A bill signed into law by USA President George Bush on Friday last week has raised apprehension among Uganda army senior officers as it has paved way for their arrest and subsequent trial in USA for recruiting child soldiers.
Although signed in the USA, the Child Soldiers' Accountability Act of 2008 covers all countries whose armies have at times used child soldiers in wars between 2004 and 2007. The UN and Human Rights Watch cites such countries as including Uganda, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Somalia and Sudan.
The law would also affect the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) some of whose commanders have been blacklisted by the US government as a terrorist group and wanted by ICC for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Monitor newspaper in Uganda has quoted a statement by Human Rights Watch as saying that the LRA has abducted more than 25,000 children over the past 20 years and used them as soldiers, labourers, and sexual slaves. According to the new law it is a crime to recruit or to use soldiers under the age of 15 and permits the United States to prosecute any individual on US soil for the offence, even if the children were recruited or served as soldiers outside the United States. And those found guilty may serve up to 20 years in prison and should that recruitment result into the death the child ten the culprit may spend the whole life in prison.
The new legislation does not specify the ranks of officers who may me tried but it is deemed that all those responsible for recruiting new combatants fall under the jurisdiction of the law. Individuals found guilty of the offence may by law be deported to the USA or be denied entry into the country.
No officer from the UPDF has ever been charged with the recruitment and use of child soldiers but UN Secretary General’s reports presented to the Security Council between 2003 and 2006 cited the LRA and UPDF as among groups that have violated the international law prohibiting the recruitment and use of child soldiers.
The reports say more than 1,000 children were mobilised into local defence units in Kitgum, Pader and parts of Teso region in 2004, and are yet to be released.
A Child Soldiers Report published this year also says that the UPDF continued to hold children captured from the LRA for longer than the 48-hour limit specified by UPDF regulations, and to use them for intelligence-gathering or to identify weapons caches. The report was prepared by the Coalition to stop the use of Child Soldiers, a London-based organization. It further notes that in 2005, children who escaped or were captured or released from the LRA were reportedly pressured by the UPDF to join their forces and fight the LRA.
Reacting to the allegations of the UPDF involvement in recruiting and using child soldiers, Defence State Minister Ruth Nankabirwa said that army officers have no cause to worry as no one has ascertained that the army recruits child soldiers, dismissing the accusations by the international bodies as unfounded.
“We have challenged our accusers to come and see for themselves if there are child soldiers in our army but they have failed to show up, " the Minister told the monitor. She also dismissed the contents of the report as false.
ENDS