WASHINGTON   Negotiators in Geneva agreed yesterday on a new international protocol prohibiting the use of child soldiers in combat after the United States dropped its opposition to establishing 18 as the minimum age for sending soldiers into war.
The Clinton administration, under pressure from the Pentagon, had insisted for months that any agreement allow the United States the option of sending volunteers as young as 17 into combat. The administration's opposition had threatened to block efforts to revise the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to raise the minimum age for soldiers to 18 from 15.
But in internal discussion during the last two weeks, the Joint Chiefs of Staff dropped their opposition to a minimum age of 18 and accepted a compromise that would allow the armed services to continue recruiting and training 17-year-olds as they do today, but take " all feasible measures " to keep them out of combat until they turn 18.
The U.S. reversal cleared the way for negotiators from 50 countries to agree on new guidelines governing children in combat after a final round of negotiations in Geneva. The protocol agreement, which the U.N. General Assembly must approve before governments can begin to ratify it, would also prohibit the drafting of children younger than 18 and would require countries to raise the minimum age for volunteers above 15, the convention's current standard.

As with many treaties, the countries that agree to those international standards on child soldiers are expected to be the ones least likely to violate them. Some of the most egregious violators may not sign, while others may sign and simply ignore the provisions, given that the protocol provides no real enforcement to punish violators. But administration officials and other supporters of the protocol agreement said yesterday that it would help to stigmatize the use of children in combat, especially since the Convention on the Rights of the Child has strong international support. Only the United States and Somalia have yet to ratify the overall agreement.
The U.S. compromise amounts to a tactical retreat by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who had feared that a strict age limit would prohibit recruiters from signing up 17-year-olds, who today can join the military with parental consent. The Pentagon won the right to continue that practice but agreed to take still-unspecified steps to keep those youngest soldiers and sailors out of direct warfare, administration and defense officials said.
" The chiefs weren't crazy about it, " said a defense official in Washington, " but we felt we could live with it with that kind of construction. "The new minimum will have little real effect on the U.S. military, which has nearly 1.4 million men and women in uniform. Last year, 49,900 enlistees were 17 when they signed up to join the armed services, but only 11,000 were still 17 when they reported to basic training. Of those, only 2,500 had not turned 18 by the time training was completed.

But the Pentagon's retreat saved the administration the diplomatic embarrassment of blocking an agreement meant to prohibit the use of soldiers as young as 9 or 10 in some of the world's most brutal conflicts, a policy that officials at the State Department strongly advocated. Experts have estimated that as many as 300,000 children are fighting in wars from Africa to Chechnya to Latin America, many of them conscripted against their will.
For a time, it looked as if the negotiations would end like those on an international treaty to ban land mines. In that case, the Pentagon's opposition to a broad ban kept the administration from signing the treaty, despite support from the State Department and Clinton.
" This protocol is an important advance for human rights, " the president said in a statement released by the White House yesterday. " At the same time, it fully protects the military recruitment and readiness requirements of the United States. "
Clinton signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1995, but has yet to submit it for ratification by the Senate, where it faces opposition from conservatives who argue that it usurps the rights of parents.

Once the administration signs the protocol, it also will require Senate approval. Because of opposition to the convention overall, the administration may well submit only the new protocol for ratification, increasing the chances that the Senate would ratify it. But any move to ratify is not expected to take place until the end of the year at the earliest.
The protocol also applies its standards to rebel groups or other factions that are not represented by any government and so not party to it. Still, proponents said they hoped that the desire for international recognition by some of those groups would curb the most extreme cases of putting children into combat.

An Argentine judge has ordered the arrest of six more military officers on charges of kidnapping the children of dissidents during Argentina's "dirty war" of 1976-1983. Nine were already being held. The latest action takes human rights groups and the families of the victims closer to establishing what happened to prison-born infants and bringing to justice the leaders of the military junta. Only the truth will permit the Argentines to clear up their past and rebuild their society. In those chilling years, during which security forces killed untold numbers of the generals' opponents, many pregnant women suffered another brutal fate. They were held until they delivered their babies, who then were sold or given to members of the regime who wanted a child. During recent court proceedings, one witness testified, "Newborn babies were given away like kitties . . . especially those who were white."
Some of the top junta leaders were tried and convicted but subsequently given amnesty by then-President Carlos Menem. Now that Argentina has a new president, a group known as the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, composed of women who march on the main square in Buenos Aires seeking justice, has asked for an investigation into whether there was a systematic plan for adoption of as many as 200 children born to prisoners, some of whom were then executed. Child kidnapping was not covered by the presidential pardons granted by Menem. So far, the parentage of at least 60 of these children has been documented. But the relatives of the victims of Argentina's dirty war want to know how many more babies were sold or given away.
The grandmothers are asking that blood samples be taken from children who they suspect were taken from their mothers. Matching blood types and DNA could solve the puzzle. The victims of the dirty war are owed that and more. Mwananchi   Yahoo forum
host link/logo
global flowering
Greens WebRing
EDIT LISTING
Necklace | Birth Announcements | Housing in Jersey City | Efamous Girl | Flash Poker