UN Calls for Release of Child Soldiers in Uganda

In spite of almost year-long peace talks between representatives of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army and the Ugandan government to end the almost 20-year conflict in Uganda, the rebel continue to use child soldiers. Today, the United Nations once again called for the unconditional release of the estimated 25,000 children recruited or kidnapped by the LRA.

"The LRA has ignored the repeated calls from the international community and we hope that they will now immediately undertake actions for the sake of these children," said Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.

According to the UN News Service, the call for the release of child soldiers was made during UN Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict talks regarding children in war zones in Uganda and Somalia. The group monitors compliance with the 1991 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Lord's Resistance Army has a long history of abducting children from villages and forcing them to serve as soldiers or sex slaves. "Children continue to be recruited and subjected to sexual violence. Those who commit grave violations against the civilian population must be held accountable," Coomaraswamy said.

UNICEF has partnered with World Vision to provide support and training for children who have been released or escaped from the LRA. An estimated 2000 children have received support through UNICEF's Empowering Hands program.

The LRA, led by self-proclaimed spirit medium Joseph Kony, has been accused of torture, rape,massacres and kidnapping of civilians to serve as soldiers in Africa's longest running armed conflict. Each night, an estimated 15,000 children leave their homes to trek into the non-government shelters in major cities to avoid being brutalized by the guerrilla army.

Peace talks began last August, but in recent months violence has escalated, putting the nation's women and children and renewed risk. The original deadline for the peace deal was September 2006, but the process has dragged on and the fragile peace talks may be in danger. Kony has accused the Ugandan government of sending soldiers to surround camps of LRA camps, in violation of the original peace treaty.

Northern Uganda has been devastated by not only the ongoing conflict but by an epidemic of AIDS that has orphaned almost one million children. The international community has remained largely quiet as the armed conflict and AIDS epidemic has raged in the poverty stricken region.

Source: UN News Release (http://www.unicefusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=duLRI8O0H&b=36571&SMDOCID=comtex_2007_07_24_xh_0000-5712-uganda-un-rebel&SMContentSet=0)