Cotabato City – Children below 18 years old are now banned from recruitment into the armed forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front following the official launching here yesterday by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) of the “Children, Not Soldiers” campaign, a program that will protect the children in Moro communities and prevent them from becoming child warriors.
UNICEF Country representative Lotta Sylwander and Sammy Gambal, chief of staff of the MILF Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), exchanged documents, banners and streamers containing supportive slogans to symbolize the official start of the campaign yesterday morning at a local hotel here.
“Today marks the important benchmark in the campaign to spread the message to the MILF, their families, communities and base commands, that no child under the age of 18 should be engaged in any form of military activity,”Rebecca Pankhurst, head of the Cotabato UNICEF office, said at the launch ceremony.
“What we want for the children in Mindanao is to have a happy, healthy and peaceful childhood, we don’t want children to be fighting, carrying guns or used as spies but rather learning and playing,” she added.
The campaign is in pursuit of an action plan drawn up by the MILF and the UNICEF committing concrete and time-bound activities to prevent the recruitment and use of children as combatants or in supporting roles, pull out any children below 18 years from the command structure, assure unimpeded access to MILF base commands for UN verification, and raise awareness on children’s rights and child protection.
Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF vice chair for political affairs said MILF is in the process of completing the UN-MILF action plan program on the non-use of children as combatants.
Manila Bulletin
