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| April 26, 2001 |
| April 26, 2001 |
Middle East Tackles Child Soldiers
Rachel Stohl, Senior Analyst, rstohl@cdi.org
In the last few years, the issue of child soldiers has gained increased attention and growing international action. Today, experts estimate that there are over 300,000 children participating in conflicts around the globe. All areas of the world are affected by the use of children as soldiers.
The Middle East and North Africa are not immune from this phenomenon. In recent decades children have been used in large numbers during the civil war in Lebanon and the Iran-Iraq war. While the "large-scale" use of children in the Middle East and North Africa has declined, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers believes that "thousands of children, some as young as 10 are serving with armed groups in the Middle East and North Africa." In fact, children are still involved in fighting in Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, Turkey, and Yemen. In addition, experts report that many countries in the region "include military drill and indoctrination as part of regular school programs."
To address the use of children as soldiers in the Middle East and North Africa, over 100 senior government and military officials, UN child-rights experts, and representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) participated in the April 8-10 Conference on the Use of Children as Soldiers in Amman, Jordan. Participants relied heavily on the expertise of NGOs from the region as they examined the use of child soldiers throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
The conference, organized by the Coalition, the Jordan Institute for Diplomacy, and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), was held under the patronage of Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan. The Coalition had organized four previous regional conferences, one on Africa in Maputo, Mozambique, one on Latin America in Montevideo, Uruguay, one on Europe in Berlin, Germany, and one on Asia in Kathmandu, Nepal. (For more information about these conferences, please see "Africa Reacts to Child Soldiers Problem," Weekly Defense Monitor, April 29, 1999, "Latin American Conference Addresses Child Soldiers," Weekly Defense Monitor, July 15, 1999, "Europeans Act on Child Soldiers Issue," Weekly Defense Monitor, October 28, 1999, and "Child Soldiers Conference Held in Asia," Weekly Defense Monitor, May 25, 2000.) The Conference also served as the launch of the Coalition's report on child soldiers in the Middle East/North Africa region.
The current hostilities between Palestine and Israel served as a backdrop for many of the Conference discussions. But the Coalition reported that "it has no evidence of children being recruited or used systematically by the Palestinian Authority or armed groups" in the intifada. Further, the Coalition has estimated that "less than 1% of Palestinian adolescents have played an active role in clashes with Israeli troops."
"The country of greatest concern in the region is Sudan, where both the government and rebel Southern People's Liberation Army (SPLA) continue to use large numbers of child soldiers," said Jo Becker of Human Rights Watch who attended the conference. "In addition, the Sudanese government provides support for the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) which is responsible for abducting more than 10,000 children from Northern Uganda for use as child soldiers," she added. On a more positive note, more than 3,000 children were recently demobilized from the SPLA with the support of the UNICEF (For more information see, "Child Soldiers Released in Sudan, Still no U.S. Action," Weekly Defense Monitor, March 1, 2001.)
At the end of the Conference, delegates issued "The Amman Declaration" to ensure, in the words of the Coalition, that "never again should present and future generations be allowed to serve as child soldiers or [be] exploited in armed conflicts." The Declaration urges all actors to "join the global consensus to ban the use children as soldiers." Key provisions of the Declaration are: "Armed forces and armed groups to end the recruitment and use of children under 18, including girls, and immediately demobilize or release into safety children already being used as soldiers; States, including those outside the region, not to supply small arms or light weapons to all those who use child soldiers and to publicly condemn the exploitation of children in armed conflict; States to ensure special protection of all child detainees, child participants in armed conflict or civil strife, and children living under occupation; Governments to provide adequate resources to ensure the physical and psycho-social rehabilitation and effective reintegration into society of demobilized soldiers recruited as children." Further, all states were encouraged to sign and ratify the Optional Protocol to Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict before the UN Special Session on Children in September.
Given the ongoing tensions throughout the Middle East and North Africa, the Conference served as an important unifier for the region. Governments, militaries, and NGOs all were able to come together around a common principle -- to protect society's most vulnerable members, children. The commitments made to these children should be honored and their rights protected, regardless of the political differences in the region.
Bush's 100 Days: Low Marks on Europe
Tomas Valasek, Senior Analyst, tvalasek@cdi.org
The art of diplomacy is a combination of substance and style. What one lacks in the former can be compensated by the latter and vice versa. But when a country falls short on both substance and style, relationships crack and break. Such is the case with U.S. policy toward Europe during the first 100 days of President Bush's administration.
First, style. U.S.-European relations in the Bush era got off to an inauspicious start with the U.S. decision in March to withdraw from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Environmental issues play a far more prominent role in European politics where many Green parties wield the power to make or break governments. To say that the U.S. withdrawal from the Kyoto agreement has caused resentment in Europe would be an understatement. The conservative and normally pro-U.S. Daily Telegraph newspaper described the decision as "at best extremely tactless of Mr. Bush -- and insulting to America's fellow-signatories of the protocol." The left-of-center newspapers were not nearly as kind as The Telegraph.
The substantive issues were not lost on European leaders -- many reflected that the United States, the world's biggest producer of greenhouse gases, would have been hard-pressed to meet the Kyoto Protocol limits and that the treaty would probably had to have been changed anyway. But the method and timing of the U.S. decision caused sufficient outrage in Europe to erase the will to grant the United States any special consideration. President Bush withdrew from the Kyoto Protocols with no prior warning and just before meeting with arguably the most environmentally active of European leaders, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Not only do Schroeder's Social Democrats rule in coalition with the Green Party, Germany is also scheduled to host the next climate conference in July.
The Kyoto Protocol spat set a tone which made all subsequent U.S.-European debate inherently more difficult. In the security realm, the United States and the European allies remain divided over U.S. missile defense plans and their impact on the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty. Bush diffused one source of objections to NMD by dropping the word "national" from National Missile Defense and inviting allied participation. But tensions over missile defense will likely flare up again when, as expected, Washington withdraws from the ABM treaty to clear way for NMD deployment.
A vast majority of European countries would like to see the ABM treaty preserved. They refrained from confronting the United States over this issue so as not to provoke a rash action on Washington's part and to deny Russia the possibility of exploiting a U.S.-European rift. The European strategy on NMD consisted of delaying issuance of a final opinion on the matter (aware that the technology for such system has yet to be developed) and pressing for the best possible U.S.-Russian deal on ABM. If Bush abrogates the treaty, as Washington rumors say he plans to do soon, the delicate truce with Europe on NMD will be blown to pieces.
What does it matter, one might ask, what Europe thinks of missile defense and the environment? For one, the United States may lose some of its ability to shape and control events around the world. Already the European Union is eyeing opportunities created by the reduction of U.S. global diplomatic and military presence. When President Bush called off talks with North Korea about its nuclear program, the EU sent in a delegation to negotiate. The European Union is about to intervene against Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, traditionally a domain of U.S. diplomatic efforts. However, one may argue that the United States is already overextended and therefore weaker. A more active involvement of the EU may actually come as a relief to the United States.
There is a risk that the next time the Washington confronts a crisis in the Middle East or elsewhere, the European allies will be reluctant to lend political support and military aid. Then again, the United States and Europe are still much closer to each other ideologically and politically than to any other state or group of states or political system. Where core values and ideas are in danger, they are more likely to put aside their differences than to let others exploit them.
Perhaps the greatest danger lies in the possibility that a European withdrawal of support could start a cycle of alienation and isolation in the United States. As the British shadow Foreign Secretary Francis Maude of the Conservative Party warned recently, anti-American feelings in Europe could "drive the United States into the chill embrace of isolationism." It takes goodwill to work out differences among allies and resist the temptation to exploit the argument for domestic political gain. During the first 100 days of President Bush in the office, this reservoir of goodwill in Europe has dropped to dangerously low levels. As Europe reacts -- and sometimes overreacts -- to other contentious decisions in Washington, attitudes in Congress and the White House harden. A cycle begins that threatens to take the United States into confrontation with its allies and into isolation.
UK Army To Ax Regiments -- Recruitment shortfalls may force the British Army to cut 10 infantry and armored regiments, the Daily Telegraph (U.K.) reports. If confirmed, the Army will fall short of its plans to boost manpower from 100,000 to 108,000 by 2005. The opposition Conservative Party seized on the issue to accuse the ruling Labor of failing to live up to Britain's NATO and European Union (EU) commitments. The United Kingdom is to contribute 12,000 troops to the planned EU Rapid Reaction Force, scheduled to be deployed by 2005.
Fatal Kuwait Bombing Blamed on Pilot Error -- According to a New York Times report, an unreleased Pentagon report is blaming pilot error for last month's fatal training exercise in which a Navy F/A-18 pilot mistakenly bombed an observation post, killing five U.S. servicemen and a New Zealand army officer. According to the Pentagon, the pilot mistook the observation post for the target. The report also places some of the responsibility on ground controllers who cleared the pilot to drop his bombs without realizing until too late that the target had been misidentified.
Puerto Rico Files Vieques Lawsuit -- The government of Puerto Rico filed a federal lawsuit this week to prevent the U.S. navy from conducting training exercises at the Vieques bombing range. Currently the Navy is required to give Puerto Rico 15 days notice before it conducts any exercises at the range, which it did on April 11. The lawsuit alleges that the training exercises, which currently are limited to inert weapons and not live ammunition, violate bout the 1972 Noise Control Act and a newly passed Puerto Rican law which sets noise limits for beaches and the surrounding waters. Puerto Rico adopted the new law earlier this week in anticipation of the Navy exercises.
UAV Reaches Australia -- A U.S. Air Force Global Haw unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) became the first unmanned powered aircraft to cross the Pacific Ocean. The UAV took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California, landing at Edinburgh Air Force Base in Australia. The 7,500 mile flight took just under twenty-four hours. Two controllers were involved in the flight, one in the United States, who handed off control of the aircraft to another controller in Australia about an hour and a half into the flight. While in Australia, the UAV will participate in the annual joint U.S.-Australian military training exercise "Tandem Thrust."
This Week on America's Defense Monitor: "Light Weapons, Heavy
Casualties"
The vast majority of today's wars are started and fought with small arms and light weaponry. Cheap, portable, easy to use, and widely available, small arms are responsible for 90 percent of conflict-related deaths since World War II. Now there is a growing international movement to limit the spread of these weapons, even as the U.S. government gives assault rifles to nations with unstable governments.
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