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AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen
A Syrian child stands next to rebel fighters checking a house that was damaged in bombing by government forces in Marea, on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012.
Syria’s children are regularly the victims or witnesses of “senseless acts of torture and violence,” according to a report Tuesday by a leading charity.
Save the Children’s report called “Untold Atrocities, The Stories of Syria’s Children” details horrific accounts from Syrian refugees such as 9-year-old Nur, who said, “I used to like hiding. Hiding is better than dying,” and Munther, 10, who told charity workers how a boy standing next to him was shot dead outside a school and he was hit in the neck.
Thousands of children have died in the conflict and “many more have been injured, traumatized or forced to flee their homes,” the report said. “Boys and girls continue to be killed, maimed and tortured. These appalling violations against children must stop and those carrying them out held to account.”
It added that the testimonies “corroborate violations documented by the United Nations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.”
“The acts described are consistent, recurring and appalling,” it said. The organization deals with children and families in both Lebanon and Jordan.
The charity is asking people to sign a petition, "Stop the Crimes Against Syria's Children" to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
“Horrific acts of violence are being committed against children in Syria,” Carolyn Miles, Save the Children’s president and CEO, said in a press release. “These children need specialist care now to help them recover from their shocking experiences. Their testimonies should also be documented so that these violent acts against children are not committed with impunity.”
Muhammed Muheisen, AP
Syrian child, Taybah Al-Hajji, 1, whose family fled their home in Aleppo due to Syrian government shelling, sits next to her one-month-old brother Abdulghani, at the Bab Al-Salameh border crossing near Turkey.
Miles is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly hearings this week. On Tuesday, President Barack Obama condemned Syrian President Bashar Assad as “a dictator who massacres his people” in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly.
Kathryn Bolles, the charity's senior director of emergency health and nutrition, told NBC News by phone that atrocities against children were being carried out by all sides.
She said that the stories in the report, detailed below, were illustrative and that there were "hundreds of thousands of families that are going through this." Bolles added that some of the names had been changed to protect the children and their families.
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Nur, who is now living with her family in the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan, told the charity that she did not play. “Why? Because I am not young anymore. I go to the bathroom, take a shower and then sleep. That is all,” she said.
Jonathan Hyams/Save the Children
Nur, nine, came to Jordan with her family to escape the violence in Syria. She now lives in a tent with her family in Za'atari refugee camp in the desert of northern Jordan where conditions are harsh and the camp authorities are underfunded and struggling to meet the basic needs of the overwhelming numbers of refugees arriving each day.
She said she had once been happy in Syria. “Then the violence started and they started to make us suffer. There was nothing that they did not use to hurt us with,” she said.
The Arab Spring is dead -- and Syria is writing its obituary
Nur spoke of Syrian forces using airstrikes, bombings, missiles and “every weapon you could think” against people in her home village.
“I was terrified. Us along with my cousins, neighbours, aunts and people we know used to go to the shelter to hide. I used to like hiding. Hiding is better than dying,” she said.
'I ran and I cried'
Ten-year-old Ala’a told how he ran “so fast” when shells started to fall. “I ran and I cried at the same time,” he said.
“When we were being bombed we had nothing. No food, no water, no toys – nothing,” he said.
“…One day men with guns broke into our house. They pulled out our food, threw it on the floor and stamped on it, so it would be too dirty to eat. Then we had nothing at all. Soon after that we came here.”
NBC's Richard Engel, who has just returned from his third trip inside Syria, since the uprising began, joins Andrea Mitchell Reports to discuss the situation on the ground.
Syria activist: Hundreds feared dead as Assad escalates airstrikes
Ala’a's father, Nabil, said his son “cries a lot without telling us why and he’s started sleepwalking. My other child has started to stutter.”
“The younger children still cry when a plane goes overhead or a pot falls to the ground,” he said. “They’re traumatized. I’ve spoken to lots of parents and they say the same thing. No child has escaped this. Children aren’t children anymore. Watch any child. They play and look normal, but they can only keep this up for a while, and then they become sad again.”
He said he had seen children used as human shields in the village of Saydeh. “When two tanks came into the village I saw children attached to them, tied up by their hands and feet, and by their torsos. The tanks came through the village and no one stood in their way or fought because we knew we would kill the children,” he said.
“After that happened I cried like a woman. I was close to losing my mind. I have never felt so helpless as the moment I saw those children strapped to those tanks,” he added. “… Let everyone know this is where this terrible thing happened.”
'She died feeling sad'
Omar, 11, who also lives in the Za’atari refugee camp, told the charity workers that one day he was playing with his brother, and the two boys were teasing their cousin.
“She was upset. She left us and went to her house. That night, a shell destroyed my nine-year-old cousin’s house – the one we’d upset during the day. I regret that she died feeling sad,” he said.
Mission 'nearly impossible': Syria envoy downbeat on new job
The report said 10-year-old Munther, who said he wanted to be a doctor, had two bullet-sized wounds on his neck.
“I was on the street when the bullets were first fired. We were standing outside a school – we’d just posed for a photo. There were lots of children around,” he said.
“Then the shooting started. There was chaos. Everyone was screaming. There were bullets and blood everywhere. A boy called Amjad was standing next to me. He was shot in the head. I didn’t realize at first that he was dead. He fell forward on his knees, in a praying position. He was 15,” he added.
“Then I felt a terrible pain. I’d been shot too – in my neck. Here, see my scars … Luckily I was with my friend’s mother. She picked me up and took me straight to a clinic to get help. I recovered from the shooting. We held a funeral for Amjad. Lots of people came. … I was so sad that day.”
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Sad story but you know civilians die in war. I'm not sure where this civilians dont die in war thinking came from. Its not the US's fight. There are plenty of of Oil rich Muslim countries that can give aid instead of the great satan US. Maybe the Red Crescent (Islamic version of the Red Cross) can help also. Why should we help to install radical Muslim Brotherhood supported dictator. The country would be better off with Assad along with women,gays, and non-religious and other religions.
you are a fool, let the people of syria decide their new leader (that is called freedom and rights) instead of the dictator (that you support in his genocide efforts) electing himself decade after decade while oppressing the people and ruling with a iron fist. You might as well support hitler in his genocide efforts against the jews with that type of attitude (turning a blind eye to genocide). The people of syria want the same freedom and rights that you enjoy thanks to the rebels of the american revolution
Jim and John, I think the US should stay out OR support Turkey in taking over. Once Assad falls, Syria will become a FANATIC filled country and if you think the deaths are something now, wait until the Religious fanatics take over. I guess this is why no other nation in the area will get involved. Side with Assad and you support dictatorships, side with the revolutionaries and you will be guilty of the slaughter that happens when the government falls. Kind of like when Cambodia lost its government and the Red Death took over. How many million died?
We can help children and refugees without getting involved, you know. One doesn't have to pick sides in order to help heal.
As is usually the case wherever there is human conflict, it is those who are most innocent and least deserving of suffering who are hurt the most. I don't believe we should take sides in this; let the rebels and Assad's regime battle it out. I believe the UN should get involved by taking over these refugee camps, supplying food and aid to these children, these innocents who have done nothing wrong and don't deserve any of this. Declare those refugee camps as neutral ground, patrol it with UN peacekeeping forces and keep the conflict and fighting out of it.
The Syrian American Medical Society and the Syrian Sunrise Foundation have been raising funds for humanitarian and medical aid to the victims of the Syrian Civil War. They have been doing it for more than a year now. Nearly 80 medical personnel, including several working with these two groups, have been killed in Syria providing medical and humanitarian aid. I am always astonished when the mainstream American media can't even see what the American Arab community is already doing. Maybe that might explain why Americans are so uneducated about the facts and realities of the Middle East and the Arab World and are unprepared for the backlash to our policies that occurs in the Middle East. Both SAMS and the SSF have raised more than $6 million but it is not nearly enough to help the civilians, many thousands of Children. American Arabs are doing their part to help and so are many on the Arab World. It's a misconception that they are not. The media should focus more on these efforts. Thanks. Ray Hanania
Ray,
I am glad there is humanitarian efforts for some of these people, but what about the people that impose religious laws so strict that people are murdered in the name of God. Those people are intermingled with the masses in the guise of the Islamic Brotherhood. From what I have read about them, this case scenario is their way of infiltration into a society. When the smoke clears they are ready to step in.
All of the altruistic motives in the world does not negate one religious fanatic, much less a whole culture.
Lazarus
It's what you do that matters, not whose name you do it in!!!
Not every Muslim believes the 'let's kill everyone who doesn't agree with us'. We have had Muslims in our country for all 200+ years of our histiory and they haven't gone on killing sprees. There are Muslims all over the world, in England, France, all over Europe, the Eastern European bloc of countries, Australia--everywhere. If the 'whole culture' were indeed at fault, there wouldn't be peaceful coexistence in western countries.
Good works done anywhere are good works, no matter whose name they are done in. Hitler was a Christian, hated jews because the Jews killed Christ. In the name of Christ he killed almost the entire Jewish population of Europe because of it, while other Germans, also in the name of Christ, helped smuggle Jews out of Nazi-occupied territory and into neutral countries. Do we negate the good works done by the Cjristian Germans just becayse Hitler was also one of the Christian Germans? No. We decry what Hitler himself did, what he brainwashed his people into doing, while applauding those who did their best to save lives.
And of what religion can that NOT be said? Jesus was murdered in the name of God by the ancient Jews; Christians have murdered practitionaers of pagan beliefs in the name of God; Muslims have murdered others in the name of their God. There are still Christians killing suspected witches in parts of the world; as a witch, I know I'm only protected by the fact that I live in a society where church and state are supposedly separated; if we were to ignore that idea in our government I too would be persecuted for being a practicing pagan.
Recently, I was looking at one of the news sites for China and saw several interesting things. One was the new aircraft carrier. Their state run news agency has a location where they highlight the Military news. On that site, there is an opportunity for visitors to respond to the news stories. One such response was a crude list of two columns of a list. One column was America's Friends in the world, and the other list was China's Friends.
I found this interesting in two items on the list. One, South Korea is listed as a "Puppet" of America. Strange, but I did not know that. I remember America beating back the communist aggressors of North Korea with their puppet, China to help them.
The second item of interest was that Syria was listed as a good friend of China. I wonder how that works, being that Syria is not a communist satellite state like Cuba, and Venezuela? Oh and Venezuela is also a good friend of China.
Aggression and murder is everybodies business. Just one look at history shows us that to pretend it is not happening, or that it does not effect you is the ignorance of a prey pretending there are no predators in the bushes.
I often wondered why China does not think of America as a friend? We went to their aid and helped them to keep Japan from over running their country. Yes I know that they were plagued with Warlords infighting that weakened themselves a great deal. I have read that Mao(communist) was an enemy of Chang(federalist) and that Chang was between Mao and the Japanese.
So Mao's troops were buffered, and would not put their political differences aside to defend the nation. US Marines, equipment, supplies, and Air Forces were deployed to help the people of China. While the Northern forces of Mao were buffered from a direct fight, Chang and the Marines were taking the fight to the Japanese. I could be a little off in the details since information about that corner of the war is not often talked about.
Chinese history tells of the "Rape of Nan King" where all of the inhabitants were systematically raped, tortured and murdered by Japanese forces in 1938. The carnage was so bad it shocked the Germans and we know what they did as well.
I went to a website recently where Mao's name came up. He had benn insulted, pride hurt by a General who somehow took the spotlight away from Mao. He was sentenced to death and as a gift to his wife, Mao aloowed his wife to select the marrer of Execution, Death by a Thousand Cuts. when I heard about it I thought perhaps he would be papercut, but it was really gruesome. He was virtually sliced apart till all that remained was a pile of meat with his head sitting on top.
I know that China is not the same China we have seen in the past, but with them continually building up the largest military force in History and some declaring Syria is one of their buddies, I have to wonder who is pulling the strings and from where.
I have many Chinese friends her in America and most of them love America, but I have also met many who are over educated in their jobs, Engineers working as cooks. I have even met relatives of Communist Party Members, sons and daughters at social settings here in America.
Then I read about CAIR wanting to convince us that just a few bad people are giving a whole people a bad name. But as I look at the news from these Islamic countries, I see a whole people working together to kill their own people in the name of their God. That is not a few bad apples, that is a tree that is rotten at its roots.
I am just making observations about the inconsistent things I see around the world and do not know what to make of it. Perhaps there are some REALLY SMART people out there who can help me to understand.
Syria is infested with the Islamic Fanatics from other countries waiting to grab power the way they did in Egypt, Iran and Pakistan. We see the human interest stories of children being tortured and I know that is true because Brutal Humans have a blood lust to harm the innocent. Psychopaths wearing uniforms do that in war. The government of Syria is the friend of China, and the rebels are infested with Islamic fanatics, so where do we draw the line and who do we help? Politics is not a simple equation where 2+2 =4. And that is why we have gotten ourselves into such messes in the past. We supported the Shaw of Iran, and Saddam Hussein, and see where that led us.
I read the articles about the Arab Spring and the people interviewed did not trust American Politics because we follow the money/oil. After the Shaw left, a void was filled by the fanatics because they had the most guns and were more willing to use them. Any moderate people who remained there had to be quiet or die under the Ayatollah.
Food For Thought,
Lazarus
Larry....I get what you are saying, but have no solution. Perhaps Assad with bust loose with some of his Biological Weapons and the wind will blow it East and by the time it hits the US, we will have a cure? With 7 billion people on the Earth, I don't think that we will miss a billion fanatics or those that follow them.
I think Obama should donate drones (and other heavy weapontry) to the freedom fighters to hunt down Assad's fighter jets and helicopter gunships which are being used by Assad to slaughter thousands upon thousands (including children) b/c would kill majority of syrians in order to stay in power. Assad needs to die a harsh death like Gadhafi, and then have his body drag from town to town and the people of syria celebrate their new found freedom
That will certainly ameliorate the subject of the article ..... children who witness or become victims of violence ..... won't it?
The rebels are infested with Muslim Fanatics from Iran, and other regional Muslim States, and the Brotherhood. Them taking power is as bad for us or worse than the current regime. Yes, the people deserve to have a chance at true freedom, but it will not come from the Brotherhood or fanatics from Iran.
Do you realize what it is like to live in a Religious controlled state? Just one person becomes angry with you and calls you a sinner and the next thing you know, you are either killed by a mob, or taken to jail for trial by Shara Laws. The punishment for almost anything requires death, or maiming. I went to the Pakistan news site recently and saw where a young man was convicted for stealing. They showed graphic pictures of his hands being cut off and joyous men holding the severed hands up for display of the Mercy of Allah. There was also a picture of the thief with his severed arms all wrapped up in gauze in the hospital afterwards.
Allah is merciful.
You or I cannot try to rationalize the people of a culture that has been dominated through death and violence for two thousand years and think they will be in the same frame of mind as western culture.
It kind of goes back to the early psychological studies involving Genetics vs. Development. Will a person deprived of human contact still be able to develop as a person would that has had continuous human contact for their lives?
The answer is no, there can never be a parallel development for the two as the social setting/development were so vastly different. Even the definition of basic words will have totally different meanings.
Throw the country to the rebels and they will become more puppets for the brotherhood. Keep the current regime, and see more of the same brutal domination as a pilot state for China. History shows us there is only one common denominator for all Muslims. That is TOTAL dedication to the Koran and there are true believers to enforce the strict doctrine and Dogma through death and the threat of death.
There are many other religions within its boundaries as well as other religions that will fall victim to the mercy of Allay. According to the China News agency, Syria is China's best friend in the region. Modern China has become more tolerant to other religions, all other religions. I see this as a new softer China than Mao's Communist. Perhaps this attitude of tolerance is what divided the Government from the Rebels (Religious Fanatics for Islam). I do not know, just saying what if?
I would venture a guess and say that Syria was trying to change the dependence on Islam through influence from China. That same mistake has been made over and over again since the 1600s by the European Nations and the Royal families of the Ottoman Empire. The religious fanatics remind me of a dog (no offence intended) guarding a bone. He may lay it down and walk away, but try to take it away from him and you are going to get bit.
Try to change their association with Islam and you will see the fanatics rise up and kill even their own people to preserve the Dogma in its purest form. I believe this is how they define Honor.
Lazarus
So john I guess your for supressing everyone under Islam. So women can wear veils walk behind thier husband, not go to school, not to drive etc. So homosexuals can be crucified. So non-muslims or atheists can be killed if they fail to convert to Islam. So the people can have shariah law. Yea great world you have there. Thats what our naive or sinister president (dont know which he is) is doing right now. The only real people messed with under most dicatators were the crazy Islamists and who cares if they are suppresed or thrown in a woodchipper.
syrians should "Saddam" Assad before he gets a "Gadhafi"
I'm with you John.
I'd rather see a "Gadhafi" senario. It isn't even a fraction of the justice that should be delivered to the entire Assad regime.
we need to let this happen on its own, after this the whole sunni shi'a thing will start, and whoever is perceived to be on "our side" will be persecuted and/or killed. we cannot help these people, and the sooner we recognize this fact, the better off we will be as a nation.
Would that all nations would follow this Prime Directive when dealing with other, less developed countries. Let them handle things in their own fashion, at their own pace.
It is truly awful what is happening to the children. But, these people don't really want our help. They don't want us there. What is Egypt doing to help the children in Syria? What are Turkey and Morroco doing to help the children in Syria? Bahrain is one of the wealthiest places in the world. What are they doing to help the children in Syria? The muslims don't care about their Syrian children and the Syrians don't want us there to help the children. I'll never forget when we forced our way into Somolia to feed those hungry children. They drug our poor soldiers bodies through the streets and the children played kickball with their heads.
Assad needs to be killed. What about that does the world community not understand? China and Russia support this dictatorial killer. That should be all you need to know about Russia and China. Never, ever buy a product from either country.
And, never, ever turn your back on a Mooz.
The children are innocent. It's the radical adults - from both/all sides - who are the problem. We have a responsibility to help the innocent victims (children and adults alike) who are trying to survive the Assad Regime and the efforts of the Free Syria Rebels.
I do not care about HUMANS anymore, these stories used to bother me, I do not have any sympathy at all
EARTH needs a virus soon to get rid of its worst enemy
MANKIND