4 May 2011

UN / CAR REPORT

A new report released today by the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre concluded that grave violations including the abduction of children, recruitment or use of child soldiers, attacks against schools and the denial of humanitarian access to children continue to be committed against children in the Central African Republic. UNTV / IDMC / FILE

Posted at: May 4, 2011 5:01 pm

Duration: 01:44

Available in: SD

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STORY: UN / CAR WATCHLIST REPORT
TRT: 1:44
SOURCE: UNTV / IDMC / UNICEF / UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE 
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 4 MAY 2011, UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK CITY / RECENT

SHOTLIST:

RECENT – UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters

4 MAY 2011, UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, podium
3. Cutaway, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Laura Perez, Country Analyst, Gender Focal Point, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre:
"The LRA abducts children in the southeast of the Central African Republic. Abducted children are taken to the Congo where girls are used as sex slaves and boys are used as child soldiers. All children abducted are taken to the Congo and made to commit atrocities such as attacking villages and killing civilians. This is ongoing today."
5. Cutaway, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Laura Perez, Country Analyst, Gender Focal Point, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre:
"Children who have managed to escape from the LRA and come home to the Central African Republic find that they have no assistance either humanitarian assistance or pysco-social care. These are children who are highly traumatized from the experiences."
7. Cutaway, journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Laura Perez, Country Analyst, Gender Focal Point, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre:
"The Central African armed forces aren't able to provide security today for civilians. They don't have the training, the capacity or equipment to provide security for civilians. So when communities are attacked, they have no other recourse but to form self-defence militias today are recruiting children as young as twelve."  
9. Cutaway, journalists

RECENT – IDMC – JANUARY 2011, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

10. Still photo, former child soldiers in the town of Paoua who have been demobilized from the ranks of the Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy (APRD)
11. Still photo, children in the village of Bilseme, near the town of Bocaranga where 108 children were demobilized from the ranks of the APRD 
12. Still photo, displaced children attend the Catholic school in the town of Ndélé, where the Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP) is actively recruiting child soldiers and has yet to sign a peace agreement with the government of CAR
13. Still photo, displaced children in the Koubou camp for IDPs, where the LRA attacked villages and abducted children
14. Still photo, displaced children in the Gougberé camp for IDPs where the LRA attacked villages and abducted children

FILE -UNICEF - 15-21 MAY 2008, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

15. Wide shot, children walking through bush near Benah
16. Med shot, children at Kabo airstrip

FILE - UNHCR - 21-25 AUGUST 2007, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

17. Various shots, abandoned homes in Boudouli village
19. Wide shot, rebels in northern CAR

STORYLINE:

A new report released today (4 May) by the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) concluded that grave violations including the abduction of children, recruitment or use of child soldiers, attacks against schools and the denial of humanitarian access to children continue to be committed against children in the Central African Republic (CAR).

The report entitled "An Uncertain Future? Children and Armed Conflict in the Central African Republic" found that the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is still present and active in CAR.

Briefing the press at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York, Laura Perez from the IDMC explained that the LRA abducts children in southeast CAR. She added that these children "are taken to the [Democratic Republic of the] Congo where girls are used as sex slaves and boys are used as child soldiers."

In the report, Watchlist and IDMC also outlined detailed policy recommendations and demand that the government of CAR, the UN Security Council and donors including the United States and the European Union, take specific actions to help children affected by armed conflict in CAR.

Perez said that the children who managed to escape from the LRA and return to CAR "find that they have no assistance either humanitarian assistance or pysco-social care. These are children who are highly traumatized from the experiences."

The report is the result of a field mission Watclist and IDMC conducted In January 2011. During the mission, researchers held one-on-one interviews with former child soldiers, internally displaced children and their families, community leaders and teachers, security forces, and members of village self-defense militias.

Perez pointed out that self-defense militias form because "the Central African armed forces aren't able to provide security today for civilians."

When communities are attacked, villagers "have no other recourse but to form self-defence militias today are recruiting children as young as twelve," she added.

The report calls on the Government of CAR to instruct self-defense militias to leave their children at home as well as train, equip and deploy troops to communities that have had to rely on self-defense militias to protect themselves.

According to Watchlist, CAR, which borders Chad, the DRC and Sudan, has some of the worst humanitarian indicators in the world and has been ranked the world's fourth most under-funded and ignored humanitarian crisis.

The LRA, which for years had abducted children in northern Uganda, more recently has been forced into remote areas of nearby countries, including CAR, where it has attacked villages and abducted children.

Another rebel group, the Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP) is the only armed group still fighting the government, and is reportedly recruiting or using child soldiers and attacking schools in the northeast of the country.