In the shift toward internal wars, civilians have increasingly become a principal target. Just 20 percent of those killed in World War I were civilians. In World War II, even with the Holocaust and mass bombing, the figure was 50 percent. Children die not only from bombs and shells aimed at civilians but from starvation and disease. The report shows that peacekeeping forces sent in to deal with local conflicts too often ignore the special vulnerability of children.
Land mines are another frightful menace.
There are 110 million unexploded land mines in place today in 68 countries. Angola has 8,000 children with limbs amputated after land-mine explosions. There are still 10 million mines under Angolan soil. Both governments and rebel armies have increasingly conscripted or kidnapped children to use them as soldiers. Ms. Machel proposed a number of concrete steps.