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| Sunday, 13 October 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Children - the biggest losers in the war game by Carol Aloysius As statistics began to unroll on the numbers of child soldiers forcibly conscripted into a war they did not understand; orphaned and displaced from their homes; raped and abused by their so-called care givers; and deprived of the joys of their childhood years, they all pointed out to one thing; Children are the biggest losers in the war game.
This was the underlying theme of a three day discussion on "Children Affected by Armed Conflict" at an international conference sponsored by Save the Children at the Trans Asia Hotel last week to re-inforce the need that it was time to 'Bring Children Home' from refugee camps and give them back the joys of childhood. The plus side of this conference was that none of the speakers made the slightest effort to gloss over the horrendous fate that awaits children in armed conflict situations, even going to the extent of dipping into their own experiences to present a true albeit grim picture of how children suffer in times of war. Ted Chaiban, Resident Representative of UNICEF in his keynote address disclosed that an increasing number of humanitarian workers were found to have abused children and subjected them to physical and mental suffering during times of conflict when children were especially vulnerable. This was particularly tragic since it was to these adults that children living in refugee camps looked to for help and comfort. The nature of global conflict had undergone a metamorphosis over the last decade,he pointed out and had now become chronic, involving non- state and private individuals. He admitted that the latter was largely responsible for manipulating conflict situations and using them for their own benefits, often misusing funds given by aid donors. As for the negative impact of the war on children, he supplied startling facts and figures so as to jolt the adult audience into re-thinking and re-assessing remedial steps in safeguarding children in armed conflict. Some 2 million children have died due to wars worldwide; approximately 10 million children have been displaced from their homes and are currently 1.2 percent of children languish in displacement centres world wide. Additionally, over 3,000,000 children have been forcibly conscripted to fight a war they did not understand as soldiers on a global level, he revealed. And what of the overall impact that war has on children? Here again the UNICEF Resident Representative was brutally frank. Armed conflict results in thousands of innocent children dying for no fault of their own and orphaned with no one to look after them. Such children left to defend themselves, are sexually abused, (the most vulnerable are the 2.5 % of children living in displacement centres) and generally miss out on opportunities that allow them to enjoy their childhood. Wars have also made children victims of HIV infections - as in Africa he further pointed out. "Conflicts create and exacerbate HIV among children living in overcrowded unsafe camps at the mercy of military personnel who take advantage of them and often sexually abuse them. We also see increasing instances of Humanitarian workers now taking advantage of vulnerable children, which is a distressing sign", he added. In the case of landmine victims too, he noted that it was the children who bore the brunt of long term injuries - if they survived the horrendous impact of the blast. "When a child survives a landmine, he will need a prosthesis every six months because his bones are still growing. He is also likely to suffer from emotional and psychological scars over a life time". Children living in refugee camps are also mentally affected by the stress of adults around them. Most importantly, they lose their access to the rights they are entitled to because they have no legal documents such as a birth certificate and so are "legally invisible". All this has very negative effects on these children" he reiterated. On the other hand, there have also been many positive steps taken to deal with such children in recent years, he pointed out. One of these was the development of legal standards and laws which provided the necessary tools to protect children.Examples of these standards include laws that prevented the sale of children, laws that forbade pornographic material using children and the ILO charter to eliminate the worst forms of child labour and abuse. UN paid a tribute to UN chief Kofi Anan who had put children's rights back on the list of priorities. However, despite these legal developments and instruments abuse of children continues to be an indictment on society as a whole. Every day we the rights of children being violated somewhere in the world during armed conflict. We need to ensure that this does not happen, and that their rights are observed and respected by every adult." It is in this context that this conference is being held," he explained. Emphasising the need to have mechanisms of Accountability and the need to hold all violators of children's rights accountable for their actions by a criminal law court such as the international criminal tribunes, he stressed the need to bring children as victims and witnesses in crimes committed against them. Girl children who were specially vulnerable in war situations needed special mechanisms to protect them, he added. |
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| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
It is children who suffer most in armed conflict situations. They are
the primary targets in times of war. Yet ironically, it is children who
also represent the world's last remaining hope for Peace. They are in fact
the most important unifying instrument for bringing people of different
religions, races and nationalities together.
