UN
Leaves
Child Soldiers
in Syria &
Jonglei
Unaddressed,
In Myanmar
Counts on Ban
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 26 -- In
slaughter in
South Sudan's
Jonglei State
at
the beginning
of the year
was carried
out, not
insubstantially,
by
Lou Nuer
children
against Murle
tribespeople
of all ages.
But when
the UN's Child
Soldiers
expert
Radkhika
Coomarswamy
recently
visited
South Sudan,
she was not
permitted to
travel to
Jonglei.
Inner
City Press
asked her, and
she said it
was because of
the
disarmament
that has
started. She
called what
happened, most
notably at
Pibor where
hundreds were
killed
although the
UN has not
issued a
count, a
"community
mobilization."
She said that
the this
tribal
conflict was
being watched
to see if "a
structure
making it an
armed group"
emerged. This
may show a
need to modify
this UN
Office's
mandate, when
it cannot
address
obvious cases
of child
soldiering.
Likewise
earlier
in March Inner
City Press
sent to
Coomaraswamy
at her Office
a
picture
from the March
3 New York
Times, of an
obviously
under-aged
fighter with
the Free
Syrian Army.
Coomaraswamy
finally
commented on
it, when asked
again by Inner
City Press on
March 26, and
said that
she, the UN
has "received
allegations"
of the
recruitment
of child
soldiers by
the Free
Syrian Army.
But
what is being
done about
it? For
example, Paulo
Pinheiro of
the
International
Commission of
Inquiry on
Syria has not
mentioned it.
Pinheiro told
Inner City
Press it
is "not
useful" to
compare, even
on number of
dead, Syria to
Myanmar, which
he
previously
studied.
Inner
City Press
asked
Coomaraswamy
about Myanmar,
the world's
largest
recruiter of
child
soldiers, and
whether UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon would
raise the
issue if he
travels there
in April as
he's publicly
said he
might.
Coomaraswamy
confirmed that
Myanmar has
still not
signed the
promised
agreement on
child
soldiers, but
predicted if
it does not,
Ban will raise
the issue.
We'll see.
Moments
later,
Inner City
Press asked
Ban's deputy
spokesman
Eduardo Del
Buey if the
UN is
concerned that
Myanmar
is saying that
at least three
constituencies
in Kachin
State cannot
vote in the
upcoming
election.
Del Buey
replied that
if it's for
security, it's
understandable.
And
what does
Ban's outgoing
(or gone)
chief of staff
Vijay Nambiar,
now
only on
Myanmar, have
to say? Watch
this site.
Footnote:
Coomaraswamy
will be
leaving to
teach at New
York
University. We
wish
her well.
, 
