Desperate: a suffering baby, just one of thousands of refugees,
at least half of them young children, stranded on the Syrian
border, with poor hygiene and insufficent food, hoping to enter a
refugee camp in Turkey
Credit: AP
Desperate: a suffering baby, just one of thousands of refugees,
at least half of them young children, stranded on the Syrian
border, with poor hygiene and insufficent food, hoping to enter a
refugee camp in Turkey
"THE children in Syria need help. They need help because they
are being tortured, shelled, shot at. . . They create a human
shield of children. . . I saw this with my own eyes." The testimony
of Hassan, a 14-year-old Syrian boy living with his family in
Za'atari refugee camp, in Jordan, is among the first-hand accounts
collected by Save the Children, in a new report published on
Tuesday.
The report, Untold Atrocities, contains graphic details
of how children have been caught up in the conflict in Syria,
witnessing massacres and, in some cases, suffering torture. Wael, a
16-year-old, described how a six-year-old boy died in prison after
being denied food and water for three days and regularly beaten.
Khalid, a 15-year-old, spoke of being hung from the ceiling by his
wrists and beaten. Several accounts mention children being used as
a human shield, a claim corroborated by the UN's report on children
and armed conflict.
"When two tanks came into the village I saw children attached to
them, tied up by their hands and feet, and by their torsos," Nabil,
a parent interviewed by Save the Children, reported. "After that
happened I cried like a woman. I was close to losing my mind. . .
The name of the village was Saydeh. Let everyone know this is where
this terrible thing happened."
The report was recommended on Wednesday by the Prime Minister,
David Cameron, to anyone "in any doubt about the horrors that Assad
has inflicted on his people".
In his address to the UN General Assembly, Mr Cameron said: "The
blood of these young children is a terrible stain on the reputation
of this United Nations. And, in particular, a stain on those who
have failed to stand up to these atrocities and in some cases aided
and abetted Assad's regime of terror. If the United Nations Charter
is to have any value in the 21st century, we must now join together
to support a rapid political transition."
Mr Cameron's comments are likely to be widely interpreted as a
veiled criticism of Russia and China, the two members of the UN
Security Council who have vetoed resolutions that could have led to
sanctions against Syria.
The Prime Minister also announced a further $12 million in
humanitarian support for Syria.
After the UN Security Council's debate on children and armed
conflict on Wednesday of last week, the UN Monitoring and Reporting
Mechanism on grave violations of children's rights in armed
conflict has been formally triggered for Syria. This enables the UN
to put verified accounts of violations against children directly in
front of the Security Council, raising them to the highest level.
Save the Children, which is providing support for children in
refugee camps, is urging people to sign a petition calling on the
UN to ensure that crimes against the children of Syria are
systematically recorded.
The UN's report on children and armed conflict, published in
June, lists the Syrian government forces among parties that "kill
and maim children" and "engage in attacks on schools and/or
hospitals". It has collected "dozens" of eyewitness reports of the
torture of children, including accounts of children being beaten,
blindfolded, subjected to stress positions, whipped with heavy
electrical cables, and scarred by cigarette burns.
On Monday, the Joint Special Representative of the UN and the
League of Arab States on the Syrian crisis, Lakhdar Brahimi, gave
evidence to the Security Council after a meeting with the Syrian
President, Bashar al-Assad, and visits to refugee camps in Turkey
and Jordan. He said that the situation in the country was "bad and
getting worse". There was "no prospect for today or tomorrow to
move forward", but it was possible that "we will find an opening in
the not too distant future."
On Sunday, the National Co-ordination Body for Democratic Change
in Syria (NCB), which comprises 16 opposition parties and says that
the regime permitted its conference to take place in Damascus,
issued a statement calling for the overthrow of the regime, the
rejection of sectarianism, and the adoption of non-violent
resistance.
On Saturday, the Free Syria Army (FSA) reported that it had
moved its command centre from Turkey to "liberated areas" inside
Syria. The leader, General Riad al-Asaad, said that the FSA "will
not accept any bargaining from any party and . . . it will stick to
what our people desire until the liberation of Damascus from the
filth of this criminal gang".
www.savethechildren.org.uk/syriaact
"Crucified". The leaders of the Western world
are guilty of "complacency" towards Syria, having failed to provide
a "coherent initiative to bring the Syrians from all kinds of
directions . . . around the table to sit and talk". This is the
analysis of the conflict provided by the Revd Nadim Nassar, the
Syrian-born director of the Awareness Foundation in London. "I am
sorry, disappointed, and sad to say that the Western leaders who
claim to represent the democratic world have let Syria down," he
said on Wednesday of last week.
Mr Nassar is "utterly and completely" against military
intervention, and believes that Christians should "play a bigger
role in facilitating, encouraging, pushing the opposition and the
regime to sit together and talk. . . Even if we consider the regime
to be taking the country as a hostage, don't we talk with the
kidnappers in order to free the hostage?"
Asked about the possibility of peace in Syria after the
conflict, Mr Nassar expressed a desire for justice "hand in hand
with reconciliation", citing the Truth and Reconcilitation
Commission chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
"Even God did not implement justice with humanity without the
cross, the mercy, without the resurrection, the ultimate love of
God. So now Syria is going through the cross. Syria is being
crucified. So with the justice, and with pointing fingers at those
who committed atrocities, we have to say: let's bring healing;
let's bring reconciliation."