Exclusive: Overruling his experts, Pompeo
keeps Saudis off U.S. child soldiers list
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[June 19, 2019]
By Jonathan Landay and Matt Spetalnick
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo has blocked the inclusion of Saudi Arabia on a U.S. list of
countries that recruit child soldiers, dismissing his experts' findings
that a Saudi-led coalition has been using under-age fighters in Yemen’s
civil war, according to four people familiar with the matter.
The decision, which drew immediate criticism from human rights activists
and a top Democratic lawmaker, could prompt new accusations that U.S.
President Donald Trump's administration is prioritizing security and
economic interests in relations with oil-rich Saudi Arabia, a major U.S.
ally and arms customer.
Pompeo's move followed unusually intense internal debate. It comes amid
heightened tensions between the United States and Iran, the Saudis’
bitter regional rival.
State Department experts recommended adding Saudi Arabia to the
soon-to-be released list based in part on news reports and human rights
groups’ assessments that the desert kingdom has hired child fighters
from Sudan to fight for the U.S.-backed coalition in Yemen, the four
sources said.
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The experts' recommendation faced resistance from some other State
Department officials who, according to three of the sources, argued that
it was not clear whether the Sudanese forces were under the control of
Sudanese officers or directed by the Saudi-led coalition.
A New York Times report in December cited Sudanese fighters saying their
Saudi and United Arab Emirates commanders directed them at a safe
distance from the fighting against the coalition’s foes, Iran-aligned
Houthi militias.
“The allegations of recruiting child soldiers are completely incorrect
and are not based on any evidence or factual findings," said Colonel
Turki al-Malki, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition. He instead
accused the Saudis' foes of using child fighters in Yemen.
Pompeo rejected the recommendation from the experts, who are from the
State Department’s anti-human trafficking office, said the four sources
who spoke on condition of anonymity. The office has a key role in
investigating the use of child soldiers worldwide.“The United States
condemns the unlawful recruitment and use of child soldiers. We place
great importance on ending the practice wherever it occurs," a State
Department official said in response to Reuters' questions. The
official, however, did not specifically address the Saudi decision or
whether any consideration was given to Riyadh's security ties to
Washington.
Instead of adding Saudi Arabia to the list, Sudan will be reinstated
after being removed last year, three of the sources said.
A spokesman for Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which has
contributed fighters to the Yemen war, said the force is affiliated with
Sudan's military. “Based on Sudanese laws, it does not recruit minors,"
he said. He did not directly respond to a question on who controlled
Sudanese forces in Yemen.
The UAE government did not respond to a request for comment.
The child soldiers list will be part of the State Department’s annual
global Trafficking in Persons report, which is due to be released on
Thursday in a ceremony led by Pompeo and Ivanka Trump, the president's
daughter.
BAN ON U.S. AID
The Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 requires the State Department
to report annually on countries using child fighters, defined as "any
person under 18 years of age who takes a direct part in hostilities as a
member of governmental armed forces."
Foreign militaries on the list cannot receive U.S. aid, training and
weapons unless the president issues full or partial waivers of those
sanctions based on “national interest.” Trump and his predecessors have
done this in the past for countries with close security ties to the
United States.
"This is reprehensible," U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a post on Twitter. "Is
there no limit to what the Trump Admin is willing to do to cover for #SaudiArabia’s
human rights abuses and violations of international norms?"
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![](../images/061919pics/news_r25.jpg)
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at a joint news
conference in The Hague, Netherlands June 3, 2019. REUTERS/Piroschka
Van De Wouw/File Photo
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Sarah Margon, director of Human Right Watch's Washington office,
said: “This decision shows clearly that the Trump administration is
using political manipulation and dismissing evidence – at the
expense of kids – in order to protect Saudi Arabia."
While internal debates over issues like child soldier violations
often take place ahead of the release of the annual State Department
list, this one was especially heated, several of the sources said.
Since the end of 2016, the Saudi-led coalition has deployed as many
as 14,000 Sudanese at any given time, including children as young as
14, to fight in Yemen, offering payments of up to $10,000 per
recruit, according to the New York Times. The article cited Sudanese
fighters who had returned home and Sudanese lawmakers.
In Washington, the Yemen conflict is a contentious issue well beyond
the State Department.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers, citing evidence of Saudi Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s role in the 2018 killing of Saudi
journalist Jamal Khashoggi and angered by the civilian toll from the
Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen, have ramped up efforts to block
Trump’s multibillion-dollar arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
Congressmen Tom Malinowski and Ted Lieu organized a letter to Pompeo
from more than a dozen lawmakers in March that said they were
“gravely concerned by credible reports” of the Saudi-led coalition
deploying Sudanese child fighters in Yemen.
They called for a U.S. investigation, including into whether they
had been armed with U.S.-made weapons, and also asked for an inquiry
into “credible evidence of Houthi forces forcibly conscripting
minors into combat.”
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BLOODY CONFLICT
Sudan sent thousands of troops to Yemen with the Saudi-led coalition
that intervened in the civil war in 2015 against the Houthis, who
had captured most of the main populated areas of the country and
forced President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile.
Almost from the start, accusations of the use of child soldiers have
dogged the parties to the bloody conflict.
A report by an independent group of experts to the U.N. Human Rights
Council in August 2018 found that all sides in Yemen “conscripted or
enlisted children into armed forces or groups and used them to
participate actively in hostilities.”
The Trump administration has faced controversy in the past over its
handling of the child soldier issue.
Reuters reported in 2017 that then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
opted to remove Iraq and Myanmar from the child soldiers list and
rejected a recommendation to add Afghanistan to it, despite the
department publicly acknowledging that children were still being
conscripted in those countries.
The State Department said at the time that while the use of child
soldiers was “abhorrent,” it was still in “technical compliance with
the law.” Pompeo, who succeeded Tillerson, reinstated Iraq and
Myanmar on the list last year.
(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick and Jonathan Landay; Additional
reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz in Khartoum, Ghaida Ghantous and Aziz
Yaakoubi in the Gulf; Editing by Jason Szep and Ross Colvin)
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