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Human Rights Watch says Taliban child soldier recruitment surges
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Human Rights Watch... During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, HRW received a pledge from the Foundation to Promote Open Society, of which George Soros is Chairman, for general support totaling $100,000,000. The grant is being paid in installments of $10,000,000 over ten years.Through June 30, 2013, HRW had received $30,000,000 towards the fulfillment of the pledge.... (HRW) says Taliban forces in Afghanistan have added scores of children to their ranks since mid-2015 in violation of the international prohibition on the use of child soldiers. The rights group's research shows that the Taliban have been training and deploying children for various military operations, including the production and planting of improvised bombs (IED). In a report released on Wednesday, HRW writes that in Kundoz province, the Taliban have increasingly used madrasas, or Islamic religious schools, to provide military training to children between the ages of 13 and 17, many of whom have been deployed in combat. "The Taliban's apparent strategy to throw increasing numbers of children into battle is as cynical and cruel as it is unlawful," said Patricia Gossman, senior Afghanistan researcher. "Afghan children should be at school and at home with their parents, not exploited as cannon fodder for the Taliban insurgency." Human Rights Watch interviewed relatives of 13 children recruited as Taliban soldiers over the past year, and verified these claims through interviews with civil society activists, political analysts, and the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... . Despite Taliban claims that they only enlist fighters who have achieved "mental and physical maturity," and do not use "boys with no beards" in military operations, some of the children recruited from madrasas in Kunduz, Takhar, and Badakhshan provinces are 13 or younger. The Taliban have previously denied"the use of children and adolescents in Jihadic Operations," but its deployment of individuals under the age of 18 violates international law applicable in Afghanistan and in cases involving children under 15 is a war crime. Posted by: Fred 2016-02-18 |
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