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[MANILA, 8 October 2008] - Rebel groups and government-armed militias using child soldiers in the Philippines and 16 other strife-torn countries face prosecution in the United States under a new U.S. law, a human rights group said Wednesday. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said the Child Soldiers Accountability Act, signed by President Bush on Oct. 3, makes it a federal crime in the United States to recruit and use soldiers under 15 years even if they operate outside the U.S. The penalty ranges up to 20 years, or life in prison if the child dies. Jo Becker, child rights advocate of Human Rights Watch, said commanders who recruit and use children in armed conflicts "can no longer come to the United States without the risk of ending up in jail." "This new law is a breakthrough because it no longer leaves the prosecution of child recruiters to international tribunals and the national courts of conflict-affected countries," Becker said in a statement. She said the United Nations has reported that the communist New People's Army, Muslim separatists, the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf and government-armed militias in the Philippines have used child soldiers. Under-age combatants also are being used in at least 16 other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, the human rights group said. The Philippine military last month showed a video tape reportedly seized from a Muslim rebel camp allegedly showing child soldiers being trained by the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Front spokesman Eid Kabalu dismissed the video as military propaganda and denied the rebels use children as combatants or even as couriers since "these are delicate matters that cannot be delegated to children." "We are not recruiting minors. ... We are not worried about that (U.S. law)," he said. The National Democratic Front, which represents the communist rebels in stalled peace talks with the government, also has denied using child warriors. In a statement last month, Luis Jalandoni, the chief rebel peace negotiator, said the underground Communist Party of the Philippines adopted a "definite policy prohibiting the recruitment of those below 18 years" as regular guerrilla fighters as early as 1988. Further information
pdf: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hlc2Kf-HULqq60KarpfCF2nkkIbAD93M66N00