Nepal's Civil War: Human Rights and Child Soldiers
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Child soldiers
Grafik Child soldiers in Nepal
Children in Armed Conflicts
Child soldiers in Nepal Reports 2001-2005
Nepal's children affected by the conflict
Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Children
November 2005 Eastern Nepal: Women warriors
After walking three days from Biratnagar we reached Bhanjynag Kharkha. From the rebel activity on the pass it looked like the comrades, many of them women, were massing up for an operation. But there is still a month of the unilateral ceasefire to go and it turned out to be just a regular military exercise.

The Maoist training camp was intensive and strict. It ran from dawn to dusk and was led by a female trainer. Nima and Rima are sisters in their teens. With assault rifles slung over their shoulders and grenades on their belts, the two lined for morning drills.

Nima and Rima were 14 and 16 when their parents garlanded them and sent them off to join the Maoist militia two years ago. Since then the two have taken part in famous battles like Bhojpur and Siraha.

Source: Nepali Times
August 2005 European Union: Maoist rebels are using children as soldiers
The European Union condemned Nepal's Maoist rebels for using children as soldiers. "The EU strongly condemns the CPN (M)'s systematic and continued human rights violations especially in respect to the use of child soldiers which runs contrary to their claims that they respect human rights and adhere to the standards of the Geneva Conventions," EU said in a statement issued by the British Embassy. "Violation of the rights of the children, evident in the Maoist abuse of schools, indoctrination and abduction of young people and the induction into military forces, are particularly abhorrent," the statement said.
July 2005 Amnesty international: Nepal: Children caught in the conflict
Child soldiers
For more than nine years a conflict has raged in Nepal between government security forces and fighters of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). The conflict has had a devastating effect on all sections of Nepali society-but especially on the lives of children. The most fundamental rights of children are being violated routinely, and nowhere is this more apparent than in schools across the country. Tens of thousands of children have been abducted from schools by Maoist fighters to attend "political education" sessions. There is increasing evidence that some of the abducted children are recruited for armed activities.
Source: Amnesty International

December 2004 Rolpa: Giving children a fighting chance
With a .303 slung over his shoulder, Comrade Waibhaba leads a group of Maoists in Rolpa. He claims to be 15 but his friends say he is younger. There were seven of them on the trail to Thawang, boys and girls carrying heavy home-made shoulder bags. The biggest was barely four feet tall, must have been 14. He was carrying a Chinese radio with the antenna pulled out. There was a comb in his shirt pocket and his hair was slickly groomed. In a voice of authority, he asked: "Who are you?" We said we were journalists on our way to Thawang. "Do you have a pass?" We replied that the head of the people's government in Mijhing had told us to get a pass further on. "Ok," he replied.
Source: Nepali Times

May 2004 Amnesty international published the Annual Report 2004
Child soldiers
There were reports that the CPN (Maoist) continued to abduct and recruit children between the ages of 15 and 18. Reports were received that scores of secondary-school children were abducted from schools in mid-western and far west regions and held for short periods for "re-education". It was alleged that the CPN (Maoist) used the cease-fire to recruit more children into their ranks. The CPN (Maoist) denied that children aged under 16 were recruited into its army or trained in the use of guns.
Source: Amnesty International

March 2004 Schools are turning into battlefields, children are being taught to fight
School principal Birbhan Puri of Birendra Higher Secondary School has spent sleepless nights waiting for 65 of his students abducted by Maoists to return home. Since they were taken away in Bafikot on 25 February, all Puri, his colleagues and the children's parents can do is pray. The rest of the students are so traumatised that they are afraid to go to school...
Source: Nepali Times

February 2004 Special People's Military Campaign: Campaign to train child soldiers
The Maoists have intensified their campaign to train child soldiers in their strongholds in the Karnali region of Nepal. The rebels' target is to have 50,000 child soldiers by April 2004. According to Maoist sources, the latest abduction of students from Achham and Rolpa in February 2004 was for this purpose.
Source: Amnesty International

February 2004 Human Right groups: Maoists still recruiting children
Human rights groups say the Maoists carry out executions and kidnappings, and torture prisoners, extort money, forcibly conscript fighters and use child soldiers.
Source: Amnesty International

July 2002 Maoist has massively recruited childre
The Communist Party of Nepal CPN-Maoist has massively recruited children in their militia forces. At least 30 per cent of Maoist guerrillas are children, a report published by a coalition including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Save the Children Alliance says. Children are also reportedly used as messengers, sentries and spies, and involved in cultural or propaganda activities. The Maoist rebels have in the past made no attempts to hide the fact that they use children as soldiers, among them a lot of young girls mostly high school and college girls.
Source: Amnesty International

March 2002 Amnesty International: Child soldiers

Many children are involved in the Maoist movement with grave consequences for their safety and well-being. Although the exact number involved is not known, press reports suggest it could be several hundred. For instance, according to an article in The Kathmandu Post of 8 June 2000, of the 91 people known to have joined the Maoists and taken up arms in Lahan VDC in Jajarkot district, 13 were under 15 years old. An article posted on 1 May 1998 on a website sympathetic to the Maoists acknowledged the scale of recruitment of children, especially girls:
'A large number of children in the rural areas are now contributing substantially in the guerilla war by way of collection and exchange of information, etc. Indeed, these little 'red devils' hold immense potential for the future of the revolutionary people's war.''

The killing of Tulsi Kumari Budha, a 16-year-old member of the All Nepal National Independent Students' Union (Revolutionary), in Ramaroshan VDC in Achham district highlighted the dangers of children's involvement in arenas of conflict, even in supporting roles. On 9 December 2000 police encircled a house in which Tulsi Kumari Budha was meeting known Maoists. Others present fled and Tulsi Kumari Budha hid in the maize fields nearby. Police surrounded the field. Tulsi Kumari Budha was killed in what police later said was an ''encounter''. However, there was no evidence that she had been armed, nor that any police officers were injured or killed in the alleged "encounter", suggesting that the incident involved excessive use of force in violation of international human rights standards in circumstances where Tulsi Kumari Budha could have been taken into custody.

Source: Amnesty International

October 2001 Rolpa: Maoists recruit minor in their militia
At a time when the government-Maoist peace talk is underway, rebel Maoists have recruited a 15-year-old boy in their militia under temptation. The rebels recruited the boy, a grade seven student, about 25 km away from the district headquarters of Libang. The rebels have not allowed the boy to be in touch with his family members. The boy's mother is worried about the safety of her son, who was hired in the Maoist militia under inducement.
Source: Amnesty International
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