Published: 10:32 June 13, 2013
United Nations: (click here) Syrian troops and rebels are recruiting children to fight in the country’s civil war and some have been tortured by government forces for having links to the opposition, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said in a report on Wednesday.
The report issued after Ban’s special envoy for children and armed
conflict, Leila Zerrougui, visited Syria in December said thousands of
children have been killed in the violence, “while thousands more have
seen family members killed or injured.”
The United Nations considers anyone aged under 18 to be a child. Ban
said that in Syria, torture and ill-treatment of children accused of
associating with opposition forces was a worrying trend.
“There were a number of accounts of sexual violence against boys to
obtain information or a confession by the state forces, largely but not
exclusively by members of the state intelligence services and the Syrian
armed forces,” the report said.
The G8 leaders will want to avert any possibility of arming a number of different groups of rebels. Such actions would result in escalation of ethnic and sectarian violence rather than a consolidation of rebel authority. The G8 leaders will want to resolve to consolidate an oppositional authority to bring about a coalition government.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (click here) will fly to
Britain a day before next week's G8 summit for talks with
David Cameron on the conflict in Syria, the British prime minister
announced Wednesday.
...The two leaders will meet at Cameron's Downing Street office on Sunday, before heading to Northern Ireland for the summit of Group of Eight nations on Monday and Tuesday.
"We should use the G8 to try and bring pressure on all sides, to bring about what we all want in this House, which is a peace conference, a peace process and a move towards a transitional government in Syria," Cameron told the House of Commons.
"I'm delighted to tell the House that President Putin will be coming in advance of the G8 for meetings in Downing Street on Sunday, when we can discuss this."
Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has with the United States proposed an international peace conference to get the two sides in the conflict to the negotiating table....
The G8 leaders will want to avert any possibility of arming a number of different groups of rebels. Such actions would result in escalation of ethnic and sectarian violence rather than a consolidation of rebel authority. The G8 leaders will want to resolve to consolidate an oppositional authority to bring about a coalition government.
...The two leaders will meet at Cameron's Downing Street office on Sunday, before heading to Northern Ireland for the summit of Group of Eight nations on Monday and Tuesday.
"We should use the G8 to try and bring pressure on all sides, to bring about what we all want in this House, which is a peace conference, a peace process and a move towards a transitional government in Syria," Cameron told the House of Commons.
"I'm delighted to tell the House that President Putin will be coming in advance of the G8 for meetings in Downing Street on Sunday, when we can discuss this."
Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has with the United States proposed an international peace conference to get the two sides in the conflict to the negotiating table....
