I don't know about these specific countries, but one thing to keep in mind is that it's often rebel militia's that are using them, rather than the official government's - so boycotting products may not be making the statement/effect you really want.

Interesting to note: according to United Nations standards, the U.S. itself has child soldiers: "any person under 18 years of age, who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to, cooks, porters, messengers, and those accompanying such groups, other than purely as family members". I believe 17 year olds can join the U.S. military - I used to think, yeah, big deal - cuz it's just one year, and it' snot like they are using 13 year olds.....but now that I'm a little older, and I have seen these young kids coming back from Iraq with devastating injuries, and hearing of how many are killed.......it makes me think. Particularly since many say we have a prolongued adolescence here, is it realy right to send them out there so young?

Sorry for the tangent:-) Anyway, I'm really interested in this child soldier issue too - also the stigma they are under if they do manage to escape or are otherwise brought back to the civilian life. And the kind of damage that has been done to them - I didn't read the full article, but I used to hear about how they break them psychologically - forcing these little kids to kill or even sometimes eat their friends, all kinds of horrors. I remember one story about a boy who was brought back to his family...One day, he was in the house playing quietly alone, and his little sister was in the back yard. With no warning, he runs out, hacks his little sister to pieces with an axe, then goes back inside and keeps playing.....from a mental health perspective, it is overwhelming how to help kids like that....

Anyway, if I spot any links to organizations that are helping, I'll be sure to post them!

Here a nr. of interesting organizations:

Warchild is doing a great job in different countties in or just out of civil war. The slogan 'you can take a child out of a war, but how to take the war out of a child' is appealing to more and more people here in the Netherlands and that's good news, given the immensity of the job...

www.warchild.org

'No place for a child' is a coalition focusing on the rights of children detained in the UK just because their application for asylum was rejected! Many of these children survived a civil war and some were even forced to serve as soldiers...

www.noplaceforachild.org

Ninemillion.org is a campaign by UNHCR to raise awareness and funds for education and sport programs for refugee youth....

www.ninemillion.org

The good news is that 58 countries agreed, a fortnight ago, to take action against recruiting child soldiers. This will hopefully lead to more action.

www.unicef.org/media/media_38231.html

I have a few other links for you.

This is a document put together by the TransAfrica Forum that briefly summarizes the situation in some African countries. It's a little out of date but it has a good bibliography.

www.transafricaforum.org/repor...rs.pdf

This is a documentary about a child soldier in Burma who reached leadership status at the age of nine. This website is an incredible resource for people interested in other human rights issues as well.

www.insightnewstv.com/c59/

Check out Peter Singer's book, Children at War. It's an extraordinary, but sobering, account of the evolution of warfare and children's involvement in armed conflict.

The site, the International Action Network on Small Arms, has numerous links to other websites and documents. Some of the links are bad, but if you take off a lot of the directions to pages other than the homepage some work. Example: "www.iansa.org/issues/child_soldiers.htm" to "www.iansa.org."

www.iansa.org/issues/child_soldiers.htm

The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers

www.child-soldiers.org/

A great effort centered around the conflict in Uganda and the LRA.

www.invisiblechildren.com/home.php