UNITED
NATIONS, July
22 -- In
Syria, the UN
has listed as
child soldier
recruiters the
government and
the Free
Syrian Army,
but not the Al
Nusra Front.
Inner City
Press on Monday
asked the UN's
envoy on the
topic
Leila
Zerrougui if
Nusra is viewed
as part of the
FSA, or if the
list
is lagging
behind.
The
latter, she
said: the list
was only
through the
end of 2012,
when she
said Nabhat Al
Nusra was only
becoming
known. "The
role of al
Nusra was
coming at the
end of 2012,"
she said. Now
they could
be listed.
Inner
City Press
asked asked
her about any
demobilizations
of child
soldiers. She
distinguished
between those
children who
join
"voluntarily,"
with
involvement of
their family,
from those
who do not.
"Demobilization
means
children are
outside their
family," she
said. "We
have to
convince the
commanders
that they
won't have an
interest, if
they want to
have a future,
to use
children."
"Recruiting
children
is a war
crimes," she
concluded.
But
what then of
the Congolese
Army units
listed, even
in the new Group
of Experts
report the
full text of
which
Inner City
Press exclusively
put online in
June, as
recruiting
children?
Inner City
Press read two
of them out:
FARDC’s 1032nd
Battalion and
812th Regiment,
right from Paragraphs
149 and 150 of
the GoE report.
What will
Zerrougui and
her Office do?
It
is not even
clear that
the Department
of
Peacekeeping
Operations
under Herve
Ladsous has
suspended
support to
these units,
much less
ensured any
prosecution
for war
crimes.
As
pointed
out with
regard to the
391st
Battalion,
which moved
from
rape, still
with UN
support,
to desecration
of bodies, Ladsous's
DPKO
has made a
mockery of Ban
Ki-moon's
supposed Human
Rights Due
Diligence
Policy.
Watch this
site.
, 
