17/11/2011 - A local media outlet in Pakistan has reported that most of the child suicide bombers are orphans. The use of young children in this task is a new phenomenon in Afghanistan, too.
In an opinion article in the English-language Pakistani newspaper, the Daily Times, Jahanara Watto wrote, “most of the suicide bombers are orphans who are less than 17 years old.”
Ms. Watto is the President of the Pakistan Peoples Party of the Okara district. She works with Pakistan Bait ul Maal for “Pakistan Sweet Homes,” a project that provides residential care to orphaned children.
Vulnerable children are being targeted as pawns for terrorist organizations, who take advantage of their lack of protection or poverty.
Earlier this month, the results of a study conducted by a health researchers and the Pakistani Army were publicized. Dr. Feriha Peracha is the director of the Sabaoon Project that worked with combatants aged 12-18 recruited in the regions of Swat and Malakand by militants loyal to Mullah Fazlullah as well as children recruited by the Tehrik-i-Taliban.
The research study involved 152 children captured by the Pakistani Army. Some of the children were apprehended in the process of carrying out suicide bombings. Dr. Peracha found that children identified as intelligent were used as spies and informants, while those thought to be less intelligent were encouraged to sacrifice themselves in suicide bombings.
While 58 per cent of the children had been abducted, 41 per cent joined of their own volition. Yet, most of the children recruited voluntarily had no motivation in religion. Instead, “poverty and a lack of opportunities” was the impetus for joining terrorist groups. Some children sought better food while others dreamed of a better existence in the afterlife.
As Dr. Peracha states in a spin on an old adage, “A meal a day, keeps the terrorists away.”
Suicide bombers are identified by armed groups as being cheap with high payoffs in terms of media coverage. Children are easily manipulated and, as child rights advocate and retired Canadian L.Gen. Roméo Dallaire’s book, They Fights Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children, they are plentiful, cheap and renewable – a perversely accommodating combination for some organizations.
In recent years children as young as seven years old have been trafficked into the child suicide bombing “industry.” Some children believe they are going to work abroad (such as Pakistani children travelling to Afghanistan), but instead find themselves being trained for deadly attacks.
The use of children in armed conflict is not a novel phenomenon. What is new is the use of very young children as suicide bombers, some of whom are brainwashed to believe untruths (like that only Americans will be killed by the attack, while they escape unscathed). Until a few years ago, the forcible recruitment of children as suicide bombers was unheard of in Afghanistan. In other conflicts in the Middle East, such as the one in Israel and Palestine, suicide bombers tend to be teenage or young adults.
At least 28 Pakistan Sweet Homes have been established, each with the capacity to care for 100 children. Of the 2,800 orphans in care, most have lost their parents to terrorism. The initiative will likely be continued until 40 homes have been established, some of which specifically designated for female orphans to protect the girl-child.
Orphaned child, like all other children, have the right to health, education and protection. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) uses the term child protection to refer to “preventing and responding to violence, exploitation and abuse against children.”
The use of children as suicide bombers represents a gross violation of the child’s right to life and to protection from armed conflict, as set out under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict.
Ms. Watto is the President of the Pakistan Peoples Party of the Okara district. She works with Pakistan Bait ul Maal for “Pakistan Sweet Homes,” a project that provides residential care to orphaned children.
Vulnerable children are being targeted as pawns for terrorist organizations, who take advantage of their lack of protection or poverty.
Earlier this month, the results of a study conducted by a health researchers and the Pakistani Army were publicized. Dr. Feriha Peracha is the director of the Sabaoon Project that worked with combatants aged 12-18 recruited in the regions of Swat and Malakand by militants loyal to Mullah Fazlullah as well as children recruited by the Tehrik-i-Taliban.
The research study involved 152 children captured by the Pakistani Army. Some of the children were apprehended in the process of carrying out suicide bombings. Dr. Peracha found that children identified as intelligent were used as spies and informants, while those thought to be less intelligent were encouraged to sacrifice themselves in suicide bombings.
While 58 per cent of the children had been abducted, 41 per cent joined of their own volition. Yet, most of the children recruited voluntarily had no motivation in religion. Instead, “poverty and a lack of opportunities” was the impetus for joining terrorist groups. Some children sought better food while others dreamed of a better existence in the afterlife.
As Dr. Peracha states in a spin on an old adage, “A meal a day, keeps the terrorists away.”
Suicide bombers are identified by armed groups as being cheap with high payoffs in terms of media coverage. Children are easily manipulated and, as child rights advocate and retired Canadian L.Gen. Roméo Dallaire’s book, They Fights Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children, they are plentiful, cheap and renewable – a perversely accommodating combination for some organizations.
In recent years children as young as seven years old have been trafficked into the child suicide bombing “industry.” Some children believe they are going to work abroad (such as Pakistani children travelling to Afghanistan), but instead find themselves being trained for deadly attacks.
The use of children in armed conflict is not a novel phenomenon. What is new is the use of very young children as suicide bombers, some of whom are brainwashed to believe untruths (like that only Americans will be killed by the attack, while they escape unscathed). Until a few years ago, the forcible recruitment of children as suicide bombers was unheard of in Afghanistan. In other conflicts in the Middle East, such as the one in Israel and Palestine, suicide bombers tend to be teenage or young adults.
At least 28 Pakistan Sweet Homes have been established, each with the capacity to care for 100 children. Of the 2,800 orphans in care, most have lost their parents to terrorism. The initiative will likely be continued until 40 homes have been established, some of which specifically designated for female orphans to protect the girl-child.
Orphaned child, like all other children, have the right to health, education and protection. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) uses the term child protection to refer to “preventing and responding to violence, exploitation and abuse against children.”
The use of children as suicide bombers represents a gross violation of the child’s right to life and to protection from armed conflict, as set out under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict.
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