A/HRC/9/13 page 7 II. NORTHERN SUDAN A. Justice and Equality Movement attack, 10 May 2008 20. On 10 May 2008 armed members of the Darfurian Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) launched an attack on Khartoum. The United Nations Secretary-General condemned the attack and expressed concern over its possible effect on civilian lives and property. The fighting that took place in the Omdurman district of Khartoum entailed violations of international human rights and humanitarian law reportedly committed by both sides. The Government’s response in the weeks after the attack entailed serious violations of civil and political rights. 21. Child soldiers as young as 11 years old were apparently used in the JEM attack. The Government has taken the commendable decision to allow independent observers access to the captured child combatants. In line with the Government’s findings that these children were forcibly recruited they should be treated as victims of the conflict. This includes attempting to trace their families and ensuring they are not prosecuted in relation to the attack but demobilized and fully reintegrated in society. While access for international observers to the children was a positive development, the children were subjected to repeated interviewing by a range of actors, among them criminal investigators, international journalists and members of international organizations, with seemingly little consideration given by the authorities to the possibility that this might re-traumatize them. They were also used as principal witnesses in court for the trial of JEM combatants. The authorities should have taken every measure to ensure that the procedures would be child-friendly and to protect the identity of the children so as not to put them or their families at risk of reprisals. 22. In the days following the attack, pictures and names of some of the captured alleged child combatants were made public by the Government. The public exposure of photographs of the children and their identity details may undermine future efforts for their reintegration. 23. On 11 July 2008 the Special Rapporteur was given access to some 90 children who are being detained in a training facility 90 km north-east of Khartoum. According to Government sources, all were child combatants captured after the Omdurman attacks. The visit took place in the presence of members of ACHR. The children were held in good conditions of detention and appeared to be well cared for. 24. Before international observers were given access to the children, they were held for around three weeks without contact with the outside world. The children reported that prior to being moved to a separate detention facility, they had been held for several days, together with adults, in a large hangar whose location they were unable to identify. They indicated that detention conditions there had been harsh but did not provide further details. More than 10 children, who remained detained with adult suspects after most of the children had been transferred to a separate detention facility, were charged along with adults for criminal offences related to the Omdurman attacks. Seven of them have been excluded from the judicial proceedings at different stages of the trials, on the grounds that they were minors. One defendant believed to be 16 years old was sentenced to death on 31 July; the judge reportedly had not agreed to conduct a medical examination to determine his age.