This week, the army of South Sudansigned a deal with the United Nationsto release all remaining child soldiers.That means the world's newest nationcould be removed from a list of countriesthat use children in the military.Radhika Coomaraswamy is a U.N. special representativefor children and armed conflict.She announced Friday in Juba that the deal could leadto two thousand more children being released soon.The Sudan People's Liberation Armyhas released three thousand childrensince the peace agreement was signedin two thousand five.That agreement ended the civil war with Sudan.The SPLA is a former guerrilla movement.It fought Sudan for many yearsand secured South Sudan's independence in July.Ms. Coomaraswamy says it is importantfor the army to act quickly on the new deal, signed Monday.The number of child soldiers in the militaryhas grown because many came from rebel groupsthat accepted a government offer of a general pardon.RADHIKA COOMARASWAMY: "The SPLA has been on this listsince two thousand six.And it's very important that we delist themas soon as possible,and now that they are a national army,it becomes extremely important."The U.N. diplomat visited South Sudan this weekto inspect the conditions for children and to discussSouth Sudan's progress in freeing child soldiers.But she was not able to visitthe troubled state of Jonglei.There, more than one hundred forty thousand peoplehave been affected by ethnic violence this year.Ms. Coomaraswamy expressed concernthat traditional cattle raiding between competing communitieshad become increasingly deadly.She said children were often targeted in the killingsand large numbers were kidnapped, along with women.RADHIKA COOMARASWAMY: "We want to ensure that in the futurethere will be no impunity for those who abduct,but also we want to ensure that any reconciliation processmay have to have a return of women and children"The United Nations is looking to quicklyremove South Sudan from the child-soldier list.But the diplomat says the Security Councilis moving toward arms and travel restrictionsand financial sanctions against countrieswhere children are still used as soldiers.These include Ivory Coast, Somalia and the DRC.On another issue, Ms. Coomaraswamy expressed concernsabout areas in western South Sudan.These are still targets of cross-border attacksby Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army.His group has used child soldiers for yearsin border areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo,Central African Republic, South Sudan and Uganda.The situation gained international attention this monthafter an American group released an online video.It called for Joseph Kony to be capturedand brought to trial at the International Criminal Court.Ms. Coomaraswamy said bringing attentionand getting young people to become active on the issue was good.But she said calling for military actioncould endanger the lives of childrenstill trapped in the Lord's Resistance Army.RADHIKA COOMARASWAMY: "And the last thing we want,and I hope this will not happen, is vigilantism.You know we have cases in South Sudan of people picking up a gunand deciding to go find Kony.This kind of thing is crazy. We want national armies,accountable to the Geneva Convention,who are going to go and find Kony."And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.