DATE=5/8/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHILDREN / WAR (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-262097
BYLINE=LOURDES NAVARRO
DATELINE=LONDON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The charity Save the Children is calling for
urgent action to protect about 13-million children
forced from their homes by war. The charity says
these children are displaced within their own
countries so are ignored by the international
community. Lourdes Navarro in London reports the
charity's study, "War Brought Us Here", highlights the
plight of children in many of the most war-torn
countries in the world.
TEXT: Save The Children's study says that in Sri
Lanka, 270-thousand children have been displaced, some
more than six-times, by the civil war.
That number almost pales beside the one-point-eight-
million children who have been forced out of where
they live in Sierra Leone.
In Colombia, two of three displaced children have
witnessed the murder or the attempted murder of at
least one member of their family.
And in Kosovo, more than 150-thousand children are not
able to return home.
But the regional director of Save The Children, Peter
Hawkins, says the children of Angola suffer the worst
situation.
/// HAWKINS ACT ONE ///
One in three Angolan children do not reach the
age of five. This is the culmination of the
direct effect of the conflict, from the
degradation of health care and educational
facilities, but above all from the fact that
families are being displaced over and over again
and are living in the margins of the communities
they have moved into.
/// END ACT ///
Save the Children says that once the children are
forced from their homes, they are exposed to violence,
mutilation, separation from their families, and ill
health. Because they are stranded in their own
countries and do not have the formal status of
refugees they are out of reach of international
protection.
Mr. Hawkins says that the average length of
displacement is six-years. He says this is a huge
part of a child's life and makes those not able to
fend for themselves even more vulnerable.
/// HAWKINS ACT TWO ///
War equals violence and violence perpetrated
against children has an enormous detrimental
effect. Children are the innocent victims, they
are easy victims to attack.
/// END ACT ///
Save The Children is calling for the international
community to guarantee humanitarian assistance to
internally displaced children and their families, to
respect the rights of children, and end the targeting
of children in armed conflict. (SIGNED)
NEB/LN/JWH/RAE
08-May-2000 10:32 AM EDT (08-May-2000 1432 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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