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Stop using child soldiers, Sierra Leone told

Thursday, 19 June 1997: As diplomatic efforts continued to seek a lasting resolution of the conflict in Sierra Leone, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy called on all sides to put an end to the use of children as combatants, and to incorporate provisions for their physical and emotional welfare in a future peace settlement.

Since May 25, when the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) took power in a coup, witnesses have reported seeing hundreds of armed children in the streets of the capital, Freetown. Many are former child soldiers, who had returned to their communities during a country-wide demobilization programme, which began in 1993. They have now been recruited and rearmed again by the AFRC and their allies. More than 60 per cent of the 1,000 fighters recently screened by the Disarmament, Demobilization and Resettlement Unit, set up by the ousted government, were women and children.

"Children should have no part in war,"said Ms. Bellamy. "By making them agents of civil conflict and depriving them of their childhood, the vicious cycle of violence is perpetuated."

Sierra Leone has one of the world's worst records for recruiting child soldiers. Between 1992 and 1996, in the previous period of civil unrest between the Government of Sierra Leone and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), an estimated 4,500 children were forced to fight on both sides. Children were abducted and forced to commit atrocities in order to turn them into ruthless fighters. Some were ordered to torture and murder their own relatives before being taken to neighbouring villages to slaughter others.

"Child soldiers are a symptom of the wider problem, the complete neglect of a whole generation," Ms. Bellamy said. "Every single child has felt the impact of this war, whether or not he or she has been forced to carry a gun."

Since fighting began, several children have been found among the dead. Young girls have been raped and sexually abused during the attacks. Many children have been stranded without parents or relatives. A Save the Children (UK) survey of 1,400 people, who crossed from the Kailahun district into Liberia following the coup, registered 42 unaccompanied children. They will join the 8,000 children who are still separated from their families as a result of previous civil unrest.

Children will also be hardest hit by the gradual collapse of basic services. Food distribution has been disrupted, and the price of staple foods in many areas of the country has doubled. Immunization campaigns have been halted, leaving children susceptible to epidemics of measles, typhoid and whooping cough. Health workers have also expressed fear of an imminent cholera epidemic. Schools are closed and most teachers have fled the country.

The disruption in basic services is likely to push Sierra Leone back once again into a desperate situation, reversing significant advances that had been made during the brief period of peace.

"The right of every child to basic education, health care and other services must be part of a lasting peace settlement," Ms. Bellamy said.

She called for the immediate demobilization of all child soldiers. The proposals outlined in the 1996 Report on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children by Graça Machel, should be urgently implemented, said Bellamy, including the adoption of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which would raise the minimum age of recruitment and participation in armed forces from 15 to 18 years.

Please email media@unicef.org with comments or requests for more information, quoting CF/DOC/PR/1997/22.