ColombiaFARC to free last child soldiers
The FARC, Colombia’s largest rebel group, has said it will release all child soldiers under 15 years of age, thus ending an especially poignant chapter in the country’s 5-decade conflict. The FARC announcement comes as the negotiations between the rebel group and the Colombian government are continuing in Havana under the auspices of the UN. FARC made extensive use of children between 8 and 16 – what the organization called “pisa suaves” – to sneak into military camps, police stations, and other government facilities to set bombs and other types of booby traps.
Child soldiers in formation // Source: af.mil
The FARC, Colombia’slargest rebel group, has said it will release all child soldiers under 15 years of age, thus ending an especially poignant chapter in the country’s 5-decade conflict.
The FARC announcement comes as the negotiations between the rebel group and the Colombian government are continuing in Havana under the auspices of the UN.
The Bogota City Paper reports that it is not know how many child soldiers are stillserving in FARC ranks. The UN says that since 1999, the insurgents have freed almost 6,000 child soldiers, and that currently there are only 348 left. FARC says it has stopped recruiting child soldiers and that it has only fifteen fighters under the age of 15 still in service.
President Juan Manuel Santos announced the agreement on Sunday, posting this Twitter message: “Logramos histórico acuerdo en La Habana para sacar a los niños de la Guerra.”
“One of the biggest horrors of a conflict is when we drag our children and young people into combat,” said Humberto de la Calle, a chief government negotiator.
Since 2012 the government has been negotiating with the FARC in an effort to end the conflict, which began in the early 1960s, killing more than 220,000 people and forcing about six millions from their homes.
“It’s for this reason that this agreement is a crucial advance in the process of bringing this war to a close,” de la Calle said.
The agreement calls for the FARC and the government to determine an immediate “exit” for those under 15 years of age and develop a “road map for an exit for the remaining minors,” those between 15 and 18. FARC made extensive use of children between 8 and 16 – what the organization called “pisa suaves” – to sneak into military camps, police stations, and other government facilities to set bombs and other types of booby traps.
Dr. Shelly Whitman, executive director of the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, welcomed the move by Colombia to prioritize child soldiers in the peace agreement.
“Colombia is thelast place in the Americas to use child soldiers, so it is something the whole country recognises as a big issue,” she told the Telegraph.
“And credit must be given to the government, who have a national two-year rehabilitation program for child soldiers which I believe is the most comprehensive in the world.”
She cautioned, though, that the government will now have to be careful that the children do not fall prey to drug cartels, “and go from one deadly situation to another.”
