2 June 2006 - CRIN Children and Armed Conflict 97
___________________________________________________________
- SUDAN: Open Access Digital Library Launched [resource]
- SOMALIA: Violence Flares-Up in Mogadishu [news]
- SMALL ARMS: Global Week of Action against Small Arms 2006 [event]
- SRI LANKA: UN Top Rights Chief Voices Concern over Killings of Civilians [news]
- UNHCR: New Role to Protect Ugandans Displaced by Civil War [news]
- SCOTLAND: Army’s School Visits ‘Should End’ [news]
- CANADA: HIV, Conflict and Displacement [event]
- RESOURCES: New Publications on Children and Armed Conflict
___________________________________________________________
Your submissions are welcome if you are working in the area of child rights. To contribute, email us at [email protected]. Adobe Acrobat is required for viewing some of the documents, and if required can be downloaded from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html If you do not receive this email in html format, you will not be able to see some hyperlinks in the text. At the end of each item we have therefore provided a full URL linking to a web page where further information is available.
___________________________________________________________
SUDAN: Open Access Digital Library Launched [resource]
[NAIROBI, 31 May 2006] - The Rift Valley Institute (RVI) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday launched the Sudan Open Archive, an open-access digital library for Sudan, containing documents that until now were largely unavailable in digital form.
"It is a dynamic, expanding archive," said John Ryle, chair of RVI. "Our aim is to put in historical and contemporary materials of all kinds."
The first phase of the archive involved the digitisation of around 500 documents drawn from the records of Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), the international relief effort that started in 1989.
"A lot of the documents were just stuffed away in containers in Khartoum, Juba, Lokichokio and Nairobi," Ryle said. "The digital archive can bring together material from all over the place, which is exactly the problem in Sudan - documents are all over the place."
The materials in the archive provide a record of emergency aid and offer an opportunity for Sudan and humanitarian agencies "to learn from the mistakes of the past," he said. "The archive is rescuing and making accessible the records of 20 years of OLS, which - in some cases - are the only written reports of Sudan during that time, because of the war."
In June 2006, material on environmental issues and the records of local peace processes in north and south Sudan will be incorporated, followed by grammar and dictionaries of Sudanese languages, cultural materials, documents in Arabic and maps. Given the lack of libraries in Sudan, Ryle hoped the archive - which will also be available on CD-Rom and DVD - would provide Sudanese with a wider source of information about their history.
Documents in the archive include:
- 'Operation Lifeline Sudan: A Review' (1996)
- 'An Introduction to the Food Economies of Southern Sudan' (1998)
- 'The Southern Sudan Vulnerability Study' (1999 edition)
- 'The Jonglei Field Officers Handbook' (1998)
- 'Towards a Baseline: Best Estimates of Social Indicators for Southern Sudan' (2004)
Also included are the official, signed texts of more recent documents, such as the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (2005) and the report of the Abyei Boundaries Commission (2005, with maps).
Source: IRIN
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=8470
Further information
Information on Chad/ Darfur Emergency
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SOMALIA: Violence Flares-Up in Mogadishu [news]
[MOGADISHU, 25 May 2006] - Mogadishu residents carried wounded Somalis on wheelbarrows as bullets flew over the battered capital on Thursday in a new flare-up of violence between rival militias that killed up to 30 people.
Firing mortars, grenades and anti-aircraft guns, militia linked to Islamic courts squared off with gunmen for a self-styled anti-terrorism coalition of warlords, in a resumption of the worst violence in Mogadishu for a decade.
Scores fled the fighting, which erupted on Wednesday and intensified Thursday morning as it spread across Mogadishu. The streets were full of terrified old people and children, witnesses said.
"There are so many people dead, I saw nearly 30 dead and over 40 wounded," resident Abdifatah Abdikadir told Reuters by telephone from the Kilometre Four area in southern Mogadishu. "People are being carried on wheelbarrows to the hospital with broken limbs and gunshot wounds. It's going from bad to worse."
The battle for control of Mogadishu has been going on since February, and this fourth round ended a ceasefire of nearly a week, brokered by clan elders. So far at least 270 people have been killed, most of them civilians, in fighting that was largely confined to the north of the coastal capital, but has since spread south.
"We brought my child to the Hanana medical clinic this morning, two minutes later the horrible shootings began, and our lives were in danger," Halima Jama, a mother of three, said.
Both sides confirmed the fighting, of which the bulk was in Kilometre 4.
"The fighting is very heavy. They are hitting each other with mortars, anti-aircraft missiles and anti-tanks," coalition member Ibrahim Maalim said. "I have never seen such a heavy exchange. Mogadishu is blazing with fire," he added to Reuters, as heavy artillery and gunshots reverberated over the telephone. "There are bodies lying everywhere. I cannot count them and there are wounded people lying on the streets crying for help."
Maalim said militia for the Islamic courts had pushed the alliance out of a hotel owned by one of its members in a crucial junction connecting the capital's main roads. "The owner of the Sahafi Hotel is a member of the alliance, that is why we seized the hotel and its surrounding areas," said Ahmed Mohamed, a leader of an Islamic youth organisation which supports the courts.
Witnesses said they saw Islamic militia set ablaze a coalition vehicle. Others saw the bodies of three Islamic fighters on a technical - a pick-up armed with heavy guns.
Some analysts view the violence as a new proxy war between Washington and Islamic militants. Washington has long viewed Somalia, without any real government since the ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, as a terrorist haven.
The coalition says the Islamic militia are harbouring al Qaeda-linked militants, and some Western diplomats believe that al Qaeda operatives are there and run training camps.
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a leading Islamist on America's most wanted terrorists list, told Reuters from Mogadishu this week the charges were "pure propaganda".
"There are no terrorists here. They are only looking for a reason to turn our country into another Iraq," he said.
On Thursday, Internal Security Minister warlord Mohamed Qanyare, under pressure for his involvement in the Mogadishu fighting, denied radio reports he and three other ministers in the coalition were thinking of resigning.
"I did not say that," Qanyare told Reuters by telephone. "I said we are busy fighting with terrorists now. We don't have time for the government."
Legislators from Somalia's fledging government say Qanyare and other warlords involved in the violence should be fired and charged with war crimes. They say they have broken ceasefire accords signed in Kenya during the formation of the government. (additional reporting by Guled Mohamed in Nairobi)
[Source: AlertNet]
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=8402&flag=news
Further information
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SMALL ARMS: Global Week of Action against Small Arms 2006 [event]
The global gun epidemic is killing 1000 people every day, according to a report released recently by the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA). With 640 million guns already in the world and eight million new ones produced each year, there are enough weapons to equip one in every ten people on the planet. Of these, the majority are in the hands of civilians (59 per cent), outnumbering those held by the armed forces and governments (38 per cent). 10-14 billion rounds of ammunition are produced annually, sufficient to shoot every person in the world twice.
The report Bringing the Global Gun Crisis Under Control reveals that the source of the illicit market is the legal trade, often in a different country from the one where the weapons are used in violence. The vast majority of small arms and light weapons – ranging from revolvers and machine guns to anti-aircraft missiles and rocket propelled grenade launchers – are manufactured, traded and initially owned legally; many later fall into illegal ownership. Unlike heavy weaponry such as tanks, small arms are easy to use, transport and carry across borders and are hard for governments to monitor.
It is clear that this problem must be regulated in a manner that is comprehensive, coordinated and global. Despite this, there are:
-
no global standards for governments deciding whether to authorise an arms export or transfer
-
no international guidelines to assist States in regulating gun ownership among their own citizens
-
no global treaties to control the activities of arms brokers
-
no legal requirement for governments to maintain records linking guns to their location (whether military stockpile, police depot or civilian home).
The international community has systematically failed to address this crisis. The UN held their first major meeting on the issue just five years ago, and are meeting again in June in New York for the UN Small Arms Review Conference and to review the 2001 UN Programme of Action. Whilst urgent action is clearly needed, there are fears that the meeting will simply re-run its previous, five year old discussions and miss the opportunity to move forward.
From 22-29 May, activists in more than 50 countries joined this year's Global Week of Action Against Small Arms, campaigning for international action to prevent armed violence.
-
Oxfam's
Million Faces Petition, which gathered over 900,000 signatories, was presented to key decision makers in many countries around the world by Control Arms activists.
-
IRIN has produced an
In-Depth page giving an overview of critical small arms and light weapons issues. It also includes 13 frontline reports from IRIN journalists, interviews with experts in the field and those who have directly experienced the human impact of small arms, and links to further information. Se section on
Small arms, Gender and Age.
-
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=8370
For more information, contact:
IANSA
Construction House, 56-64, Leonard Street, London EC2A 4JX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 207 0650 870 ; Fax: +44 (0) 207 0650 871
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.iansa.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SRI LANKA: UN Top Rights Chief Voices Concern over Killings of Civilians [news]
[23 May 2006] – Voicing deep concern about increasing killings of civilians, including children, in Sri Lanka, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights urged the parties to take immediate steps to defuse the violence, resume dialogue and strengthen measures to protect against abuses. “These violations are not only ceasefire violations, but also serious breaches of international human rights and humanitarian law,” Louise Arbour said in a statement released in Geneva.
She stressed that the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have obligations beyond the Ceasefire Agreement to respect basic human rights and humanitarian norms – regardless of the status of the Ceasefire Agreement and whether the country is at peace or war.
Paramount among these is respect for the right to life, said the High Commissioner, noting the concerns raised by a UN Independent expert on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary killings who recently reported that both civilians and members of the security forces taking no active part in hostilities are being targeted.
“I recommend that the Government of Sri Lanka seek international police and forensic support for investigations into killings to ensure justice and accountability,” she said. The High Commissioner urged the parties to take immediate steps to de-escalate the violence, resume dialogue and strengthen the monitoring and protection of human rights.
The High Commissioner also expressed concern about recent threats and obstruction to the work of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, which consists of Nordic countries and was set up by a cease fire agreement brokered by Norway in 2002. She urged the parties to give it their fullest cooperation and reinforce its capacity to respond to violations.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=8398
Further information
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
UNHCR: New Role to Protect Ugandans Displaced by Civil War [news]
[LIRA, UGANDA, May 22 2006] – Some 1.5 million Ugandans who been chased from their homes in one of the world's most overlooked conflicts.
Since 1987, the brutal Lord's Resistance Army has been attacking Ugandan civilians in villages, camps, trading centres and on roadways, killing, harassing, raping, and – its trademark – abducting children. The Ugandan government strategy to fight the LRA has also forced many people from their villages into camps for internally displaced people (IDPs), where they live without adequate humanitarian services, and where their freedom of movement is curtailed.
In a departure from its traditional role of protecting and aiding refugees (people who have crossed international borders in their flight from persecution), the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, is now helping internally displaced people in Uganda. One of its efforts in Uganda is to work with the government to allow for greater freedom of movement for people like Grace and to help displaced people return to their original homes.
"Too often in the past, IDPs' needs have gone unaddressed," UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said in announcing the agency's new engagement with IDPs at the end of last year.
"IDPs are now an integral and important part of UNHCR's global activities," he said. Uganda is one of three pilot countries in Africa (the other two are the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Liberia) where UNHCR will lead the UN's activities with displaced people. UNHCR is taking the lead for protection and camp management within the UN Country Team, and is tasked with developing strategies and coordinating the work of other agencies and non-governmental organisations.
"In Uganda, UNHCR has two main objectives for the protection of the IDPs," said Cynthia Burns, UNHCR's Representative in Uganda. "First, to assist the planned, orderly, voluntary and sustainable return of the displaced people to their areas of origin. Second, for those who are unable to return to their villages because of insecurity, UNHCR will improve protection activities and delivery of assistance in the camps where IDPs live."
The overcrowded, impoverished IDP camps in northern Uganda are home to about 1.5 million people who have fled one of Africa's longest-running and most vicious conflicts, a civil war started by the Lord's Resistance Army, a guerilla force led by the mysterious Joseph Kony. A self-proclaimed spirit medium, Kony has vague political aims beyond establishing a state based on his interpretation of the Bible.
His hallmark is the targeting of children, who are often forced to kill their own parents so they have no way back. International human rights groups estimate that the LRA – which consists today of perhaps 2,000 combatants – has kidnapped 30,000 children since 1987 for use as child soldiers and sex slaves. An estimated 12,000 people have died because of the fighting and the disease and malnutrition it has engendered.
A further 30,000 to 40,000 children, the so-called "night commuters", walk enormous distances every night from the IDP camps to sleep in relative safety on the streets of larger towns like Gulu to avoid being kidnapped during the night.
The LRA's atrocities against children were condemned by the UN Security Council in April, 2004, and Kony and other LRA leaders are the subject of the first arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court.
While an end to the rebellion remains the only guarantee of a peaceful life for the 1.5 million IDPs, UNHCR plans to work with the Ugandan government to try to alleviate their suffering in the meantime.
"Many IDPs are already in the process of returning home to places that seem safe," said Burns. "UNHCR and UNDP are assessing what conditions people are returning to and how to help them through the struggle of the first few months when they return home to destroyed houses, untended fields and weak social support."
"So far," Burns added, "people are enthusiastic about returning, but remain fearful about future LRA activity. Most people want to return to their land and feed their families, but fear remains high."
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=8342&flag=news
Further information
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SCOTLAND: Army’s School Visits ‘Should End’ [news]
[17 May 2006] - Army recruitment teams should be prevented from visiting schools, according to a nationalist Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP).
The call came after figures obtained by the Scottish National Party (SNP) revealed that in 2005/06, there were more than 10 times as many school visits as there were in 2003/04.
Christine Grahame MSP claimed schools in deprived areas were being targeted and said the rise showed "desperation" among army chiefs due the Iraq war.
The Army said it worked with both state and private schools in Scotland.
The figures, obtained under Freedom of Information legislation, showed the number of regimental recruitment visits to schools rose from 14 in the financial year 2003/04 to 153 in the year to the end of March 2006.
Ms Grahame, MSP for the South of Scotland region, said: "What we are seeing is complete desperation brought about by a combination of the ongoing Iraq war, amalgamation of the Scottish regiments and the allegations that young recruits are being murdered at training facilities such as Deepcut.
"Army chiefs appear to have made a decision to move into Scottish schools and, more disturbingly, they appear to be targeting schools in particularly deprived parts of the country.
"I am calling on education bosses in every council area to prohibit visits by recruiters. If pupils want to join the Army, then there are numerous recruitment centres around Scotland which they can choose to visit."
An Army spokeswoman said: "The Army is visiting a lot more schools compared to the past and that is largely because we have local authority permission to do so.
"The recruitment teams and careers advisors are going in upon invitation from the schools with the purpose of working within the schools curriculum, for example, giving citizenship lectures or doing technical work.
"It is not true at all to say the Army is targeting deprived areas. We work with schools across the board in Scotland, both state and private."
Schools which have received five or more visits in the year so far were all in Glasgow.
The figures do not include army recruitment visits organised through Careers Scotland.
[Source: BBC]
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=8287&flag=news
Further information
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CANADA: HIV, Conflict and Displacement [event]
Date: 12 August 2006
Location: Toronto, Canada
In light of the emerging importance of HIV and AIDS interventions and programming in conflict and post conflict humanitarian settings, UNICEF and UNHCR, in collaboration with members of the Interagency Task Force on HIV/AIDS (IATF) have organised a one-day event on HIV/AIDS, Conflict and Displacement affiliated with the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto.
The meeting will provide an opportunity for all stakeholders (the humanitarian community, policy-makers, implementing agencies, donors, civil society, persons infected and affected by HIV and AIDS and others) to take stock of the experiences developed over the course of the past years, evaluate the lessons learnt, identify the policy and programmatic ways forward, and set the agenda for the years to come.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=7827&flag=event
For more information, contact:
Betty Noakes
UNICEF Canada
Tel: +1 416 482 4444 ext 826; Fax: +1 416 482 8035
Email: [email protected]
Further information
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
RESOURCES: New Publications on Children and Armed Conflict
Save the Children UK: From Camp to Community – Liberia Study on Exploitation of Children (May 2006)
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=8184&flag=report
Education Development Center: Youth and Conflict - A Brief Review of the Literature (May 2006)
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=8242&flag=report
International Committee of the Red Cross: Violence against Girls in Africa during Armed Conflicts and Crises (May 2006)
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=8420&flag=report
UNDP: Youth and Violent Conflict: Society and Development in Crisis? (May 2006)
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=8467&flag=report
___________________________________________________________
The CRINMAIL is an electronic mailing list of the Child Rights Information Network (CRIN). CRIN does not accredit, validate or substantiate any information posted by members to the CRINMAIL. The validity and accuracy of any information is the responsibility of the originator.
To subscribe, unsubscribe or view list archives, visit http://www.crin.org/email.
___________________________________________________________
