1 June 2007 - CRIN Children and Armed Conflict 108
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- UGANDA/ SOMALIA: First country reports from new monitoring and reporting mechanism [reports]
- AFRICA: Justice sought in trial of Charles Taylor [news]
- WORLD REFUGEE DAY 2007: A New Home, A New Life [event]
- DR CONGO: Massacre of civilians condemned [news]
**NEWS IN BRIEF**
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UGANDA/ SOMALIA: First country reports from new monitoring and reporting mechanism [reports]
[NEW YORK, 11 May 2007] - The Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict examined the Secretary General's reports on Somalia and Uganda in May. They are the first country reports to come out of a mechanism established to monitor and report on the protection of children in armed conflict by Resolution 1612.
In his report on Somalia, the Secretary General estimates that more than one third of the victims who were killed and injured in fighting there in 2006 were children. Insecurity and violence in Southern and Central Somalia is characterised by grave child rights violations. Continued fighting in and around Mogadishu between the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and remnants of the Union of Islamic Courts forces has resulted in more casualties and violations against children in 2007. Humanitarian access has been severely compromised and has had serious implications for children. In the absence of a functioning police and judiciary, crimes against civilians, including women and children, are committed with impunity. The recruitment and use of child soldiers by the TFG and other armed groups is a significant concern.
The Secretary General's report on the situation in Uganda highlights the preliminary steps taken by the Government of Uganda to address violations against children, in particular the drafting of an Action Plan to eliminate the use and recruitment of children in armed conflict. It also contains a series of recommendations with a view to securing strengthened action for the protection of war-affected children in Uganda. The Secretary General urges the leaders of Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) to take immediate steps to end child recruitment and the use of child soldiers, and immediately release all children to child protection agencies and their partners.
Further information
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AFRICA: Justice sought in trial of Charles Taylor [news]
[FREETOWN, 31 May 2007] - Victims and protagonists of two of Africa's most brutal civil wars will be hoping for justice when Liberia's former warlord-president Charles Taylor appears in a European courtroom next week to face war crimes charges.
Taylor has already pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of terrorism, murder, rape, sexual slavery and use of child soldiers, arising from his alleged support for Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in the Sierra Leone war.
Some clamour for his conviction as the alleged mastermind of conflicts fuelled by "blood diamonds" that tore through Sierra Leone and Liberia for over a decade, sucking in neighbouring states and killing more than a quarter of a million people.
But former comrades question whether Taylor, who faces 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 conflict, can receive a fair trial at a U.N.-backed Special Court sitting far from Africa in The Hague.
'Monster'
"This man called Charles Taylor is a monster," said Sierra Leonean Adama Turay, whose son and daughter both had hands amputated by RUF rebels.
The rebels' drugged-up child soldiers cut off the legs, arms, lips and ears of civilians, becoming a symbol of the brutality of the intertwined West African wars.
Turay and other war victims welcome Taylor's prosecution as an essential step to bring closure to a horror-filled episode in Sierra Leone's history as the country rated the world's second poorest by the U.N. in 2006 prepares for elections in August.
Similar anger can be found in Taylor's own country Liberia, although he does not face trial there.
"I am very happy to see this man is at that court. He needs to be killed rather than fed each day," said Monrovia resident Rosetta Smith, who said her husband was beaten to death by members of an Anti-Terrorist Unit serving the then president.
"Whatever a man soweth, so shall he reap .... Men acting on his order killed many people ... That should tell you how wicked that man was," she said.
Justice?
Authorities had argued that moving Taylor's trial to The Hague would avoid stoking unrest in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
But some of his former supporters say the former African leader has little hope of obtaining justice in a European court.
"I am not happy that our former president is undergoing disgrace in white man country," said General Butterfly, a former rebel officer who fought for Taylor before his 1997 election.
"Have you seen a cow return from a slaughter house? ... Mr. Taylor is a guilty man already. If he comes out not guilty, then we will jubilate," he told Reuters in Monrovia.
Both supporters and detractors of Taylor wondered whether the millions of dollars spent on the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone so far might not be better used to help the country's arduous reconstruction from the war. They also complained about the sluggish progress of its cases.
Case taking too long
"This Special Court is taking too long -- they should spend the money on the poor instead," said Alhassan Samei, a 23 year-old unemployed man in Sierra Leone.
"Instead of building hospitals and schools, they built us a Special Court," said university student Hakeem Mansaray.
Five years after the court for Sierra Leone was created, several of the main indictees, besides Taylor, are either missing or dead.
This raises the risk that legal delays may once again thwart justice, as in the case of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who died in jail before a verdict was reached at his marathon war crimes trial.
Prosecutors hope to wind up Taylor's trial within 18 months.
"If the court makes the mistake of releasing that man, he will become a wounded cobra," said Rosetta Smith.
[Source: Reuters]
Further information
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WORLD REFUGEE DAY 2007: A New Home, A New Life [event]
Date: 20 June 2007
Location: Global
Every year on June 20 the world honours the courage, resilience and strength of refugees. On this sixth anniversary of the United Nations-designated World Refugee Day, thousands of organisations in hundreds of countries will come together to focus global attention not only on the plight of refugees and the causes of their exile, but also on their determination and will to survive and on the contributions they make to their host communities.
Often classified unfairly with economic migrants, refugees flee their country not for economic gain but to escape persecution, the threat of imprisonment and even threats to their lives. They need a safe haven where they can recover from mental and physical trauma and rebuild their hopes for a better future.
The intolerance that is often at the root of internal displacement and refugee flows is also present in some of the countries that refugees flee to. Instead of finding empathy and understanding, they are often met with mistrust or scorn.
While most refugees want to go home, some cannot safely return. But wherever they are, refugees will always strive to pick up the pieces and start over.
See UNHCR events around the world on 20 June 2007
For more information, contact:
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Case Postale 2500, CH-1211 Geneva 2 Dépôt, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 739 8111
Website: http://www.unhcr.org
Further information
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=13539&flag=event
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DR CONGO: Massacre of civilians condemned [news]
[30 May 2007] – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today condemned the recent massacre of civilians, among them children, in the war-ravaged east in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), calling on those responsible to be brought to justice.
“This latest atrocity underscores once again the need to resolve the problem of armed Congolese and foreign militia operating in the territory of the DRC,” Mr. Ban’s spokesperson said in a statement.
He urged “the Government of the DRC and the international community to work together in creating professional security forces capable of defending the security and human rights of the people of the DRC.”
According to the UN mission in the country, known as MONUC, during the night of 26-27 May, 19 civilians – including women and children – were killed when the villages of Nyabuluze and Muhungu were subject to unprovoked attacks. The massacre was reportedly perpetrated by machete-wielding members of the Rasta and Forces democratiques de liberation du Rwanda (FDLR) militia.
Reprisals
Notes were left on the bodies of their victims, in which the attackers claimed that these atrocities were in reprisals to the operations led against them by the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC), MONUC said.
The mission also said that the perpetrators attempted to raid Chihamba, a third village in the same area, a patrol of UN Pakistani peacekeepers opened fire, forcing them to flee into the nearby forests and preventing further deaths.
Media reports that a dozen abductees have been killed remain unconfirmed, and the UN said that almost 30 people who were injured in the attacks are hospitalised in the towns of Kaniola and Walungu, where families close to the targeted villages have sought refuge.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the country, Ross Mountain, also strongly condemned the brutal attacks, declaring that “the entire humanitarian community is appalled and outraged by these brutal murders and condemns all violence committed against civilians by armed groups.”
This week a rapid response team – comprising staff from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the non-governmental organisation the International Rescue Committee – went to the town of Kaniola.
Panic
The team investigated the security situation and the magnitude of the population displacement caused by the recent violence, which the mission confirmed has sparked panic among the civilian population.
Not just people from the vicinity of the attacks, but also those far from the immediate area have fled their homes, the team noted.
“Since Sunday night, we are witnessing new population movements every day,” Mr. Mountain said.
He added that ‘night commuting’ is on the rise. “Terrified civilians return to their villages or to their fields on the hills to check on their harvests. Before nightfall, they hurry back to urban centres and spend the night with host families or in community centres,” he said.
Mr. Mountain underscored that it is the responsibility of the Government of the DRC to protect all of its citizens.
Humanitarian agencies in the region expect long-term displacements of people due to the massacre, and stressed the urgent need for medical supplies to help the injured, according to OCHA. More evaluation missions are required to identify the needs of those displaced.
[Source:UN]
Further information
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=13529
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**NEWS IN BRIEF**
LEBANON: Children suffer in El Bared camp crisis (25 May 2007)
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=13497&flag=news
SRI LANKA: UN agencies keep up pressure on rebels over child recruitment (23 May 2007)
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=13460&flag=news
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: International Criminal Court opens probe (22 May 2007)
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=13451&flag=news
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