Bring them back home

An international fact-finding mission that four years ago raised the plight of child soldiers plus atrocities committed against children, hasn't so far led to an improvement in the lives of war-affected children, according to a top child activist.

"I am afraid we are yet to see concrete results from the Graca Machel report. The level of atrocities against children in many civil wars is unprecedented particularly in Sierra Leone and Uganda," says Dr Elizabeth Jareg, a Norwegian child psychiatrist and member of the Graca Machel Study Team.

"It hasn't made an impact at all on really preventing the gross atrocities and violation of children's rights all over the world," she told The Sunday Times in an interview.

Jareg, Child Development Advisor for the past 14 years at Norwegian Save the Children, was in Sri Lanka last week to visit the Norwegian group's projects in the country. She was also present at the launch in Colombo of the Sinhala and Tamil versions of her book "Reaching Children through Dialogue" which she co-authored five years ago with her husband Pal.

In 1994 Graca Machel, wife of South African President Nelson Mandela, was appointed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to study and report on the plight of children in the world, particularly that of child soldiers. Jareg was a member of the Machel team that undertook the two-year study and submitted a report in 1996 to the UN.

Annan appointed Olara Otunnu as the UN Special Representative on children and armed conflict following a recommendation in the Machel report for the creation of a special envoy on children in the UN Secretary General's office.

Otunnu, a former Ugandan foreign minister, has visited several countries including Sri Lanka and obtained pledges from government and rebel armies that children won't be recruited as soldiers.

But often these promises, particularly by rebel armies like the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, are not kept. Reports indicate that Otunnu may be planning a second round of visits to countries where the situation hasn't changed despite his mediatory efforts.

"There have been many rebel groups and governments utilizing children as soldiers. Not only as soldiers but also for all kinds of roles in military bases. The Machel report has had little impact on doing anything about these atrocities," Jareg said.

The Norwegian doctor, an advisor for Norwegian Save the Children programmes across the world particularly in the field of psychosocial assistance to children affected by armed conflict, said there were many disturbing issues that came out in the Machel study.

"There were many things. But I think the level of atrocities against children and the types of atrocities directed against children was very alarming. The hopelessness of the international community to stop these happening was also sad," she said.

Among other issues of concern were the continued recruitment of children to war and the despair of young children or adolescents being unable to see what the future held for them.

"These three things, to my mind, came out poignantly in the study - atrocities against children, child soldiers and the despair of young children growing up in conflict areas," she said.

"The despair of the young - that was very striking. Unfortunately though we can go to the moon and fulfill many other (impossible) things, we just can't prevent abominable atrocities against children."

Earlier this month, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, an international alliance of NGOs, criticized the UN Security Council for paying only lip service to the cause of children caught up in global conflicts.

"Words alone are not going to help the 300,000 children now serving in combat around the world," Jo Becker of the Coalition was quoted as saying. "We are looking for concrete action."

The coalition spokesman was reacting to a Security Council resolution that urged all parties to armed conflicts to abide by concrete commitments they have made to ensure the protection of children.

The resolution, adopted two weeks ago by the 15-member strong council, called on combatants to take special measures to protect children and also take into account the rights of children during peace negotiations.

UN sources say that Otunnu is planning a second visit to war-affected countries including Sri Lanka where the LTTE have failed to honour a promise to the UN to keep children below 17 years off the battlefield.

The NGO coalition that includes Quakers, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the British-based International Save the Children Alliance, has expressed disappointment that the UN council failed to call for stronger measures to stop the use of child soldiers.

"Existing international standards prohibiting the use of child soldiers simply aren't good enough," Becker was quoted as saying.

Referring to traumatised children in conflict areas, Jareg said that very often events that happen after the loss of parents can be bad or even worse than the loss.

"Children being put into institutions to be taken care of by people who are either not trained to care for children or don't care at all, or exploitation of children are disturbing issues. We have come across a lot of cases of children who suffer from the secondary effects of traumatic events, which affect their lives in the long term," she said.

Jareg said the International Save the Children Alliance of which Norwegian Save the Children and other similar groups in 24 countries are members, has created a greater awareness of children's rights through conferences, workshops and field programmes.

But despite a growing awareness of children's rights and children themselves pushing for these rights, continuing wars and armed conflict hindered implementation of children rights, she added.

Jareg said school dropouts in conflict areas were a problem while a whole generation of children was likely to be socially and economically marginalized.

"One of the problems of armed conflict is that many, many children either drop out of school or have access to very poor education," she noted.

Jareg said the Machel study group disbanded after the report was submitted in 1996 but the International Save the Children Alliance has set up its own Children in Armed Conflict group which is trying to find ways of promoting the recommendations of the Machel study.

"There are a lot of other children's organizations that are doing this. A lot of networking goes on."

Suicides and alcoholism are on the rise in conflict areas as people struggle to cope with violence, says Jareg. "There is a slow spiral of deprivation and desperation. The most tragic thing is that all these young minds are wasted. It is a terrible loss for a country."

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