Rawlings calls for an end to use of children as soldiers

Accra, April 27, GNA - President Jerry John Rawlings on Thursday painted a bleak picture of children being used as combatants in some West Africa countries and suggested measures to curb the practice.

He said West African countries should be among the first to ratify the Optional Protocol on the Convention of the Rights of the Child, raising the minimum age for recruitment and participation in a justifiable combat from 15 to 18 years.

"By forming a critical mass in favour of ratification, we can indeed set an example for the rest of the world and help to gain global momentum behind this critically important protocol."

President Rawlings was opening a two-day conference on war-affected children in West Africa at the Accra International Conference Centre. The conference, sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), has brought together delegations from West African countries and non-governmental organisations.

Also attending are Mr Llyod Axworthy, the Foreign Minister of Canada and Mr Lansana Kouyate, Executive-Secretary of ECOWAS. He said the sub-region could also add its weight to the ratification of the statute establishing the International Criminal Court, which would have the power to adjudicate on those who perpetrate crime of utilising child soldiers.

President Rawlings said children are not only victims of the atrocities committed during wars, but are also actual combatants conscripted by force into rebel and national armies, drugged, sexually abused and taught to kill.

"Many of our children have been lost to war either through actual fighting or through the disease and starvation that characterise conflict situations." He said child combatants are rarely to blame for the crime they are forced to commit. The use of drugs, fear and intimidation to turn them into killing machines is enough, but beyond that is the challenge of addressing the traumas they have experienced and finding ways to rehabilitate them.

"To this end, we must look to our traditions as a family, religion and community-centred cultures and seek to employ every means at our disposal to see to it that these precious lives can be saved."

President Rawlings appealed to West African countries to work collectively to put this sordid past behind them. "We must take action now to see to it that West Africa and its peoples face a future in which regional co-operation, integration and development are real and attainable goals and where our children are armed with books and pencils rather than the weapons of war."

President Rawlings called for help for the children of Sierra Leone and Liberia to enable them to recover from the horrors of war. He said support should be given to the idea of calling on parties in the conflict to observe a week of truce to enable the international community to provide relief and vaccinations to war-affected children.

"This initiative, while starting in West Africa, should aim to become a world-wide campaign." President Rawlings suggested child protection be integrated into ECOWAS and UN peacekeeping operations by training peacekeeping personnel on the rights and protection of children.

Mr Victor Gbeho, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Axworthy and Mr Kouyate, in their speeches, decried the atrocities perpetrated against children during conflicts and called for strong action to stop children being used as combatants.

Mr Gbeho said warlords who use child soldiers should be punished and added that children who took part in conflicts should be rehabilitated. Mr Axworthy said Canada would build on the experience to be gained at the conference to prepare for the global conference on war affected children to be held in Winnipeg, Canada, in September.