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| Friday, 16 January 2004 |
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UN pressed to crack down on use of child soldiers UN, Thursday (Reuters) A U.N. special envoy on Wednesday called on the Security Council to move quickly to impose sanctions on governments and rebel groups around the world that force children to fight in wars. Olara Otunnu, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative for children and armed conflict, said the time had come for the 15-nation council to take concrete action against groups using child soldiers - defined by the United Nations as youths 17 and under. The council has scheduled a public meeting on the problem next Tuesday. Annan's latest report on the problem, issued in November, listed for the first time all the groups and countries around the world known to rely on child soldiers in conflicts. "The Security Council is now face to face with its responsibility. It has got the information it needs, the facts are there. Now it must make good on its word to act against the violators," Otunnu said. The other countries listed are Afghanistan, Colombia, Russia's Chechnya republic, Myanmar, Nepal, Northern Ireland, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. More than 40 rebel groups are also named. |
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