Nepal’s child soldiers to be freed finally

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: sindh today

Kathmandu, July 16 (IANS) Some of them took up arms when they were as young as 12. Some did it because their parents were dead and some to avenge a dead relative.

Now nearly three years after the end of a guerrilla war that killed over 13,000 and brought untold misery to a nation already racked by poverty, Nepal’s child soldiers, who fought the ‘People’s War’ as part of the Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA), finally have a future to look forward to.

Nepal’s new coalition government headed by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal Thursday said it would start the process to discharge the child soldiers from Friday.

The Peace and Reconstruction ministry said 4,008 combatants, who were disqualified after a verification of the PLA conducted by the UN, would be set free from the cantonments where they have been living since the guerrilla army laid down arms in 2006.

Among these 4,008 are 2,973 child soldiers. It means they were recruited around or after 1996, when the armed uprising started, and they were under 18 then.



Read more: http://www.sindhtoday.net/news/1/31248.htm