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Syrian schools attacked, occupied, pupils interrogated - rights group

by Megan Rowling | @meganrowling | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Thursday, 6 June 2013 12:19 GMT

A group of children have a lesson in a mosque in Aleppo, where activists say they provide basic education after schools in the city were closed. Photo March 23, 2013, REUTERS/ Giath Taha

Image Caption and Rights Information

Attacks on Syrian schools and their use as detention centres are depriving children of education, terrifying them and forcing boys to become child soldiers or labourers, and girls to marry early for their safety, a new report says

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Schools in Syria have been attacked and students interrogated by the government, while both the army and opposition fighters have used schools as military bases and detention centres, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

These actions have turned education facilities into military targets, put children in danger and deterred them from going to school, the rights group said in a report based on more than 70 interviews, including with 16 students and 11 teachers who have fled the worsening conflict.

Students forced to leave school told Human Rights Watch they became child labourers, child soldiers or helpers for the armed opposition. Several girls between 16 and 17 said they married out of economic need or for lack of other safe options, the report added.

"Syrian children have had to face things in the horrors of war that no child should have to bear – interrogated, targeted and attacked,” Priyanka Motaparthy, children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report, said in a statement. “Schools should be havens, but in a country that once valued schooling, many Syrian children aren’t even getting basic education and are losing out on their future.”

The Syrian armed forces have committed "apparent laws of war violations" by carrying out ground and air attacks on schools that were not being used for military purposes, Human Rights Watch said.

The report features testimony from Salma, a 14-year-old girl from the city of Daraa, who said government forces fired on her school twice in mid-2012 while students were inside. “When the tank entered the school [grounds], it hit the walls of the school with machine guns...So students got down [on the ground] to shelter. We spent half an hour or an hour there underneath our desks [before we could go home],” she was quoted as saying.

Abdou, a boy who attended fourth-grade classes in Homs until May 2012, told Human Rights Watch he was asked by his maths teacher if his father kept a gun at home, and if his family watched news channels covering government abuses. When the teacher found out he had taken part in an anti-government protest, he was beaten five times with a rubber hose.

According to the report, Syrian government agents, including teachers, have conducted interrogations, arrests and raids at six schools in Daraa, Homs, and greater Damascus, making students afraid to attend.

Students, parents and teachers - interviewed between October and December last year - also said they had witnessed government security forces and militia assaulting and even shooting at peaceful student protests. "They threw me on the ground [when they attacked our demonstration], but I managed to get away,” said Somaya, a 14-year-old girl from Damascus. “They shot at us. One girl got shot in her hand...All the girls ran.”

RIGHT TO EDUCATION

Fighters for both the government and rebel groups have taken over schools for use as command posts, barracks and detention centres, Human Rights Watch said. Government forces positioned snipers on the roofs of at least two schools in Damascus governorate, one of which was still in session, it added.

“Both government forces and opposition armed groups have a responsibility to protect children’s lives and their right to education,” Motaparthy said. “By using schools for military purposes, they are putting children in harm’s way and destroying their hopes for their future.”

The report called on all parties to the conflict to respect the laws of war, including those relating to schools. Attacks on schools not being used for military ends must stop, and steps must be taken to protect students from violence and enable them to continue their education, it said.

At least one in five Syrian schools is no longer functioning, and several thousand out of 22,000 schools are said to be destroyed, damaged or sheltering people fleeing violence, according to the report.

Before the Syrian uprising began in March 2011, some 93 percent of children were enrolled in primary education, and 67 percent in secondary education, according to the United Nations. Many children have now lost months or years of education, Human Rights Watch said.

Civilian councils and activist groups have set up informal community schools in mosques and private homes, but they lack teachers, books and school supplies. Human Rights Watch urged donor governments and aid groups to support these efforts.

“Emergency and remedial education assistance is vital so children can continue their education during the armed conflict,” Motaparthy said. “Concerned governments and the U.N. Security Council should do all they can to make sure educational aid reaches Syrian children wherever the aid is needed.”

 

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