DRC child recruiter gets death
18/03/2006 19:55  - (SA)  

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Bukavu - A soldier in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has become the first person in the war-scarred country to be convicted of recruiting child soldiers.

Major Jean-Pierre Biyoyo was tried at a military tribunal in the eastern town of Bukavu. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment on Friday.

Four of his co-accused were given prison terms of between two and five years for desertion.

Biyoyo was also found guilty of desertion, for which he was sentenced to death.

Daniela Baro, spokesperson for the child protection service of the United Nations mission in the DRC said: "It is the first time a DRC court has tried and convicted a soldier for recruiting children.

"This is very important because the penal code does not punish child recruitment as such, while the International Criminal Court considers it a war crime.

"The courts here can sanction it by means of such charges as kidnapping and illegal detention."

Baro said tens of thousands of children had been conscripted into various armed groups in the conflicts raging across DRC between 1996 and 2003.

- AFP

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