An American senator is expressing concern over the possibility that the United States’ financial assistance to the Somali military may have violated domestic laws concerning the use of child soldiers. Concerns about U.S. financial and military assistance to Israel breaking the law have also been raised recently, but (surprise, surprise) little attention has been given to the issue.
Jeffrey Gettleman, piggybacking off of an June 13 article he wrote that described how the U.S. government "was helping pay [Somali] soldiers…raising the possibility that the wages for some of these child combatants may have come from American taxpayers," reports today for the New York Times:
As the United Nations Security Council expressed a “deep concern” on Wednesday over the continued use of child soldiers and a “readiness” to adopt sanctions against individuals who deploy them, an American lawmaker warned that the United States might have broken several laws by providing assistance to the Somali military, which uses children in conflict.
The United Nations lists the Somali government as one of the “most persistent violators” in the world of using child soldiers, and this week The New York Times documented several child soldiers, some as young as 12, toting assault rifles and working for the Somali transitional government in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital.
While the American government has expressed concern about the matter, it has given the Somali military millions of dollars in arms and paid soldiers’ salaries. On Wednesday, Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said that assistance might violate the Child Soldier Prevention provision of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008; the Durbin-Coburn Child Soldiers Accountability Act; and the Durbin-Coburn Human Rights Enforcement Act.
Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the Electronic Intifada, recently raised the possibility that Israeli use of American and European weapons aboard the Mavi Marmara ship were violating American and EU law. Abunimah writes in his blog:
[Cultures of Resistance] director Iara Lee and camera operators from her organization were aboard the ship and managed to smuggle the raw footage out of Israel despite Israel’s confiscation of all other recordings and images from journalists and passengers when they were taken against their will to Israel and later expelled from the country.
This video reveals information about some of the weapons used by Israel. In using these weapons to enforce an illegal blockade on Gaza and to carry out an illegal attack on civilian ships in international waters, Israel may have acted in violation of the US Arms Export Control Act of 1976, the EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports or other international law or human rights laws of the exporting countries.
There are more details, complete with photography comparing stills from Lee’s video with pictures of European and American military arsenal that Israel possesses, in Abunimah’s post.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich sounded the alarm over the possibility that Israel was using American weapons illegally during Operation Cast Lead, as did Amnesty International.
When will the U.S. media cover these violations of U.S. law?
