A Generous Hat Tip to BOHICA.
There are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers in conflicts around the world today; an estmated 40% of them are female. Canadian Senator Romeo Dallaire has made his life's mission to stop the use of these children as soldiers. I am proud to join him in his efforts. This is, and must be, an international effort, with education, laws, and prevention programs all necessary. It will be a long road, but it important that we, as adults, take the responsibility to protect the children of the world. It is important that we live up to our rhetoric.
President Obama has made our job more difficult, by something he did in October.
Presidential Memorandum--Child Soldiers Prevention Act
Presidential Determination
No. 2011-4
MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE
SUBJECT: Presidential Determination with Respect to Section 404(c) of the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, pursuant to section 404(c) of the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 (CSPA), title IV of the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (Public Law 110 457), I hereby determine that it is in the national interest of the United States to waive the application to Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Yemen of the prohibition in section 404(a) of the CSPA.
You are authorized and directed to submit this determination to the Congress, along with the accompanying memorandum of justification, and to publish it in the Federal Register.
BARACK OBAMA
So, let's see what the relevent part of The Child Soldiers Prevention Act says:
SEC. 404. PROHIBITION.
(a) In General—
Subject to subsections (b), (c), and (d), the authorities contained in section 516 or 541 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2321j or 2347) or section 23 of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2763) may not be used to provide assistance to, and no licenses for direct commercial sales of military equipment may be issued to, the government of a country that is clearly identified, pursuant to subsection (b), for the most recent year preceding the fiscal year in which the authorities or license would have been used or issued in the absence of a violation of this title, as having governmental armed forces or government-supported armed groups, including paramilitaries, militias, or civil defense forces, that recruit and use child soldiers.
(c) National Interest Waiver—
(1) WAIVER—
The President may waive the application to a country of the prohibition in subsection (a) if the President determines that such waiver is in the national interest of the United States.
(2) PUBLICATION AND NOTIFICATION—
Not later than 45 days after each waiver is granted under paragraph (1), the President shall notify the appropriate congressional committees of the waiver and the justification for granting such waiver.
So, in other words, if I understand this correctly, the Act prohibits the United States from selling arms, or facilitating arms sales to countries which recruit and use child soldiers, and the President has determined that it is the US interest to arm these militaries anyway. So the US is arming child soldiers, or facilitating the arming of them.
Now let's look at the definition of child soldier in the law:
(2) CHILD SOLDIER—
Consistent with the provisions of the Optional Protocol to the Convention of the Rights of the Child, the term `child soldier'—
(A) means—
(i) any person under 18 years of age who takes a direct part in hostilities as a member of governmental armed forces;
(ii) any person under 18 years of age who has been compulsorily recruited into governmental armed forces;
(iii) any person under 15 years of age who has been voluntarily recruited into governmental armed forces; or
(iv) any person under 18 years of age who has been recruited or used in hostilities by armed forces distinct from the armed forces of a state; and
(B) includes any person described in clauses (ii), (iii), or (iv) of subparagraph (A) who is serving in any capacity, including in a support role such as a cook, porter, messenger, medic, guard, or sex slave.
I have tried to find the memorandum of justification, but have been unable to. If any of you are able to find, I would be most grateful.
Now let's look at one of the prisoners who was at Guantanamo Bay:
Mohammed el Gharani is a citizen of Chad who was detained for seven years in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1] [2] [3]
His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 269. El Qarani is a native of Saudi Arabia[4] and American intelligence analysts estimate he was born in 1986, in Medina, Saudi Arabia.[5]
On June 15, 2005 Human Rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith identified Al Qarani as one of a dozen teenage boys held in the adult portion of the prison.[6] According to Smith Al Qarani was born in November 1987.
On May 28, 2006 The Independent said Al Qarani was accused of plotting with Abu Qatada, in London, in 1999 – when he was a 12 year old, living with his parents, in Saudi Arabia.[7]
Main article: minors detained in the global war on terror
On January 14, 2009 U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon ordered the release of Al Qarani because the evidence that he was an enemy combatant was mostly limited to statements from two other detainees whose credibility had been called into question by US government staff.[1]
As noted, this tortured child was from Chad, one of the countries that the President gave a waiver to. Why are those two facts clanging around in my head ?
Please consider signing the NGOs letter to President Obama on this issue:
http://www.hrw.org/...
When we, as adults, don't stand up against the use of children as soldiers, this is what happens.
No child should be a soldier.
We, as adults, need to take the responsibility to stand up and say "NO !"
Please, if you agree with me, contact the White House and say, "NOT IN MY NAME !"
Please, if you agree with me, contact your congressional representative and your senators and say, "NOT IN MY NAME !"
Please, if you agree with me, join the Zero Force Army.
http://www.zeroforce.org/
read more information at childsoldierinitiative.org
Please stand up do the right thing,
with gratitude,
For Dan,
Heather