DATE=8/25/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=UN - CHILDREN IN WAR (L-O)
NUMBER=2-253116
BYLINE=BARBARA SCHOETZAU
DATELINE=NEW YORK
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: At the United Nations (Wednesday), the
Security Council discussed how to protect the growing
number of children affected by armed conflict.
Correspondent Barbara Schoetzau reports.
TEXT: U-N officials estimate 300-thousand children,
some as young as seven years old, currently serve as
soldiers in conflicts in approximately 50-countries.
Millions of other children are the victims of armed
conflicts.
The U-N officials say the outbreak of civil wars
following the end of the Cold War a decade ago, and
the spread of lightweight weapons have drawn
unprecedented numbers of children into situations of
armed conflict.
U-N Special Representative for Children and Armed
Conflict, Olara Otunnu, says children suffer
disproportionately in wars. He says children require
special protection because they bear no responsibility
for conflict and are particularly vulnerable.
// OTUNNU ACT //
Moreover, children represent the hopes and
future of every society. Destroy them and you
have destroyed a society. Yet today we are
witnessing unspeakable abominations directed
against children in situations of conflict.
Children being killed, children being made
orphans, children being maimed, children being
uprooted from their homes, children being raped
and sexually abused, children being deprived
quite simply of education and health, children
being exploited as child soldiers and children
being left with deep emotional scars and trauma.
// END ACT //
The problem is exacerbated, Mr. Otunnu says, by the
disintegration of social systems that previously made
the targeting of children, women and the elderly
taboo.
// REST OPT //
This is the second year the Security Council has
debated the issue of children and armed conflict.
Last year Security Council members adopted a
presidential statement. But this year Mr. Otunnu and
children's advocates urged the Security Council to
adopt a binding resolution condemning the recruitment
of child soldiers and giving priority to the needs of
children when conflicts end. (SIGNED)
NEB/BJS/LSF/TVM/RAE
25-Aug-1999 14:35 PM LOC (25-Aug-1999 1835 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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