Confirmation

It's not often the AP wires carry a story that echoes one I get from an NGO in Colombia, but here's this to back up the COAV piece we posted earlier this week.


More Than 40 Minors Die in Colombia Fighting in Two Months

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Colombia's armed forces chief said Friday the country's illegal groups persist in putting teenagers on the front lines and 44 have died in combat so far this year.
In the same period last year, five soldiers under 18 years old died, Gen. Carlos Alberto Ospina said.

Of the 44 minors killed this year, 24 fought with two leftist groups - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army, he said. Eleven others fought for paramilitary factions and nine were part of common criminal groups.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch estimates that 11,000 minors currently fill the ranks of Colombia's illegal armed groups. The U.N. Children's Fund estimates that worldwide there are about 300,000 soldiers who are still minors.

Colombia's 40-year-old civil war pits the two rebel groups against the paramilitary factions and government forces, killing an estimated 3,500 people every year.

What kind of chance , (or choice), do these kids ever really have?