Sudan submits a memo to UNICEF saying rebel take away children to south
05 January, 2012
Khartoum, (sudano.info) - Sudan on Thursday handed a protest note to the United Nations children Fund UNICEF representative in Sudan Mr. Neles Castburg, calling for launching an investigation into the abduction and recruitment of hundreds for children by rebel in South Kordufan areas, and taking them to south Sudan, the newly independent state, for military training.
Khartoum is protesting the recruitment of what is said almost 2000 children by rebels' movement seeking to replenish its ranks after it lost huge number of troops either deserting or killed in battles in the mountainous south Kordufan state.
The Sudanese Council for Child Welfare, of the Ministry of Social Welfare, officially presented the two page-document to Mr. Castburg, containing dates and details of some 900 children which the government of Sudan says were taken away in groups from their families the period July 2011 to October 2011, in addition to over a 1000 recruited and sneaked to the south under pretext of providing education for them.
The message which was handed at a press conference before dozens of TV cameras and journalists at the headquarters of the Council stressed that the council was able to "document reports that have been coming out during the last few weeks about the recruitments of children from South Kordufan state "by the Sudan People's Liberation Army- Movement SPLA/SPLM ".
The missive stated that on June 17th 2011 the movement transported 175 children from the eastern areas of the Nuba Mountains and took them to Pariang area of the unity state in south Sudan. Again on 14th of October 2011 some 350 children were moved from the area of Hiban and Al Moro of the Nuba mountains and taken to Pariang in unity state, always south Sudan.
The government council has meanwhile added that another 1000 children were also sneaked out of south Kordufan to the same area Pariang, south Sudan.
"These children are presently inside camps of the Sudan people liberation army movement. There were picked up in a pretext of their being educated … a weak argument..And they ended up in military training and involved in military operations" the note handed over to UNICEF argued.
It said the government of Sudan "denounces and condemn this SPLA-SPLM conduct of forcefully recruiting children adn moving the out of their home areas to involve them in military operation.. This is a flagrant direct, moral and legal violation for all regional and international agreements and principles relative to children right." It said
However the UNICEF officials has stressed that bombardment of areas in the vicinity of schools scaring children is also a crime, a hint that Sudanese air forces uses planes to target rebel held areas.
End
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