On Monday, the Taliban allegedly kidnapped more than 400 people – mostly teenagers – from a group of students and teachers near their school in North Waziristan. According to the Associated Press, the “abduction occurred about 20 miles from Razmak Cadet College” where the students were from. According to an eyewitness:
About 30 buses, cars and other vehicles were carrying the students, staff and others when they were stopped along the road by a large group of gunmen in their own vehicles, according to a school employee who was among those who escaped. He said the vehicle he was riding in happened to be behind a truck on the road and thus it was less visible and able to slip away unnoticed.
The employee requested anonymity out of fear of Taliban reprisal and said the school’s principal was among those abducted. The staffer said the assailants carried rockets, Kalashnikovs, hand grenades and other weapons. He estimated about 400 captives were initially involved.
Most of the abducted were teenagers. According to AP, “Cadet colleges in Pakistan are usually run by retired military officers and educate teenagers.”
See this earlier posting on Child Soldiers in Afghanistan: Video showing child soldiers being recruited, trained, and killed in Afghanistan.
Filed under: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda , Afghanistan, child soldiers, Human Rights, Taliban, War
January 21, 2009 • 1:33 pm
…in order to “to permit the newly inaugurated president and his administration time to review the military commission process, generally, and the cases currently pending before the military commissions, specifically.” See this New York Times article.
Specifically, this decision will effect Omar Khadr, a detainee that has been presented as a child soldier since he was 15 years old when he was arrested in Afghanistan in 2002.
The Tuesday decision will bring an immediate halt to the trial scheduled to begin on Monday of the only Canadian detainee, Omar Khadr, who was 15 when he was first detained. Mr. Khadr is charged with killing an American soldier during a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002. His case has drawn international attention, in part because his lawyers have argued that the case violated international prohibitions on the prosecution of child soldiers.
Mr. Khadr’s military defense lawyer, Lt. Cmdr. William C. Kuebler, said he welcomed the news. “This young man’s ordeal has gone on long enough,” he said, “and the U.S. can begin restoring its reputation by following international law requiring former child soldiers such as Omar to be treated as victims entitled to opportunities for rehabilitation and social reintegration, rather than as adult ‘war criminals.’”
Filed under: Afghanistan, Guantanamo, Human Rights , Afghanistan, Canada, Guantamano, Obama, Omar Khadr
December 14, 2008 • 9:16 pm
A child believed to be about 13 years old blew himself up yesterday in southern Afghanistan, killing three British marines. The Taliban denied the accusation, despite the fact that they, ”have previously recruited students from religious schools to carry out suicide attacks in Afghanistan,” says the New York Times in their report Britain Reports Boy Conducted Suicide Attack in Afghanistan.
For more information, see:
Filed under: Afghanistan , Afghanistan, child soldier, Taliban, War
October 27, 2008 • 6:56 pm
…with four high-level Canadian executives pledging to help UNICEF raise $1,000,000 for programs benefiting children, earmarking a portion to aid child soldiers in the Democratic of Congo. (The rest of the money will go to assisting children with AIDS in Haiti, constructing schools in Rwanda, and increasing access to schools for girls in Afghanistan.) Kudos to:
Aldo Bensadoun, chief executive officer of The Aldo Group Inc., Lucien Bouchard, partner of the law firm Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP and former Premier of Quebec, Jean-Pierre Leger, president and chief executive officer of Les Rotisseries St-Hubert Ltee and Thierry Vandal, president and chief executive officer of Hydro-Quebec.
The UNICEF project they are supporting is called THE CHILDREN’S UNICEF. Specifically, the program in the DRC will work to demobilize and reintegrate former child soldiers there.
Ce programme de l’Unicef vise à assurer la libération, les soins de santé, le support psychologique, la réunification et la réinsertion de 1750 enfants.
An exhibition of photographs and a book launch of THE CHILDREN’S UNICEF will kick off the fundraising drive on November 11 at the Parquet of the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (Centre CDP Capital). For more information check out their website.
Hopefully this grand gesture will encourage other philanthopists to follow suit.
Filed under: Afghanistan, Congo, Media/TV/Films, Rwanda, United Nations , Afghanistan, child soldier, Democratic republic of Congo, Haiti, Human Rights, UNICEF, United Nations
September 18, 2008 • 5:26 pm
…which means that his trial will be delayed until after elections in the US and Canada. From this article:
Omar Khadr’s trial was scheduled to begin on October 8, but a military judge postponed it this month amid defence complaints that the government failed to turn over evidence.
More on the trial of Khadr’s:
Additional information on child soldiers in Afghanistan:
Filed under: Afghanistan, Guantanamo, Laws, Treaties , Afghanistan, child soldier, crime, Guantanamo, legal, news, War
A video has made it’s way onto the internet, released recently by the extremist terror group Islamic Jihad Union (IJU). The video shows children, mostly young adolescents, engaging in training activities for military operations. The children are dressed in uniforms, are seen acting out maneuvers, holding and working weapons.
The video is here.
According to ABC News, “the IJU is an Uzbekistan-based militant group that has now established operations in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area.” ABC reports:
The evidently pre-teen children in the video are wearing fatigues and knit watchcaps and are armed with handguns and Kalashnikov rifles. The video shows them kneeling in a tent, standing at attention and running through tundra. One of the youths is repeatedly circled in red on the video, a sign that he is now dead…
The child with the circle around his head is evidently being identified for the ultimate sacrifice that he gave to IJU, namely his childhood and life.
For more information on the Islamic Jihad Union and child soldiers in Afghanistan, check out:
Filed under: Afghanistan, Media/TV/Films , Afghanistan, child soldiers, current events, Media/TV/Films, news, pakistan, television, terrorism, video, War
