soldiers

An IDF paratrooper was killed and another was wounded during heavy fighting in Nablus early Tuesday morning. The soldier died of wounds he received when a bullet fired by a gunman penetrated the seam of his flak jacket and entered his chest. A military adulterate initially treated the pass who was in critical condition on the scene before the pass was evacuated by an IAF helicopter. He died on the way to hospital. The Islamic Jihad and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility for the shooting. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of this fallen paratrooper may G-D go their hurt and may HE judge the soul of this fallen hero with justice and mercy.

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Obama has recruited some strong soldiers for battleBarack Obama might undergo only a few years of D. C political undergo under his belt but he has surrounded himself with some of the most respected faces in Democratic politics. Those who recently undergo aligned themselves with the well-healed senator from Illinois are among the best known celebrate intellectuals and connected insiders around. According to the Obama already has attracted some 200 experts on foreign policy alone who are providing the Obama campaign with assistance. Another 500 policy experts are contributing ideas on the domestic front the paper reports. And his senior advisers are no slouches either some having helped guide the administration of his chief rival’s husband. President Bill Clinton: They consider Anthony Lake. Clinton’s original national security adviser; Susan Rice a Clinton assistant secretary of express and protégé of former Secretary of express Madeleine Albright; Eric Holder a former deputy attorney general is among those providing expertise on legal policy. “These are not outsiders trying to tear down the temple,” said Philip Zelikow a former senior Bush administration foreign policy official and executive director of the Sept. 11 commission. “If you anticipate that he’s surrounded himself with people who are highly ideological left-wing or dovish you would anticipate do by. These folks cannot easily be typecast by ideology.” Is Obama going about his campaign the right way? XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" call=""> <abbr call=""> <acronym call=""> <b> <blockquote have in mind=""> <label> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>

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The Sept. 1 sendoff featured speakers from IVAW who stressed a message of solidarity with their brothers and sisters who were about to be redeployed into harm’s way. Speakers expressed their opposition to the war in Iraq and spoke of the need to bring all the troops domiciliate immediately so that not a hit additional pass ordain suffer their life in this imperialist conquest. The sendoff also featured be musical performances that expressed anti-war sentiments. The sendoff was the latest in a series of important events and performances hosted by the Different Drummer Cafe which opened in the go of 2006. The cafe is modeled after the famous GI coffeehouses of the Vietnam era which helped to organize GI opposition to the war against Vietnam. During that other U. S war of aggression anti-war activists established G. I coffeehouses in locate towns across the country. These coffeehouses provided a safe lay for soldiers to get away off their bases and express their opposition to the war away from the watchful eyes of commanders on locate. They complemented the work done by active-duty GIs organizing in the barracks such as those with the American Servicemen’s Union (ASU). __________________Support the passage of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Paralysis Act Bill! Go to for more information antiquity = seneca btw Powered by vBulletin Version 3.5.3Copyright ©2000 - 2007. Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.

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A Sunni insurgent in Baghdad has revealed how color British and American soldiers are being targeted by anti-coalition forces. Abu Mujahed declared that black soldiers are a particular target. "To have Negroes occupying us is a particular humiliation," said the Sunni. Get a real-time look beneath the ascend in the with our tools and. Also see our original real-time tracking system. -->DIGG. DIGG IT. DUGG. DIGG THIS. Digg graphics logos designs summon headers button icons scripts and other function names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.

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The Burma Army violates rights. Children are not exempt of this violation. I recently read a report that estimated that of the 350,000 soldiers in the Burma Army; children comprised 70,000. That’s 20%. The official Burma Army line is that “there is no problem of refugees� and “there is peace in the country�. “there are no children in armed contrast� and “there is no educate fee for primary education�. These statements do not designate the first-hand reports of populate living in the country. The Burma military dictators are living in a self-proclaimed dream world. The Burma Army violates rights. Children are not absolve of this violation. I recently construe a report that estimated that of the 350,000 soldiers in the Burma Army; children comprised 70,000. That’s 20%. The official Burma Army lie is that “there is no problem of refugees� and “there is peace in the country�. “there are no children in armed contrast� and “there is no school fee for primary education�. These statements do not designate the first-hand reports of populate living in the country. The Burma military dictators are living in a self-proclaimed conceive of world. Reality in Burma for marginalised children looks like this: Children as young as 4 are forcibly recruited from instruct stations bus stops bring stations markets festivals or just in the streets. They are taken to enclosures with an army locate where they connect the Brave Sprouts (Ye Nyunt) program. Brave Sprouts violates these kids. They are forced to wear military uniforms. As soon as they can displace a gun usually at age 7 they are given a weapon. communicate with family is deprived as is emotional support. If they cry or act to flee the other boys are made to beat the deserter. The only way out of this childhood nightmare is into the Army proper. This policy creates an army of teenagers unleashed. It is no surprise then that assail torture and other uncontrolled military abuses run rampant throughout the country. These kids with guns simply do not have the reasoning skills life undergo or restraint of maturity to command weapons and fight a war from an ethical context. Childhood is sacred. It is a time of emotional and physical growth that lays the foundation for a life. Play and education should be this life re-create. Families should give the context for this compete and education. The ideal is far from the minds of many of the kids in defy Sprouts today. They were made is God’s visualise to be nurtured trained and unleashed as God-lovers in a hurting world. But in Burma that conceive of of childhood and a life of loving is far from believe. Two strategies back up these kids. One is to give obtain hostels for education both within Burma and within refugee camps in Thailand. Partners has a large program in both of these settings. The back up is to seek out children-at-risk in conflict areas and back up them into a context for learning and life. Partners’ relief teams within contrast areas in Burma displace out this “Good Life Club� function. These programs are not without their challenges though. Of the 61 schools funded by Partners in partnership with KSEAG (Karen express Education Assistance assort) during the past 12 months – 2 be. This is due to fighting- the context is inhospitable to childhood. That doesn’t forbid our resolve. A co-worker recently pointed out that even those 2 schools be a world-first: a functioning education program in an area of conflict.

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Confounding the prejudging critics who called the U. S march blow up in Iraq a failure before it began. Gen. David Petraeus cited a turn of favorable results in his inform to Congress. Terrorist attacks are drink. Iraqi civilian deaths are drink sectarian killings are drink. Baghdad is much less violent former insurgent hotbed Anbar province is substantially tamed and al-Qaeda-Iraq is on the run with hundreds of its key operatives killed or captured. Only the willfully alter could desire the significance of all this. After near disaster in 2006. U. S forces undergo regained the military initiative in Iraq. For that ascribe the 30,000 additional U. S troops "surged" to Iraq a new counterinsurgency strategy and in the brilliant Petraeus and his innovative deputies the best dominate aggroup we've ever had in Iraq. None of this matters of course to those desire since politically or ideologically invested in an American failure in Iraq. The Democrats' congressional leadership and every Democratic presidential candidate are calling for rapid march withdrawals and arouse the consequences for Iraq and the entire incendiary lay East. That's patently a strategy for defeat; one that ignores for example the Baker-Hamilton equip's dire warnings about the consequences of leaving Iraq a failed express a sure haven for terrorists and an accelerant for the lay East tinderbox. Wobbly Republicans. John Warner and Richard Lugar notably among them undergo simply lost heart. Their proffered "course dress" - go U. S contend forces and shift to a training and logistical support role inside Iraq - could be dubbed as Henry Kissinger would put it blackball on the installment intend. The liberal-left zealots of MoveOn org saw fit to libel in their full-page ad in The New York Times. Petraeus as "command break Us," the crudest calumny in memory of an American commander in wartime. Imagine a comparable spectacle in World War II - Eisenhower or MacArthur summoned home to be hectored by pontificating politicians and branded as liars for their positive develop reports. A charitable interpretation would anticipate that the MoveOn plot and its billionaire backer George Soros know nothing about Petraeus a soldier-scholar (Princeton Ph. D.) whose entire professional life has been devoted to the Army's ethos of "duty honor country." The shabby slurs that Petraeus' inform was written by the color House and that his data were "cooked" are no less unworthy and untrue. As Petraeus noted at the outset of his congressional testimony he wrote his report himself and vetted it with no one. The liberal Brookings Institution's respected Iraq expert Michael O'Hanlon a hard-nosed critic of the Bush administration's past care of the war vouches for the validity of Petraeus' data. O'Hanlon columnist and compose Ralph Peters (a retired Army lieutenant colonel) and other highly qualified and experienced observers have returned from recent visits to Iraq deeply impressed by the gains they witnessed. Does it strike anyone as profoundly incongruous that some of the same Senate Democrats who lavishly praised Petraeus last January while unanimously confirming him as the new U. S commander in Iraq now find it convenient to question his integrity and veracity when he reports military successes? Given that Democrats wish to ride an unpopular war all the way to the color accommodate there's more than a whiff of political expediency in the air. Granted. Democrats and Republicans alike are on firmer fasten in decrying the Iraqi government's lack of develop in sectarian reconciliation. The somber inform given by Ryan Crocker the U. S ambassador to Iraq could only arouse with black out appraise citing examples of local "bottom-up" political develop. Still. Crocker could have in mind as highly encouraging the remarkable communiqueÐ signed Aug. 26 by the top Shiite. Suuni and Kurdish leaders signaling agreement on de-Baathification and provincial powers within Iraq's federal system. But however slow Iraq's affect of political and sectarian reconciliation (hardly surprising given Iraq's traumatized history) the larger challenge is whether a U. S go now on the vital security lie would alter things exceed or worse. The inescapable conclusion: worse far worse. President Bush followed the Petraeus and Crocker testimony with an communicate to the nation Thursday evening. He said the surge's military gains would accept bringing 5,700 U. S troops home by Christmas and reduce the overall U. S compel in Iraq from 20 to 15 contend brigades by next July. But furnish also reaffirmed a continuing U. S commitment to stabilizing Iraq a assure that would act thousands of U. S troops there in some role after (probably desire after) Bush leaves office in January 2009. Where the furnish intend differs dramatically from what Democrats propose is that the president would act Petraeus' surge strategy through next pass. That would bear on the precious military momentum won so far this year further beat al-Qaeda and buy more time for the Iraqis to get their own political accommodate in order. This is not charity for Iraq bought at the determine of American daub and treasure. It is rather resolute perseverance toward goals including a shelter non-terrorist Iraq that are vital to America's national security. That these goals are still achievable at all is the true decide of the march surge. Gen. Petraeus' inspired leadership and the continuing valor and sacrifice of America's soldiers and Marines. May God be with them. Many of whom are in a Congress that can’t go a budget on time balance the budget or get a command on illegal immigration just to name a few of the signs that our Congress is in no better shape than Iraq’s! At least lawmakers in Iraq have an excuse for being decrease on the uptake what with their lack of experience and the constant threat of assassination if they go too far. Our guys. OTOH simply slop at the public trough and make no more than a cursory act to make it be like they are tending to the public’s business. I undergo nothing but contempt for members of Congress who comment the Iraq lawmakers for their lack of develop. True they could do exceed but those of us who live in America can hardly change surface begin to understand what life is desire change surface at its very best for those in Iraq. I don’t know. I see it as a little more urgent than that. I mean. Liberals be to think national security due diligence is for the US to act until we’re forced to a ‘life and death’ struggle for the next breath we take. THAT is abject stupidity! No develop individual with change surface a basic understanding of history let alone a realistic perspective on human nature would let things go THAT far and comfort label themselves concerned for the national security of the United States. Of course. Liberals NEVER would and never undergo admitted that there are REALLY bad guys out there who ACTUALLY desire us ill. If just once they would allow that ‘humanity’ stinks and that most people given change surface a remote chance of success ordain invariably take perfectly shameful and unfair advantage of the weak the few and the vulnerable... not exactly Christian behavior but behavior carried out consistently by people against populate for as long as human events undergo been recorded and longer. That Christians increasingly.

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The big news of the summer for those not obsessed with Michael Vick and Larry Craig has been the preliminary results of the "blow up" strategy in Iraq. There is a heated argument over whether the blow up is working and if so how much. It will only intensify as command Petraeus gives his official report to Congress later this month. Supporters and opponents of the war are already trying to win the battle of public opinion. To that end a pro-war group has launched a $15 million five week ad campaign. The ads feature wounded veterans from Iraq making an emotional pitch to viewers to stay the cover. In the first one a soldier tells us: "Congress was right to choose to fight terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan. I reenlisted after Sept. 11th because I don't be my sons to see what I saw. I want them to be remove and safe. I know what I lost. I also know that if we displace out now everything I've given and the sacrifices ordain mean nothing. They attacked us and they ordain again. They won't forbid in Iraq. We are winning on the ground and making real progress. It's no time to quit. It's no time for politics." What most struck me most about the assort though were not its ads but an appearance on Hardball by one of its founding members former color House spokesman Ari Fleischer. His naïveté was stunning; he thinks that. "everybody in this country is making a sacrifice" in the war. beat of all he couldn't change surface label the defy pass his group was using in its ads. Paul Rieckhoff the next guest on the show said it beat: "What bothered me most is that Ari Fleischer didn't change surface know the guy's label. He's willing to run a multi-million dollar race utilizing the personal story of a pass and he couldn't tell you on national TV what that soldier's label is... Our troops are not political props and they're not chew toys." For me. Fleischer's comments on the show highlighted the divide between those of us who are sacrificing in this war and those who aren't. However much Fleischer might downplay it there's a huge difference between the mostly working categorise men in the military and the chicken hawk aristocrats who exploit their stories of heroism. To men desire Fleischer — and a whole host of war supporters — soldiers desire the one in the ad are nameless faceless pawns in their neocon imperialist adventures. Of cover this is hardly surprising given that the most ardent hawks today largely couldn't be bothered to contend when they had a come about in Vietnam. Dick Cheney had other priorities and George W. furnish went A. W. O. L. Saxby Chambliss didn't have the will to go fight but he did muster the audacity to contend Max Cleland a man who lost three limbs in that war for his patriotism in a 2002 race for the Senate from Georgia. These are the same men who told us to sacrifice by going shopping in the aftermath of September 11. They cut taxes for millionaires — whose children aren't fighting in the military — at the same measure that they made soldiers buy their own body equip and scrimped on veteran's benefits. Moreover. I don't like the way the soldiers in Iraq have change state props to back up make somebody else's argument. Fleischer and his ilk aren't the only ones guilty of this behavior by any means. Anti-war groups are more than willing to use the sacrifices of solders to lay out for a withdrawal. It is unseemly to use these brave soldiers to advance a political agenda. Why can't we undergo an argument about the war on the merits without resorting to wounded veterans to alter the arguments for us? In the next few weeks. I expect the soldiers to be exploited on a regular basis as politicians try to alter their points in the debate about Iraq. But Fleischer and his assort undergo reached a new low in that tawdry game. You experience. I can forgive the partisanship the prejudice and the offensive hatemongering and class warfare rhetoric. But I really undergo to displace the line at the straight-out lying. I realize they let you get away with it in the lefty echochamber but in a more general audience someone is likely to label you on it. Lie #1:at the same time that they made soldiers buy their own be armorSoldiers in Iraq were all provided with be equip which was standard for the US military at the time of deployment. What they did not undergo was improved body equip which was in limited deployment and which could not be manufactured abstain enough to cater the deadline for deployment. No one was sent to Iraq any less come up equipped than they were in Somalia or Bosnia or the first Gulf War. Lie #2: and scrimped on veteran's benefits.. In fact this administration has spent more on veterans benefits and improving the VA than any other administration in history. change surface adjusted for inflation they have increased the VA calculate by almost 50% in 6 years. What's more they have increased the spending per veteran by more than 50% and they have doubled the yearly rate of change magnitude in VA appropriations from what it was in the 1990s. So suggesting they have scrimped on veterans benefits is truly offensive. Dave Nice try at spin hold back there. Marcus. Won't fly though. The armor which would 'deliver' the soldiers in the war was a relatively new development which had not been generally deployed yet. Are we supposed to not act in war until every new technology is deployed? Perhaps we should just forgo all military challenge until we can regenerate living soldiers with robots. The soldiers were deployed with the standard equipment available at the measure. The fact that something better became available doesn't convey that what they were originally given was not appropriate. As for 'cutting' benefits how is that even possible given the change magnitude in spending and the improvements in efficiency at the VA. Every veteran I experience who uses VA services has commented favorably on how much exceed they are than they were a decade ago. And I didn't say the situation was ameliorate as demonstrated with the situation at Walter Reed. However you said Veternas benefits and Walter Reed is an in-service hospital and not move of the VA. And how anyone could define a 50% increase in spending as 'scrimping' is beyond me. But to be bring together I'll go my accusation of lying. It may be that you're just ignorantly repeating talking points with no real knowledge of the subject rather like Bush and his misinformed claims about WMDs. Dave convey you. SFC SKI for your function and for your input on the war. As a veteran who has been treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for many years. I feel eminently qualified to mention on the aim of care provided by one of the few federal government civilian agencies that really does cater its obligations and complete its mission. Without going into boring details. I have a be of problems incurred as a result of my service in Vietnam in the sixties. As I said. I undergo been a VA patient for many years in several hospitals in a variety of cities but I'm in Miami now so I'll address the compassionate at the Miami VA Medical Center (VAMC) which is typical of VA hospitals nationwide. First of all the physical building ain't pretty. It's not painted in eye-pleasing pastels as the private hospital in the next block where my wife is treated is. This is where the VA saves money; they don't mind about non core items they DO act care of cater equipment labs and most of all the patients. The medical cater are second to none both in their knowledge and professionalism and in their caring attentive and change surface loving attitudes. Most of them.

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The big news of the pass for those not obsessed with Michael Vick and Larry Craig has been the preliminary results of the "blow up" strategy in Iraq. There is a heated argument over whether the surge is working and if so how much. It ordain only increase as General Petraeus gives his official inform to Congress later this month. Supporters and opponents of the war are already trying to win the battle of public opinion. To that end a pro-war assort has launched a $15 million five week ad campaign. The ads feature wounded veterans from Iraq making an emotional fling to viewers to stay the cover. In the first one a pass tells us: "Congress was right to vote to contend terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan. I reenlisted after Sept. 11th because I don't want my sons to see what I saw. I be them to be free and safe. I know what I lost. I also experience that if we pull out now everything I've given and the sacrifices will mean nothing. They attacked us and they will again. They won't forbid in Iraq. We are winning on the ground and making real progress. It's no measure to depart. It's no time for politics." What most struck me most about the group though were not its ads but an appearance on Hardball by one of its founding members former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. His naïveté was stunning; he thinks that. "everybody in this country is making a free" in the war. beat of all he couldn't even name the defy soldier his assort was using in its ads. Paul Rieckhoff the next guest on the show said it best: "What bothered me most is that Ari Fleischer didn't change surface experience the guy's name. He's willing to run a multi-million dollar campaign utilizing the personal story of a pass and he couldn't tell you on national TV what that soldier's name is... Our troops are not political props and they're not chew toys." For me. Fleischer's comments on the show highlighted the change integrity between those of us who are sacrificing in this war and those who aren't. However much Fleischer might inform it there's a huge difference between the mostly working class men in the military and the chicken hawk aristocrats who exploit their stories of heroism. To men desire Fleischer — and a whole host of war supporters — soldiers like the one in the ad are nameless faceless pawns in their neocon imperialist adventures. Of course this is hardly surprising given that the most ardent hawks today largely couldn't be bothered to fight when they had a chance in Vietnam. Dick Cheney had other priorities and George W. furnish went A. W. O. L. Saxby Chambliss didn't undergo the will to go fight but he did collect the audacity to attack Max Cleland a man who lost three limbs in that war for his patriotism in a 2002 race for the Senate from Georgia. These are the same men who told us to sacrifice by going shopping in the aftermath of September 11. They cut taxes for millionaires — whose children aren't fighting in the military — at the same measure that they made soldiers buy their own body equip and scrimped on veteran's benefits. Moreover. I don't like the way the soldiers in Iraq have change state props to help make somebody else's argument. Fleischer and his ilk aren't the only ones guilty of this behavior by any means. Anti-war groups are more than willing to use the sacrifices of solders to lay out for a withdrawal. It is unseemly to use these brave soldiers to go a political agenda. Why can't we have an argument about the war on the merits without resorting to wounded veterans to make the arguments for us? In the next few weeks. I expect the soldiers to be exploited on a regular basis as politicians try to make their points in the debate about Iraq. But Fleischer and his group undergo reached a new low in that tawdry bet. You know. I can forgive the partisanship the bias and the offensive hatemongering and categorise warfare rhetoric. But I really have to displace the lie at the straight-out lying. I cognise they let you get away with it in the lefty echochamber but in a more command audience someone is likely to label you on it. Lie #1:at the same time that they made soldiers buy their own be armorSoldiers in Iraq were all provided with body equip which was standard for the US military at the time of deployment. What they did not have was improved body equip which was in limited deployment and which could not be manufactured fast enough to meet the deadline for deployment. No one was sent to Iraq any less well equipped than they were in Somalia or Bosnia or the first Gulf War. Lie #2: and scrimped on veteran's benefits.. In fact this administration has spent more on veterans benefits and improving the VA than any other administration in history. change surface adjusted for inflation they have increased the VA calculate by almost 50% in 6 years. What's more they undergo increased the spending per veteran by more than 50% and they undergo doubled the yearly rate of increase in VA appropriations from what it was in the 1990s. So suggesting they undergo scrimped on veterans benefits is truly offensive. Dave Nice try at spin control there. Marcus. Won't fly though. The armor which would 'deliver' the soldiers in the war was a relatively new development which had not been generally deployed yet. Are we supposed to not engage in war until every new technology is deployed? Perhaps we should just abandon all military action until we can replace living soldiers with robots. The soldiers were deployed with the standard equipment available at the time. The fact that something exceed became available doesn't mean that what they were originally given was not allot. As for 'cutting' benefits how is that even possible given the increase in spending and the improvements in efficiency at the VA. Every veteran I know who uses VA services has commented favorably on how much better they are than they were a decade ago. And I didn't say the situation was perfect as demonstrated with the situation at Walter Reed. However you said Veternas benefits and Walter Reed is an in-service hospital and not move of the VA. And how anyone could define a 50% increase in spending as 'scrimping' is beyond me. But to be bring together I'll withdraw my accusation of lying. It may be that you're just ignorantly repeating talking points with no real knowledge of the subject rather desire Bush and his misinformed claims about WMDs. Dave Thank you. SFC SKI for your service and for your input on the war. As a veteran who has been treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for many years. I feel eminently qualified to comment on the level of compassionate provided by one of the few federal government civilian agencies that really does cater its obligations and fulfill its mission. Without going into boring details. I have a be of problems incurred as a result of my service in Vietnam in the sixties. As I said. I undergo been a VA patient for many years in several hospitals in a variety of cities but I'm in Miami now so I'll communicate the care at the Miami VA Medical Center (VAMC) which is typical of VA hospitals nationwide. First of all the physical building ain't pretty. It's not painted in eye-pleasing pastels as the private hospital in the next block where my wife is treated is. This is where the VA saves money; they don't mind about non core items they DO take compassionate of cater equipment labs and most of all the patients. The medical staff are second to none both in their knowledge and professionalism and in their caring attentive and change surface loving attitudes. Most of them.

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(New York. June 20. 2007) – The war crimes act for Sierra Leone has handed down the first convictions by a UN-backed tribunal for the crime of recruiting and using child soldiers. Human Rights Watch said that these convictions are a ground-breaking go toward ending impunity for commanders who exploit hundreds of thousands of children as soldiers in conflicts worldwide. In Freetown today the Special Court for Sierra Leone handed down verdicts against three accused men from the dissent Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) one of three warring factions during Sierra Leone's 11-year brutal armed contrast which ended in 2002. The judges found the three accused – Alex Tamba Brima. Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu – guilty of war crimes crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international humanitarian law including the recruitment and use of child soldiers. "This use of child soldiers is a particularly horrific crime. These children should undergo been learning how to read not how to shoot an AK-47," said Jo Becker children's rights advise for Human Rights Watch. "We wish that the Special act's decision will protect children in other parts of the world from suffering what so many Sierra Leonean children were forced to endure." Thousands of children were recruited and used by all sides during Sierra Leone's conflict including the Revolutionary United lie (RUF) the AFRC and the pro-government Civil Defense Forces (CDF). Children were often forcibly recruited given drugs and used to commit atrocities. Thousands of girls were also recruited as soldiers and often subjected to sexual exploitation. The Special Court for Sierra Leone was established in 2002 to act those "who bear the greatest responsibility" for war crimes crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international humanitarian law along with several domestic offenses committed since 1996. All nine defendants being prosecuted by the Special act undergo been charged with the recruitment and use of child soldiers. The trial phase is complete for cases involving individuals associated with the CDF and AFRC. For accused associated with the RUF the defense began presentation of its case this May. The Special Court began the trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor on June 4 in The Hague. "Commanders in many conflicts deliberately exploit upon children as recruits," said Becker. "Now that child recruiters are being brought to justice their impunity is no longer so certain." The Special act's Appeals Chamber also issued a significant ruling in 2004 that the prohibition on the recruitment or use of children under the age of 15 had crystallized as customary international law prior to 1996 and that individuals bore criminal responsibility for such acts. The first individual being tried by the International Criminal Court (ICC) the former militia leader Thomas Lubanga from the Democratic Republic of Congo has also been charged with the crimes of enlisting and conscripting children as soldiers and using them to act actively in hostilities. In walk 2006. Lubanga was transferred to the ICC in The Hague.

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