VOA慢速英语2013 人权组织谴责武装分子袭击尼日利亚学校

 

AS IT IS 2013-10-16 Amnesty Condemns¹ School Attacks in Nigeria 人权组织谴责武装分子袭击尼日利亚学校

Hello and welcome to As It Is from VOA Learning English!

I’m Bob Doughty².

Today we have two reports from Africa.

We hear about claims by the human rights group Amnesty International that “education is under attack” in northern Nigeria.

And, we tell about how the government in Rwanda has returned thousands of child soldiers to civilian³ life. But at the same time, the United Nations says Rwandan children are being forced to fight with rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

But first, we turn to attacks on Nigerian school buildings – with teachers and children inside.

The rights group Amnesty International says “education is under attack” in northern Nigeria. It says as many as 70 teachers and more than 100 students have been killed there since the beginning of 2012. Some parents say they are afraid to send their children to school. George Grow has the story from reporter Heather Murdock in Abuja.

In the past, schools in northern Nigeria were attacked at night. The school buildings burned to the ground while students and teachers were in their homes. But now, the attacks often take place in daylight. The attackers kill teachers and students before the buildings are destroyed.

Makmid Kamara is with Amnesty International. He says the attacks have turned deadly because teachers are special targets. School children and older students also suffer and die in the violence.

The attacks are usually blamed on the militant⁴ group Boko Haram. It is believed responsible for thousands of deaths since 2009. The group says it wants to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria. It calls itself “The People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad.” But it is better known by the name Boko Haram, meaning “Western education is a sin.”

In May, the Nigerian government declared emergency rule in much of northeastern Nigeria. It deployed⁵ thousands of troops to fight Boko Haram. The military usually reports success in battle. But attacks on schools continue.

Gunmen recently killed more than 40 people in student housing in the Nigerian state of Yobe. The attack took place not far from a secondary school where almost 30 students were killed in July.

Amnesty International’s Makmid Kamara says the government is not doing enough to stop it.

“The Nigerian government has a duty and a responsibility to prevent these attacks by taking lawful⁶ and effective measures and we think those who are responsible should be held to account.”

He says suspected Boko Haram members are also known to frighten teachers by standing⁷ with weapons outside classrooms.

Amnesty says as many as 80 percent of the students in northern Nigeria have stopped attending classes. More than 1,000 teachers have fled the area as gunmen warn parents to send their children only to Islamic schools.

Abdullahi Bego is the spokesperson for Yobe State Governor Ibrahim Gaidam. Mr. Bego says the military must increase security around schools. And he says teachers and parents must let children go to school. If they do not, he warns, they are giving control to criminals and terrorists who do not want children to become educated.

You are listening to As It Is, in VOA Learning English. I’m Bob Doughty.

We turn now to the issue of child soldiers in central Africa.  

In the past 16 years, the government in Rwanda has returned about 3,000 child soldiers to civilian life. These efforts are continuing. But at the same time, the United Nations says the government has been helping⁸ a Congolese rebel group, the M23, train children in Rwanda as fighters. The UN says the rebels are sending the children to fight with M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo. June Simms has more on this report from VOA’s Margaret Besheer in Kigali.

About the time their son Nizeymani learned to walk, his parents left Rwanda for the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. The parents died there when he was four years old. Soldiers from a Rwandan Hutu group, the FDLR, kidnapped the boy from a refugee camp when he was 12 years old. Nizeyimani was taken to live with the rebels. He says life was very hard. And he says those who attempted to escape were caught and killed.

After a time, a relative helped Nizeyimani make his way to a camp of the United Nations peacekeeping group MONUSCO. The group works with the government of Rwanda to help disarm⁹ its citizens who fight in the eastern DRC.

Former FDLR fighters are first sent to the Mutobo demobilization camp, where they stay for three months. The camp is where Nizyimani has started his return to civilian society.

Former child soldiers are then sent to a rehabilitation¹⁰ center where they meet with mental health experts and receive medical testing. The former soldiers begin studying again. And efforts are made to find their relatives.

But, sadly, that is not all of what is happening. Dee Brillenburg Wurth heads MONUSCO’s child protection section in Kinshasa. While Rwanda is working to help its own children come home, she says the country is also systematically¹¹ recruiting children to work for the M23.

MONUSCO cannot work outside of Congo. But Ms. Brillenburg Wurth says the group has evidence from witnesses that Rwanda is actively¹² pressing children into service.

“We know from children -- and this is corroborated¹³ by other children and by adults -- that children are being recruited. For example, we had an example of a football coach, of a police officer. At the beginning they told us they had this system in place, $5 for every child that was recruited.”

She says 122 children were questioned. Of those, 37 were Rwandan. Some were recruited in their country. Others were recruited in Congo. Some thought they were being asked to join the Rwandan army. Others did not even know they were in the DRC.

Ms. Brillenburg Wurth says children were often taken from their villages. Many of the children started life as an M23 child carrying supplies from the Rwandan border.

Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo, however, strongly denies that the country recruits children. She adds that once the crisis in the eastern Congo is settled and armed groups are removed, recruitment of child soldiers will end.

The United States has pressured Rwanda about pressing children into service. It recently blocked military aid to the Rwandan government over its recruitment of child soldiers. I’m June Simms.

And that’s our program for today. I’m Bob Doughty.

1 condemns   

v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的第三人称单数 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地

参考例句：

• Her widowhood condemns her to a lonely old age. 守寡使她不得不过着孤独的晚年生活。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The public opinion condemns prostitution. 公众舆论遣责卖淫。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

3 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

4 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

5 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

6 lawful   

adj.法律许可的，守法的，合法的

参考例句：

• It is not lawful to park in front of a hydrant.在消火栓前停车是不合法的。
• We don't recognised him to be the lawful heir.我们不承认他为合法继承人。

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

8 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

9 disarm   

v.解除武装，回复平常的编制，缓和

参考例句：

• The world has waited 12 years for Iraq to disarm. 全世界等待伊拉克解除武装已有12年之久。
• He has rejected every peaceful opportunity offered to him to disarm.他已经拒绝了所有能和平缴械的机会。

10 rehabilitation   

n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位

参考例句：

• He's booked himself into a rehabilitation clinic.他自己联系了一家康复诊所。
• No one can really make me rehabilitation of injuries.已经没有人可以真正令我的伤康复了。

11 systematically   

adv.有系统地

参考例句：

• This government has systematically run down public services since it took office.这一屆政府自上台以来系统地削减了公共服务。
• The rainforest is being systematically destroyed.雨林正被系统地毀灭。

12 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

13 corroborated   

v.证实，支持（某种说法、信仰、理论等）( corroborate的过去式 )

参考例句：

• The evidence was corroborated by two independent witnesses. 此证据由两名独立证人提供。
• Experiments have corroborated her predictions. 实验证实了她的预言。 来自《简明英汉词典》