• Past Watchlist News
• Press Releases
• Featured Articles
• Multimedia

Nepali Children Victimized in Escalating War

By Isaac Baker

UNITED NATIONS, January 26, 2005 -- Children are being increasingly killed, injured, recruited as soldiers and subjected to other abuses by both government and rebel forces in the armed conflict in Nepal, according to a report released Wednesday by a children's rights group.

The Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, a New York-based non-governmental organization (NGO), says that since the breakdown of a ceasefire agreement in Aug. 2003 between the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) and government forces, the situation for children has become extremely grim.

“Children's lives are not being spared -- not by the Maoists and not by the government armed forces,” Julia Freedson, Watchlist's director, said in a statement Tuesday. ”In so many instances, Nepal's children are getting caught in the cross-fire, and even worse, they are being deliberately used and exploited by those who are waging this war.”

The 61-page report, titled ”Caught in the Middle: Mounting Violations Against Children in Nepal's Armed Conflict”, calls the situation ‘an urgent matter of international peace and security, based on its severe, life-threatening impact on children and adolescents”.

The report urges immediate action on behalf of the Nepalese government, Maoist rebels, NGOs, and the UN Security Council to stop the abuses.

‘Unconscionable’

Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, was present in the Nepali capital of Kathmandu as Watchlist launched its report Wednesday. Arbour, the highest human rights official to visit Nepal since the Maoists began waging their “People's War” against the government in 1996, urged both sides to end their violations against children.

“The use of children in any way whatsoever to advance military goals must immediately cease,” Arbour said Wednesday. ”The use of children for such purposes is strictly prohibited by law.”

Arbour urged the Maoist insurgency to end their brutal military tactics, which she called “unconscionable and contrary to fundamental human rights and international humanitarian laws”.

She also said the government had a right to fight the insurgency but had failed to respect human rights in doing so.

“The Government of Nepal has a duty to protect its people,” she said. “This responsibility cannot be suspended, even in times of national emergency.”

Many child casualties

During the first six years of the war, until the ceasefire agreement of Jan. 2003, there were 422 child casualties, Watchlist reports. The ceasefire was broken six months later as the rebels pulled out, saying the government was not keeping to the agreement. Since then, conditions have deteriorated as both government and rebel forces have stepped up violations against children.

The report cites information and research from the Child Workers in Nepal Concerned Center (CWIN), which says in the first six months of 2004, some 54 children were directly killed by bombs, gunfire, or other attacks and some 100 were injured.

Watchlist also reports that 92 children were killed by landmines in the first half of 2004, which is more than were killed by any means during 2003.

Children are also being exploited as fighters or spies, which is illegal under international law and a number of treaties to which Nepal is party.

The report blasts the Maoist rebels for using child soldiers as “cannon fodder, human shields and in direct combat with the government security forces”.

Watchlist estimates that 30 percent of Maoist rebels are under the age of 18 and also reports instances of Maoists recruiting students from schools to fight. While it is difficult to know the exact number of child soldiers in Nepal, Watchlist says the number has been increasing ever since the ceasefire.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his 2003 report to the Security Council on children in armed conflict, specifically named the Maoist rebels in Nepal among a list of forces that recruit and use child soldiers.

Government forces also use children

There is no indication that the government in Nepal actively recruits child soldiers, Watchlist says. However, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers reports that Nepalese government forces have used children as young as 12 as spies and informers, many of whom are killed.

Thousands of children have also been abducted since the break-up of the ceasefire, most by Maoist forces, the report says. Maoist insurgents kidnapped 7,000 children in the first six months of 2004 and 4,000 children during the month of September alone.

Nearly all the children abducted are released after a few days of what the rebels call “cultural education” programs, where the children are threatened and politically indoctrinated.

The government forces have also abducted and “disappeared” children suspected of being Maoists or Maoist sympathizers, the report says. The whereabouts of six children abducted by the government are still unknown.

Watchlist's report calls on the UN Security Council to take immediate action to protect children in Nepal, saying the council has not focused enough attention on the dire situation.

“Despite the continued deterioration of the armed conflict in Nepal [and] the overwhelming impact of the armed conflict on young people,” the report says, “the Security Council has not included the situation in Nepal on its agenda as a matter of international peace and security.”

The Security Council, the world body's group of powerful leadership, has issued five resolutions to protect children during armed conflict but none specifically mentioning Nepal.

However, Watchlist says, due to the massive amount of violations against children taking place in Nepal, the resolutions relate directly to the Himalayan country and must therefore be enforced.

Copyright © Inter Press Service 2005