GIRLS', WOMEN'S ROLES IN CIVIL WARS MORE WIDESPREAD, STUDY FINDS

March 3, 2004 – (Reliefweb) A Canadian-sponsored study published Wednesday showed that recruitment and abductions of girls and women to fight in many civil wars in Africa were widespread even though governments in the region denied a role in the practice.

The Montreal-based group, Rights and Democracy, spent more than three years studying the role and presence of girls and women in civil wars in Sierra Leone, Angola, Uganda, Congo, Liberia and other countries, concluding that the issue has been underestimated and misunderstood.

The study, entitled "Where Are the Girls?'', said some of the female recruits chose to take part in the conflicts and carried out acts of violence while others were coerced into fighting or taking up traditional tasks like cooking and cleaning for an army.

In Mozambique, northern Uganda and Sierra Leone, "girls and women are oppressed in countless ways,'' the study said. But it added that girls, who usually were made to work more hours than boys, gained more experience and power in wars in which they were provided opportunities to learn new skills.

"Thus war can simultaneously oppress girls and women and expand their possibilities,'' the study said.

Girls and women played many roles in both government and opposition forces in Mozambique, including as combatants, intelligence officers, porters, medics and slave labour.

In those three countries, the study said, girls in fighting forces have suffered "major human rights violations, especially gender-based violence''.

"The rights of these girls are under threat from their own governments, armed opposition forces and occasionally by members of their communities and families,'' the study said.

The 145-page study gave estimates of the size of some rebel armies and their makeup. In Sierra Leone, about half the 45,000 rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) were child soldiers, and among those child soldiers were 7,500 girls.

The study said about 3,000 girls were found in the government's SLA army and the pro-government CDF. Both the SLA and CDF had more than 80,000 troops during the civil war.

The study was sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency.

It also showed a pattern of abduction of girls into rebel armies from 1990 to 2003, with the majority of them coming from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Uganda. Other abductions were carried out as far away as Columbia, Germany, Yugoslavia, Iraq and Turkey, it said.

In general, girl soldiers were found in other countries where civil wars had taken place, including several countries in Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

As of November 2003, the study said, girls and women took part in conflicts in Angola, Burundi, Congo, Liberia, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Colombia, Burma, India, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Spain, Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

From Reliefweb