YouSaid · the spoken record

Otunnu

lines on the record

204

first

1998-06-29

most recent

2005-02-23

sittings or episodes

17

sources

un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

1. “Almost all the major armed conflicts in the world today are internal. They are being fought by multiple semi-autonomous armed groups within national boundaries. They are marked by a particular brand of lawlessness, cruelty and chaos. In particular, they are characterized by the systematic and widespread targeting of civilian populations. In these situations, the belligerents routinely ignore international humanitarian laws, which have traditionally moderated, if not governed, the conduct of inter-State warfare. The conflicts tend to be protracted, lasting years, if not decades, often in recurring cycles, thus exposing successive generations of children to horrendous violence. And most cynically, children have been compelled to become instruments of war, recruited or kidnapped to become child soldiers.”

   1998-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3896 (1998) · source

2. “Children, especially girls, have been made the targets of rape and other forms of sexual violence on a large scale. At present, half of the total population of refugees and internally displaced persons in the world are children. An estimated 800 children are killed or maimed by landmines every month. It is estimated that a quarter of a million young persons under the age of 18 are currently under arms, serving as child soldiers in various theatres of conflict around the world. War is nothing new to the human experience. Neither is the incidence of civilian casualties in times of war. But the magnitude of what we are witnessing attests to a new phenomenon: a qualitative shift in the nature and the conduct of warfare. It is not war as we have known it in the modern era. This transformation is underscored by several developments.”

   1998-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3896 (1998) · source

3. “A crucial measure of our civilization must be its human quality. It has to do with how we treat our fellow human beings and, above all, it has to do with how we treat the most innocent and most vulnerable members of our community, those who represent the future of every society - our children. On the eve of the new millennium, we are witnessing an abomination, an abomination directed against children in the context of armed conflict. At this moment, in approximately 50 countries around the world children are suffering from the impact of armed conflict, in its midst and in its aftermath. In the last decade alone, we have seen 2 million children killed, over 1 million orphaned, 6 million seriously injured or permanently disabled, 12 million made homeless and 10 million left with serious psychological trauma.”

   1998-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3896 (1998) · source

4. “Mr. Otunnu: It is a great honour for me to appear before the Security Council, and it is a great honour for me to appear under your presidency, Sir. I congratulate you on the leadership which you have provided, especially on the plight of children affected by armed conflict. We are on the eve of a new millennium. There will be much to celebrate because in the modern era our civilization has achieved breathtaking advances in virtually every field of human endeavour. And yet these quantum leaps in human progress coexist uneasily with a darker side of our civilization. Witness our capacity to inflict and tolerate grave injustice, our capacity for deep hatred and cruelty towards our fellow human beings. See how we can destroy entire communities in the quest for power or in the name of ethnicity, religion, race or class.”

   1998-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3896 (1998) · source