Syrian troops have tortured
children, executed them and used children as young as eight as "human
shields" during military raids against rebels, according to a UN report
released Tuesday.
The United Nations branded
the Syrian government as one of the worst offenders on its annual "list of
shame" of conflict countries where children are killed, tortured and
forced to fight.
Human rights groups
estimate that about 1,200 children have died during the 15-month uprising
against President Bashar al-Assad, whose brutal crackdown on Arab
Spring-inspired protests has been widely condemned.
"Rarely, have I seen
such brutality against children as in Syria, where girls and boys are detained,
tortured, executed, and used as human shields," Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN
special representative for children in armed conflict, told AFP ahead of the
report's release.
Government forces rounded
up dozens of boys aged eight to 13 before an attack on the village of Ayn
al-Arouz in Edleb province on March 9, the report said.
The children were
"used by soldiers and militia members as human shields, placing them in front
of the windows of buses carrying military personnel into the raid on the
village," it said.
Quoting witnesses, the UN
report said Syrian military and intelligence forces, as well as pro-government
Shabiha militiamen, surrounded the village for an attack that lasted more than
four days.
Among the 11 dead on the
first day were three boys aged 15 to 17. Another 34 people, including two boys
aged 14 and 16 and a nine-year-old girl, were detained.
"Eventually, the
village was reportedly left burned and four out of the 34 detainees were shot
and burned, including the two boys aged 14 and 16 years," the Children in
Armed Conflict report said.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said
the report had uncovered one of many "grave violations" against
children.
The Syrian government, and
its allied militias, was one of four new parties added to the UN's list of
shame—along with organizations and political parties in Sudan and Yemen.
The list includes 52
parties in 11 countries, ranging from the Afghan national police and the
anti-US Haqqani network to the Lord's Resistance Army in central Africa,
Sudanese armed forces and various Darfur rebel groups.
The report said children in
Syria as young as nine had been victims of killing and maiming, arbitrary
arrest, detention, torture and ill-treatment, including sexual violence and use
as human shields.
Schools have been regularly
raided and used as military bases and detention centers, the report added.
The report was completed
before the Houla massacre on May 25, when 49 of the 108 victims were said to be
children, some as young as two and three, who were shot in the head or had
their skulls smashed with blunt instruments.
"Most child victims of
torture described being beaten, blindfolded, subjected to stress positions,
whipped with heavy electrical cables, scarred by cigarette burns and, in one
recorded case, subjected to electrical shock to the genitals," said the UN
report.
At least one witness told
investigators he had seen a boy of approximately 15 succumb to repeated
beatings.
The New York-based Human
Rights Watch (HRW) said the UN Security Council should impose an arms embargo
and other sanctions on the Assad government over its violations against
children.
HRW quoted the Syria
Violations Documentation Center, a network of Syrian activists, as saying that
at least 1,176 children have been killed since February 2011.
It also said there were
"credible allegations" that armed opposition groups, including the
Free Syrian Army, are recruiting children as soldiers.
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