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	UN Child Rights Committee appalled at deliberate targeting of children in Syria by Child Rights International Network & agencies   June 2012   The United Nations says the Syrian government is now one of the world"s worst offenders in torturing and executing children.   In its annual report on children in armed conflict, released today, the UN says Syrian troops have used children as young as eight years old as human shields during military raids against rebels.   The report finds that children were killed and subjected to torture and sexual violence by Syrian armed forces and militia loyal to president Bashar al-Assad.   It is the first time Syria has been included in the report and the UN special representative for children and armed conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, says the findings are shocking. "I have never seen such terrible action against children," she said. "We have cases of children really being - things that usually do not happen in conflict areas, where children get killed in the crossfire, but actually torturing children or putting children on tanks and using them as shields. Or summarily executing children. These are things that normally don"t happen in warfare."   The report, covering the period to April 2012, has found children between the ages of eight and 13 have been forcibly taken from their homes, and that schools are raided and converted into army bases.   Ms Coomaraswamy believes those responsible can be held to account. "We have a security council which aims at identifying persistent perpetrators against children, violations against children, those who recruit children, those who kill and maim children, those who commit sexual violence against children," she said.   "The idea is to identify them, name them, shame them and then maybe apply sanctions to them. And that"s a process the Security Council has responsibility for."   May 2012   The Committee on the Rights of the Child has strongly deplored the massacre that took place in the El Houleh area of Homs in Syria on 25 and 26 May in which at least 108 people, including 49 children, were killed. Most of these children were reportedly under the age of 10. The Committee expressed further alarm at reports by United Nations observers of the continued indiscriminate acts of violence and killings against the civilian population and the increasing number of civilian victims, particularly children.   “The Committee is deeply concerned that, since the beginning of protests in Syria in March 2011, hundreds of children have been killed, injured and detained, and that despite strong and repeated calls to the State and other parties to stop such grave violations, no action appears to have been taken,” the Committee stated. “We are appalled by information that in the El Houleh area, civilians - including children - could have been deliberately targeted.”   The Committee highlighted its concluding observations and recommendations, adopted on 7 October 2011, after reviewing the third and fourth periodic reports of the Syrian Arab Republic under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In particular, the Committee reiterated “its deepest concern over credible, corroborated and consistent reports of gross violations of children’s rights that have been committed since the start of the uprising in March 2011, including arbitrary arrests and detentions, killings of children during demonstrations, torture and ill-treatment.”   It further stated: “The Committee reminds the State party that it bears the primary responsibility to protect its population and should therefore take immediate measures to stop the use of excessive and lethal force against civilians and to prevent further violence against children, including killing and injuring.”   The Committee, which is holding its 60th session in Geneva, urged the Syrian Arab Republic to ensure that perpetrators of the latest massacre at El Houleh, as well as all those responsible for crimes against children taking place in Syria, are held accountable. “We echo the call of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for an immediate and unfettered investigation of the incident by an independent and impartial international body,” the Committee stated. Visit the related web page
	War crimes trial of former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic by AFP, Reuters The Hague: Netherlands   May 18, 2012   The war crimes trial of former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic heard details of the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica, in which up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys were rounded up, and shot by firing squads.   Dubbed the "Butcher of Bosnia", Mladic is charged with 11 counts of genocide and crimes against humanity over the 1992-1995 war in the Balkan state.   The prosecution described the horror of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre - the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.   Prosecutor Peter McCloskey said the massacre would not have happened without the commander"s knowledge and authority.   "Mladic himself was on the ground and personally involved," he told the court, showing footage of the former general triumphantly entering Srebrenica and congratulating his men.   In one video, the bodies of Srebrenica Muslims are stacked in piles along a road. In another, Mladic declares: "We give this town to the Serbs as a gift."   Mr McCloskey showed the court photographs of graves in Srebenica, saying: "This is an example of the horror created by Mladic."   He said most military orders were given orally, but that certain "crucial" documents had survived and that former Mladic subordinates were willing to testify against him.   The court was also shown video footage of the lead-up to the massacre and panicking civilians swamping United Nations trucks.   Ratko Mladic has been indicted on 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the Balkan country"s brutal 1992-95 war that killed 100,000 and left 2.2 million others homeless.   "Ratko Mladic assumed the mantle of the criminal goal of ethnically cleansing Bosnia," prosecutor Dermot Groome told judges as the trial opened at the Yugoslav war crimes court in The Hague.   "The prosecution will present evidence that will show without reasonable doubt the hand of Mr Mladic in each of these crimes," Groome added.   Former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic is already on trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Both men are believed to be the main players in a plan to rid multi-ethnic Bosnia of Croats and Muslims.   Once dubbed the "Butcher of Bosnia", Mladic is specifically accused over the tragedy at Srebrenica in July 1995, when almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys were systematically murdered as UN peacekeeping troops helplessly looked on.   Prosecutors also hold him responsible for the 44-month siege of Sarajevo where his forces waged a "terror campaign" of sniping and shelling that left 10,000 civilians dead.   It was in pursuit of a "Greater Serbia" that Mladic allegedly ordered his troops to "cleanse" Bosnian towns, driving out Croats, Muslims and other non-Serb residents.   After the war, Mladic continued his military career but went into hiding in 2000 after the government of then Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic fell.   An indicted war criminal, he was on the run until May 2011 when he was arrested in Lazarevo, northeastern Serbia and flown to a prison in The Hague a few days later.   Better known from media images as a blustery commander in military fatigues, last June Mladic made his first court appearance, opening proceedings by saying: "I am general Ratko Mladic... I defended my country and my people." Mladic proceeded by pleading not guilty to the charges against him.   Rights organisation Human Rights Watch said the opening of Mladic"s trial was a "salient reminder that justice catches up with those accused of atrocity crimes."   "Victims have waited nearly two decades to see Ratko Mladic in the dock," Param-Preet Singh at the group"s international justice programme said.
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