UNICEF WELCOMES RELEASE OF ALMOST 200 CHILD SOLDIERS BY CENTRAL AFRICAN REBEL FORCE

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has welcomed the release of nearly 200 child soldiers by a Central African rebel group and called for more demobilizations in the conflict-torn country.

The People's Army for the Restoration of Democracy (APRD) has released 166 boys and 16 girls aged between 10 and 17 since April, and nearly all those child soldiers have since been reunited with their families, UNICEF said in a statement issued yesterday.

The release of the child soldiers follows the rebels' signature of a peace agreement last year and a visit to the Central African Republic (CAR) by Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.

"We are extremely pleased that APRD leaders are following through with their commitment to surrender the children in their ranks," said Mahimbo Mdoe, UNICEF's representative in Bangui, the CAR capital.

The UN agency has been working closely with the CAR Government and several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to plan and coordinate the release of the children, who mostly hail from Ouham Pendé province in the north of the country.

Two transit centres were built and each released child was given a "demobilization kit" that includes clothes, sleeping mats, blankets and personal hygiene items. The former soldiers also receive medical check-ups, basic literacy and mathematics classes and counselling.

When the children return to their former communities they can participate in catch-up classes to facilitate their reintegration into regular schools, while older children can attend training programmes in such areas as animal husbandry, tailoring and carpentry.

But Mr. Mdoe stressed that the former child soldiers are usually returning to communities with limited access to basic services and few employment opportunities. Sporadic fighting continues in northern CAR, particularly near the borders with Chad and Sudan.

"Reintegration is a long and often difficult process in any circumstance, and the prevailing climate of insecurity adds to the challenges," he said. "We need to keep up our assistance to these communities if we want the demobilization programme to succeed."

UNICEF is calling for an additional $1 million to ensure that the demobilization and reintegration of the child soldiers can continue.
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CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: INCLUSIVE TALKS COULD LEAD TO PEACE CONSOLIDATION – UN

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: INCLUSIVE TALKS COULD LEAD TO PEACE CONSOLIDATION – UN
New York, Mar 10 2009 6:00PM

Recent long-awaited multi-party talks in the Central African Republic (CAR) have provided a window of opportunity to make strides towards consolidating peace in the land-locked nation, a top United Nations envoy told the Security Council today.

François Lonsény Fall, the Secretary-General's Special Representative, said that last December's successful talks held in the capital, Bangui, were a result of two years of "tremendous effort" by various actors, both national – including representatives of the Government, opposition and civil society – and international.

Three committees have been established in the areas of politics and governance; security and armed groups; and socio-economic questions, he said in his last briefing to the Council in his current position.

The first committee has "had to deal with the most contentious issues," such as the legitimacy of the current regime and the country's governance, Mr. Fall said.

At the end of the 12-day dialogue, he told the Council, several agreements had been reached, including the establishment of a broad-based government, a commitment to hold elections in 2009 and 2010, and the setting up of an independent electoral commission.

The security committee, for its part, has dealt with the issues of implementing security sector reform, restructuring the national armed forces and combating the proliferation of small arms, the envoy said, while the socio-economic committee is focusing on putting into place a poverty reduction strategy, reforming public finances and reforming the management of national resources.

Mr. Fall briefed the Council on the deterioration of the security situation in northern CAR, where rebel groups and a spill-over of violence from the Darfur war in neighbouring Sudan have driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. He said there has been intense fighting and "some very daring attacks" against government institutions and military installations in some areas.

But in spite of the setbacks, he stressed that the December inclusive dialogue has provided an occasion to bring stability to the country, which has been beset by widespread fighting and armed banditry in recent years, with some 200,000 Central Africans have been either internally displaced by the fighting or forced to live as refugees in neighbouring Chad and Cameroon.

The Representative said that CAR leaders have "underlined the need to obtain support from the international community at the same time as they try to implement the foundations of the dialogue."

Last June, the Government struck an agreement with the rebel groups known as the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR) and the Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy (APRD) after talks in Libreville, Gabon, facilitated by that country's President El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba.

Also in June 2008, the CAR became the fourth country to be placed on the agenda of the Peacebuilding Commission, which aims to help States emerging from conflict to avoid the slide back into war or chaos.

A report issued by the Commission's mission that visited the country last autumn stressed that without concrete and substantive progress in inclusive political dialogue, efforts to achieve improvement in security, rule of law and development remained stalled in a country that is beset by unrest, widespread displacement and entrenched poverty.

"There is also a general awareness that progress has to be simultaneous on all three fronts," said the publication, released in January.
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