Trott A high profile campaign has begun to raise awareness amongst Bermudians of the conflict existing in the African country of Sierra Leone, and to urge locals to take specific action.

Students, youth groups and churches are amongst those being encouraged to get involved in the nine-year-old internal armed conflict which has seen more than 5,000 children under the age of 18 being recruited for combat by both the armed opposition and forces allied to the government. That practice is continuing, Amnesty International said.

The campaign aims in particular to put direct pressure on the government of Sierra Leone and the RUF, through the government of Liberia, in line with Amnesty International's recommendations.

Organisations, groups and individuals who would like to help with this campaign are asked to call the Amnesty International office at 296-3249 or e-mail them at slaction yhotmail.com. Those deciding to get involved will be joining hundreds of thousands around the world who are working with Sierra Leoneans to restore peace, dignity and sanity to their lives.

Most of the children fighting with rebel forces were abducted and forced to fight. Many have become perpetrators of human rights abuses themselves, killing and mutilating under the influence of drugs, alcohol or simply out of fear. A similar number of children, both boys and girls, have also been used by rebel forces to carry goods and cook. Girls have been raped and forced into sexual slavery.

"Childhood has been a casualty of this long and brutal conflict,'' said a spokesman for the human rights organisation. "Former child combatants may not be able to regain their youth but they can reclaim their lives if concerted action is taken immediately.'' An Amnesty International report on the issue calls for the immediate end to the abduction and forcible recruitment of children in Sierra Leone and for those responsible to be brought to justice.

The recruitment of children under the age of 15 as combatants is prohibited by both international human rights law and international humanitarian law.

It violates the rights enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 which was ratified by Sierra Leone in 1990.

Amnesty's report "Childhood: A Casualty of Conflict'' is available to the public. It makes several recommendations which ordinary people around the world are being asked to urge the relevant parties to implement. Amnesty International is calling for the cessation of all military assistance to rebels forces in Sierra Leone, including the provision of arms, ammunition, combatants and training.

The report calls for effective mechanisms to monitor the distribution of arms and ammunition to the Government of Sierra Leone to ensure that these do not reach combatants under the age of 18. In particular, President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah must be held to his assurances that arms and ammunition supplied by the UK Government will not be used by child soldiers, and he should ensure that the Government forces cease recruiting and using child soldiers.

Amnesty International's report makes specific recommendations that all groups involved in the recruitment and use of child combatants in Sierra Leone and to the international community. These include a call for the immediate release of all children held by the RUF and a cessation of the recruitment and abuse of children by opposition forces.

Child protection agencies and personnel supervising the process of disarmament, demobilisation must be given unhindered access to children who continue to be held.

Urgent action should be taken by the Government of Sierra Leone to follow up on its repeated commitments to demobilise all combatants under the age of 18 and to raise the minimum age of recruitment to 18. The international community should also provide full and sustained support to help meet the social, psychological and material needs of demobilised child combatants.

Finally, all those responsible for these grave breaches of international human rights and humanitarian law, including the abduction and forcible recruitment of children should be brought to justice.

Playing for real: While most children around the world play with plastic guns, this child in Sierra Leone uses a real gun.