Editor's Note: Below is a letter from Germany's Foreign Office in response to a question posed by a Member of Parliament in Germany, MP Sevim Dagdelen, who forwarded this official letter from the German Government to Somali news agency
Garowe Online.
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From: Federal Foreign Office
To the
Member of the German Bundestag
Sevim Dagdelen
Platz der Republik 1
11011 Berlin
Berlin, 29 June 2010
Written questions for the month of June 2010 Question nos. 6-221, 222
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Dear Colleague,
Your question:
What information does the federal government possess about the deployment of child soldiers by the transitional government of Somalia, and how does the Federal Government or the EU Political and Security Commission intend to ensure that no child soldiers are among the Somali recruits to be trained as part of the EUTM scheme in Uganda with German participation, who will then receive their pay from the consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers, in view of the fact that only the fewest Somalis have a (credible) birth certificate?
To which my answer is as follows:
The federal government condemns the use of child soldiers. The internationally recognized transitional government of Somalia also rejects the use of child soldiers and counters this practice to the best of its abilities. The president took the opportunity presented by recent reports about the alleged use of child soldiers in Somalia to publicly emphasize his rejection of this practice. The government has indicated a readiness to consider signing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The selection of recruits for the official armed forces of Somalia, who will be trained by the EU Training Mission for Somalia (EUTM), is the responsibility of the transitional government with the support of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and the United States of America.
The federal government has no reason to believe that child soldiers are among the Somali recruits trained as part of the EUTM scheme. In the course of the selection process, several applicants were rejected on the suspicion that they did not meet the minimum age requirement.
Your question:
What information does the federal government possess, and from which sources, about the causes and events of the violent conflicts between Somali recruits and their Ugandan instructors, who apparently issued warning shots, and did this incident, according to EUTM information on the matter, concern recruits who were jointly trained by Ugandan forces and the EUTM?
To which my answer is as follows:
The European Union committees are periodically informed by the EU Mission about the development of the mission and any extraordinary incidents. The federal government is similarly updated on a regular basis by the German contingent. According to their report, on 10 and 12 June 2010, violent conflicts erupted in the Ugandan section of the Bihanga training camp between Somali recruits and their Ugandan instructors with several people injured on both sides.
The Somali recruits gave the harshness of the Ugandan basic training program as the reason for the conflict. This part of the training scheme is the exclusive responsibility of Uganda and is not part of the EUTM Somalia. This is why no EUTM trainers were present. Despite this fact, the head of the EUTM broached the subject with the Ugandan side and demanded that the conditions of the training scheme be improved. The Ugandan side agreed to do so.
Best wishes,
Cornelia Pieper
Member of the Bundestag
Minister of State in the Federal Foreign Office
