Colombia senator calls on FARC to release child soldiers

[Bacchus4.0]

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/peace-talks/27463-colombia-senator-calls-on-farc-to-release-child-soldiers.html


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Green Party Senator Gilma Jimenez called on the four guarantor countries in the peace process to intervene and raise the issue of children soldiers.

"If the FARC do not return the children recruited, i.e. abducted for war, the [peace] process is illegal, unlawful, unethical and immoral," said Jimenez.

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Jimenez asked for the talks to include the topic of the return of all minors recruited by the FARC as a "legal and ethical imperative," telling the Colombian congress, "Do not forget the children in the jungle."

The FARC have been known to 'recruit' -- often by abduction -- child soldiers, an act considered a war crime under international law. They also reportedly go into schools and bribe children into joining them.

[Bacchus4.0]

1. story on child soldiers in Colombia, has a video too

http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/15/horrific-use-of-child-soldiers-rising-in-colombia-report-finds/


Horrific use of child soldiers rising in Colombia, report finds

Sara Morales is in her early 20s, but already, she says, she's been to hell and back. The Colombian woman who lives in Bogota says she was forcibly recruited by the main guerrilla group in her country when she was just a young girl.

"When I was only 11 years-old I was raped by FARC guerrillas and for 11 years I was abused and exploited by them," Morales said.

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Stories about children kidnapped or forcibly recruited by guerrilla groups came back into focus in 2006 when the Colombian government released a video confiscated during an army raid. The video showed squads of young kids being trained as guerrilla warriors in the middle of the jungle.


A recent study suggests that in the years after the video was released, armed groups, including paramilitaries, guerrillas and drug cartels, have not only continued recruiting children, but have increased the number of minors in their ranks in a dramatic way.

The study called "Like Lambs Among Wolves" was authored by Natalia Springer, the dean of the law school at Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano in Bogota, Colombia. Springer, who's also a political analyst and a human rights activist, has found that in the last four years, 18,000 children have been forced to join guerrilla groups and paramilitaries in Colombia.