KABUL -  Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika  Coomaraswamy was appalled to learn today of the use of a young girl as an unwitting suicide bomber in the Char China District of Afghanistan. Equally disturbing was a brutal attack on Akbar Khail hospital, also in Afghanistan.

“Attacks on hospitals are two-fold atrocities. Not only do they kill and wound girls and boys, they leave thousands of women and children without access to treatment. The disgraceful act of putting a bomb in a little girl’s basket and sending her, unknowing, to kill, is almost unimaginable. The group or individuals responsible must be brought to justice.

As conflict changes, I fear that we will only see more of these unconscionable methods deployed by those who do not respect fundamental rights of children,” said Special Representative of the Secretary-General Radhika Coomaraswamy.

This attack comes at a time when, following a recommendation by the Secretary-General in his Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict, the Security Council is discussing the issue of attacks on schools and hospitals as a possible listing criteria for the Secretary-General’s list of shame of parties to conflict who violate children.

According to the Secretary-General's Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict, “a total of 197 education-related incidents throughout Afghanistan verified.”

http://www.un.org/children/conflict/english/pr/2011-06-27263.html 
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For further information, please contact:
Timothy La Rose
Communications Officer
Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict
+1 917 346 3404
larose@un.org

Muriel Gschwend
Associate Communications Officer
Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict
+1917 367 35 62
gschwend@un.org