By Carlos H. Conde
International Herald Tribune
Published: December 21, 2008
MANILA: The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a separatist group in the Philippines, has given its commitment to the United Nations that it would stop recruiting children into its ranks and remove those already in the armed movement from conflict.
The group made the promise to Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN secretary general’s special representative on children and armed conflict, during a recent visit to the southern Philippines, where the Muslims have been fighting for self-determination for decades.
If the front succeeded in its promise, the United Nations might be able to remove it from its list of armed groups worldwide that recruit and use children, Coomaraswamy said in an interview.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front had long denied that it had children among its fighters, but the Philippine military disclosed in September that the group had been recruiting and training young Muslims to become, as one of the rebel documents was alleged to say, “tough, self-reliant fighting men.”
The military released a video showing children participating in military drills in what the authorities claimed was a camp maintained by the group.
Since then, the rebel group has been hard-pressed to contain the fallout from the video, with many in the Philippines denouncing it. Some critics said it had seriously undermined its cause, with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo promising to raise the issue of child soldiers to the United Nations.
“The Moro Islamic Liberation Front had given its commitment,” Coomaraswamy said. The group admitted that it had children in its ranks, she said, and the front had promised her that it would “release them, to move them away from the conflict zone.”
Coomaraswamy said a UN team would soon meet with the group to hammer out an action plan in order to carry out its commitment. “If they implement this over the course of next year, then by 2010 we will be able to delist them,” Coomaraswamy said, referring to the UN list of groups with child combatants.
A Unicef-commissioned study released late last year said that the front, as well as the Communist New People’s Army, did not coerce children into joining these movements. The researchers found “indications that children volunteer to help the groups as their parents willingly give their consent.”
The study quoted a Muslim boy named Amin who joined the front when he was 16, after some family members were killed during military operations.
“No one forced me to take up arms. I did it to defend what’s left of my family, especially because of what happened,” he said, according to the study.
Apart from the Islamic front and the Communist rebels, the government’s own paramilitary force, known as Cafgu, has been accused of recruiting minors to fight the insurgents.
