Child soldiers 'no bar' for US aid

In a decision critics say has undermined a powerful new law, the United States has decided to turn a blind eye to four countries that use child soldiers in their armed forces. In a brief and little-noticed announcement on Monday, the White House said President Barack Obama had decided to exempt Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan and Yemen from the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008, which prohibits funding for foreign governments' militaries if they recruit or use child soldiers. On Thursday, Foreign Policy magazine posted online a nine-page memo from Obama to Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, that linked the continuation of funding to US counterterrorism efforts in some of those countries. "Everyone's gotten a pass, and Obama has really completely undercut the law and its intent," Jo Becker, children's rights advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, told the New York Times newspaper. Of the six countries identified by the State Department as having used child soldiers in 2009, only Somalia and Myanmar were not granted an exemption. Myanmar receives no military aid from the United States, but the vulnerable Transitional Federal Government of Somalia receives significant assistance. In May 2009, the United States applied for an exemption from an United Nations' arms embargo on the country in order to provide Somalia with assault rifle, mortar and machine gun ammunition, and rocket-propelled grenades. In the memo, signed by Obama, the White House called Yemen a "key partner" in the fight against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and said that imposing the funding prohibition against Yemen "would seriously jeopardize the Yemeni government's capability to conduct special operations and counterterrorism missions, and create a dangerous level of instability in the country and the region". US assistance to Yemen has grown over the past year, and the US has reportedly fired cruise missiles at suspected AQAP locations in the country and helped Yemeni security forces carry out raids against the group.