Supplementary memorandum submitted by
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
You wrote on 13 June, asking for a note from
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office about child soldiers in Sierra
Leone.
The Government is firmly opposed to the use
of child soldiers wherever they may be employed.
During his visit to Sierra Leone in June, the
Foreign Secretary made clear our abhorrence of the use of child
solidiers. He raised the issue with President Kabbah, and with
the leaders of the two main factions working with the Government
of Sierra Leone.
Our wish to eliminate this practice is one of
the key reasons that we are leading international efforts to help
build new, accountable and effective armed forces in Sierra Leone.
As a condition for proceeding with out programme
of assistance, we sought and obtained assurances in March 1999,
from President Kabbah that recruitment for the new Sierra Leone
army would take place without ethnic discrimination; that equipment
supplied by the UK to the Government of Sierra Leone would be
used only in accordance with international human rights standards
and international humanitarian law; and that children would not
be used by the Sierra Leone armed forces or the Civil Defence
Force.
Following reports in May that British-supplied
weapons might be in the hands of child soldiers, President Kabbah
reaffirmed these assurances to the Foreign Secretary in Freetown
in June, and made clear his opposition to the use of child soldiers.
The Government of Sierra Leone issued orders
for all those under the age of 18 fighting on its side to be immediately
withdrawn, demobilised and rehabilitated.
Many thousands of children have been pressed
into action on both sides in Sierra Leone over the past nine years.
The phasing out and rehabilitation of child soldiers will require
a long-term international effort, which we are committed to supporting.
The EU, with our support, has recently approved funding of 2 million
Euros for a large scale UNICEF project, aimed at doing precisely
that.
UNICEF are running a progamme to rehabilitate
child soldiers. Recently, 32 child soldiers have been demobilised
from the pro-Government alliance.
The light weapons and ammunition previously
provided to the Government of Sierra Leone are secure. Further
distribution is under the supervision of a British military officer.
The light weapons will be given only to carefully screened recruits
going through the UK-run short-term training programme. Recruits
will sign for them as their personal weapons, on an individual
basis. Distribution of ammunition is being similarly supervised
by a British military officer.
We will continue to press for the rehabilitation
and an end to the recruitment of all child soldiers in Sierra
Leone; and we will continue to take steps to ensure that any British
weapons only go to adult soldiers of the Sierra Leone army for
training or for legitimate operational requirements.
| 
