"Yes We Can" - White House will continue giving military aid to countries with child soldiers.(
RT).
The determination, authorized by President Barack Obama and addressed to
Secretary of State John Kerry, says that it is in the national interest of the
US to waive the application of a provision of the Child Soldiers Prevention Act
of 2008 with respect to Chad, South Sudan and Yemen.
That provision, section 404(a), prohibits the US from providing assistance to
or licensing the direct commercial sale of military equipment to the government
of any country identified as having children under the age of 18 participating
in armed operations.
Additionally, the White House has determined that it is in the best interest
of the US if that prohibition is also waived in part with respect to the
Democratic Republican of the Congo in order for America to continue providing
International Military Education and Training (IMET) and nonlethal excess
defense articles.
The determination will also let the DRC receive licenses for
direct commercial sales of nonlethal defense articles. The White House also said
it is waiving sections of the CSPA so that the US can allow Somalia to buy
nonlethal defense articles and receive IMET and the continued assistance from
America under the Peacekeeping Operations authority “
for logistical support
and troop stipends.”
Presidential
Determination, courtesy of Think Progress:
According to Think Progress writer Hayes Brown, the blanket waiver applied to
Chad, South Sudan and Yemen will essentially allow those nations to receive as
much military assistance as possible from the US, while Somalia and the DRC will
only be granted lethal aid in support of peacekeeping missions currently
underway in those countries.
The six nations that will benefit from the waiver make up the majority of a
list of ten countries determined by the Department of State to be using children
soldiers. Those that have been determined to employ children but are not having
the prohibition waived are Burma (Myanmar), the Central African Republic, Sudan
and Rwanda.
But despite the State Department’s awareness of those activities, this isn’t
the first time the Obama administration has waived provisions of the CSPA — even
with regards to those countries. Last October, Pres. Obama waived penalties
against Libya, South Sudan and Yemen, and again provided a partial waiver for
the DRC.
This week’s determination in fact marks the fourth consecutive year that
Obama has lifted restrictions on a law only five years old.
When the White House announced its determination last year, Jo Becker of
Human Rights Watch told Foreign Policy’s The Cable that "
While the
administration has stepped up its attention to child soldiers, it continues to
squander the leverage it has through the Child Soldiers Prevention Act.”
"By giving waivers to nearly all of the countries that have been affected
by the law, the president is telling military allies that ending the use of
child soldiers is not that important,” said Becker, the director of the
group’s children’s rights advocacy office.
On Monday this week, however, Becker authored a statement on the Human Rights
Watch website applauding the Obama administration’s decision to scale back, in
part, assistance to Somalia and the DRC — countries that were allowed to receive
even greater aid from the US in years past.
“
The US government announced today it will withhold military assistance
from four countries – the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Somalia and Rwanda – because of their recruitment and use of child
soldiers. This is a big improvement from previous years when the Obama
administration routinely allowed governments to receive US military assistance
even while they had child soldiers in their forces,” Becker wrote.
According to Becker, the White House’s stance to provide some countries with
only some support may actually help remove those nations of children soldiers in
the long run.
“
Last year we saw how the law could really work. The Obama administration
announced it would withhold foreign military financing and training from a
Congolese battalion until Congo signed an agreement with the United Nations to
end its use of child soldiers. The Congo had been dragging its feet on signing
the plan for seven years, but signed the plan only five days after the US
announcement,” Becker wrote.
“
This year, the administration will withhold at least some assistance from
four countries, not just one. This will put real pressure on these countries to
take some serious steps to end their use of child soldiers,” she said.
“
The Obama administration’s attention to child soldiers is welcome, but
there’s still more it can do to bring an end to this horrible practice.”
According to Becker, Yemen will be the recipient of more than $20 million
foreign military financing from the US. In 2010, the Obama administration said
it was necessary for the US to continue providing Yemen with assistance
because
cutting off funding “would seriously jeopardize the Yemeni
government's ability to conduct special operations and counterterrorism
missions, and create a dangerous level of in the country and the region.”
