Press Conference on Sudan by Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict

According to an agreement with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the United Nations would be able to conduct surprise visits to SPLA camps in Sudan to verify the presence of child soldiers, said Radhika Coomaraswamy, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, who added that such dialogue might begin for similar action plans with other participants in the Darfur peace process.

Addressing correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon, Ms. Coomaraswamy -- just back from a 15 to 22 November trip to the Sudan which had covered Khartoum, North Darfur, West Darfur, Juba, Yambio and Bor -- said the action plan signed by SPLA would provide for the release of child soldiers in Juba on 20 November, and would allow access to SPLA military centres and training camps by the United Nations to verify releases.  The action plan also provided for their reintegration, to be undertaken by the Sudanese Government and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

She said signatories to the Darfur peace process, such as SLA/Free Will, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM)/Peace wing and SLA/Abu Ghasim, had agreed to start discussions on their own action plans, while Minni Minawi, a prominent leader of the Sudan Liberation Army, had agreed to open his camp for inspection by the United Nations.  At a camp belonging to the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) in Yambio, near the Congolese border, she had discussed with the Army Chief of Staff the possibility of developing a protocol for the release of children captured from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) to the Ministry of Welfare and UNICEF.

The Government of Sudan had itself expressed a willingness to discuss a plan, she added, which would eventually remove them from the Secretary-General’s list.  That list, submitted annually to the Security Council, contained names of parties that recruited and used child soldiers, and presently encompassed nearly all parties in Sudan -- including both signatories and non-signatories of various peace accords, as well as the Government.

The United Nations had also obtained commitment from religious leaders in Darfur to use their Friday sermons to aid in the campaign against child soldiers, involving as many as 800 mosques, she said.

“There seems to be an acceptance of international standards across a large cross section of people, both in Government and outside, and a willingness to talk about these problems,” said Ms. Coomaraswamy, who had last visited the country in 2007.  “Two years ago when I went, one couldn’t talk about those issues.”

“Even within the armed forces of Sudan, there is now a child protection unit, whose purpose is to ensure that children are not recruited,” she said.  Under the agreement signed by SPLA, children would be handed over to the United Nations under a scheme involving the Office of the Special Representative, UNICEF and the Sudanese Government. 

Most children associated with that rebel group were orphans unwanted by their family who had sought refuge with SPLA -- the only institution, in Ms. Coomaraswamy’s words, in Southern Sudan with a presence.  In signing the agreement, she said SPLA commanders had sought assurance from her that former child soldiers would not be become street children or, worse, criminals.  “Being the only institution in Southern Sudan that really functions with some coherence, it attracts a lot of children.  There are a lot of children just hanging about SPLA.”

She added: “[The action plan] puts a big burden not only on us, but on the Government,” explaining that her office must now work with UNICEF to raise funds to successfully reintegrate the released children into society through robust programmes.

Exactly how many child soldiers fought with SPLA was unknown, she said.  At the time of the signing of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the number of child combatants in SPLA was said to be around 12,000.  A report by the United Nations Secretary-General, however, placed that number at 101.  The difficulty lay in knowing whether children were actually taking arms or were otherwise employed, such as in domestic service to the soldiers or other activities.

There seemed to be a commitment to give up the use of children in SPLA-controlled regions of Southern Sudan, where there was an active disarmament, demobilization and reintegration commission, she said.  In contrast, the number of child recruits in other armed movements, such as JEM, the Janjaweed and Chadian armed forces, were said to be very large, and there was active recruitment in Darfur by such groups.

Part of her goals during the visit had been to obtain a stay of execution for six child soldiers affiliated with JEM, who had recently been sentenced to death.  She said their average ages were likely between 14 and 18 years, which, according to international law, classed them as children.  And while a military panel had ruled that four of those soldiers were adults at the time of their crime -- a finding which UNICEF and others had contested -- Sudan’s Minister of Justice had assured her that the six would not be executed, even if sentenced to death row.

In that connection, one journalist asked about the trial of Omar Khadr, a Guantanamo Bay detainee who would soon face trial for allegedly killing an American soldier when he was 15.  Ms. Coomaraswamy said the United Nations position on that issue was that he had been a juvenile at the time, and should be tried through an alternative process, as was the practice in Sierra Leone in cases involving child murderers.

“There may be something I don’t understand within the terrorism framework on why that discretion was not being used,” she said.  “During the trial […] once we see the documents, we can see what legal framework was being applied.”

When asked why it was not illegal for children to attend military school, she explained that, by a quirk of international law, children younger than 18 years could legally attend military schools if run by States, as long as they were not involved in front line combat.  But the rule did not cover non-State actors, because all their operations, including training camps, were considered by definition to be “in the field” and could not be categorized the same way as State-run military academies.

Ms. Coomaraswamy also fielded questions relating to protection of civilians in areas controlled by LRA.  Humanitarian actors in the region had requested that the United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS) and the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) strengthen its “protection of civilians” mandate.  They had also called for the United Nations to step up its regional effort to control LRA.  She had learned through various sources that LRA were moving through the Central African Republic towards the border of South Darfur, where they would have access to arms.

She also told correspondents that her office was examining the situation in a rebel stronghold in northern Yemen, where anecdotal -- and unverified -- reports from humanitarian workers suggested that large numbers of children were being used by both Government and non-Government forces.  Her office would decide on the appropriate action, pending evidence.

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For information media • not an official record