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Media Statement, 26th June 2006
GOAL has demanded that the plight of thousands of child soldiers
in
Uganda be the focus at the small arms and light weapons conference
in
New York this week.
Up to 5,000 children still serve in the Ugandan armed forces -
even
though they are officially banned from enlisting - and the rebel
Lord's
Resistance Army (LRA) has up to 25,000 children in its ranks, who
make
up 80% of the terrorist insurgency movement.
The abuse of arms is fueling the conflict in northern Uganda,
aggravating poverty and violation of human rights, where GOAL supports
184,000 vulnerable people displaced in six camps.
In a statement, GOAL's John O'Shea said:
"These child fighters have been traumatised by the horrors
they have
witnessed, committed and are subjected to."
Despite Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's promise to reinforce
measures against the recruitment of children and their use in armed
conflict, this clearly has not happened.
"This week's UN conference offers a vital opportunity for
the
international community to force the Museveni government to agree
to a
set of global principles on arms."
"It is a moral outrage that the world is doing so little for
these child
victims of the war," O'Shea adds.
Two decades of war have devastated the north and uprooted more
than 1.9
million people causing, what the UN has dubbed "one of the
world's worst
and most neglected humanitarian crisis". Over 41%of children
in the
camps have seriously stunted growth and two generations have been
deprived of education, according to the United Nations.
The Small Arms Review Conference, from June 26 to July 7, will
draw some
2,000 representatives from governments and civil society to see
how
effective the arms ban had been.
Child soldiers are also found in Burundi, Somalia, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Chad, Sudan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar
and Colombia, with most linked to militia groups.
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