Syrian children pay the steep price of war

http://www.france24.com/en/20130129-syria-internet-children-pay-steep-price-war

Children paying a terrible price in the Syrian conflict. An anti-corruption blogger in China facing police pressure. And a stop motion video paying tribute to the well-known cartoon Dragon Ball Z.

According to a report released online by a Syrian organization that has been tracking Syria’s civilian death toll, 4591 children under the age of 16 have been killed in Syria since the start of the uprising in March 2011, and the numbers are growing every day. The very detailed website shows for example that that so far most victims come from Homs, Damascus and Aleppo and have been killed in shelling attacks by government forces.

The NGO « Human Rights Watch » has backed up these reports, and says in addition to the daily air strikes by loyalist forces, children are also killed or maimed when handling unexploded cluster bomblets. Younger children often mistake the sub munitions for toys but they are of course lethal weapons and cause extensive damage, like in this village where ten or so children lost their lives back in November after touching one of these bombs.

Countless online activists have condemned the situation and have taken to social networks to raise international public awareness and try and put an end to these senseless and indiscriminate acts of violence against children. Photojournalist Sebastiano Nino Fezza for example has been posting photos to his Facebook page showing children unwittingly caught up in the fighting, or amid destroyed buildings, trying to stay alive: harsh images that illustrate yet again how children are paying the heaviest price in the current Syrian conflict.


Fonte: France 24