Ban on soldiers under 18 resisted by Britain and US

INTERNATIONAL MOVES to end the use of child soldiers could be scuppered by opposition from British armed forces chiefs who say a minimum age of 18 would severely hit Britain's recruitment programme.

Forty per cent of UK Armyrecruits are 16 or 17 and the United Nations plan could cause serious problems for a service already struggling to maintain numbers.

In the Royal Navy, 33 per cent join up before they are 18 and the figure for the Royal Air Force is 20 per cent.

Britain is the last country in the European Union to send 17-year-olds into battle. Even South Africa is expected to raise its recruitment age to 18.

A debate aimed at adding the no under-18s rule to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was opened last week but adjourned amid objections from Britain and the United States.

Olara Otunnu, special representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, is pressing for the ban. The Armed Forces minister Douglas Henderson has already said Britain cannot fully comply with an announcement that under-18s should no longer be sent on UN peacekeeping missions.

The Ministry of Defence says it needs to find recruits while they are still young, fit and receptive to the armed forces' training and ethos. Otherwise they may be tempted away by other employers.

A new campaign group, with backers including Amnesty International, Save the Children and the Quakers, says that Britain's role in a wider campaign to end the use of child soldiers in developing countries is discredited by the continuing use of teenagers in its own armed forces.

Those in the Army and the Navy can go to war at 17, while those in the RAF must be six months older.

In all there are about 6,600 under-18s among 210,000 people in the armed forces. Just over 5,000 are in the Army, 1,100 in the Navy and 500 in the RAF.

Worldwide, at least 300,000people aged under 18 are fighting in wars. In some countries recruitment starts at the age of 10 or younger.

A UN announcement last October called for all peacekeepers to be at least 18 years of age, preferably over 21. But last week Mr Henderson said in response to a parliamentary question that some navy ships already overseas might be called to war zones with under-18s on board.

Tim Montgomery, the co- ordinator of the UK Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, said Britain must set its own house in order before lecturing others. "If we can't change, how can we expect other countries, where recruitment starts at 10 or 11, to do so? As long as we keep sending British children into conflicts we are not helping anybody else."

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said the UK's young servicemen were volunteers and could leave at any time during their basic training. "The protocol is very much aimed at stopping the horrendous things we have seen in war zones around the world. We have very strict guidelines and support systems to ensure young people enjoy their time in the services and are fully trained," he said.

Although under-18s are not sent to Northern Ireland, they have been to Bosnia and the Gulf. Two 17-year-old soldiers were among the casualties of the Gulf War, and some of those who returned are reportedly suffering from Gulf War Syndrome. A 16-year-old boy died recently during a Marines training course on Dartmoor.

With the 10th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child falling this year, campaigners are determined to win support for a worldwide minimum recruitment age. The World Council of Churches recently called on its members to urge their national governments to ensure their soldiers were at least 18.

The UK may be prepared to raise the minimum age for active service to 18 but says it will not compromise on recruitment.

The Breaking of a Teenage Infantryman

A 17 YEAR-OLD boy returned "totally broken" from the Gulf War, his mother has told ministers.

The woman, who asked not to be named, said that she had been told three times by her local army careers office that no 17-year-olds were being deployed against Iraq.

In a letter to the former armed forces minister John Reid, she said the teenager, who was with the Queen's Own Highlanders, had never been the same since he returned. At 24 he still had difficulties sleeping, had lost weight, was unable to work and cared little about his appearance.

"We would not be in the depth of despair if he had not been sent to the Gulf as a 17-year-old boy. At 17 he was not able to vote or legally drink alcohol," she wrote. "I beg you to put pressure on the MoD and the Government not to put any more 17-year-olds into war situations. I would hate another mother to go through what I have been through. I thought my boy was going off to war and when he came home it was going to be a man returning. Instead, it was a totally broken young man."

An MoD official responded: "Soldiers are considered to be fully deployable when they are posted to their respective regiments."

He noted that the young man had an appointment with a medical programme set up to help victims of Gulf War Syndrome.