NEWS ANALYSIS: Silencing of the lambs

By Kartik Lokhande 

Just 36 months into this world, and Aylan Kurdi became a victim of cruelty of the savages calling themselves humans. The promise with which he must have come into this world, was never realised. The hopes he held in his innocent eyes, drowned in the vast expanse of a conflict and a sea of crisis. The photograph of the body of this little boy washed up on a beach near Turkish resort of Bodrum, shook the human among humans. 

Sadly, Aylan is not -- and will not be -- the first victim of a conflict. He became a victim of the crisis in Syria that is a result of the rise of the brutal regime of Islamic State. But, he is not the only child who fell to the conflict imposed by some barbarians in a part of the world. Aylan did not die alone. He died along with his 5-year-old brother Galip, mother, and nine others while trying to cross to Kos, a Greek island, in two small boats that capsized. They were among more than 2,500 died in an attempt to cross to Europe by sea, this year. Aylan and Galip represent the children caught in conflicts or crises that are a result of the acts of grown-ups. 

Conflict may be any, but crisis is real for children of the world. In Syria, the conflict has arisen out of some people’s wish to establish dominance of their religion. And, they have gone to such an extent that they have not hesitated from mass killings, creating an atmosphere of fear that forced many people to flee the region with their families comprising children, in search of peaceful places. In the exodus, unsuccessful people are dying. 

In North-Eastern Nigeria, terrorist group Boko Haram has abducted, killed countless many girls and boys from their schools. While the terrorists abused girls as sex slaves, the boys among the children were used as recruits. Similar is the situation of children at present in South Sudan, Central African Republic, Israel, Palestine, Yemen, Libya, Pakistan, and so on and so forth. Everywhere, the most silent casualty is that of a child. 

In some of these places, children are being killed, maimed, abused by gun-wielding savages who make differences only on the basis of ethnicity or religion or simply territorial domination. In such cases, children are even eliminated purposely by the dominant forces of the day as they feel that children of ‘inimical’ forces may be the enemies in future. And, this holds true especially in areas where ethnicity or religious dominance have fuelled terrorism. And, killers in such cases include both – the terrorists and the military. In some other cases, terrorists are into a fierce battle with the respective Governments, and they are so blinded by their so-called commitment to cause that they bomb schools, fire indiscriminately, and even gun down children ‘to send a message’. 

Children were killed during the World War, in nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Children were killed in South Vietnamese Air Force napalm attack. They were killed in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Korea, Cambodia and so on and so forth. As per an old estimate, between 1985 and 1995 when the world saw ‘developments’ in warfare techniques and ammunition, around 20 lakh children got killed, 40 lakh to 50 lakh rendered disabled, and lakhs of others got either orphaned or separated from their parents, left homeless. Of course, these did not include the children who remained with their parents and survived the crises, but carried the trauma and horrific memories throughout their lives. 

Children caught in conflict die of starvation, ill-health, lack of enough drinking water, and they also suffer from lack of play-time. They get deprived of education as schools are either destroyed or are taken over as bases for militaries fighting the terrorists. They get deprived of fear-free atmosphere when innocence can trust maturity irrespective of caste, creed, religion, language, territory etc. And, this results in children either dying like lambs or living with scars in the head and heart. Both the situations are not ideal for children. 

Sensitive people across the world have been mourning deaths of children in various conflicts, year after year after year of silencing of the lambs. Now, time has come when the world should unite and serve the cause of children in a more bold way. This is essential for peaceful future of the world. 

For, when children like Aylan or Galip die, an entire generation dies. Can humanity afford this? 

(07-09-15)