• Children shot at, tortured and raped in Syria, report says

    Bruno Gallardo / EPA, file

    A Syrian teenager is among those surrounded by rubble after a missile attack in Aleppo on Feb. 23. The charity Save the Children has issued a report saying young people are facing horrific abuses during the war, which has claimed more than 70,000 lives so far.

    By Oliver Holmes, Reuters

    A boy of 12 sees his best friend shot through the heart. Another of 15 is held in a cell with 150 other people and taken out every day to be burned with cigarettes.

    Syria's children are perhaps the greatest victims of their country's conflict, suffering "layers and layers of emotional trauma," Save the Children's chief executive Justin Forsyth told Reuters.

    Syrian children have been shot at, tortured and raped during two years of unrest and civil war, the London-based international charity said in a report released on Wednesday.

    Two million children, it said, face malnutrition, disease, early marriage and severe trauma, becoming innocent victims of a conflict that has already claimed 70,000 lives.

    "This is a war where women and children are the biggest casualty," Forsyth told Reuters during a visit to Lebanon, where 340,000 Syrians have sought a safe haven.

    Forsyth said he met a Syrian refugee boy, 12, who saw his best friend killed outside a bakery. "His friend was shot through the heart. But initially, he thought he was joking because there was no blood. They didn't realize he had been killed until they took his shirt off," he said.

    The report cited new research carried out among refugee children by Bahcesehir University in Turkey, which found that one in three reported having been punched, kicked or shot at.

    Children directly targeted
    Two-thirds of children surveyed said that they had been separated from members of their families because of the conflict and a third said they had experienced the death of a close friend or family member.

    Millions of families have fled their homes for safer ground or neighboring countries. Save the Children says 80,000 people are living in barns, parks and caves, and children struggle to find enough to eat.

    Both government forces and rebels have been accused of targeting civilians and committing war crimes. Refugees say Assad's soldiers are directly targeting children.

    Slideshow: Syria uprising

    /

    A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

    Launch slideshow

    Forsyth said he met one child who said he was in a prison cell with 150 people, including 50 children. "He was taken out every day and put in a giant wheel and burned with cigarettes. He was 15."

    Save the Children says that some young boys are being used by armed groups as porters, runners and human shields, bringing them close to the front line.

    Rape is being used to deliberately punish people, Forsyth said, adding that it is underreported because of the sensitivity of the issue, especially in conservative communities.

    Fear of sexual violence is repeatedly cited to Save the Children as one of the main reasons for families fleeing their homes, according to the report.

    It said that there are also reports of early marriage of young girls by families trying to reduce the numbers of mouths they have to feed, or hoping that a husband will be able to provide greater security from the threat of sexual violence.

    Forsyth said that he met a Syrian family in Lebanon who told their 16-year-old daughter to marry an older man. "Her mother said she is beautiful and every time the (Syrian) soldiers came to the house she thought: 'They are going to rape her.'"

    "Rape is being used deliberately to punish people," Forsyth said, adding that girls as young as 14 are being married off.

    Related:

    'Human river' of Syrian refugees hits 1 million

    Analysis: Can aid without weapons help resolve Syrian conflict?

    US to send rations, medical supplies to Syrian rebels

     

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • 'Senseless acts of torture and violence': Charity appeals for help for Syria's children

    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.

    By Ian Johnston, NBC News

    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.

    NYT: In Arab Spring, Obama finds harsh lessons on diplomacy

    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.”

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

     

  • Dalai Lama donates $1.7 million prize to charity

    By msnbc.com staff

    The Dalai Lama received the 2012 Templeton Prize for his work linking science and wider questions of faith and religion.

    The Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader was awarded the prize, which comes with $1.7 million, Monday at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

    About $1.4 million will go to Save the Children in India, with about $200,000 set aside for The Minds and Life Institute, a non-profit that researches the partnership between modern science and Buddhism.

    Dalai Lama receives 2012 Templeton Prize, gives away $1.7 million award

    "We are honored to accept this generous humanitarian gift, which will be used to save the lives of some of the world's most vulnerable children," Save the Children's chief executive Justin Forsyth said in a statement.

    According to Forsyth, the funds will be used for programs tackling malnutrition in India.

    "This donation will be used practically, to help many more children survive, grow and, as the Dalai Lama said, realize their full potential," Forsyth said.

    More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

  • Slow response to East African famine costs lives

    Conditions in Somalia are getting worse not better. Thousands are heading for already overcrowded and under supplied camps in Mogadishu.

    By NBC News and msnbc.com

     Thousands of people needlessly died from famine in East Africa last year because the rich nations failed to act on early warnings, two leading British aid organizations reported Wednesday.

    The report from Oxfam and Save the Children said a "culture of risk aversion" by humanitarian agencies and national governments caused a sixth month delay in large-scale aid effort. The groups said many donors wanted proof of a humanitarian catastrophe before acting to prevent one.

    ITN’s Rohit Kachroo saw firsthand the results of too little action. Kachroo reports from Mogadishu, Somalia, where "battlefields are disappearing only to reclaimed by a more deadly war against hunger. In the city, every patch of space is a new home for the thousands outside it."

    More from msnbc.com and NBC News: