OWN CORRESPONDENT, Freetown | Friday 8.00pm.
THE United Nations Children’s Fund has urged Sierra Leone’s government to disarm the country’s legion of child warriors and give amnesty to rebel children captured in battle.
Speaking to journalists during a two-day visit, Unicef executive director Carol Bellamy said she was ”troubled” after meeting a contingent of child Kamajor, or Civil Defense Force, soldiers a day earlier during a whistle-stop tour in the country’s interior.
”Unicef is very clear that children should not be put into combat positions, or be made messengers or be sexually abused in fighting forces,” Bellamy said.
Sierra Leone has more than 4000 child soldiers by UN estimates, and many observers believe the real figure is much higher.
During her visit, Bellamy attended a mock demobilisation ceremony of child soldiers in the town of Bo north about 350km north-west Freetown. There, dancing, singing children wore elaborate traditional dresses and headgear and carried guns. Aged anywhere from seven to 17, the children said they wished to go to school, but also enjoyed killing ”the wicked enemy” — the rebel Revolutionary United Front.
Kamajor leaders said that are were waiting for funding from the government and United Nations before the children can come home from the bush and take up civilian life. ”We need money for the demobilisation. The children have nothing to go back to and need support for technical schooling and re-integration into their communities,” said John Lawundeh, the Kamajor commander of the Komboya district surrounding Bo.
The Kamajors, traditional fighters who believe they are protected from harm by their spiritual beliefs, are allied with President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah’s government and Ecomog, the West African peacekeeping force that restored Kabbah to power in March.
The RUF have been accused of kidnapping children to join their cause while several Kamajor children told journalists they were prompted to fight after members of their families were killed, maimed and raped by rebels.
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