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	Secretary-General reiterates his urgent call for end to armed violence in Syria by BBC, AFP, Reuters Syria   10 May 2012   UN condemns bomb attacks in Damascus.   UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the United Nations Security Council have strongly condemned deadly bomb attacks in Damascus, and called for an end to the ongoing violence in the Middle Eastern country.   “The Secretary-General reiterates his urgent call on all sides fully to comply with their obligations to cease armed violence in all its forms, and to protect civilians, as well as to distance themselves from indiscriminate bombings and other terrorist acts,” said Mr. Ban’s spokesperson.   According to media reports, there were two strong explosions in the Syrian capital – near what is reported to be a military intelligence building – on Thursday morning, killing or wounding many people. The crisis in Syria, has claimed over 9,000 lives, mostly civilians.   Mr. Ban called for all sides to abide by Security Council resolution 2043 and the six-point plan, which commits the parties to a peaceful resolution of the crisis, put forward in March by the Joint Special Envoy for the United Nations and the League of Arab States for the Syrian crisis, Kofi Annan.   Mr. Annan’s six-point plan calls for an end to violence, access for humanitarian agencies to provide relief to those in need, the release of detainees, the start of inclusive political dialogue that takes into account the aspirations of the Syrian people, and unrestricted access to the country for the international media.   The UN chief also underscored the need for immediate and full cooperation with “UN efforts aimed at ending all violence and human rights violations, securing humanitarian access and facilitating a Syrian-led political transition leading to a democratic and plural political system in Syria.”   In its statement, the UN Security Council reaffirmed that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed.   28 March 2012   Syria authorities target children, says UN rights chief. (BBC)   Syrian authorities are systematically detaining and torturing children, the United Nations human rights chief, Navi Pillay, has told the BBC.   Ms Pillay said President Bashar al-Assad could end the detentions and stop the killing of civilians immediately, simply by issuing an order.   Navi Pillay, in an interview with the BBC before Syria accepted the plan, said Mr Assad would face justice for the abuses carried out by his security forces.   Asked if he bore command responsibility for the abuses, Ms Pillay said: "That is the legal situation. Factually there is enough evidence pointing to the fact that many of these acts are committed by the security forces and must have received the approval or the complicity at the highest level.   "Because President Assad could simply issue an order to stop the killings and the killings would stop."   Ms Pillay said she believed that the UN Security Council had enough reliable information to warrant referring Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC).   "I feel that investigation and prosecution is a crucial element to deter and call a stop to these violations," she said.   She listed what she called "horrendous" treatment of children during the unrest. "They"ve gone for the children - for whatever purposes - in large numbers. Hundreds detained and tortured... it"s just horrendous," she said.   "Children shot in the knees, held together with adults in really inhumane conditions, denied medical treatment for their injuries, either held as hostages or as sources of information."   Ms Pillay said anyone who committed such violations would be held to account. "There is no statute of limitations so people like [Mr Assad] can go on for a very long time but one day they will have to face justice."   February 10, 2012 (AFP/Reuters)   Syrian army bombards Homs for sixth straight day.   Early morning brought another barrage of rocket and shell fire, much of it focused on the Baba Amr neighbourhood. Video posted online showed bodies being pulled from under the rubble of homes.   The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 53 civilians were killed in Homs on Thursday, with a total of 83 people killed across the country.   Baba Amr was worst hit in Homs, with entire areas destroyed. Hundreds of people have now died in Homs in the relentless onslaught by government troops that began early on Saturday.   In eastern Deir Ezzor province, machine gun fire wounded dozens of people including women and children in Koriyeh, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. State security forces have also been in action near the borders of Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.   UN chief Ban Ki-moon said that the "appalling brutality we are witnessing in Homs, with heavy weapons firing into civilian neighbourhoods, is a grim harbinger of things to come".   Hussein Nader, an activist in Baba Amro, told Reuters: "Silence reigns for four to five minutes, then another barrage of tank fire or rockets or mortar rounds comes in.. Whole houses have come down and we do not know how many more have been killed."   A doctor, his name given only as Mohammed, broadcast a cry for help on YouTube from his makeshift surgery in a mosque. "I appeal to the United Nations and to international humanitarian organisations to stop the rockets from being fired on us."   Feb 3, 2012   At least 217 people were killed in shelling by Syrian forces in the city of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human rights said on Saturday.   "The death toll is now at least 217 people killed in Homs, 138 of them killed in the Khalidiya district," Rami Abdulrahman, head of the British-based group, told Reuters, citing witnesses.   Residents said Syrian forces began shelling the Khalidiya neighborhood at around 8 p.m. on Friday using artillery and mortars. They said at least 36 houses were completely destroyed with families inside.   "We were sitting inside our house when we started hearing the shelling. We felt the bombardment was falling on our heads," said Waleed a resident of Khalidiya.   The bombardment comes at a time when diplomats at the U.N. Security Council are discussing a resolution on an Arab League plan for action on the ongoing daily violence directed against civilians in Syria by Government forces.   One activist said residents were using primitive tools to rescue the people. They feared many people were buried under the rubble.   "We are not getting any help, there are no ambulances or anything. We are removing the people with our own hands," he said, adding there were only two field hospitals treating the wounded. Each one had a capacity to deal with 30 people, but he estimated the total number of wounded at 500. "We have dug out at least 100 bodies so far," he said.
	Women, War & Peace by PBS Television   Women, War & Peace is a new five-part PBS television series challenging the conventional wisdom that war and peace are men’s domain.   The vast majority of today’s conflicts are not fought by nation states and their armies, but rather by informal entities: gangs and warlords using small arms and improvised weapons.   The series reveals how the post-Cold War proliferation of small arms has changed the landscape of war, with women becoming primary targets and suffering unprecedented casualties.   Yet they are simultaneously emerging as necessary partners in brokering lasting peace and as leaders in forging new international laws governing conflict. With depth and complexity, Women, War & Peace spotlights the stories of women in conflict zones from Bosnia to Afghanistan and Colombia to Liberia, placing women at the center of an urgent dialogue about conflict and security, and reframing our understanding of modern warfare.   Women, War & Peace is one of the most comprehensive global media initiative ever mounted on the roles of women in war and peace. The series will present its message across the globe by utilizing all forms of media, and will be accompanied by an educational and outreach initiative designed to advance international accountability in regard to women and security.   The five episodes in the series:   I Came to Testify is the moving story of how a group of 16 women who had been imprisoned and raped by Serb-led forces in the Bosnian town of Foca broke history’s great silence – and stepped forward to take the witness stand in an international court of law. Their remarkable courage resulted in a triumphant verdict that led to new international laws about sexual violence in war.   Pray the Devil Back to Hell is the astonishing story of the Liberian women who took on the warlords and regime of dictator Charles Taylor in the midst of a brutal civil war, and won a once unimaginable peace for their shattered country in 2003.   When the U.S. troop surge was announced in late 2009, women in Afghanistan knew that the ground was being laid for peace talks with the Taliban. Peace Unveiled follows three women in Afghanistan who are risking their lives to make sure that women’s rights don’t get traded away in the deal.   The War We Are Living travels to Cauca, a mountainous region in Colombia’s Pacific southwest, where two extraordinary Afro-Colombian women are braving a violent struggle over their gold-rich lands. They are standing up for a generation of Colombians who have been terrorized and forcibly displaced as a deliberate strategy of war.   War Redefined, the capstone of Women, War & Peace, challenges the conventional wisdom that war and peace are men’s domain through incisive interviews with leading thinkers, Secretaries of State and seasoned survivors of war and peace-making. Visit the related web page
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