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Paris hosts child soldiers forum Child soldiers 'are a time bomb'
(about 13 hours later)
An international conference on child soldiers is due to open in Paris. France's foreign minister has warned that the use of child soldiers is a time bomb that threatens stability and growth in Africa and beyond.
The aim is to put pressure on governments to do more to stop children from being enlisted in armed conflicts. Philippe Douste-Blazy told a Paris conference child soldiers were "lost children, lost for peace and lost for the development of their countries."
The forum - entitled "Free children from war" - is being jointly hosted by the UN children's agency, Unicef, and the French government. An estimated 250,000 child soldiers are now fighting in wars, mostly in Africa.
They say more than 250,000 children were used in armed conflicts in 2006, and that 12 nations have been named for using them on a massive scale. Delegates heard a former child soldier tell of his experiences on the frontline in Sierra Leone.
Six countries - five of them in Africa - have been referred to the UN Security Council. Ishmael Beah, who fought for almost two years, described shooting someone as being "as easy as drinking a glass of water".
'Paris Principles' Paris Principles
Unicef has gathered evidence from many children who have been coerced into fighting, often to witness and commit atrocities. The former child soldier, now 26, was barely 13 when recruited to fight in an armed faction in Sierra Leone.
"It is the most difficult thing to regain your humanity. I'm living proof that it is possible," he said.
UN WATCHLIST FOR CHILD SOLDIERS BurundiDemocratic Republic of CongoIvory CoastSomaliaSudanNepalSri Lanka
The two-day conference, hosted by the UN children's agency and the French government, will seek to get countries to sign up to a new framework of action known as the Paris Principles.
These aim to ensure countries work harder to release children from conflict and reintegrate them into normal life.
Mr Douste-Blazy said that countries that recruited children to fight should no longer be allowed to "slip through the net".
Mr Beah said that a failure to follow through on rehabilitation programmes left children at risk becoming mercenaries and fuelling further conflicts.
"They know how to use a gun. And there is a conflict next door offering $100 a day and all-you-can-loot, and they will go back to that," he said.
Several countries are under special scrutiny by the UN over child soldiers and there has been growing concern over the use of child soldiers in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan.
Since 2002, the International Criminal Court has defined the use of children in combat as a war crime.Since 2002, the International Criminal Court has defined the use of children in combat as a war crime.
Last week, it announced it was opening its first trial - against a Congolese militiaman. Last week, it announced it was opening its first trial - against a Congolese militiaman Thomas Lubanga, accused of recruiting child soldiers during the Democratic Republic of Congo's civil war between 1998 and 2003.
Thomas Lubanga is accused of recruiting child soldiers during the Democratic Republic of Congo's civil war between 1998 and 2003.
Prosecutors say he trained children as young as 10 to kill.
The conference in Paris will seek to get countries to sign up to a new framework of action known as the Paris Principles - the aim being to get them to work harder to release children from conflict and reintegrate them into normal life.
The conference will bring together governments from affected countries in several continents as well as humanitarian organisations.