Over a decade ago, I oversaw the United Nation\u2019s last negotiations for the discharge of former child soldiers from the ranks of the Maoists in Nepal. This followed years of U.N. advocacy, and reflected specific provisions in Nepal\u2019s 2006 peace agreement. Thousands of young adults who had been recruited as children during the decade-long war were able to re-enter civilian society. But today, a tool that was fundamental to our success is being seriously eroded.<\/p>\n
During Nepal\u2019s civil war, the Maoists recruited up to 4,500 children, including many girls, to fight in their ranks. In areas under their control, they operated a \u201cone family, one member for the Party\u201d program, where children were recruited. The Maoists also kidnapped individual children, abducted large groups from schools, and used propaganda campaigns to attract children as \u201cvolunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Maoists gave weapons training to children as young as 14 and forced them into front-line combat. Children also helped transport military supplies, provided medical assistance, worked as sentries or informants, and participated in propaganda activities to recruit other children.<\/p>\n
The Nepal Army also utilized children as messengers, sentinels, informers, cooks, and in other support functions.<\/p>\n
For years, the Maoists steadfastly denied recruiting children. Just days before signing the 2006 peace agreement, the Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda, claimed, \u201cWe have never taken a policy to recruit children in our army.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the years that followed, many former child soldiers were released informally, and some joined U.N. reintegration programs. But in late 2009 several thousand still remained to be discharged, and as head of the U.N. mission in Nepal, one of my responsibilities was to persuade the Maoists to do so.<\/p>\n
Supported by the U.N. secretary general\u2019s special representative on children and armed conflict, and other U.N. colleagues, we had long and detailed discussions. What made a significant difference was pointing to the U.N.\u2019s clear documentation of the problem, and the secretary general\u2019s inclusion of the Maoists in his \u201clist of shame\u201d – an annual list requested by the U.N. Security Council naming parties to armed conflict responsible for recruiting children and other grave violations against children.<\/p>\n
I told the Maoists that their reputation was being tarnished by their inclusion on the list, and that as long as former child soldiers remained in their camps, they would continue to suffer that stigma. Eventually, they were convinced.<\/p>\n
At the first discharge ceremony, in the Maoist army site in Rolpa, we brought ambassadors representing the U.N. Security Council and other members of the international community to witness the ceremony, along with the Maoist leader, Dahal, and all his deputies. The ceremony helped signify that the release of child soldiers was genuinely important and meaningful to the international community.<\/p>\n