Former Peace Corps Director Chao announces Program to Target Child Soldier Use
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Labor Program to Target Child Soldier Use
LEIGH STROPE Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Labor Secretary Elaine Chao announced a $13 million initiative Wednesday to help eliminate the use of children as soldiers in more than 30 countries and to help those who were enslaved.
The forced recruitment and use of children as combatants is one of the worst forms of child labor," Chao said, opening a two-day conference on the issue. "It is a moral outrage and must be stopped. All nations have got to come together to put an end to this evil."
More than 300,000 children under age 18 are fighting in armed conflicts around the world, with almost half in central Africa, according to the International Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. Most of the children are between ages 15 and 18, but some are as young as age 7.
The initiative includes a $7 million global project distributed by the International Labor Organization to help former child soldiers in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Colombia.
Another $3 million will be spent on education for such children in Uganda. Also, $3 million will go to help child soldiers in Afghanistan through UNICEF.
Former child soldiers attended the conference to tell their stories about being forced to become soldiers, spies, guards, human shields, mine sweepers, decoys, servants and sex slaves. Many children are drugged.
Chao said she became aware of the atrocities when she was director of the Peace Corps and president of United Way of America.
"The plight of child soldiers offends the world's sense of decency and the code of conduct of civilized nations," she said.
The initiative will be administered by the Labor Department's Bureau of International Labor Affairs, for which global child labor is a significant focus. That bureau is facing massive budget cuts. President Bush has proposed a $42.3 million reduction in 2004 to just $12.3 million.
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