By David Lewis GOMA, Congo, Oct 11 (Reuters) - At least 11,000 children in Congo are still in the hands of armed groups or unaccounted for three years after the end of a war in which they were captured and forced to fight, Amnesty International said on Wednesday. Democratic Republic of Congo is trying to haul itself back to lasting peace after a 1998-2003 conflict dubbed Africa's first world war, which triggered a humanitarian crisis estimated to have killed nearly 4 million people. But as the vast country prepares for an Oct. 29 presidential run-off vote meant to open a new era in its history, thousands of children are still being kept as fighters by armed groups ready to return to war if peace fails, Amnesty said in a report. Congo's government launched a programme across the country -- roughly the size of western Europe -- two years ago to release child soldiers and reintegrate them into civilian life, but Amnesty said the scheme was failing. "The government has not only failed to release thousands of children who remain with armed forces or groups -- new child soldiers continue to be recruited, including some who were only recently demobilised and reunited with their families," said Tawanda Hondora, deputy director of Amnesty's Africa programme. Girls made up some 40 percent of the children taken by armed groups during the war yet the vast majority remained unaccounted for, the rights group said. Some government officials regarded them as "dependants" of adult fighters, who considered them sexual possessions and did not feel obliged to hand them over. "To date the government has taken no steps to trace and recover these missing children," Amnesty said. Most of those children who had been through the government reintegration scheme -- some of them as young as six when they were first recruited to fight -- had since received little or no educational support or help readjusting, it said. "ABUSE IS UNIVERSAL" Girls at a centre for former child soldiers in Goma said they were forced to "marry" their captors or risk being killed. "We were in a group of five when we went to fetch some firewood when some soldiers came to pick us up ... I was 15 and was made to become a soldier's wife. I was made pregnant but the child was still-born," one of the girls, Irene, told Reuters. She declined to give her full name. "After I was made pregnant again there were clashes and we were dispersed. I made it into the bush, allowing me to escape to a village and find a car ... But my grandmother chased me away from her house as I was the wife of a soldier," she said. Martin Muhindi, a child protection officer at aid group Save the Children, said there were various reasons -- including the social stigma -- why many girls had not been accounted for. "Some of the commanders are not ready to let them go. Some may have had children with the soldiers so, because of the stigma and society shunning them, they stay with the groups even if they have a chance to flee," he told Reuters. "They are mostly used as spies, house girls and sex slaves. They make the soldiers comfortable in whatever way they can. Abuse is universal." Amnesty said the new administration after Congo's election run-off needed to make sure former child fighters, who made up some 40 percent of the forces during the war, were protected and given a chance to go to school.
