| ACR Weekly Newsletter Vol.2, No.4 (01/22/2003) | ||||
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Children and the "People's War" in Nepal: |
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| Nepal Children and the "People's War"
Indonesia Sri Lanka Pakistan
Maoists abduct 80 school children for guerrilla training
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Nepal, a
Himalayan kingdom where 90 percent of it's 23 million people live in the
villages and 60 percent are below the poverty line, a 7-year insurgency
war for Communism is tearing through the fabric of society.
The worst affected are children who have nothing to do with either communism or democracy or monarchy. More than a 100,000 children have been affected by the war and as the conflict expands estimates show that 500,000 to 600,000 children will be roped into the war. Conservative estimates show that so far at least 146 children have died, 2000 have been orphaned, and 3000 have become homeless. Overall, 7000 people have been killed because of the conflict. Recruitment of children as soldiers by the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) (Maoist) has been known to the government and the international community. Estimates by various human rights NGOs show that around 30 percent Maoist guerilla's are children between the ages of 14-18. One estimate quotes that 4,000 children have been recruited by the Maoists since 1996. Though the recent UN report on Child Soldiers mentioned Nepal as one of the countries that continues to use children as combatants, the UN has yet to do something substantial to end the recruitment of children as combatants in this Himalayan Kingdom. |
Apart from being
forcibly recruited by the rebels, children are also caught in "crossfire"
between security personnel and the rebels. Child soldiers who are caught
by the security personnel are also executed instead of being
rehabilitated. It is quite shameful that
children die at the hands of their own guardians, this reflects the
carelessness of security personnel towards the lives of children. Children in conflict zones are surrounded by violence and death in their everyday living environment. The psychological trauma that they go through is one aspect of conflict that is least talked about. Children who are made orphans, displaced, thrown out of school by the war lose everything that is known to them are left to fend for themselves in unfamiliar places and environments. Most of these children get added to statistics on the number of street children, the number of children involved in drug use, the number of child labourers etc. In an attempt to correct these gross abuses of children's rights, several NGO's in Nepal have initiated a program to create Zones of Peace within the Kingdom. The program funded by the Norwegian government plans to send peace workers into 22 districts where the insurgency has created havoc and provide children with food, shelter, health and education and shield them from further violence and abuse. |
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| Indonesia: Increasing Infanticide |
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| A
forensic team from the University of Indonesia have found that the rate of
infanticide in the capital city of Jakarta is on the rise. 38 cases of
infanticide were reported in Jakarta in 2002 compared to 35 cases in 2001.
Women's groups have said that the actual number of infanticide cases are
much higher than those reported.
Human rights and women's rights activists say that infanticide in Jakarta is driven by Indonesia's legal system which does not recognize children born out of wedlock and social stigma associated with childbirth out of wedlock. Children who are born out of marriage are declared as illegal on their birth certificates under Indonesia's 1974 marriage law and do not have any legal claim to their biological fathers. Though the maximum sentence for infanticide is 9 years under Indonesia's criminal law, judges are usually more lenient considering the financial burden and the social stigma associated with single motherhood. |
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| Sri Lanka: Two Children Tortured in Police Custody |
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| The
Urgent Appeals desk of the Asian Human Rights Commission has received
information that two two young boys aged 15 and 17 were tortured by the
police. Anuruddha Kusum Kumara, a 15-year-old student was asked to present himself at the local police station for an unknown reason. On his arrival, the inspector of the Crimes Section at the police station stripped the boy and locked him in the detention cell. He was then beaten up with the stem of a branch till it broke into pieces. The torture did not end here. A steel spike coated with chilli powder was drilled into his buttocks as he was yelling with pain. The boy was returned to his parents after the torture had ended and had to be admitted in the hospital immediately for treatment. 17-year-old Bambarende Gamage Suraj Prasanna was arrested at his house for some money stolen at a temple. As soon as he was arrested, the torture began with slapping. Enroute the police station, the police officer tied Prasanna's hands at the back with the tee-shirt he was wearing and dragged him along the road towards the police station. On reaching the police station, the sub-inspector and all the other officers present took turns banging Prasanna's face, by holding his hair, against the iron rods of the cell that he was put in. After a while, he was asked to crawl on his knees and was continuously kicked and beaten up by the police officers. Prasanna was released from the police station after the torture ended and is still receiving treatment for the cruel and inhuman treatment meted out to him. Write to the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka
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| Pakistan: Children or "Tokens of Honour" | ||||
| Related Links: Pakistan: Girls as young as 3 killed for having illicit relations |
Pakistan has the dubious distinction of being the host to the highest
number of honor killings in Asia. The number 450 is ominous to many human
rights, women's and children's activists working in Pakistan and Asia.
450 women were killed in 2002 under the banner of "honor killings". This included 24 minor girls, some as young as three years old. 200 people were arrested in various cases of honor killings around the country and only 8 were prosecuted and punished. 450 killed, 8 punished- an appalling scenario. The main reason for honor killings is alleged illicit relations of the victim. In the southern Sindh province of Pakistan, this is referred to as "Karo-Kari" Kari or 'black woman' is the woman who has an extra or premarital relation and the suspected man is called Karo or 'back man'. Under this custom, the woman who is commonly the victim because she has flaunted the honor of the tribe or the community is hacked to death and her body is not buried properly but is carelessly discarded or thrown into the Indus. In the North West Frontier Province and Balochistan, the practice of honor killings in termed as "tur" meaning black. Most of the killings are carried out by husbands, fathers or brothers of the women concerned. The legislation is as good as non-existent. State protection is a sham for young girls faced with the reality of death by those closest to them.
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