HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH IN NEW YORK SAYS TAMIL TIGERS AND 13 OTHER ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD BE SANCTIONED FOR ENGAGING CHILD SOLDIERS REPEATEDLY FOR 4 YEARS

By Walter Jayawardhana

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) together with 13 other organizations that refused repeated demands to stop using child soldiers should be subject to sanctions said the New York based Human Rights Watch.

In the past freezing of assets and arms embargoes have been used against violators and so far the world body has not imposed any sanctions against the LTTE despite they continued to engage child soldiers.

Meanwhile it has been charged that certain UN bodies instead have shown leniency towards the LTTE, instead.

In a statement issued November 22 the Human Rights Watch said 14 groups and two governments have been identified as persistent violators in four reports from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for violating international standards prohibiting the recruitment and use of child soldiers.

The Security Council is to debate the 2006 report on November 23. The violators include the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka, Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army, the Maoists in Nepal, the government of Myanmar, guerrilla groups and paramilitaries in Colombia, the Sudan People's Liberation Army and other parties from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and the Philippines.

"These groups have repeatedly and shamelessly defied the Security Council by using children as soldiers," said Jo Becker, children's rights advocate at Human Rights Watch. "The Security Council should use its power to punish the groups that ruin the lives of vulnerable children and apply sanctions against them.”

A UN report by Annan issued in November named 38 parties from 12 countries that have recruited or used children as soldiers breaching international standards during the past year. It said 16 parties from nine countries violated the standards four times repeatedly.

The council has also repeatedly called on parties to armed conflict to stop engaging child soldiers, and has demanded that they engage in dialogue with the UN and develop concrete action plans to stop their use of child soldiers. Several parties in C?te d'Ivoire have developed action plans, and dialogue is on-going in several other countries. However, none of the 16 "persistent violators" has developed a credible action plan to end child recruitment, and only those parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo have participated in any notable demobilization of children from their ranks in the past year, according to that report

In 2004 and 2005, the Security Council threatened to apply sanctions, including arms embargoes, against parties that fail to show progress in ending the use of child soldiers. To date, it has taken such action in two instances: in February 2006, it imposed a travel ban and asset freeze on Martin Kouakou Fofie, a commander of the Forces Nouvelles (New Forces) in C?te d'Ivoire, citing child recruitment as well as other violations including abductions, use of forced labor, sexual violence, and extrajudicial executions. In July 2006, it expanded existing sanctions (including travel bans and asset freezes) to apply to individual child recruiters in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"The Security Council can't let groups use and abuse child soldiers year after year without paying a penalty," said Becker. "But these groups will keep using children until they're made to pay a heavy price for it."

The following parties were listed in the secretary-general's 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006 reports for recruiting or using child soldiers contravening international standards:? Burma: Tatmadaw Kyi (national armed forces), Karenni Army; ? Burundi: Palipehutu-FNL; ? Democratic Republic of Congo: Forces Arm?es de la R?public D?mocratique du Congo (FARDC), Forces D?mocratiques de Lib?ration du Rwanda (FDLR), Front Nationaliste et Integrationaliste (FNI), and Mai Mai groups; ? Sudan: Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA); ? Colombia: Ejercito de Liberaci?n Nacional (ELN), Fuerzas Armadas Frevolucionarias de Colombia-Ejercito del Pueblo (FARC-EP), Autodefensas Campesinoas del Casanare, and Frente Cacique Pipinta; ? Nepal: Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M); ? Philippines: Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), New People's Army (NPA); ? Sri Lanka: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE); ? Uganda: Lord's Resistance Army.
There was no report issued in 2004.