| Home > South-Asia >> Nepal | |
Nepal Maoists pledge to discharge child soldiers: UN
Agence France Presse - December 6, 2008
Kathmandu – Nepal's Maoist prime minister has agreed to discharge around 3,000 child soldiers from the ranks of his party's former guerrilla army as quickly as possible, the United Nations said.
As part of a 2006 peace deal, the Maoists registered 30,000 people as fighters, but UN verification found that just 19,000 were genuine combatants, while 2,975 were under 18 by a May 2006 deadline.
"Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has expressed his commitment to release all the child soldiers from the UN-monitored camps as soon as possible," said Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN special representative for Children and Armed Conflict, on Friday.
Despite being found to be minors, the youngsters have remained in the camps since the peace deal that ended the bloody civil war in which 13,000 people were killed.
"We're hoping all the children will leave the camps by the end of February," Coomaraswamy told reporters in Kathmandu at the end of a six-day visit.
The Maoists now run Nepal after winning landmark elections in April, but little progress has been made for the rehabilitation of those who remain in 28 UN-monitored camps.
See also:
 |