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5 000 child soldiers in Uganda
18/06/2006 22:28 - (SA)
Geneva - Up to 5 000 children still serve
in the Ugandan armed forces even though they are officially
banned from enlisting, a senior UN official said on Friday.
While the numbers are small compared to those in the rebel
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which has up to 25 000 children in
its ranks, the Ugandan government has agreed to tighten
controls, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special
representative for children and armed conflict said.
"There seems to be some failure in the process," Radhika
Coomaraswamy told reporters in Geneva after a trip to northern
Uganda where a 20-year conflict still rages between the
government and the LRA.
UN children's agency Unicef defines a child soldier as any
child under 18 years of age who is part of regular or irregular
armed forces.
Coomaraswamy, a Sri Lankan lawyer, said although the Ugandan
army was not consciously recruiting children, many young people
joined for lack of other things to do, and others were forced in
by family or other pressures.
She said Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had promised to
reinforce measures against the recruitment of children and their
use in armed conflict.
The east African country will work with Unicef to draw up an
action plan by the end of August on ways to better implement its
existing laws, Coomaraswany said.
The agreement does not extend to the LRA, which Coomaraswany
identified as "the primary violator" in Uganda.
Many LRA child fighters have been traumatised by the horrors
they have witnessed, committed and were subjected to, she said.
Coomaraswany estimated that 250 000 children worldwide were affected
by armed conflict, either as child soldiers or victims of
attacks, abductions or sexual assaults.
In addition to Uganda, child soldiers are found in Burundi,
Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Chad,
Sudan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Colombia, with most linked
to militia groups, Coomaraswany said.
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