UNITED NATIONS
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report released on Tuesday that Syrian government forces detained and tortured children affiliated with the opposition groups fighting to topple the Syrian regime and accused the opposition forces of recruiting children.
Syria’s government forces have been responsible for the arrest, arbitrary detention, the ill treatment and torture of children, some as young as eleven. Beatings with metal cables, whips and wooden batons; electric shock, including to the genitals; the ripping out of fingernails and toenails; sexual violence, including rape or threats of rape; mock executions; cigarette burns; sleep deprivation; solitary confinement; and exposure to the torture of relatives, were all stated in the report.
"Reports indicate that children were also suspended from walls or ceilings by their wrists or other limbs, were forced to put their head, neck and legs through a tire while being beaten, and were tied to a board and beaten" by forces loyal to the Assad regime.
A 16-year-old boy describes witnessing his 14-year-old male friend being sexually assaulted and then killed, and notes other allegations that boys, and in some cases girls, were raped by government forces.
"Children have been arrested for their or their relatives’ actual or perceived participation in demonstrations or support to armed opposition groups. The United Nations collected reports of children who were arrested in their homes, schools and hospitals and in the streets, at checkpoints in Dar’a, Idlib, Homs, Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor and Damascus governorates," the report said.
Ban said armed opposition groups have recruited Syria’s children for both combat and support roles, conducting military operations - including using terror tactics, in civilian-populated areas.
The report unveiled that the loss of parents and relatives, displacement and peer, pressure from families and communities contributed to the involvement of children with Free Syrian Army (FSA) affiliated groups. On the other hand, according to the report, many children affiliated to the FSA have stated that they felt it was their duty to join the opposition.
"Armed opposition groups also engaged in the summary execution of children," the report said, adding however that lack of access, including for security reasons, has prevented the United Nations from systematic documentation.
Schools and hospital were also disproportionately targeted by both the regime and the opposition forces, with government forces being the main perpetrators of assaults on the healthcare infrastructure.
The report covers a period of almost three years between March 1 2011 and November 15 2013, and will be submitted to the UN Security Council.
As many as 10,000 children have been killed during Syria’s three year conflict.
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