Children

Congo warlord accused of recruiting child soldiers set free
Judges at the Hague released a Congolese warlord, held on charges of coercing thousands of children into military service, after prosecutors withheld evidence supplied by the UN that would seem to exonerate him on certain of the charges.

Egypt launches campaign to slow population growth
A new campaign in Egypt attempts to dissuade citizens from having large families as the country struggles with population growth. Birth control is legal but frowned upon by some Egyptians, while abortion remains outlawed and vasectomies are not commonly performed. Egypt’s population has nearly doubled since Hosni Mubarak assumed the presidency in 1981.

Fistula crisis in Uganda
Experts say that, though many women in the Teso subregion of Uganda suffer from fistula, many cases are neither known, reported, nor treated, due to ignorance, limited materials, and limited personnel. It is estimated that nearly 3% of Ugandan women suffer from fistula.

Low-tech filters give Sri Lanka safer water
The introduction of clay pots fortified with low-tech filters by the American Red Cross has provided thousands of Sri Lankan families with access to safe drinking water and is helping to prevent the spread of disease. Water-borne diseases are the country’s number one cause of malnutrition.

Abortion rate on the rise in Middle East
Despite legal and religious restrictions against abortion in much of the Arab world, changing social values and economic realities as well as demographic shifts have contributed to an apparent increase in the number of the procedures in the Middle East.

Chinese protest corruption in case of girl’s death
Images of riots in China’s southwestern Guizhou province showed cars burning and cell-phone cameras snapping, as protesters responded with violence to evidence of police corruption. Following the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl by an individual with government connections, police called the death a suicide and brutally killed the girl’s uncle, who pressed for justice. Chinese government officials deployed paramilitary soldiers and riot police after 10,000 individuals took to the streets.

Leaders call for funds for women at Glasgow summit
Some participants at the 8th Civicus World Assembly in Scotland say not enough money is going to aid women in the developing world as outlined under the United Nation’s eight Millennium Development Goals. Activists stress that worldwide gender equality is an integral part of the program’s success.

ZIMBABWE: AIDS organisations still grounded
As Zimbabwe’s political crisis deepens ahead of the presidential run-off election on Friday 27 June, and the status of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) remains uncertain, the situation for HIV-positive Zimbabweans is more precarious than ever.

In war there are many weapons that may be employed and while the Kalashnikov or IED may be favored arms in modern warfare, there is one weapon all men carry and more often use. Men are choosing to use their bodies as weapons - in fact their manhood - to attack. The victim is raped in an effort to dehumanize and defeat the enemy, leaving an entire society with long-term suffering as victims cascade across generational divides. The scourge of rape as a weapon, affects not only the individual lives of the victims, but the entire family and community in which they live. Leaving their lasting marks on the entire country’s civil society, this in turn affects our globalized world.

The use of rape as a weapon is one of the most violent and humiliating offenses inflicted on the enemy, the brutalization of rape permanently scars the victim’s mind, soul and often body. Rape is often used as a predecessor to murder, where others survive only to serve as daily reminders to those around them of the tragedies of war. Victims are shunned by their families and communities and many become pregnant as a result of their rapes. Rape leaves a permanent reminder of war and of the enemy through the birth of a child, which places both the mother and child in continual victimization and isolation. Rape as a weapon of war affects not only the rape victim, but their entire family, village and community. While rape as a weapon of war continues today, many of the psychological effects have yet to be felt in many communities around the globe.

The situation in Sierra Leone highlights the long-term and lasting effects of the use of rape as a weapon of war. Rape as a weapon of war affects not only the victim, but places all women and girls in fear of sexual violence. Fear dominates the daily life of all woman and girls who are living in a conflict or post-conflict zone. This continual fear leaves victims in constant torment and mental anguish, which causes increased long-term psychological stress and damage. Many physiologists believe the fear alone can cause PTSD. A victim traumatized by the lingering threat of rape, is often too afraid to leave the home to work and lives in constant fear, as with one who is ostracized by their community. For many the war never ends, as the scars and memories of the violence of war haunt them for the remainder of their lives. However most do their best to move on and heal the wounds they can and grow in strength for those which they cannot heal.

The tolerance and standardization of rape as a weapon of war has lead to its international impunity, and thus increased its silence. Impunity regarding the increasingly brutalized use of rape as a weapon of war combined with its effectiveness, only provokes its use, for the perpetrators are less likely to be tried and punished for the use of this weapon, and if convictions do follow the punishment is disproportionate to the crime.

As Nelson Mandela stated:

“Safety and security don’t just happen: they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children – the most vulnerable citizens in any society – a life free from violence and fear. In order to ensure this, we must become tireless in our efforts not only to attain peace, justice and prosperity for countries but also for communities and members of the same family. We must address the roots of violence. Only then will we transform the past century’s legacy from a crushing burden into a cautionary lesson.” (The 2002 World Report on Violence and Health)

There is no doubt that the effects of the use of rape as a weapon of war are effects far-reaching regardless of time, place or culture. Short and long-term support and treatment for victims is substantially lacking, which will only serve to exacerbate the use of rape as weapon of war. Thus an end to the perception that rape is a common and unavoidable tactic of war must occur, making it unequivocally unacceptable. In order to do this there are three main areas of focus which must be in place:

•  One the issue of gender inequality and bias must be removed in all countries, when such programs are in place at peace time it will significantly reduce the stigma and use of rape and gender-based violence in times of conflict.
• Two, there must be a unified international response to ban the use of rape as a weapon of war once and for all, and thus strategies of prevention and awareness must be put into place, including in internally displaced persons and refugee camps and in times of post conflict.
• Three, impunity was come to an end, or victims will continue to remain silent and not seek medical, psychological and legal attention if they feel there is no retribution or care for which they are safe to receive.

If one is listening, victims will talk, thus if aid and government agencies step forward and ask victims to speak out, then they must be willing to not only listen, but provide them both the short and long-term care and support, including providing physical and financial access to services.

When wars end they do not just end full stop, the death and destruction do not suddenly turn to peace and prosperity over night. Peace talks and cease fires alone do not end wars, people end wars and when all of the people cannot find them selves distanced from the war, then the war rages on. That is just the case in Sierra Leone, where Sex crimes continue in peacetime, some eight years later leaving social workers to fear that the situation is worse then during the conflict years.

“Some of the perpetrators were children during the war and were exposed to rape and sexual violence then and just carried on doing it”.  “The highest numbers of cases come from areas where large numbers of ex-combatants are gathered.”

The extent of the use of rape as a weapon of war in Sierra Leone was so extreme that the rebel forces systematically rounded up girls and women, then took them to rebel command centers, where they were then individually and gang-rape. Those girls, especially the younger ones, who where deemed virgins, were especially targeted more than there older counterparts. Many of the younger girls also faced abductions by the rebels and where then repeatedly assaulted and raped.  The countless victims of sexual assault and rape as a weapon of war in Sierra Leone will never be know, however the effects of the extreme levels of sexual assault and rape during the decade long civil war that saw civilians as the main target.

“We saw rape and sexual violence used as a tool during the war, and now it is morphing into this culture’s society as something that is understood and even accepted,” said Glasgow, head of the IRC.

Children are all to often being revictimized by their families after they have been raped, they are shunned, beaten, verbally abused, and many times even worse.  A harsh fact Hannah Kargbo, a rape counselor, at the Rainbo Centre, a rape and gender-based violence counseling and health clinic in the capital Freetown, knows all too well.

“Parents tend to blame the children, saying they should not have let it happen to them. They don’t take into account the age difference – how is a four year-old child supposed to fight off a 40 year-old man?”…”The beatings are serious. They scald the children, shave their heads, and insert chili peppers into the vaginas. They beat them first to get an explanation of what happened, and then again as a punishment. ” (IRIN) 

At Kargbo’s clinic over half of all of those treated for sexual abuse are between the ages of infancy and 15 years old, who are often raped by someone they know.

The situation in Sierra Leone shows the large gaps in both rehabilitation and reintegration programs, as well as to providing both community support, but also education on gender based violence. Additionally the increasing cases of rape in post conflict show that there is a significant need for in-depth and qualitative studies on the scope and depth of the long-term effects of rape as a weapon of war not only on its victims, but also on the perpetrators themselves.  It is clear that this data would prove substantial in the prevention of its use, as well as understanding the long-term effects on society.

The beginning of the end of the use of rape as a weapon of war is to combat gender inequalities and stereotypes in cultures while in peace time, as a method to prevent and curb the use of rape as a weapon of war. Removing the stigma of rape is the first and foremost crucial step to see that the ripple effects do not continue to haunt our global society in future generations and centuries.

Please see my other post such as Ending Sexual Violence, a Global Priority and War’s Sexual Violence Towards Girls

For more information please see:
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) study, War-Related Sexual Violence in Sierra Leone
Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, Getting Away with Murder, Mutilation, and Rape

“Peace is no mere matter of men fighting or not fighting. Peace, to have meaning for many who have known only suffering in both peace and war, must be translated into bread or rice, shelter, health, and education, as well as freedom and human dignity - a steadily better life. If peace is to be secure, long-suffering and long-starved, forgotten peoples of the world, the underprivileged and the undernourished, must begin to realize without delay the promise of a new day and a new life.” - Ralph J. Bunche

The words of Ralph Bunche, reminded me one about the true meaning of freedom. For is one truly free if they must depend on others for the basic essentials of survival and humanity? War’s do no end overnight, homes are not suddenly rebuilt, the land is not suddenly lush, families are not instantly reunited, and so forth. Freedom does lead to peace, but only when freedom is accompanied by sustainable development that is led by those who’s futures depend on freedom and peace. It is this instable rebuilding after freedom that can lead to the demise of peace.

The axe of freedom does not just fall on peace, it falls on injustice and once injustice is gone peace is possible. But peace does not just happen, and it does not happen over night, it takes years to build stable peace. Peace is found on the back of education, gender equality, adequate healthcare, nutrition as well as democracy. Peace is found among children, as they have disproportionately been effected by the ravages of war, and therefore they too must be included in the process of rebuilding their country to ensure that a lasting peace is found. To find true peace no one must be left behind, no one must be forgotten!

On July 6 at 8 and 11 PM ET on CNN, the US Fund for UNICEF will air, “The Survival Project: One Child at a Time”. UNICEF is encouraging supporters to not only to watch the broadcast, but to host a viewing party to discuss these important issues of child survival. UNICEF has developed a viewing party guide to help you to easily host a party. The first 100 parties registered will receive a packet of materials including UNICEF signs and buttons. Register your party today!

The broadcast will be hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Chief Medical Correspondent for CNN, who will highlighting progress and challenges in child survival. In the broadcast CNN will explore why 26,000 children die every day from preventable causes, and what UNICEF doing to save young lives. The show will look at four areas where UNICEF works on-the-ground to save children’s lives:

• Child protection in Iraq
• Water and sanitation in Laos
• HIV/AIDS in Peru
• Child survival interventions in Ethiopia

Countries which are involved in conflict and strife are seeing an increasing use of violence against children, including kidnapping, torture and even murder. UNICEF issued a statement on the continued abduction, torture and rape of children around the world, saying;

“It is everyone’s duty to ensure children are safe from harm, and governments have a responsibility to enact and enforce measures that provide a protective environment for all children”.

Countries for which UNICEF has reported similar ochering incident in a number of countries including Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Iraq and Haiti.

In CAR armed gangs have profited from the conflict ridden countries vitality and instability, focusing on rural communities for which their terrorizing often includes kidnapping children and holding them for ransom. Earlier this month both CAR and Chad had agreed to the Release of Child Soldiers , however a number of armed groups continue to increase their ranks of child soldiers.

The DRC has seen thousands of children forcibly recruited by armed militant groups to be used as child soldiers, porters and sex slaves. UNICEF has estimated that some 30,000 child soldiers are in place in the DRC, many are girls and the situation has been noticeably on the increase as seen in my post, Child Soldiers in the Congo are Increasing

In Iraq the number of reports of children recruited and used by militias and insurgent groups are increasing, as is the abduction of girls who “are increasingly subject to murder, kidnapping and rape, or are being abducted and trafficked within or outside Iraq for sexual exploitation”.

UNICEF has paid particular attention to the Impoverished of Haiti, where kidnappings have become all too common. Since the beginning of 2008 alone more than 50 children have been abducted, more than half of which where girls. Earlier this month on June 4th UNICEF made a nation wide call to halt the kidnappings of Haitian children, the call came after a recent incident where a 16-year-old hostage was murdered and other hostages, including infants, where lynched and rape. The call from UNICEF was joined by Haitians demonstrating against the kidnappings in the streets of Port-au-Prince. UNICEF estimates that some 2,000 children are trafficked each year to the Dominican Republic, and another 1,000 are working as spies, messengers or soldiers for armed gangs in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

According to the Child Soldiers Global Report 2008 issued by the Secretary General of the United Nations, the number of armed groups and government forces using child soldiers increased from 40 in 2006 to 57 in 2007. The issues, such as poverty, disease and economic destabilization that face children in conflict countries are only compounded by the increasing violence against children. As the use of rape as a weapon of war, conscription of child soldiers, and other violence, including gender based violence, that directly targets children, not only exacerbates the conflict itself, but impedes the post conflict recovery for not only the children, but their entire community and the country on the whole. Therefore it is essential that individual states and the international community on the whole end the long running impunity of these violent crimes, and take greater steps to see that children are no longer used as the weapons and pawns of war.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has launched the second part of its multi-phase campaign to detect and treat widespread malnutrition in Togolese children. The agency is now targeting dozens of more isolated villages in the Savanes and Kara regions in the north of the West African country and the Maritime region in the far south after earlier reaching bigger population centers, according to a statement released by UNICEF June 15. (UN News Service)

Students and teachers clashed with police in Chile on June 18 to protest an education bill they say doesn’t go far enough to bring equal access to schooling for the poor even with a government flush with copper dollars. About a thousand students marched shoulder to shoulder in the nation’s capital, confronting police with tear gas and water canon in the upscale Providencia neighborhood. In Valparaiso, the port town where the national Congress is debating the controversial legislation, 10,000 teachers marched in peaceful demonstrations. (Reuters)

Chinese police have detained a retired teacher on subversion charges after she decried the state of many schools buildings that toppled during last month’s devastating earthquake, the Information Center for Human Rights said on June 18. The Hong Kong-based human rights group said police in southwest China’s Sichuan province detained Zeng Hongling for “inciting subversion” after she wrote essays arguing that corruption made a mockery of school building standards. The more than 70,000 people killed in the May 12 quake included thousands of children crushed in schools, which often collapsed even as nearby buildings stayed upright. (Reuters)

A Dutch court began hearings June 18 about whether survivors of a 1995 massacre of Muslims in Bosnia, Europe’s worst mass killing since World War II, can sue the UN for failing to prevent the slaughter. Serb forces killed more than 8,000 Muslims in one week in July 1995, overrunning the Srebrenica enclave declared a UN safe zone. Dutch peacekeepers overwhelmed by the Serbs’ superior force watched helplessly as the male victims were led away from their custody for execution. The Mothers of Srebrenica, survivors of the men and boys killed in 1995, are among those seeking compensation from the UN and the Dutch state in the civil lawsuit. (AP/MSNBC)

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said it is scaling up its emergency operation in Iraq to address the basic needs of more than 360,000 vulnerable children inside the strife-torn nation. After five years of conflict, more than 800,000 Iraqi children are unable to go to school and only 40 per cent can access safe water, according to the agency. Through its Immediate Action for Vulnerable Children and Family - or IMPACT program - UNICEF is aiming to assist over 360,000 children this year and ensure they have access to health care and are protected against malnutrition. (UN News Service)

The work of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is no longer going to be only about delivering food, the former “food aid agency” announced in its new strategy for the next three years (2008-2011); it would now bill itself as a “food assistance agency”. Oxfam’s Mousseau cautioned that while his agency “welcomed” the new range of objectives and activities, “We think this new plan should not necessarily translate into more activities for WFP but rather better quality and effectiveness of WFP’s work. (IRIN)

In Eastern Burma the atrocities against ethnic minorities has continued, according to a recent report by the Free Burma Rangers. The government has continued it’s campaign against civilians as attacks on Karen villages have caused more than 1,000 civilians to flee their homes.

In a report, “Crimes Against Humanity In Eastern Myanmar.”, issued by Amnesty International, increasing cases of crimes against humanity are gravely documented. According to the report, more than 140,000 were victimized at the hand of the Burmese government. Assaults and abuses against the countries minority population include rape, murder and forced labor.

Please also see various reports issued by Human Rights Watch on Burma here. For further information see my previous posts The Increase of Child Soldiers in Myanmar and The Children of Burma/Myanmar

Waging Peace, a British NGO, issued a report stating that between 7,000 and 10,000 Darfurian children abducted from refugee camps in Chad are serving as child soldiers. Please also see my other posts on Child Soldiers. The report comes right after the earlier report this month on the Release of Child Soldiers in Chad.  Please  also see my other posts such as, Despite Increased Aid Efforts We Are Still Failing the Children of Darfur

In other news on the situation Darfur international negotiators have called the prospects for new peace negotiations about Darfur “dim.” In an effort to revive the peace process, the UN and AU are working to appoint a joint mediator, which would replace the current negotiators. All of this comes right as the Sudanese government stated its readiness for a ceasefire and peace negotiations, so long as JEM is banned from participating. The JEM and SLM movements currently reject the idea of peace talks, while the SLM-Unity movement stated its intention to launch attacks on Khartoum. Additionally the civil war between the Northern and Southern regions of Sudan was nearly reignited due to a boundary dispute in the Abyei region. The dispute has left many of the residents of Abyei displaced and the town nearly destroyed.

It is painfully clear that the situations in both Sudan and Chad will not come to a clear peaceful resolution soon, and that the children will continue to be swept up in the ciaos until  a true peace can be found and stability finds its way to the region.

Is this the end for the cluster bomb? For many the idea of placing a ban on a military weapon which is said to inflict a 98% civilian casualty rate is seen by many a no brainier. However when states unite on the issue feet seem to drag. It took weeks before the latest ban on the weapon, many of which have lain scattered across countries for decades, could finally reach an agreement. Last month in Dublin, on May 28th, representatives of 111 countries agreed to ban the use of cluster bombs. The use of cluster bombs have been highly criticized by human rights groups for maiming civilians, many of which are children, who pick up unexploded bombs scattered over a large area. The agreement was reached after U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown personally intervened, however the primary manufactures and users of this cluster bombs, including; the U.S., Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan did, were are parties to the treaty (The Washington Post).

In wake of the treaty many landmine survivors have welcomed the ban on cluster bombs, including Uganda.

“As people who have been on the forefront of this campaign, we see the approval of the treaty as a major breakthrough and we pray that countries stick to the treaty,” Margaret Arach, the chairperson of the Uganda Landmine Survivors Association, told IRIN on 3 June.

In Laos the cost to is all to clear when you look in the faces of children like 9 year old Joi was badly injured and who’s brother was killed three years ago when they detonated a cluster bomb when they went into the nearby forest to dig for fishing worms

“It still hurts, but mostly I’m still scared … scared to go into the forest, scared to play there. I’m scared of the bomblets” (IRIN).

From 1966 to 1975 the US forces targeted 15 of 17 Laos provinces in an aerial campagin to stem the tide of North Vietnamese troops, who were infiltrating South Vietnam through the country, according to the National Regulatory Authority (NRA) for the UXO/Mine Action Sector in Lao PDR. Based on records released by the US Air Force in 1999, an estimated 277 million bomblets were dropped on Laos over that time.

Right at the discussions for the treaty began landmines claim new victims in Casamanc, who is fighting for independence from Senegal, as one fatality and 20 injuries ensued as a bus drove over a landmine 70km north of the Casamance capital Ziguinchor on the 1st of May. Youssouf Coly, resident of a nearby village, agreed. ‘’I am convinced it is the rebels who have laid this mine and they are targeting the army,” he said (IRIN). The incident was the second in a week, along with other incidents of violence in violation of the December 2004 peace accord.

So will this treaty have the effect needed to see a true end to the cluster bomb? The sad reality is no, for even if all countries end their use of the weapon the harsh reality is still strewn across the ground. While demining efforts are in place in many countries, the cost of such is extensive on an economic, training and human toll. Thus leaving a mine free world as a distant dream.

Other Recent News on Cluster Bombs:
IRAQ: UN agencies call for international help to clear mines BAGHDAD, 6 April 2008 (IRIN) - Marking the third annual International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action on 4 April, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) called for a global effort to help Iraq in its mine clearance operations.

PAKISTAN: Landmines ruin lives, leave hundreds dead - PESHAWAR, 4 April 2008 (IRIN) - Palvasha Ahmed and her two younger sisters know all too well the risks posed by landmines. “Our cousin, Maryum Ahmed, 19, was injured by a landmine nearly a year ago in her village in South Waziristan. She lost her right foot and now goes around on a crutch. No one will marry her,” the 17-year old said in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP).