Fettered Syria: Left With Children, But No Childhood!

 

9 yrs. old boy’s rhetoric appeal for Syria’s freedom in a non violent protest against the belligerents.

“Then, when I was 14, every day for six months, I was raped. I tried to kill myself. How am I telling you this without crying? because I was out of tears”- Aklas, 17 yrs. (Yazidi survivor). “I feel like a grown up. Now, that I’m the only breadwinner of the family”- Ibrahim, 12 yrs. Refugee. “I like to be alone and be able to go out and no one kidnaps me. There be no fighters or anything, and no bombing.”- Razan, 7 yrs. The statements by these young victims of the Syrian civil war are alive stories which recall the words of Pam Leo, “Let’s raise children, who won’t have to recover from their childhoods”

Refugee children forced to stay in abysmal conditions at the Syrian and Turkish borders.

March 15, 2011, the day when all hell broke loose for Syria. The day that no one could predict would be the beginning of a constant doom for the people of Syria. Hitherto, when the country is being rotten in the seventh year of this very Civil War, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) churns out a statement elucidating more than 475,000 deaths of civilians, which sadly is accumulating with each passing day.  Besides, more than 5,116,097 people were registered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as refugees. Moreover, out of all these victimized civilians, the children always remained a soft target. Grievously, half of the migratory population marks an estimation of two million children as refugees withal. Of course the contemporary impediments remain exposed to the whole world. But are the belligerents even aware of the long term effects of such a ravaging denouement?

A survey report published on March 7, 2017, on a leading web portal ABC, had some shocking truths held unveiled. Alan McDonald, the author was quoted as saying “After six years of war, we are seeing a lot of changes in the children. They’ve gone through things that most of us can’t even imagine. The fear that they feel really never goes away. So they are in this permanent state of stress, of fear, nervousness, and anxiety. Which is Toxic Stress.”

The unspeakable violence and brutality which is down poured on these innocent children cannot even be imagined by us, whilst living in a completely different facet of this planet. Their childhood is being slaughtered with no mercy. Who once had a normal life, now just wish they had one. Diseases, Malnutrition, Child Labor, Child Soldiers, Suicide Bombers, Lack Of Education, Mental And Physical Harassment, Rise In The Number Of Orphans and so on. At a certain point, we might fall gruesome and restless while reading about all these Syrian tragedies every day. But per contra, the Syrian kids have been through it all. And terribly, all alone. Undoubtedly, the belligerents along with their ostentatious support tend to help these kids and the other adults, or rather they pretend to?

Thousands of Syrian children are left homeless & orphan, after inhumane strikes

Syrian Armed Forces, National Defense Force, Hezbollah, Iran, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), Russia or the US. These entities could care less about the civilians. In fact, the fine line between the security of the civilians and the eradication of terrorists was blatantly erased. When they disseminated the chemical weapons on innocent children and left more than 60.000 children to die. When cluster bombs, thermobaric weapons, anti-tank missiles etc. were used in the face of counter striking the terrorist headquarters, but it brutally killed millions of local civilians. When the connivance of torturing the refugees who tried to flee to the three main neighboring countries, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan was swept under the carpet. No power remained negotiable, no power remained answerable.

The soulless body of 3 year old Alan Kurdi washed ashore. Nilufer Demir

It was then, on Sept 2, 2015, when the news of the 3-year-old lifeless Alan Kurdi of being washed ashore the Mediterranean Sea owing to his family’s unsuccessful attempt to flee from Syrian war zone, triggered a flame of empathy throughout the world for the very 1st time. It looked like the media and the mere mortals were until now fast asleep. Lately, constant coverage on Syrian refugees and crises eventuated. Today, the number of refugees and those vulnerable victims has only increased in time. Today, crumbled into debris are not only the culture, economy or houses but also the annihilated childhood, emotions and the most of all the humanity that’s vividly on the verge of death, Those pristine eyes see right through us, defying all of that sympathy, slamming a bitter question. Do we care?