PRESS BRIEFING ON CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING ON CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT

The continued use of children in hostilities and a growth in the numbers of children being displaced were among the greatest concerns in the arena of his work, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, said in a Headquarters press briefing on Wednesday.

Addressing the press after introducing his first report to the General Assembly, Mr. Otunnu said the continued use of children in hostilities was, in fact, a growing phenomenon, with the estimate of the number of children under arms growing from about 250,000 some two or three years ago to 300,000 today. It was also estimated that more than half of all those displaced either as refugees or within their own countries were children.

The issue of sexual abuse in the context of children in armed conflict situations also remained of major concern, Mr. Otunnu said. Of particular interest was the connection between the availability of small arms and the victimization of women and children, an issue he would explore further. Also, a phenomenon of particular concern was the situation where an "ethical vacuum" existed, meaning a situation in which international instruments were being ignored in theatres of conflict and where local value systems no longer held sway.

For that reason, he said, his appeals to concerned governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) had been for them to provide political support for the agenda of protecting children in situations of armed conflict. He had emphasized that political support meant they should be prepared to use their "diplomatic, political capital" in favour of defending children being abused in situations of armed conflict and to bring collective pressure to bear on the abusers.

His appeals had also stressed the need for governments and NGOs to follow up and make sure that initiatives were implemented, Mr. Otunnu continued. He had asked the parties to whom he had appealed to let people know that they cared about implementing initiatives, to let them know in their personal dealings that it made a difference to have the implementation carried out, since he himself had no power, but they had influence. "I am calling on them to use that influence in favour of enforcing the initiatives I set down on the ground", he said.

In addition, Mr. Otunnu said he had included in his report the importance of the Security Council's active engagement in the protection of children in armed conflict, as it had done in its debate on the matter, which had resulted in a presidential statement. He had recommended that the commitment made in the presidential statement be used to inform subsequent action in specific situations, decisions and mandates.

He had made very specific recommendations, Mr. Otunnu said, with regard to the impact of sanctions on children in armed conflict situations, including by calling on the Security Council to reveal the negative impact of sanctions on Iraqi children. He had also called for a similar review of the present sanctions regime in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in particular, bearing in mind the impact with regard to children's health, nutrition and education. To interested parties, namely, neighbouring countries in eastern Africa, he had also recommended a review of the sanctions regime in Burundi.

To the key actors responsible for planning post-conflict programmes, such as the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), he had recommended that the women and children who had been exposed to conflict be placed in the centre of planning. In that context, he stressed the recommendation made in the report with regard to Sierra Leone, which had now been accepted. Sierra Leone would become a pilot project involving concentrated political and resource mobilization. He called on the international community to pull together and provide much-needed assistance to the Economic Community of West African States' Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG).

In the report, Mr. Otunnu said, he had underscored the need for regional initiatives and had described two symposia, one held in June and another to be held in November. He had also stressed the need for neighbourhood initiatives to address cross-border issues in such situations as those involving the abduction of children, the availability and use of landmines, and the flow of small arms. The aim of the initiatives would centre on collective measures for protecting children.

He was very pleased with the outcome of the Statute of the new International Criminal Court, Mr. Otunnu said. He cited, in particular, the designation as "crimes against humanity" such actions as rape and the targeting of sites where children had a high presence in situations of conflict, as well as the recruitment of children having been designated as a war crime. While protection of children in armed conflict situations could not wait for ratification of the Court, it was an important tool that added to the other important one, the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Mr. Otunnu said he had been heartened at the engagement of the NGO community in his mandate, which had occurred in three major ways. The first area, in which they had been responsive, was in advocacy at both the national and international levels, such as the way three major coalitions had become active in such areas as banning the use of children in armed conflict. They had also responded to his appeal that they become more focused in their programming on the protection of children in armed conflict situations, and to become informed, objective sources of information for advancing that mandate.

Finally, the Special Representative said he had been asked yesterday in the General Assembly, "How can you be sure that any of the pressure you are bringing to bear on those who abuse children will have effect?" The answer,

Otunnu Briefing - 3 - 22 October 1998

he said, was the interdependence of the world. There was no theatre of conflict that was an island unto itself. They all depended on the broad international community for the flow of arms and the flow of hard cash, whether from their religious or political allies or from large corporations surreptitiously buying their gold or diamonds.

"They long for good copy in your publications", Mr. Otunnu said. "They long for the conferring of political recognition and diplomatic legitimacy. They want to be Mr. Prime Minister or Mr. President tomorrow." In a word, there were critical linkages between the outside world and theatres of conflict, but until now those linkages had not been pressed to full advantage in favour of protecting children. "We have the means and we must mobilize them. I saw it done in Kosovo, and it can be done elsewhere."

Asked about the responses to his appeals of parties such as governments or others in conflict, Mr. Otunnu said he had been very encouraged in the countries he had visited by the fact that a number of parties had been prepared to make public commitments. Those had been in regard to the recruitment and use of children, the use of landmines, access to populations in distress, most of whom were children, and the issue of the targeting of civilian populations. Those were the issues about which parties in conflict were typically ready to make public commitments.

After every visit, Mr. Otunnu said, he had made it a point to go very public with the commitments that had been made. The system of follow-up now had to be put into place. Those who were diplomatically and politically influential now had to follow through and reinforce the message to the parties in conflict. They had to make it clear that it mattered to them whether those commitments were honoured or not.

Asked about the children fighting in the oil-well camps in Sierra Leone, Mr. Otunnu said he made it his business to talk to any entity whose actions had an impact on children, regardless of their juridical status. He hoped to make contact with the rebels in Sierra Leone, but had been unable to do so on the ground and had, thus, seen only the impact of their work in the mutilations of civilian populations, especially of children. The rebel leader had appealed for his forces to discontinue such actions, but they had continued. Finding points of influence whereby the rebels could be pressured to stop the practices were high on the mandate's agenda.

In response to a question on whether he knew of children being executed in Sierra Leone, Mr. Otunnu said he did not. In response to another question, Mr. Otunnu clarified the situations he had referred to with regard to sanctions regimes he had recommended to be reviewed.

Since the international community was having a difficult time mobilizing 800 observers for Kosovo, a correspondent said, what good would it do to review the sanctions there?

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Mr. Otunnu said it was important to make the distinction between political and humanitarian actions. The political mobilization was beginning to emerge. He wanted to see a three-pronged course of action on the part of the international community. One, it should right now increase the level of resources being made available to the agencies on the ground. Second, it was absolutely imperative to create the conditions enabling the return to their homes of those who had been displaced.

Those conditions would be created by the government guaranteeing security, he said, which required monitors on the ground, a step that was happening. That would lead to the third element in the three-pronged course -- a ceasefire and political discussions to address the underlying elements in the conflict.

Upon saying that, in his view, it was happening very quickly, a correspondent questioned Mr. Otunnu's assessment of the speed of developments in Kosovo. "Relative to other situations, it is happening very quickly", he said, adding that, when he had been in Kosovo three weeks before, there had been no signs of the political pressures and developments now occurring.

Did the interlinkages in the global world today contribute to political pressure on parties in conflict or did they actually impede settlement, due to agitation by outsiders with vested interests? a correspondent asked. "It plays both ways", Mr. Otunnu said, adding that there were transnational corporations benefiting from situations of chaos or in the situation of neighbours supplying arms and soldiers in conflict situations. But, if one could mobilize international efforts to lean on the parties in conflict, then, the opposite situation would occur.

Asked about situations of States in warring areas recruiting children in their own territories for fighting in neighbouring wars, Mr. Otunnu said, "the recruitment process now pays no respect to borders". What was known for certain, he added, was that, whether by recruitment or abduction, cross-border activity was increasing.

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