New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented 29 cases in northern Iraq that children were recruited by two PKK affiliated armed groups, HPG and US-sponsored logistics support in Shengal (Sincar) YBŞ.

Zama Coursen-Neff, children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement on the subject, “Boys and girls should be with their families and going to school, not used as means to military ends.” used the following expressions:

“The PKK should categorically denounce the recruitment and use of child soldiers, and commanders in affiliated armed groups should know that the recruitment and use of children under age 15 constitute war crimes.” 

Children want to leave the PKK because of abduction and sexual abuse

In the Human Rights Watch report it is said, "In two cases the armed groups abducted or seriously abused children who tried to leave their forces. The groups should urgently demobilize children, investigate abuses, pledge to end child recruitment, and appropriately penalize commanders who fail to do so."

According to the report of Human Rights Watch Children under age 15 affiliated with both groups that they have participated in fighting, while others said they had staffed checkpoints or cleaned and prepared weapons. Even if the armed groups do not send children into direct combat, they place them at risk by training them in areas that where air operations are being launched.

Non-state armed groups like the HPG and YBŞ must not, under any circumstances, recruit children or use them in hostilities

It is emphasized in the report that is war crime under international law to recruit children, and said, “The recruitment or use of children under 15 is a war crime. Under international law, non-state armed groups like the HPG and YBŞ must not, under any circumstances, recruit children under 18, or use them in hostilities. Recruitment of children by armed groups is prohibited by international law, even if the children ‘volunteer’."

Iraqi government in Baghdad, which pays salaries to YBŞ forces, should pressure to demobilize all children

The Iraqi government in Baghdad, which has paid salaries to YBŞ forces, should pressure the group to demobilize all child soldiers, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch documented nine cases of children used by the HPG, following expressions were used:

“The father of a Kurdish boy from the city of Halabja in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq said his son left school at 15 to join the group in early 2016, and that its officials had repeatedly refused to acknowledge the boy’s whereabouts. The father showed Human Rights Watch researchers a video, apparently filmed by the HPG, showing the boy at an unknown location, in uniform with an assault rifle, in which he encouraged others to join the group. ‘I just want to contact him, just let him call me to say he hasn’t been shot,’ the father said.”

Twenty boys and five girls from the Halabja area have joined and remained with PKK-affiliated forces since 2013, and another 38 children joined but returned home, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Human Rights Commission office in Halabja.

In most cases, relatives of children who had joined the HPG or the YBŞ asked not to be identified, due to concerns of potential retaliation by those armed groups or in some cases fear of being punished by Kurdistan Regional Government authorities, who oppose the PKK. Some of the events that have taken place include:

The Yezidi girl at 13 was beaten badly

In February when HPG fighters badly beat a 13-year-old girl in their ranks after she argued with a commander. When the girl, who had a broken leg, tried to escape, the fighters tracked her down and took her back, even after she threatened to jump off the roof, residents said.

YBŞ aims to increase the number of child militants by distributing money

The recruits said the YBŞ received salaries from Iraqi authorities in Baghdad that were only supposed to be paid to fighters age 18 and older, but that the group collected and pooled the money and used it to pay children. In this way they are aiming to increase the number of child militants.

Schools are under the control of PKK teachers

In addition, residents of Khanasoor also said that the HPG had recruited children from the Martyr Khairy School, which teachers said is run by the PKK using a curriculum from Kurdish-controlled parts of northern Syria.

Khanasoor residents expressed concern that teachers encouraged students at the school to join PKK-affiliated forces. One man said that the HPG had recruited his 14-year-old nephew after he received “PKK ideology” classes at the school.

Umm Al-Dhiban in Sincar has a 'large number' of children in armed groups

A boy, born in 2000, said he left the camp and joined the HPG in Karse in late 2014. He stayed with the group until July 2016. The boy said that his initial two months of training included the use of machine guns, assault rifles, and rocket-propelled grenades, and that he fought in Sinjar and several locations in Syria. He saw “many” other children with the armed group, including a 16-year-old boy who was shot in the leg during fighting in Umm al-Dhiban, a town near the Syrian border in Sinjar.

The PKK is paying children 100 per month, and families 400 to 1000 dollars a time

In the report also stated that the Iraqi Central Government paid $ 400 per month for all YBŞ elements over the age of 18. PKK pays $100 per month for child soldiers under age of 18 to those are fighting in PKK-affiliated groups and also were paid for a families from $ 400 to $ 1000.

Local elements of the PKK, which are used by the United States as a force in Iraq and Syria, have been documented to have been recruited children.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) latest rapporteur stressed that despite the warning, the PKK continues to recruit children and that local and international authorities should take steps on the issue. (ILKHA)