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[MEDELLIN, Colombia, 24 January 2007] - Children who helped right-wing Colombian militias in their conflict against Marxist rebels say they are being forgotten as their former commanders collect benefits under a peace deal. Human rights groups estimate that at least 10 per cent of paramilitary fighters were under the age of 18. But of the 31,671 who turned in their guns over the last three years, only 429 were children, about 1.3 per cent, the government says. So where are the thousands of youths trained in extortion, violence and drug smuggling by the paramilitary bosses, who for two decades held sway over parts of this Andean country? One interviewed by Reuters said he worked as a lookout for a paramilitary gang that once ran this poor hillside neighbourhood of northeast Medellin, home of Pablo Escobar's infamously violent cocaine cartel in the 1980s and 1990s. "I collected information to give to the chiefs. But they never considered helping me get the demobilisation benefits that they are getting," said the thin 17-year-old, who asked that his name not be printed. "They have us here adrift," he added, cigarette in his left hand, where the nail on his little finger has grown long enough to spoon cocaine into his nose, a daily habit. A 16-year-old whose job was to hide guns for the paramilitaries after battles or assassinations, agreed: "It's bad that the State is helping some people and not others." Neither go to school or have jobs. Crime is a constant temptation for them even though the 17-year-old says he longs to do something important with his life, "something that does not involve killing or damaging the community." Paramilitary chiefs are coming to trial for crimes ranging from massacre to torture but they face no more than eight years in jail under the deal they negotiated with the government. Adults who fought with them are getting monthly stipends, counselling and job training. The paramilitaries were formed in the 1980s to help fight leftist rebels who are still waging war against the State. Both groups are tied to Colombia's multibillion-dollar cocaine trade and human rights groups say many paramilitaries continue lives of crime even as they receive demobilisation benefits. Televised demobilisation ceremonies were meant to close a painful chapter in Colombia's 42-year-old guerrilla war. But there was something missing from those scenes of fighters kissing and then tearfully handing in their guns. "To avoid the embarrassment of children participating in the ceremonies, which would have confirmed the paramilitaries were breaking international law by using child combatants, their leaders just sent most of them home," said Mauricio Romero, a member of the National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation, which is overseeing the peace process. "They are not being offered re-adaptation programmes, so many are joining the new generation crime gangs that are replacing the 'paras'," he added. This defect in the demobilisation process is likely to come back to haunt Colombia, said Amalia Eraso, spokeswoman for Fundacion Dos Mundos, a non-governmental organisation. "These boys and girls were immersed in a world where values were determined by the logic of violence," Eraso said. "Without serious intervention their future is at risk, and so is the future of the communities where they live." Colombia's child welfare agency says the government has offered services to more than 3,000 former child combatants since 1999, most from the country's biggest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Further information
pdf: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N24395441.htm