Child Soldiers

More than 200 former child soldiers have been sent home from Nepal after being disqualified for being recruited after the ceasefire code of conduct was signed in May 2006. “The first batch of 201 former child soldiers, 155 minors and 46 who were recruited after the cut-off date, left the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (UCPN-M)’s second division main cantonment site at Dudhauli in central Nepal on Thursday. According to Friday’s The Kathmandu Post, they boarded shuttles on stand-by that dropped them at a neighboring town from where they would get on passenger buses and head for their homesteads, formally ending ‘military life’ and entering civilian life. The disqualified combatants were among those recruited after the ceasefire code of conduct was signed in Nepal on May 25, 2006. Dhudhauli camp was home to 372 disqualified combatants who failed the verification process carried out by the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) in December 2007. The remaining 171 didn’t attend the discharge ceremony as they had already left the cantonments.”