Posted by Constant violations against international humanitarian. FARC guerrillas frequently threaten and force poor peasants in rural areas to give away their children on February 16, 19102 at 10:20:03:
CHILDREN IN WAR
Colombian media has recently shown the severe dimensions of a bleak phenomenon: the various rebel groups
operating in the country are drafting children between 13 and 17 years old, boys and girls.
According to official estimates, the number of children actively enrolled, either by the leftist guerrillas, mainly the FARC,
or the rightist self-defense groups (autodefensas), tends to grow and has reached a dramatic figure of nearly six
thousand, more than 30% of the estimated total of 20,000 illegal troops. The Colombian Army has stated that the
number of children recruited by guerrilla groups during 2000 grew by 80% compared to 1999.
In November 2000, during a failed operation by the FARC to recapture the small village of Surata, in the conflict area of
Santander (north east), the national army defeated a group of 368 insurgents, 150 of which happened to be teens
between 13 and 17 years old, who had never fought in combat. One thirteen year-old girl confessed that she was taught
to shoot in three days.
Forty-two children who surrendered after the mentioned combat were pardoned and sheltered. A girl among them
denounced that females in guerrilla groups are forced to use contraceptive devices. A special program of adaptation and
return to their families developed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be applied in the case of these children and
others in similar circumstances.
Further investigations carried out by authorities proved that this guerrilla command was built up, among others, with
children from El Caguan, the distension area in the south of the country, where the peace conversations are taking
place.
FARC guerrillas frequently threaten and force poor peasants in rural areas to give away their children. They are then
placed first in the line of fire. As a result, many of them have been killed during confrontations with the army. This is
the latest –and perhaps the cruelest– example of the guerrillas’ constant violations against international humanitarian
law, in spite of repeated pleas made by President Pastrana to respect the human rights of children and civil population.
In order to face this situation, President Pastrana has established that children who are either caught in combat, desert
the guerrillas or the self-defense groups or are found in counter-drug operations, shall be treated as victims of the
conflict and be pardoned.
A high priority in the peace process set by President Pastrana is to achieve a compromise with the insurgents in order
to stop this abhorrent practice. Unfortunately, this has not been accomplished and the FARC keeps drafting children.
Additionally, the drug cartels also engage children in the coca plantations. These children, as young as six, work
cutting the leaves of the coca bush with their hands. They are called “raspachines” (scrapers). As a result, the tissue of
their hands is severely damaged.
According to a recent study made by UNICEF, in the south of the country, in the rural areas of Caqueta and Putumayo
Departments, about 50% of school children interrupt or cut short their classes and daily routines in order to work at
illicit crops. This is why the counter-narcotics forces often report the capture of children in their operations. It is said
that during times of high international prices for cocaine a child can earn a monthly salary of US$119.
Last, but not least, children are being ransom-kidnapped by the guerrillas. Children as young as three years old have
been abducted from their own homes. National Police estimates that last year 264 children were ransom-kidnapped by
the guerrillas and common delinquents. The latter often “sell” the kidnapped people to the guerrillas.
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