alkathiri
As-Shafaa'i(Brother)
“UK sent child soldiers to Iraq”
Britain, which now has about 7,000 troops serving in Iraq, is reported to have sent fifteen soldiers under the age of 18 to fight in Iraq, breaking by that a UN treaty that prohibits the use of child soldiers, the Ministry of Defence said Sunday.
The news are expected to fuel the public’s anger over the British Prime Minister’s war policy and his decision to join the American President George W. Bush in the war against Iraq in the first place.
The British army resorted to breaking UN rules banning the use of child soldiers after army commanders began complaining about successive deployments to Iraq, MOD admitted Sunday, adding that 15 British service personnel aged 17, including four female soldiers, were sent to Iraq during the first two years of the war.
Defense Minister Adam Ingram presented the figures in a written statement submitted to the Parliament.
In 2003, Blair’s government ratified the UN's Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, requiring signatories to take "all feasible measures to ensure that members of their armed forces who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take a direct part in hostilities".
He tried to defend the army’s actions arguing that the “vast majority” of the “child-soldiers” sent to Iraq had been within a week of turning 18 when they were deployed, and that no one under 18 had been sent to the battlefield since July 2005.
“Unfortunately, these processes are not infallible and the pressures on units prior to deployment have meant that there have been a small number of instances where soldiers have been inadvertently deployed to Iraq before their 18(th) birthday,” he said.
“This is an inexcusable blunder by the government that reveals a shocking level of incompetence,” Opposition member of Parliament Sarah Teather said
“We have rules about sending those under 18 into conflict for a reason,” she added.
“There is no way people so young are mentally or emotionally prepared to face bloodshed on the scale seen in Iraq.”
About 120 British military personnel died in Iraq since the war broke out in 2003.
source: www.aljazeera.com
Britain, which now has about 7,000 troops serving in Iraq, is reported to have sent fifteen soldiers under the age of 18 to fight in Iraq, breaking by that a UN treaty that prohibits the use of child soldiers, the Ministry of Defence said Sunday.
The news are expected to fuel the public’s anger over the British Prime Minister’s war policy and his decision to join the American President George W. Bush in the war against Iraq in the first place.
The British army resorted to breaking UN rules banning the use of child soldiers after army commanders began complaining about successive deployments to Iraq, MOD admitted Sunday, adding that 15 British service personnel aged 17, including four female soldiers, were sent to Iraq during the first two years of the war.
Defense Minister Adam Ingram presented the figures in a written statement submitted to the Parliament.
In 2003, Blair’s government ratified the UN's Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, requiring signatories to take "all feasible measures to ensure that members of their armed forces who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take a direct part in hostilities".
He tried to defend the army’s actions arguing that the “vast majority” of the “child-soldiers” sent to Iraq had been within a week of turning 18 when they were deployed, and that no one under 18 had been sent to the battlefield since July 2005.
“Unfortunately, these processes are not infallible and the pressures on units prior to deployment have meant that there have been a small number of instances where soldiers have been inadvertently deployed to Iraq before their 18(th) birthday,” he said.
“This is an inexcusable blunder by the government that reveals a shocking level of incompetence,” Opposition member of Parliament Sarah Teather said
“We have rules about sending those under 18 into conflict for a reason,” she added.
“There is no way people so young are mentally or emotionally prepared to face bloodshed on the scale seen in Iraq.”
About 120 British military personnel died in Iraq since the war broke out in 2003.
source: www.aljazeera.com
