Condensed from "US to aid armies with child soldiers," by Mary Beth Sheridan, the Phnom Penh Post, published Oct. 29, 2010. All text below is copyright Sheridan/the Phnom Penh Post.
President Barack Obama has granted a waiver allowing four countries to continue receiving United States military aid even though they use child soldiers, officials said.
Human rights groups reacted with surprise and concern, saying the decision would send the wrong message. "What the president has done is basically given everybody a pass for using child soldiers," said Jo Becker, children's rights director at Human Rights Watch.
Obama sent a memo to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, dated last Monday, saying that it was "in the national interest" to waive a cutoff of military assistance for Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Yemen. These countries would have been penalized under the Child Soldiers Prevention Act, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush shortly before he left office. The law took effect this year, after the State Department identified six countries that used child soldiers -- including Somalia and Burma.
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