As UNICEF Fetes Ex-Child Soldier, Not Clear How Recruiters Are Pursued, Chad Update

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, November 20 -- As UNICEF on Tuesday named ex-child soldier Ishmael Beah its ambassador for children affected by war, questions remain about what UNICEF and its partners do after they help free or count up child soldiers, with respect to those adults who recruited the children and pressed them into service. On November 16, UNICEF announced that along with Save the Children, it helps free 232 children from the Mayi Mayi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Tuesday Inner City Press asked UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman what will be done about those who recruited the children. Ms. Veneman replied by referring to Mr. Beah's book, "A Long Way Gone," and its description of the work of reintegrating children into society. But what about those who recruited them? Mr. Beah responded that it is not as easy as it might seem in New York, that UNICEF may still want to free more children and so many need to "work with the commanders."

            In the DRC, ex-warlord Peter Karim was named, by UNICEF, as the recruiter of over 100 child soldiers. He is now a colonel in the Congolese army, recently staying in high style at the Grand Hotel in Kinshasa. What about him, Inner City Press asked. The response was that sometimes to "go after" a child soldier recruiter, even once he holds no more children hostage, would discourage other recruiters from letting other children go free. But then what does "no impunity" mean?

Mayi Mayi fighters, accountability not shown

            Inner City Press asked UNICEF's child soldier expert and Save the Children's UN representative what information was collected, and passed on, during the recent freeing of 232 child soldiers in the Congo. Answers are said to be forthcoming, and will be reported on this site.

Update: UNICEF has said that its assistance to L'Arche de Zoe, accused in Chad of kidnapping 103 or more children, is attributable to a junior international staffer who neglected to check the group's two names against a list or database of groups maintained, UNICEF said, by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. But OCHA head Sir John Holmes subsequently told Inner City Press he was not aware of any such list, and that it would be controversial to maintain one. Tuesday OCHA's spokesperson provided a follow-up answer. There are lists of group who have for example signed up to be part of the OCHA's Consolidated Appeal Process, and "Triple W" lists of who does what, where. But the OCHA spokesperson emphasized that these are not lists of "approved" groups, that it is not OCHA's role to approve groups, that is up to national governments, which whom agencies like UNICEF should check. The spokesperson explicitly discourage use of the lists or database for the purposes UNICEF has described. So what safeguards are in place to try to make sure that this doesn't happen again? The question remains, and we will continue to explore it.

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Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

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