Setting free the children of war

IMAGINE an eight-year-old child actively taking part in the Moro rebellion, either as a fighter, a runner, or a spy.

It sounds like a movie plot, but the incredible turned out to be true, as discovered in Mindanao by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the course of its “Children and Armed Conflict” campaign in the Philippines. Now on its third year in this country, the campaign seeks to dissuade all parties in armed conflicts from using minors or people below the age of 18 in armed conflict.

The Philippines is one of 22 “areas of concern” worldwide identified by UNICEF because of the use of child soldiers in conflict. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the communist New People’s Army (NPA) are on the UNICEF’s “List of Shame” for making use of minors in combat and support roles.

While absent from the list, the Philippine government is not exactly off the hook. According to Radhika Coomaraswamy, the visiting Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict, UNICEF had reminded the government of continuing violations of the rights of children. These include the recruitment of minors into the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Units (CAFGU), or the local militias, as well as the continued occupation by government soldiers of some schools in the countryside.

Coomaraswamy and UNICEF have some good news, though: Working closely with local nongovernmental groups, UNICEF representatives have been able to convince the MILF to cooperate in the campaign and sign an action plan for the phasing out of minors in the Mindanao conflict.

As part of this plan, child soldiers would be registered with the UN to make them eligible for a long-term program of reintegration and rehabilitation into normal civilian life. This program includes counseling, values education, and vocational training to allow minors to learn crafts other than warfare.

Coomaraswamy says that MILF has already registered 600 minors in the program. These 600 minors had actively taken part in the conflict in various roles. Some were frontline soldiers, while others were part of support units such as runners, porters, and lookouts. Others had even taken on the dangerous role of spies.

The youngest child to be registered is eight years old, says UNICEF Country Representative Vanessa Tobin. It’s unclear what role that child had played in the rebellion. What is clear, UNICEF officials say, is that a child has no role to play in any conflict.

Some 73 percent of the minors registered by the MILF are boys, UNICEF said. That means almost three out of every 10 are girls. Most of these boys and girls have had to stop their education because of their role in the conflict.

Coomaraswamy says she expects the number of child soldiers to be registered by the MILF to run up to “the early thousands.” Begun last August, the registration is expected to run for a period of nine months, after which the rehabilitation phase kicks in.

“Compared to two years ago, there are still cases of grave violations,” Coomaraswamy says. “But our sense is that there is a greater commitment now to do something about it, a greater willingness of the parties to move forward on the issue.”

Children of MILF rebels live with their families in a rebel camp

UNICEF officials also acknowledged the complex nature of the conflict in Mindanao that spawned the existence of these child soldiers. In some areas, the rebel camps are themselves thriving communities, where minors are literally living with their rebel parents in the middle of a potential battlefield. In that sense, the Philippine context is different from other countries where children are forced to leave their families or kidnapped by adults to fight faraway battles.

“They are not really leaving their families,” Tobin says of MILF child soldiers. “They leave their homes in the morning to join the MILF, and then go back home (at night).” Because of this, she says, Philippine child soldiers would be more in need of rehabilitation rather than reintegration.

Coomaraswamy says that the MILF will be stricken off UNICEF’s “List of Shame” once the rehabilitation process of its child soldiers is concluded.

As for the NPA, Coomaraswamy says that its political arm, the National Democratic Front, has already agreed to start developing its own action plan to remove minors from the war. She says the local communists have committed to begin discussions on an NDF action plan, adding that they appear comfortable with the action plan adopted by the MILF.

“It is the first time that we have been able to reach out to the NDF,” she says, “and I am hopeful that we will be able to sign an action plan as soon as possible.” — PCIJ, APRIL 2011