Official calls for Security Council action

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- A top U.N. official is calling on the Security Council to take action against militant rebels who use children to fight in conflicts.

Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy urged the Security Council to take concrete and targeted measures against rebel leaders and others who use or abuse children during armed conflicts, the United Nations reported.

Coomaraswamy called for an end to an alleged impunity for violators and for the Security Council to stop simply discussing appropriate measures and move toward establishing a mechanism to review and oversee targeted measures against violators.

"It is most important that the Security Council make good on its promise in order to ensure the credibility of this exercise," Coomaraswamy said in a statement. "The targeted measures could include the imposition of travel restrictions on leaders and their exclusion from any governance structures and amnesty provisions, the imposition of arms embargoes, a ban on military assistance, and restriction on the flow of financial resources to the parties concerned."

U.N. estimates say at least 58 parties are known to have used or abused children during violent conflicts from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Myanmar and from Sri Lanka to Uganda.