VOA标准英语2013--Child Soldiers Detained Mali

 

Child Soldiers Detained Mali

A human rights group says children recruited as soldiers – and those believed to have ties with armed groups – are being illegally detained in Mali. Amnesty International says they are being held alongside adults, and some claim they’ve been tortured by Malian forces.

Since early last year, human rights organizations have warned that armed groups and government-back self-defense militias¹ were recruiting child soldiers. A year later, there’s growing concern about their safety.

Gaetan Mootoo -- an Amnesty researcher on Africa – said some are being detained at a gendarmerie camp in the capital, Bamako.

“We came across children, who were held in detention² with adults, which is kind of contrary to all international instruments and also to the Malian law. And what we noticed is that some of the kids who were in detention …went of their [own] free will to the gendarmerie.  They were arrested because there was an announcement calling for people who had collaborated³ with the armed groups to surrender.”

He said they received harsh treatment even though they had turned themselves in voluntarily.

“Afterwards, when they went to the police station, they were arrested, interrogated⁴ by a judge. They signed a paper, but the judge didn’t read the testimony⁵, which he had recorded. And so these people are held in detention with adults,” he said.

Amnesty spoke⁶ to nine of the detained children, who ranged in age from 13 to 17. Mootoo says some of them were arrested in northern Mali towns by joint⁷ Mali and French forces.

Mootoo said, “These kids should have been handed over to special centers and also to organizations dealing⁸ with children, and this was not the case.”

Some said they were tortured.

“One of the kids told me that he was threatened. Another told me that he was strangled. And another told me that he was suspended to the ceiling, and they threatened him with electric shocks. And also they threatened him with death,” he said.

The children told Amnesty researchers that they joined the armed groups because they were poor and expected to be paid by the MUJAO – the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa. Many left when they were not paid. Others followed in the footsteps of friends who had joined.

Amnesty says there are still child soldiers in the field, but their whereabouts and condition are unknown. Amnesty International and other groups are calling on the U.N. mission in Mali, MINUSMA, to develop programs to reintegrate them into society.

The United Nations has released a new report that says thousands of children have been recruited, injured and killed while with armed groups over the past year. It says the situation is getting worse in Mali, Syria and Central African Republic.

1 militias   

n.民兵组织，民兵( militia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The troops will not attempt to disarm the warring militias. 部队并不打算解除战斗中的民兵武装。 来自辞典例句
• The neighborhood was a battleground for Shiite and Sunni militias. 那里曾是什叶派和逊尼派武装分子的战场。 来自互联网

2 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

3 collaborated   

合作( collaborate的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• We have collaborated on many projects over the years. 这些年来我们合作搞了许多项目。
• We have collaborated closely with the university on this project. 我们与大学在这个专案上紧密合作。

4 interrogated   

v.询问( interrogate的过去式和过去分词 )；审问；（在计算机或其他机器上）查询

参考例句：

• He was interrogated by the police for over 12 hours. 他被警察审问了12个多小时。
• Two suspects are now being interrogated in connection with the killing. 与杀人案有关的两名嫌疑犯正在接受审讯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

8 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。