, and sexual services.

Sierra Leone

[During 2003] [a]buse of children was a problem; however, numerous children who fought as child soldiers continued to be released and participated in reintegration programs during the year.

There were some reports of abuses committed by former RUF/Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) rebels. International aid groups believed that many girls who were abducted by the RUF [Revolutionary United Front] remained sex slaves during the year.

From 1991 to 1999, the RUF abducted approximately 20,000 persons throughout the country; some victims escaped, and more than 10,000, primarily children, were released and went through a formal reintegration process. However, former RUF rebels continued to hold some persons, including women and children, as laborers or sex slaves at [the end of 2003]. Some women reportedly remained with their captors during the year due to a lack of viable options and intimidation by their captors. According to child protection officers from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the government was severely hindered by a lack of resources and had taken little action to secure their release. The Ministry of Social Welfare, Children, and Gender maintained a database, with the help from UNICEF [United Nations Children’s Fund], which attempted to track children separated from their families during the war. International NGOs continued to work to secure the release of women and children from their captors, with government assistance on some occasions.

The [Special Court of Sierra Leone], a UN–Sierra Leone war crimes tribunal established in 2002 to try those who “bear the greatest responsibility for the commission of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and serious violations of international humanitarian law,” indicted 13 persons [in 2003]. All those indicted were charged with crimes against humanity, violations of Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions and of Additional Protocol II, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law. Specific charges included murder, rape, extermination, acts of terror, sexual slavery, conscription of children into an armed force, attacks on UN peacekeepers, and looting and burning of homes from 1997 to 1999. Initial appellate arguments were heard in November, and the first trials were expected to begin in early 2004.

More than 7,000 child soldiers served alongside adults on both sides during the [11–year] civil conflict. By 2002, when demobilization was completed, 6,845 child combatants had been demobilized since 1998, according to the National Commission for Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration. Girls represented 8 percent of demobilized child soldiers and 30 percent of reunified noncombatant separated children. In previous years, UNAMSIL [United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone] compelled the RUF to disarm, demobilize, and release its child soldiers; however, there were concerns that a significant number of children remained with their captors. Because UN and human rights observers estimated that girls represented 50 percent of those abducted during the war, and there were reports that the rebels released disproportionate numbers of boys, these groups feared that many girls continued to be held as sex slaves. During [2003], more than 3,000 children from both groups participated in UNICEF’s Community Education Investment Program (CEIP), which was designed to enable children separated from their families to return to school. CEIP provided each school that enrolled a child ex–combatant with learning, teaching, or recreational materials to assist 200 children for one year. Others were in special transitional centers, which were designed to help provide for their unique mental and emotional needs prior to reunification with their families. [S]ome families and communities rejected the returnees because of their perceived involvement in rebel atrocities. Child protection agencies reported that hundreds of boys and girls did not participate in the formal demobilization process. Locating the families of released child combatants often was difficult, and some did not want to assume responsibility for their children, some of whom were mentally and emotionally incapable of rejoining their families. However, 98 percent of the 7,134 children who were registered with child protection agencies as separated from their families or as ex–combatants had been reunited with their families by [the] end [of 2003].

The Constitution prohibits forced and bonded labor by children; however, such practices continued to exist. There were reports of bonded labor by children in rural areas. There continued to be reports that former RUF commanders forced children to mine diamonds. The government had not asserted complete control over the diamond fields by [the end of 2003].

With the end of the war and the demobilization of child soldiers, trafficking in persons lessened significantly. The government acknowledged unconfirmed reports of limited trafficking within and from the country; however, it lacked resources to address the problem adequately. There were no figures available on the extent of the trafficking problem. Children reportedly were trafficked to Liberia as forced conscripts and to Europe in false adoption schemes.

Solomon Islands

In 2000, [Amnesty International] reported that Guadalcanalese militants included a number of child soldiers. U.N. human rights officials confirmed the use of child soldiers by both Guadalcanalese and Malaitan militants. Several hundred children (generally boys) under the age of 18 were active combatants or assisted in militants’ camps. With the decrease in fighting, dozens of these underage militants remained in quasi–criminal gangs affiliated with their former militant commanders.

Somalia

Children remained among the chief victims of the continuing violence. Boys as young as 14 or 15 years of age have participated in militia attacks, and many youths were members of the marauding gangs known as “morian,” “parasites,” or “maggots.”

Sri Lanka

The LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam] forcibly recruited children during [2003]. However, during [2003], the LTTE also released 141 children. In late 2002, the LTTE handed over an additional 85 children to UNICEF [United Nations Children’s Fund], stating that the children had volunteered to serve, but that the LTTE did not accept children.

Since the peace process began in December 2001, the LTTE has engaged in kidnapping, hijackings of truck shipments, and forcible recruitment, including of children. The LTTE was widely believed by credible sources to have increased its recruitment during the year. There were intermittent reports of children ranging in age from 13 to 17 escaping from LTTE camps. During [2003], the LTTE released 141 children. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) received approximately 200 complaints about child abductions during the year, and credible sources said those children were recruited to be child soldiers. Senior LTTE officials alleged to foreign officials that child soldiers were volunteers. During [2003], the LTTE and UNICEF reached an agreement on the demobilization and rehabilitation of child soldiers and began work on an action plan to address issues relating to child labor, including underage recruitment. However, the LTTE provided little follow–up to the plan.

LTTE recruits, some as young as 13 years of age, surrendered to the military, and credible reports indicated that the LTTE stepped up recruiting efforts. In 1998, the LTTE gave assurances to the Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary General for Children in Armed Combat that it would not recruit children under the age of 17. The LTTE did not honor this pledge, and, even after the ceasefire agreement, there were multiple credible reports of the LTTE forcibly recruiting children. For example, during [2003], UNICEF reported that there were over 700 cases of forcible child recruitment by the LTTE and that more than 1,300 children remained in LTTE custody at year’s end. During [2003], the government began participation in an inter–regional project aimed to prevent and reintegrate children involved in armed conflict. The project was sponsored by the International Labor Organization’s International Program for the Elimination of Child Labor, which the government began working with in 1996.

The LTTE continued to use high school–age children for work as cooks, messengers and clerks, as well as soldiers. In some cases, the children reportedly helped build fortifications. In the past, children as young as age 10 were said to be recruited and placed for two to four years in special schools that provided a mixture of LTTE ideology and formal education. Compulsory physical training, including mock military drills even for children and the aged reportedly occurred. According to LTTE spokesmen, training was meant to keep the population fit; however, it was believed widely that the training was established to gain tighter control and provide a base for recruiting fighters. Individuals or small groups of children intermittently turned themselves over to security forces or religious leaders, saying that they had escaped LTTE training camps throughout [2003].

Sudan

The LRA [Lord’s Resistance Army] kidnapped Ugandan children and took them to the southern part of [Sudan].

The government continued to conscript citizens forcibly for military service, including high–school–age children.

The insurgent SPLM/A [Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army] generally was not known to interfere with privacy, family, home, or correspondence in areas that it controlled; however, rebel factions continued to conscript citizens forcibly, including high school age children.

The government operated camps for vagrant children. Police typically send homeless children who have committed crimes to these camps, where they were detained for indefinite periods. Male teenagers in the camps often were conscripted into the PDF [Popular Defense Forces], including some girls in the south. There were reports that the government’s PDF seized underage recruits from the streets of Khartoum. Conscripts faced significant hardship and abuse in military service, often serving on the frontline.

A large number of children suffered abuse, including abduction, enslavement, and forced conscription. The government forcibly conscripted young men and boys into the military forces to fight in the civil war. For example, on Oct. 8 [2003], government–supported militiamen abducted three civilian boys from the El Lafa Souk, Kalakla, in Khartoum. Acting under the orders of Paulino Matieb, leader of the South Sudan Unity Movement (SSUM) and commander of the government’s SSDF [South Sudan Defense Forces], the militia conscripted the boys into the SSUM. The CPMT [Civilian Protection Monitoring Team] confirmed these abductions and reported that they were part of a broader campaign of forced conscription and extortion (particularly targeting Nuer boys) that continued in Khartoum. Government authorities frequently carried out conscription by raiding buses and other public places to seize young men. No one was jailed during the year for evading compulsory military service.

Rebel factions have conscripted citizens forcibly, including high school age children. During [2003], the SPLM/A engaged in efforts to demobilize child soldiers; however, there were reports that child soldiers were involved in military incidents during December 2002, which raised concerns that the SPLM/A again was using forced recruitment of children. UNICEF [United Nations Children’s Fund] reported that an estimated 7,000–8,000 child soldiers remained with the SPLM/A.

The ICRC cooperated with UNICEF to remove child soldiers during [2003].

There were continuing unconfirmed reports that the SPLA forcibly recruited Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda for service in their forces.

During the past 15 years, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) kidnapped between 3,000 and 10,000 Ugandan children, took them to the southern part of [Sudan], and forced them to become sex slaves or soldiers. In March 2002, the government signed an agreement to stop supporting the LRA and permit Ugandan army access in the south to pursue the LRA; the agreement remained in force during [2003].

The LRA continued to operate in the south and to hold a large number of child abductees during the year.

Tanzania

[In 2003] [t]here were several reports that Burundian rebels conducted training and recruitment in the camps; there were also reports that the rebels recruited children from the country’s refugee camps. . . for use in Burundi as child soldiers and domestic servants in rebel camps.

There were reports that children in the country’s large refugee population were highly vulnerable to being trafficked to work on farms, and some refugees were recruited as child soldiers for participation in armed conflicts in neighboring countries.

Uganda

The LRA [Lord’s Resistance Army], led by Joseph Kony, committed numerous, serious abuses and atrocities [in 2003]. The LRA increased attacks in the northern and eastern parts of the country, and rebels routinely abducted, tortured and killed civilians, including children. The LRA used children as soldiers, held children and others in slave–like conditions, and subjected female captives to rape and other forms of severe sexual exploitation during [2003].

UNICEF [United Nations Children’s Fund] reported that as many as 38,000 children and adults have been abducted since 1986 by rebel groups. Approximately 20,000 of the abductees were children taken by the LRA, and 20 percent of the adults were female.

During [2003], the LRA significantly increased its abductions of civilians for training as guerrillas and as sex slaves, cooks and porters; most victims were children and young adults. The LRA abducted an estimated 6,800 children and young girls between January and June [2003]. Some of these children escaped, were released, or were rescued during [2003].

For example, on May 11, [2003], the LRA abducted 44 students from Sacred Heart Seminary in Gulu District. The rebels reportedly killed four students, and the UPDF [Uganda People’s Defence Forces] rescued five. The whereabouts of the remaining students was unknown. On May 20, [2003], LRA rebels abducted 30 persons from Alebtong in Moroto and Otuke counties in Lira District. On June 23, [2003], LRA rebels abducted 56 students from Lwala Secondary School in Katakwi District. The UPDF rescued 23 [students], and 33 remained missing.

The UPDF’s Child Protection Unit continued to provide special treatment to rescued abductees upon arrival to military facilities. It also escorted them to NGO facilities, which provided physical assistance and counseling to the children and their families. The government also worked closely with NGOs in the north to facilitate their assistance programs for amnesty seekers and rescued children; however, these programs were primarily financed by donors. The Amnesty Commission provided orientation and training to the country’s embassies in Sudan and Kenya to better assist applicants, including former abducted child soldiers, enter into the amnesty program.

LRA attacks on private homes, schools, churches, and IDP camps increased during the year, as did the LRA’s use of landmines, and the LRA committed numerous atrocities.

According to Human Rights Watch, the government continued to arrest and charge persons for treason, especially captured rebel fighters, including children, and opposition supporters.

The legal recruitment age for military service was 18 years; however, in practice some recruiters allowed 17–year–olds to enlist. The LDUs [local defense units] were allowed to recruit children under the age of 18 with parental consent. There were reports that the military detained and used former LRA child soldiers on reconnaissance and intelligence missions.

A November [2003] UN Report on Children and Armed Conflict reported that the government continued to recruit children into the UPDF, including children who had previously served as combatants for the LRA. UNICEF estimated that there were 300–400 underage soldiers in Uganda’s 60,000–person Army. Other children were reported to have been recruited into LDUs. The UPDF denied that it had actively recruited child soldiers, but said some might have been allowed to join through deception or oversight. Other reports, however, accused the UPDF of detaining ex–LRA child combatants for unacceptably long periods and in some cases using them on intelligence and reconnaissance missions. In June [2003], UNICEF screened UPDF recruits at the Lugore military training camp in Gulu District and demobilized children found to be underage.

The LRA continued to abduct thousands of children and, at clandestine bases, forced them into virtual slavery as laborers, soldiers, guards and sex slaves. In addition to being beaten, raped and forced to march until exhausted, abducted children were forced to participate in the killing of other children who attempted to escape. More than 85 percent of LRA forces were made up of children whom the LRA abducted and forced to fight as rebels; most LRA rebels were between the ages of 11 and 16.

Thousands of children in the north sought refuge in Gulu and other urban centers to avoid abduction by the LRA. Some children slept in churches and hospitals, while others slept under balconies or on the street if necessary. By [the end of 2003], several NGOs had begun providing more organized shelter for these night commuters.

[Ugandan] law prohibits forced and bonded labor by children; however, a lack of resources prevented the government from enforcing this prohibition effectively. There were reports the UPDF used ex–LRA child soldiers on reconnaissance and intelligence missions.

There continued to be unconfirmed reports that the SPLA forcibly recruited Sudanese refugees in the north for service in their forces.

The government, through the military, continued efforts to combat LRA trafficking in persons despite severe resource constraints. The government began Operation Iron Fist in 2002 to eradicate the LRA threat. It continued to offer amnesty to ex–rebels, providing resettlement packages with educational benefits and vocational training. The government also established protected camps garrisoned by the UPDF that have helped to prevent abductions.