Human Rights Watch asks Maoist to free child soldier

The Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international human rights group has asked Nepal's former communist rebels on Tuesday to immediately free children who have been in their armed forces.

Associated Press reported that New York-based Human Rights Watch, in its statement, has asked to free children from armed force. The statement said that thousands of child soldiers who are confined in camps under a peace accord should be freed and allowed to return to their families. The group said it has written a letter to Nepal's Minister of Women, Children and Social Welfare Khadga Bahadur Bishwakarma "to secure the Maoists cooperation with the United Nations and child protection agencies to allow children to return home without further delay."

According to the report, the group claimed that out of the 31,000 former Maoist combatants in these camps, an estimated 6,000-8,000 are believed to be under the age of 18.

Under the peace deal signed last year between the Maoists and the government, thousands of their combatants were confined in camps under U.N. supervision and their weapons locked up.

The Maoists have since joined Parliament and an interim government which is to conduct elections later this year.

Minister Bishwakarma, also a member of the Maoists in government, could not be reached for comment but the Maoists have repeatedly denied having recruited anyone under the age of 18 in their armed division.

The UN, which has completed collecting information from ex-combatants in the camps, has said it would begin a second round of age verification.

"There's no excuse for letting children languish in cantonment sites month after month. Under the terms of Nepal's peace agreement, these children should be released immediately so they can enter rehabilitation programs, get back into school, and rejoin their families," the report quoted Human Rights Watch’s statement.