Colombia’s illegal armed groups mainly recruit children because theyare very useful for manufacturing antipersonnel mines, Vice-PresidentFrancisco Santos said Tuesday.
“They often use children for manufacturing mines. Children have smaller hands, children are less at risk [to blow off the mine accidentally] than adults,” Santos told local newspapers.
The Vice President claimed this during an inter-institutional workshop of the government on how to prevent child recruitment.
According to Santos, illegal armed groups also use minors for scraping coca and for alerting the troops.
If we find a formula to eliminate child recruitment, we will give the violence in Colombia a fatal blow, Santos concluded.