[I like the way movie producers these days portray Blacks as angels. Blacks are good, and Whites are bad. Blacks “love” and “care” for everyone in the world – in the movies! But in the real world, they don’t even care for their own kind. Jan]

LONDON: More than 120,000 girls and young women have been forced into conflict around the world, and almost half all child soldiers are female, a report by a British-based charity said on Monday. Up to 40 per cent of the estimated 300,000 children who are soldiers or otherwise involved in war around the world are female, some as young as eight although their presence is often hidden by armed groups, Save the Children said in a report.

Many of the reports about girls came from Africa and Asia, notably places such as Sri Lanka and Democratic Republic of Congo, the charity said in “Forgotten Casualties of War: Girls in Armed Conflict”. However, the practice was not unique to any particular regions and was a growing global issue, it said.

“When people speak of child soldiers, the image conjured up is of boys,” Save the Children UK Director General Mike Aaronson said in an introduction to the 38-page study. “But nearly half of all children associated with armed groups are girls. Used as active combatants, porters, cleaners, cooks and sexual possessions, they are less visible than boys, a (152)˜shadow army. “Many are killed in combat; most are raped and sexually abused. Many are injured or permanently disabled and spend the rest of their lives in pain.”

In Sri Lanka, 43 per cent of the 51,000 children involved in the island™s long civil war are girls, the report said, while in the Democratic Republic of Congo another 12,000 are believed to be involved with armed organisations. Other countries where girl soldiers had been identified included Colombia,

East Timor, Uganda and the Philippines, the report added. Even after conflicts had ended, girls tended to be ignored by programmes aimed at disarming combatants and re-integrating them back into their community. “Girls returning home are often marginalised and excluded from their communities. They are viewed as violent, unruly, dirty, or as promiscuous troublemakers,” the report said.

Those returning pregnant or with babies were offered little support and often had to become sex workers to survive. “We aim to change the system and ensure there is proper funding to help these girls so they can, with dignity, regain some sense of normal life,” Aaronson said. “This appalling abuse of girl™s rights demands urgent action. Its time to stop the war on children.”

URL: http://jang.com.pk/thenews/apr2005-daily/26-0…/p>