VOA标准英语2011--Ending Use of Child Soldiers in Somalia

Ending Use of Child Soldiers in Somalia

 

This week, Somali government officials agreed to begin taking steps to end the recruitment of child soldiers. The Transitional Federal Government, or TFG, and the al Shabab militant¹ group, are cited by the United Nations for using child combatants.

The agreement followed a meeting Wednesday between TFG officials and Radhika Coomaraswamy, U.N. special representative for children and armed conflict. She says the use of child soldiers in Somalia has been widespread.

“Well, it’s extensive. Every armed group in Somalia practically has child soldiers, except maybe the peacekeepers. The actual numbers I hesitate to say because we just can’t estimate,” she said.

She met with the Somali president, prime minister and minister of defense², who agreed to work closely with the U.N. on the issue.

“What we agreed on was…that there would be focal points in the government that will work on the issue of children in armed conflict. And that the TFG will enter into an action plan with the United Nations to release children that are in their ranks. And that they allow the U.N. to come and verify whether there are more children. And to also work with UNICEF on the reintegration of those children,” she said.

Al-Shabab

A young boy leads the hard-line Islamist Al Shabab fighters as they conduct military exercise in northern Mogadishu's Suqaholaha neighborhood, Somalia (File Photo)

Coomaraswamy said it’s much more difficult to get al Shabab to stop using child soldiers.

“What we are trying to do in that case, of course, is to work though interlocutors. But also through the community level also to try to influence them. But I can’t say they’re having that much success,” she said.

She said al Shabab recruits on the community level by extorting³, threatening or intimidating⁴ families to turn their children over to them. She says they also take them from schools or lure⁵ them through radio broadcasts.

The U.N. special representative also visited a camp in Mogadishu where al Shabab defectors or fighters who surrendered are held. Among them were 37 former child soldiers. Coomaraswamy described her visit to the camp as depressing.

“We met a young boy,” she said, “with a bullet still in his head. He was very young. He was about 11 at most or 12. And he had gone through full training, taken part in combat, shot in the leg. But finally he escaped and was taken by the TFG and put in Marino Camp.”

UNICEF, the U.N. children’s fund, has programs to help reintegrate former child soldiers back into society. These include psycho-social support and returning them to school. The International Labor⁶ Organization also provides skills and livelihood⁷ training.

South Sudan

Coomaraswamy said efforts are also underway to end the use of child soldiers in the world’s newest country, South Sudan.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and Armed Conflict

“Well, in South Sudan we have an action plan with the SPLA. And I must say that the SPLA in Juba and around the capital I think is child (soldier) free. But the remote regional commanders still I think have child soldiers. But the U.N. has agreements to go into SPLA camps and to verify whether there are children. Then of course there are the sort of ethnic-based militias⁸. That’s much more difficult. And I think there we still have to see how we can make headway,” she said.

While some NGOs estimate there are hundreds of thousands of child soldiers around the world, she said there’s no way to be sure.

“No, the number is not known now. Earlier numbers were estimated purely⁹ on the rolls in Africa in Liberia and Sierra Leone. But now, of course, we’re finding child soldiers in Afghanistan, in Somalia, in Iraq and some of the new wars. So, I don’t think we have an estimate. It would be very difficult to estimate,” she said.

Despite that, Coomaraswamy believes that with enough effort, the use of children soldiers can be brought to an end within 25 years.

The special representative of the secretary-general for children and armed conflict says welcomed the TFG’s commitment to ratify¹⁰ the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

1 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

2 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

3 extorting   

v.敲诈( extort的现在分词 )；曲解

参考例句：

• Corrupt government officials were extorting money from him. 腐败的政府官员向他敲诈钱财。 来自辞典例句
• He's been charged with extorting protection money from the shopkeepers. 他被指控对店主敲诈勒索保护费。 来自互联网

4 intimidating   

vt.恐吓，威胁( intimidate的现在分词)

参考例句：

• They were accused of intimidating people into voting for them. 他们被控胁迫选民投他们的票。
• This kind of questioning can be very intimidating to children. 这种问话的方式可能让孩子们非常害怕。

5 lure   

n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引

参考例句：

• Life in big cities is a lure for many country boys.大城市的生活吸引着许多乡下小伙子。
• He couldn't resist the lure of money.他不能抵制金钱的诱惑。

6 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

7 livelihood   

n.生计，谋生之道

参考例句：

• Appropriate arrangements will be made for their work and livelihood.他们的工作和生活会得到妥善安排。
• My father gained a bare livelihood of family by his own hands.父亲靠自己的双手勉强维持家计。

8 militias   

n.民兵组织，民兵( militia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The troops will not attempt to disarm the warring militias. 部队并不打算解除战斗中的民兵武装。 来自辞典例句
• The neighborhood was a battleground for Shiite and Sunni militias. 那里曾是什叶派和逊尼派武装分子的战场。 来自互联网

9 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

10 ratify   

v.批准，认可，追认

参考例句：

• The heads of two governments met to ratify the peace treaty.两国政府首脑会晤批准和平条约。
• The agreement have to be ratify by the board.该协议必须由董事会批准。