Kathmandu, June 4
Nepal's army has been rapped for alleged child recruitment by a UN panel at Geneva that called the kingdom "in many ways ... not a country fit for children".

Lucy Smith, rapporteur for the report on Nepal, said that while nearly 30 per cent of Maoist soldiers were said to be children, the government was also allegedly recruiting them "for various purposes".

The 18-member UN Committee on the Rights of the Children tabled its findings and recommendations in Geneva Friday.

In her preliminary observations, Smith said the committee was "seriously concerned about the armed conflict which had resulted in thousands of deaths among children, both directly and indirectly".

"In many ways Nepal was not a country fit for children," she added. "A generation of Nepalese children was already affected by the conflict; they represented the future of Nepal." While also coming down heavily on the Maoists for "gross human rights violations", forcible use of minors as porters, combatants and human shields, and indiscriminate planting of mines that killed children, the UN body, however, noted that it was the responsibility of the Maoists and the government to solve the conflict by "giving and taking to create a society that was fit for children".