Syrian Coalition Condemns Assad Regime’s Recruitment of Children

The Syrian Coalition condemns pro-regime’s crimes and violations against children, including child recruitment, indiscriminate shelling and barrel bombing. It described the statistics released by the Syrian Network for Human Rights as “shocking”, reaffirming its condemnation of all parties responsible for violations against children. “We call upon the international community to shoulder its responsibilities towards Assad’s crimes against children and demand the referral of these crimes and violations to the International Criminal Court. We also call on all relief organizations to shoulder their responsibilities towards the increasing needs of Syrian children, and on the host countries to tackle the issue of identification papers and education for Syrian children refugees in collaboration with the United Nations. In a report entitled “Syrian Children, the Lost Dream” the Syrian Network for Human Rights said that it had documented 17,268 children killed at the hands of Assad’s forces since March 2011. The deaths include 518 children were killed by sniper fire, and 95 who died under torture, while the number of detainees exceeds 9,500 in addition to more than 1,600 children who forcibly disappeared. The report pointed out that child victims constitutes 7% of the total number of deaths, which indicates that regime forces have been deliberately targeting civilians. It documented at least 280,000 children who were injured, 4.7 million internally displaced, and 2.9 million refugees in neighboring countries and 1.3 million are now deprived of education. At least 3,942 schools are damaged as a result of the ongoing conflict, while pro-Assad forces have recruited hundreds of children in direct and indirect combat operations. The report accused the extremist group ISIS of committing war crimes through indiscriminate bombing, murder, torture, sexual violence, forced recruitment and conversion of schools to military barracks. The report said that ISIS has killed at least 137 children and has detained 455 more. It also pointed out that 85,000 children were born in refugee camps, and many of them did not get identification papers. The release of the report coincides with the Universal Children’s Say. On this occasion, Noura Al Ameer, vice president of the Syrian Coalition said “on behalf of the Syrian children whose faces were covered with blood and who were suffocated to death by Assad’s chemical weapons, we say to the international community: Assume your responsibilities; your humanitarian credibility is at stake. History will bear witness to what is being done to the children of Syria and it will not have mercy on anyone.” Al Ameer calls for taking immediate action to save Syrian children from Assad’s chemical weapons, wondering: “Has the time not come for those countries supporting the murderer of children to see through the eyes of Syrian children? Has the time not come for them to stop the killing machine that has been harvesting the lives of Syrian children? Has the time not come for the world’s humanitarian and legal organizations to put an end to these unspeakable child abuses in Syria? On behalf of the 3,000,000 children who are deprived of education, on behalf of the 2,400 schools and kindergartens demolished by the Assad regime, on behalf of hundreds of schools and kindergartens which were turned by Assad into detention and torture centers, on behalf of children’s parks which Assad turned into military barracks, on behalf of 17,000 children who were killed by Assad’s forces, on behalf of the conscience of humanity, on behalf of Hamza al-Khatib, the boy who was forbidden by Assad’s forces to pronounce his father’s name, we call on the international community to assume its responsibilities and stop the killing machine that has been harvesting the lives of Syrian children for more than three years. The unprecedented international silence towards war crimes committed by Assad are more than enough to transform every Syrian child into a ticking time bomb on the verge of explosion. Finally, I say to you on behalf of the Syrian children: save us before it is too late.” (Source: Syrian Coalition + The Syrian Network for Human Rights)