In a highly
unusual intervention, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to remove Iraq and
Myanmar from a U.S. list of the world's worst offenders in the use of child
soldiers, disregarding the recommendations of State Department experts and
senior U.S. diplomats, U.S. officials said.
The
decision, confirmed by three U.S. officials, would break with longstanding
protocol at the State Department over how to identify offending countries and
could prompt accusations the Trump administration is prioritizing security and
diplomatic interests ahead of human rights.
Tillerson
overruled his own staff’s assessments on the use of child soldiers in both
countries and rejected the recommendation of senior diplomats in Asia and the
Middle East who wanted to keep Iraq and Myanmar on the list, said the
officials, who have knowledge of the internal deliberations.
Tillerson
also rejected an internal State Department proposal to add Afghanistan to the
list, the three U.S. officials said.
One official
said the decisions appeared to have been made following pressure from the
Pentagon to avoid complicating assistance to the Iraqi and Afghan militaries,
close U.S. allies in the fight against Islamist militants. The officials spoke
on condition of anonymity.
Foreign
militaries on the list can face sanctions including a prohibition on receiving
U.S. military aid, training and U.S.-made weapons unless the White House issues
a waiver.
Human rights
officials expressed surprise at the delisting, which was expected to be
announced on Tuesday, the officials said, as part of the State Department's
annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report.
A State
Department official said the TIP report's contents were being kept under wraps
until its release and the department "does not discuss details of internal
deliberations."
The Pentagon
did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Under the
Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008, the U.S. government must be satisfied
that "no children are recruited, conscripted or otherwise compelled to
serve as child soldiers" in order for a country to be removed from the
list and U.S. military assistance to resume.
In the
lead-up to Tuesday's report, the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human
Rights, and Labor, which researches the issue and helps shape U.S. policy on
it, along with its legal office and diplomatic bureaus in Asia and the Middle
East concluded that the evidence merited keeping both countries on the list,
the officials said.
Officials
said that although the report had been finalized there was always the
possibility of last-minute changes.
BETRAYING
CHILDREN
Human Rights
Watch said removing Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, from the list would be a
"completely premature and disastrous action that will effectively betray
more children to continued servitude and rights abuses."
The decision
also would put the Trump administration at odds with the United Nations, which
continues to list the Myanmar military, along with seven ethnic armed groups,
on its list of entities using and recruiting child soldiers.
"What's
particularly astonishing is this move ignores that the U.N. in Burma says that
it is still receiving new cases of children being recruited" by the
Myanmar military, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights
Watch.
Rights
groups have long accused Myanmar of using child soldiers. Bordering both China
and India, Myanmar is also of growing strategic importance to the United States
at a time of increasing encroachment in the region by China, which has sought
closer relations with its neighbor.
Iraq, which
has received more than $2 billion in U.S. arms and training over the last three
years, was added to the State Department’s "Child Soldier Prevention Act
List" in 2016. However, the flow of U.S. assistance has continued.
Former
President Barack Obama handed out full or partial waivers regularly, including
last year to Iraq, Myanmar, Nigeria, South Sudan and others out of 10 countries
on the list.
Last year's
State Department report said some militias of Iraq's Popular Mobilization
Forces (PMF), an umbrella group of mostly Shi'ite Muslim factions with ties to
the Iraqi government and backed by Iran, "recruited and used child
soldiers."
The report
said that despite the PMF being funded by the government, Baghdad struggled to
control all of its factions.
"The
government did not hold anyone accountable for child recruitment and use by the
PMF and PMF-affiliated militias."
Human Rights Watch said in January that it
had learned that militias had been recruiting child soldiers from one Iraqi
refugee camp since last spring.
The broader TIP report, the first of
Trump's presidency, is sure to be closely scrutinized for further signs that
under his "America First" approach there will be little pressure
brought to bear on friendly governments, especially strategically important
ones, for human rights violations at home.
The Obama
administration, while more vocal about political repression around the world,
also faced criticism from human rights groups and some U.S. lawmakers that
decisions on annual human trafficking rankings had become increasingly
politicized.
REUTERS
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