Kathmandu, February 21:

A United Nations report has documented the recruitment of 155 children in all five regions of Nepal by the CPN-M after the ceasefire was declared in April 2006. The report also stated that 23 large-scale abductions by the CPN-M took place after April 2006.

“Of 154 new incidents, documented from May to September 2006, 72 involved recruitments into People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and 82 into other CPN-M affiliated organisations, including militias,” stated the UN Secretary General’s report launched here today amid a function in the presence of Speaker of the legislature-parliament, Subas Nembang.

Most of those children were enrolled in schools at the time of their recruitment, states the report, adding that the 72 recruited in PLA were promised money by the CPN-M recruiters, and employment in the still to be formed national army. The youngest of the new recruits is 12 years.

The report stated: “The low-level cadres in the part-time militia are generally between 10 and 16 years old, unarmed, and carry out propaganda activities, distribute CPN-M newspapers or serve as spies and messengers, whereas the full-timers have unsophisticated weapons, and are usually deployed in areas other than their districts to carry out strategic activities such as logistical support to the People’s Liberation Army.”

The documentation of the individuals done between August 2005 and September 2006 however found 512 minor cases of recruitment by the CPN-M during that period.

It stated that 40 per cent of them were girls. The youngest recruit was an eight-year-old schoolboy from a disadvantaged community in the mid-western region and was used as

a messenger for over a year and a half. The documentation covers 1,811 cases.

The task force documented the cases of 195 held by the security forces under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Control and Punishment) Ordinance (TADO).

The youngest held under the TADO was 11 years old and 58 of the detained were girls. “Some 73 per cent of the arrested identified (the then) Royal Nepalese Army as the arresting authority, while the remaining children identified the police or Unified Command as the arresting authority,” the report stated.

It added that over 80 per cent of the 101 children provided “detailed accounts of ill-treatment and torture.”

The task force also documented that two girls are still detained in Nuwakot District Police Office on different charges.

The report, which was submitted to the UN Security Council on February 9, says, “Twenty-three large-scale abductions were documented after April, during which children had to take part in political mass gatherings in Mugu, Kanchanpur, Kailali, Palpa, Kavre, Kathmandu and Morang.”

The task force documented 45 abductions by the CPN-M for “law enforcement” purposes mostly after the April 2006 ceasefire. “Children as young as 11 years of age have been taken into captivity and accused of crimes such as sexual violence, illicit relationships, petty crimes, public disorder or more serious incidents such as rape and murder.”

The report has documented 149 incidents of killing and maiming of children in which 113 were injured and 36 others lost their lives, their average age being less than 10 years. Thirty-seven cases of arrest by security forces have been considered as disappeared.