Remembering the Children of Syria on Universal Children's Day

Press Statement

Syrian Coalition

Istanbul, Turkey

November 21, 2013

The Syrian Coalition wishes to send its warmest wishes to children and their families around the world.

On this Universal Children’s Day, we reflect on the horrifying agony the Syrian children, as they endure the harshest of trials on a daily basis, inside and outside Syria.

Around 8759 children have died as a result of the criminal Assad regime’s actions against the Syrian people who demanded freedom and dignity. Many children died due to heavy shelling on residential areas.

Some of them died under torture. And few of us will forget the images of more than 600 children convulsing to death in Ghouta when the Assad regime hit the area with chemical weapons on August 21.

Scores of innocent children were subjected to torture and intimidation at the hands of Assad’s henchmen. Dozens of children were slaughtered with knives, burned alive, or thrown from tops of buildings in Ziabiyah, Khanassir, al-Beida, Rass al-Nab’a, Houla, Traymssa, Wadi al-Mawla, Qusair and other areas.

Hundreds of children were taken hostages to pressure their wanted relatives to give themselves up. Nearly 40% of Syrian children do not have access to education after hundreds of schools were leveled by the regime’s shelling or turned into regime detention centres or shelters for panicked displaced civilians.

Endemics like polio have broken out in the country, as more than 1.6 million children do not have access to vaccinations against polio and other diseases.

It is vital that international organizations concerned with the protection of children put pressure on governments and regional as well as international actors to take immediate action to end the suffering of Syrian children.

We ask for Mercy for our martyrs, health for our wounded, and freedom for our detainees.

Long live Syria and its people, free and with honor.