Ex-child soldier appeals for action to free children from guns

A former child soldier from Sierra Leone who started killing at the age of 12 opened an international conference on Monday with an appeal for action to stop the exploitation of children in war.

"At that time, taking a gun and shooting somebody had become as easy as drinking a glass of water," Ishmael Beah, now 26, told delegates at the "Free Children from War" conference.

The two-day gathering hosted by France and the UN children's agency UNICEF is to produce a set of guidelines for agencies and governments to help the estimated 250,000 children currently fighting in wars, mostly in Africa.

"There are no excuses. If you don't do it with these children now, you are going to have bigger problems later on," warned Beah to a rapt audience at a Paris conference center.

Beah, who took part in an eight-month demobilisation programme in his home country that put him on the road back to normal childhood, pointed out failures in international efforts.

"When you rehabilitate someone and throw them back into society, it's not good enough," he said, calling for a "follow-up" and more assistance to ensure that former child soldiers do not go back to war.

"You have to find a way so that they are able to go to school or feel strongly that they can provide for themselves."

"If not, they know how to use a gun. And there is a conflict next door offering 100 dollars a day and all-you-can-loot, and they will go back to that," said Beah, who gave up fighting at the age of 16.

Beah said current assistance programs for demobilising child soldiers needed to put greater emphasis on involving communities to help remove stigma.

Recounting his experience, Beah said he felt resentment from families whose children also suffered during the 10-year war in Sierra Leone when he was given help.

"They would say 'they are getting all the benefits and we are not' so immediately they don't like you," he said. "It's so easy to become a child soldier, but it's so difficult to regain your lost humanity again. It's the most difficult thing to do," Beah told the gathering.

The conference opened in Paris amid growing international concern over the use of child soldiers in Sudan's troubled Darfur region and eastern Chad.

Seven countries are on a UN watchlist for child soldiers: Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Somalia, Sudan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN special representative for children and armed conflict, however noted progress in countries such as Ivory Coast where rebel forces holding the north have recently submitted "an action plan" that could lead to the release of child soldiers within their ranks.

Delegates at the conference also welcomed the indictment of former Democratic Republic of Congo warlord Thomas Lubanga on charges of war crimes for enrolling children under 15 as fighters.

No date has been set for the Lubanga trial, the first to be heard by the Hague-based International Criminal Court.

The conference is also to look at broadening the definition of a child soldier to encompass children as victims of war, including girls raped by soldiers or children recruited to work as porters.

Paris, Tuesday, AFP