00:00  Beep

00:17


Color bars

Text box: Over 3,000 children have been killed by the Assad regime’s military onslaught.

Tens of thousands more have been injured or have lost their parents and homes.

Here in a series of snapshots Syria’s children of war tell their experiences.

00:28


00:37 Kid: You guys over there make some space.

00:49 Kid singing: I am your only child oh father, I am 20 years old.

The dream of father of becoming a martyr and achieving victory. Achieving victory. Achieving victory. Achieving victory.

The dream of becoming a martyr oh gather has been a dream for years. With our blood, oh father, we please god.

Second kid: Our country is bleeding oh father and its soil is sad. Our country is bleeding oh father and its soil is sad.

Who answered? Who answered? Who answered?

Kid: The dream of becoming a martyr oh gather has been a dream for years.

The dream of becoming a martyr oh gather has been a dream for years.

01:48


Preparing for protest, loudspeakers, kids on stage



























TO BLACK

01:49


01:53

01:54 Interviewer (IV): What’s that you’ve got in your hand?

A bullet. You find a of of these in the streets

(IV): You found this in the street?
(IV): You found this in the street?

You find a lot of these in the streets.

02:14 (IV): Do you know what kind of bullet it is?

It’s from a Kalashnikov … the casing

We used to be in a three-storey building, but then they shelled it.

A rocket hit upstairs and set the diesel tank on fire, but thank god the water tank extinguished the fire.

(IV): Was that yesterday?

(yes)

(IV):  why did you wait why didn’t you leave earlier?

There were no cars, nothing. The checkpoints would not let us leave.

03:01 (IV): And this time they let you go?

(yes)

it had calmed down a bit.

(IV):  Have you ever seen any injured people?

I’ve seen a lot. I’ve seen a lot.

(IV): What do they look like?

Their arms, their legs, their heads … sometimes there’s no head. No hands or legs.

Some had been dead for three months they were kept in a fridge until burial. They smelled very bad.

03:44 (IV): where are your schoolmates now?

Most of them are dead.

(IV): Most of them are dead?

Some of them I used to play with in the street are dead. Some are here. Some went to Damascus. And some I haven’t heard of for a year and a half.

04:15 (IV): have you ever attended a funeral of a child?

Many.

(IV): Do you remember any?

Yesterday there was one. And the day before there there was another.

(IV): Do you know how old they were?

Ten.

(IV): How did they die?

They were playing n the street and were hit by a mortar. The mortar explodes into small fragments and they were torn apart.

(IV): They were in the street?

Yes.
 
05:03 (IV): did you go to the funeral?

No this one I couldn’t attend there was too much shelling so I couldn’t

(IV): Where did they bury them?

Same cemetery as they buried the martyrs in.

05:19 (IV): Do you know what happens to the martyr after he’s buried?

The martyr, what do you mean?

(IV): After he’s buried what happens to him, what does he feel?

That’s enough.


Text box: Ahmed, 11
From Qseir

Ahmed in check shirt, sitting on the floor

05:45 Woman: Ahmed would you like to say something. Do you have a song?

Ahmed: I’ve got heaven.

Woman: Sing heaven.

05:52 Heaven, heaven, heaven

Oh our homeland you are heaven

Heaven, heaven, heaven

Oh our homeland you are heaven

Our beloved homeland with the great soil

06:09 (Ahmed’s singing blends into original track)

even your hell is heaven

in your soil we have grown

in your arms we have grown

for your soil we have longed

and in your glory we have risen to the peak we have reached

and in your glory we have risen to the magnificent heights

06:34

Rise up Daraa in our darkness you are our torch

Revolutionary Daraa in our darkness you are our light

Homs is ready to help, Homs is ready to help

You carry our burdens, you carry our burdens

Heaven, heaven, heaven

Oh our homeland you are heaven

Our beloved homeland with the great soil

07:07 Ahmed comes back in

Heaven, heaven, heaven

Oh our homeland you are heaven

Heaven, heaven, heaven …

07:14 Sniper … It’s normal

It’s over
07:31

A group of children in a garden area
















Street scenes from Homs














Boy collecting rubbish


























Children leave the garden


Fade to black
07:32 (IV): What was your uncle doing when he was shot by a sniper

07:33



Boy: he was running. He had revolutionary songs on his mobile.

07:43




07:46 (IV): Where were these songs?

On his mobile, on his mobile.

(IV): Was he playing the songs?

Yes.

07:53



(IV): He played revolutionary songs in street?

No.

Yes

No

Yes

08:01 Mother Tell her how he was helping a woman cross the street.

Girl: Him, a woman, a man and two children were killed.

08:09 Boy: he was helping them flee and he was killed.

(IV): When was the last time you saw your uncle?

Two months ago.

(IV): Who told he was dead?

Check short: The people that helped him, his friends. My mother’s cousins.

(IV): They called you on the phone?

Yes.

(IV): When was that?

On a Friday after the noon call to prayers.

08:46 Girl: there’s a video of him, but its not clear.

08:49




08:54 (IV): what was he doing in the video?

Girl: he’s lying down. Like this … just like he’s asleep, without a scratch, like he’s sleeping.

Check: You’d never know that there was something wrong with him.

09:11 Audio: in the name of the merciful this is the martyr Mahmoud.

09:13

And the martyr Tamam

Girl: When he was martyred he smiled and said, there’s no god but allah and mohammed is his prophet and then he smiled widely.

09:30 Little boy: he was smiling when he was dead.

(IV): Who told you this?

The rescuer and my mum’s cousin. There were a lot of martyrs and they said they were drawn to the one whose face was all lit up. Then they realised it was my uncle. Then they said they wanted to kiss him.

But they couldn’t. They said his blood smelt of musk. Just like musk.

09:58 (IV): they told you so?

Yes.

Check shirt: that night my mum started crying. We all cried.

10:08 Check shirt: we lived next to where the massacre happened.

They told them to leave but they refused. The men were carrying knives to slaughter them with. There was one called Anas ..

He was hiding in the attic and god let him survive so he could tell people how his family was killed.

10:27 (IV): how do you know that this happened?

Because I saw it with my own eyes and they hid with us. We kept them in our house. They stayed for three nights.

One from Zamal family stayed with us, Anas, the one who survived. We gave him a shower and he was doing like this (imitates shaking) for four hours.

10:53 (IV): does Anas have any brothers?

Yes.

(IV): Does he have siblings?

Yes.

All his siblings were slaughtered. With knives. With knives.

11:04 (IV): were they buried?

No they dumped them in the bins and the street. And there were two girls …

The two girls were …

Girl: Naked

Yea and they were also duped in the street.

(IV): Who found them?

No one they were in the street.

11:34 Check shirt: They came, we broke through several walls and recovered several of them. But some remained.

The Shia took them to the place where all the Shia are. Three people were left, but we brought the others back.

They did horrifying things to them.

(IV): Are those three dead or alive?

They are all (does sign of slit throat) .. their life is over.  

12:01

12:14 I swear whenever I see a weapon now I want to pick it up.

When my brother sleeps he makes the sound of bombs.

Because of what we’ve seen.

Oh I was shot, come Yassin

(IV): That’s when he sleeps?

Yes. He’s talking as if he’s awake.

12:43



Little boy into focus, wearing red and grey T shirt




Black, then text box

Abdo, 7
From Khaldiyeh, Homs








See two other children, girl in purple, boy in checked shirt








































To black

Text box: Fatima, 9 and Yahya, 11 from Khaldiyeh, Homs












Close up mobile phone



























































































Close up of girl’s face















Fade to black

12:45

13:07  Thank god we are free now, they don’t dare come here.

A plane, a plane. The plane has taken a group photo of us. It has flown over us three times.

For god’s sake, let’s disperse.

13:28

13:32 sound of bomb explosions

god is great, god please protect us, oh god, oh god

13:36

please get the driver so we can leave this place

where are the neighbours? Where’s imad?

I’m outside.

I saw his blood, did it hit the house?

Oh god oh god

14:09 explosion sound: god is great oh god oh god

its far away its far from here. Its far away.

Who’s going over there?

Where are the children? Where are they? Have you seen them?

14:35 sound of bomb god is great, come inside.

Where’s your bag? Over there. Keep it with you. Try to separate a bit. Separate into two or three rooms. Go to the rooms.

Where’s asma’s children. Maram took them and left.

15:02 sound of bomb god is great, oh god

I’ll keep my papers and mobiles on me.

And your ID.

15:19

Sound of chopping

15:21

15:22: Girl: when the situation got worse and the shelling got closer we decided we had to make shelters, not for us but for the children.

15:40  When the shelling starts we don’t hear the explosions as much so we feel safer.

But when the shelling is heavy we feel only god can protect us

16:02

 
With farmers in Homs countryside









Fade to black






Farmers cowering inside their house





































Fade to black



Man digging a tunnel




Kids walking into underground tunnel

Girls sitting inside


Kids inside underground bunker

Fades to black
(IV): What did you used to do when you heard the shelling?

16:03 I’d laugh, I’m not scared.

(IV): Your not scared?

No

(IV): You don’t fear the security forces?

No, I’m not scared

16:23



16:27 (IV): Tell me what happened to your Dad?

He was shot by a sniper

He was standing by the door

16:40 (IV): The door of your house?

Yes

Big girl: The checkpoint shot him, the one by the school, from the rooftop of the school.

16:50





16:55 (IV): what happened after he had been shot?

We had to wait two hours before we could drag him inside, because the tank kept shelling for two hours.

(IV): And you managed to pull him inside?

Yes

(IV): Didn’t you take him to the hospital?

We did and he lived for two hours before he died.

(IV): Did you go with him to the hospital?

We all did.

17:31 (IV): What did he say to you?

He wasn’t talking, he lay on his back.

(IV): What happened after he died?

We buried him.

(IV): Did you go with them?

They didn’t allow us to.

(IV): Did you visit him?

Not once.

(IV): Where is he now?

Heaven.

We only see him in our dreams now.

18:10 Malak: Sometimes I get scared.

What do you do when you get scared?

I hide behind my mum.

18:27



Little girl in pink top










To black

Text box: Malak, 5
Karm Zeitoun, Homs

Back to Malak






See three kids in row




Fade to black
Text box: Hussam, 10, Huzeifa 11, Bayan, 12, from Karm Zeitoun, Homs

















































Fade to black


18:28 (IV): were you together at home when your mother died?

18:30


Our neighbour Maysa asked her, why are you scared. People are dying, and you don’t want to die?

So my mum went to buy bread and was coming back. And the sniper shot her.

They were hiding in the sewers.

Father: Who were in the sewers?

Allawites

Father: What were they doing?

They were shooting whoever went out.

19:05



19:10 Father voice: When I carried her, the blood from her back …

when I first held her, the blood from her back …

I put my hand on her shoulder like this .. I extended my leg like this and lay her down and her blood soaked my leg.

19:33 (IV): have you been to visit your mother after they buried her?

Did you visit mum after she died

No I haven’t

(IV): You haven’t visited her

We don’t know yet where she’s buried

They buried her in Deir Balbe, but I don’t know where

(IV): Do you know Deir Balbe

You don’t know the village

Yes Deir Yafour and Deir Balbe

20:17 Mohammed, did you see the hula hoop going round and round

I hula hooped here in the living room

(IV): What is it?

A ring

(IV): A ring?

(IV): You don’t do it outside?

I do it here. I hula hoop here.

20:44
(IV): How do you do it, show me. Where did you get it? It’s so nice, show me how you play with it?

It fell

Try it again

21:12 Brother: When the regime is toppled Bashar will be doomed.

Khaldiyeh: When the mule dies, if he dies

(IV): What will you do when you get home?

I’ll play with the other children. Do you remember after it snowed, we took off our slippers and ran. We’d race in the rain and then it snowed up to here.

21:44





Little girl with messy hair

















Fade to black
Text box: Turkiyeh, 8,From Baba Amr, Homs














































Khaldiyeh fetches her hula hoop



Khaldieyh spins the hulla hoop














To black
21:45 (IV): Tell me what was your street like before the shelling

it was excellent, then they started pounding it, we were sitting outside, but suddenly army vehicles arrived.

We left our home to go to our uncle’s house which is next to ours. They started shooting at us

Other boy: as we were leaving.

22:06




22:09 Isn’t it unfair? Al the children are being killed because of that son of a dog.

(IV): Did you go to your uncle’s house?

Yes, we went to our uncle’s place when the rocket hit our house, first it wasn’t destroyed but then another hit and destroyed it.

Then we had to sleep outside.

22:39: (IV): the rocket hit your uncle’s house

no our house.

(IV): Have you been able t go back since?

No

It was totally destroyed.

22:53 we also have a five year old boy in our neighbourhood who they killed.

They slaughtered him.

(IV): They didn’t shoot him.

No they didn’t shoot him he was slaughtered with a knife.

(IV): Was he your neighbour?

Yes.

(IV): Where was his family?

They were all at home they went in and took him out. And slaughtered him in front of his family.

23:23 sometimes people die … and are torn into a hundred pieces when a rocket hits them.

One of our neighbours we only found her hair, flesh and blood all over the walls.

She was with her two sons. She was in the kitchen when a rocket hit the living room. Then a rocket hit the kitchen while she was doing the dishes.

All the people ran out. Nothing was left of her. We saw the photos.

(IV): You saw her?

Tell me, where is the world? We’re sitting here like this, so many families. Where’s the world?


Fade up to three boys sitting in a row











Fade to black
Text box: Abdullah, 10 and Faysal, 11, from Qseir

24:02

Mum: the kids are saying that the army is down there.

Where?

By the roundabout where the arrests occurred.

24:24



24:27 (IV): have you seen the army?

Yes

(IV): When you saw them what were they doing?

Searching.

(IV): How were they searching?

They do into a house top see of there are any weapons

(IV): Did they come to your house?

Yes

24:51 one of them called me over and asked me my name.

I said Ahmed.

He asked, what grade? I said, third

Then he said, repeat after me: The people want ..

I said, the people want

He asked, what’s the rest.

I said, Bahsar al-Assad. Of course

25:17


Computer game, shooting tanks, boy concentrating








Black. Text box: Ahmed, 8, From Khaldiyeh, Homs


































To black