U.N.: Syrian Army Uses Children as 'Human Shields’
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Syrian troops have tortured children, executed them and used children as young as eight as "human shields" during military raids against rebels, according to a U.N. report released Tuesday.
The United Nations branded the Syrian government as one of the worst offenders on its annual "list of shame" of conflict countries where children are killed, tortured and forced to fight.
Human rights groups estimate that about 1,200 children have died during the 15-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, whose brutal crackdown on Arab Spring-inspired protests has been widely condemned.
"Rarely, have I seen such brutality against children as in Syria, where girls and boys are detained, tortured, executed, and used as human shields," Radhika Coomaraswamy, U.N. special representative for children in armed conflict, told Agence France Presse ahead of the report's release.
Government forces rounded up dozens of boys aged eight to 13 before an attack on the village of Ayn l'Arouz in Idlib province on March 9, the report said.
The children were "used by soldiers and militia members as human shields, placing them in front of the windows of buses carrying military personnel into the raid on the village," it said.
Quoting witnesses, the U.N. report said Syrian military and intelligence forces, as well as pro-government Shabiha militiamen, surrounded the village for an attack that lasted more than four days.
Among the 11 dead on the first day were three boys aged 15 to 17. Another 34 people, including two boys aged 14 and 16 and a nine-year-old girl, were detained.
"Eventually, the village was reportedly left burned and four out of the 34 detainees were shot and burned, including the two boys aged 14 and 16 years," the Children in Armed Conflict report said.
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said the report had uncovered one of many "grave violations" against children.
The Syrian government, and its allied militias, was one of four new parties added to the U.N.'s list of shame -- along with organizations and political parties in Sudan and Yemen.
The list includes 52 parties in 11 countries, ranging from the Afghan national police and the anti-U.S. Haqqani network to the Lord's Resistance Army in central Africa, Sudanese armed forces and various Darfur rebel groups.
The report said children in Syria as young as nine had been victims of killing and maiming, arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and ill-treatment, including sexual violence and use as human shields.
Schools have been regularly raided and used as military bases and detention centers, the report said.
The report was completed before the Houla massacre on May 25, when 49 of the 108 victims were said to be children, some as young as two and three, who were shot in the head or had their skulls smashed with blunt instruments.
"Most child victims of torture described being beaten, blindfolded, subjected to stress positions, whipped with heavy electrical cables, scarred by cigarette burns and, in one recorded case, subjected to electrical shock to the genitals," said the U.N. report.
At least one witness told investigators he had seen a boy of approximately 15 succumb to repeated beatings.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the U.N. Security Council should impose an arms embargo and other sanctions on the Assad government over its violations against children.
HRW quoted the Syria Violations Documentation Center, a network of Syrian activists, as saying that at least 1,176 children have been killed since February 2011.
It also said there were "credible allegations" that armed opposition groups, including the Free Syrian Army (FSA), are recruiting children as soldiers.
12 June 2012, 11:03
31
this report must come from Moon's new boss, Feltman, what a surprise
12 June 2012, 12:55
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It also said there were "credible allegations" that armed opposition groups, including the Free Syrian Army (FSA), are recruiting children as soldiers.
So why the blame is only to the regime? The rebels are as bad as the regime.
12 June 2012, 14:10
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The Iranians have sent their children to blow themselves up under Saddam's tanks in the early 80's. This is how terrorism was born. Then the families got some retirement compensation for the blood price they agreed to pay, and a passeport to heaven for their offsprings! But here , the Shabiha and the regime is degrading themselves to a pre-human level. Not that of the animal which only kills to eat, but below that. Bashar and his clique, deserve to be tied down, their soft bellies exposed, and left to be slowly devoured by waiste-bound starving rats, similar to what was used in the middle ages in Europe..
12 June 2012, 14:25
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Glad to see that thirty years of Syrian sisterly bloody occupation have left behind such loyal loving brown nosers. And I also love the fact that my fellow shiite bro brown nose inhalers FlamingTurd is still trying to pass for a Christian, using sam khoury eh, why was maroun khoury taken?
12 June 2012, 16:01
02
We do not need the UN to tell us how brutal and inhumane the Syrian regime is. We all experienced it first hand in Lebanon. And any Lebanese that does not wish the end of such a regime is an accomplice in the massacres they committed in Lebanon.
12 June 2012, 17:06
01
I agree with the heroic Moukhabarat loving FlameThrower, so many hateful nobodies who lost someone, obviously traitors, in the war at the hand of the wonderful Syria army. Especially the hateful nobodies who lost Lebanese army soldiers allegedly executed by the Syrian army or crushed under Syrian tanks when the magnificent General Aoun was getting martyred in Baabda as he promised, before he rose from the dead and appeared to the French ambassador as the good book said. Those hateful nobodies only have the Lebanese army soldiers to blame. After all as the Marvelous General Aoun said and FlameThrower reiterated regular armies don't execute their captives. The stupid Lebanese soldiers were killed because they stood against a wall the all conquering Syrian soldiers where already using for target practice and other even dumber lazy Lebanese soldier decided to suntan in the middle of the street in front of the rapidly approaching Syrian tanks and were turned into delicious crepe Suzettes.
12 June 2012, 17:27
12
FT you just thank God that there are laws that protect scums like you or you would have been fertilizer long ago. Your tasteless comments and lack of compassion for the loss of human lives (children to say the least) is despicable! That's way the likes of you and all those who worship clans such as ASSad, HA and Iran should be removed from this planet. Sick and pathetic!
12 June 2012, 17:32
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WTF are you talking about? Have you seen numerous "global" sites with a variety of pictures of these poor mutilated children? You have to audacity to try to twist this fact to be a ploy of US/EU? Lucky for you that cowards of your kind (and like your beloved leader Hassan) live in hiding!
12 June 2012, 17:55
02
just look how FT is defending the barbaric regime of assad... a real little FPMer sheep...
12 June 2012, 19:04
01
Peace.....what you read from the likes of those few on this site like FT shows you how easy it is for the likes of HA to condition these mindless sheep. There are quite a few of them who only know how to obey and follow orders even it be to kill innocent civilians/children through assassinations, suicide bombing and massacres as we are witnessing through Assad's murderers. These followers are as sick and warped as their leaders they worship.
12 June 2012, 19:27
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Your full of "BLANK" like your fellow sheep! Get out here and find a mind field to run around.
12 June 2012, 18:00
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"Rarely, have I seen such brutality against children as in Syria ..." She forgot to mention that she was never in Syria and has not actually seen any army personnel mistreating children. But since it's against the Syrian army, sure why not, she also saw Bashar eating babies for fun.
13 June 2012, 00:24
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List of Shame also includes filthy Persian wannabe militia murdering civilian Lebanese May 2008 and fatso hiding in the hole
13 June 2012, 01:42
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Wlik Allah ya3teek alf 3afyé ya Sheikh Bashar! Even Israel doesn't manage to kill 10,000 Arabs per year...
13 June 2012, 07:04
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Hey flame, your so tough why dont you tell us where you live? Your lil hezzies can protect you cant they?? or maybe i'll find your ip address and send you a gift
