Fewer children go to war, but problem lingers

LONDON-The number of children forced to fight wars around the world has fallen but a hardcore of governments, rebels and armed groups are resisting pressure to stop using underage soldiers, a report said on Tuesday.The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers said the number of conflicts in which children were forced to fight totaled 17 in 2007, down from 27 in its last report in 2004.The coalition said firm figures were impossible to produce but it was clear there were tens of thousands of child soldiers.Many were released after a string of wars, particularly in West Africa from Liberia to Sierra Leone. But nine governments kept using children in their armies, it said.Myanmar-currently under fire over its human rights record and reluctance to allow in aid workers after a cyclone-was the most persistent offender, the coalition said.Children were also used by government forces in Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and Sudan as well as Uganda and Yemen."Child soldiers are ideal because they don't complain, they don't expect to be paid and if you tell them to kill, they kill," the report quoted a senior Chad army officer as saying.In 14 countries, children were recruited into armed groups linked to the government, for example in Sri Lanka where breakaway ex-Tamil Tigers were seen as government proxies fighting the mainstream rebels.
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As in the days of Noah....