Syria children gone too soon? 10,000 killed, says United Nations

Zee Media Bureau/Supriya Jha

United Nations: In an elegiac account of plight of children, a UN report states that “unspeakable” atrocities have been meted out to the youngsters in the war-stricken country since the uprising began to topple President Assad.

In the first ever report on children presented to the UN Security council by the UN chief Ban Ki-moon, it has been found that out of more than 1,00,000 people killed in the civil war so far, over 10,000 were children.

The report portrays the misery suffered by the children from March 1, 2011 to November 15, 2013.

The report reveals that on one hand, if Assad`s forces were responsible for the arrest, arbitrary detention, ill treatment and torture of children, even the armed opposition groups didn`t spare the country`s youngsters and recruited them for both combat and support roles.

The report has also thrown light on the disappearance of children as well as the gave amount of anguish and emotional trauma suffered by them when they had to witness the bloodshed of their own kins.
Documenting the torture faced by the children of Syria as “unspeakable and unacceptable”, the report has detailed how children were detained along with adults in large numbers in 2011 and 2012. The children were arrested for their or their kins’ actual or suspected participation in protests or support to armed opposition groups.
Children as young as 10 have been detained by the authorities on suspicion of having links with armed groups, the report said, citing the arrest of a large number of boys and girls, mainly between the ages of 10 and 12 in August 2012 in Kfarzita village in Hama province by Syrian troops, who the report says used them as human shields. The lives of detained children are a testimony to indescribable tortures as they were treated to atrocious measures like electric shocks, including to the genitals; the ripping out of fingernails and toenails; sexual violence, including rape or threats of rape; mock executions; cigarette burns; sleep deprivation; solitary confinement; and most mentally debilitating measure that involved exposure to the torture of relatives, writes the report.
In the report, many armed opposition groups also were said to have been involved in "the summary execution of children." But due to lack of access, including for security reasons, the United Nations could not manage a systematic documentation of the crimes. However he report adds, that "trends are believed to be much higher than the number of recorded cases." Urging both the warring sides to protect children`s rihts, UN chief Ban said, "Violations must come to an end now".
Ban also urged the parties to the conflict to facilitate unimpeded humanitarian access to all affected populations", including to besieged communities. children are always called as the future of any country, and given the heart-rending plight of Syrian youngsters, one can only pray for the conflict to come to an end, as soon as possible. Eventhouh the Geneva II talks couldn`t come up with a tangible solution to the conflict, thre are hopes of backdoor negotiations.