Siddharth Chatterjee: Perspectives-My work in the United Nations, the Red Cross and the Indian Army

It suddenly feels like Harold Ramis's famous film,  Ground Hog Day . I served with UNICEF in South Sudan from June 2000 to September 2001, bringing humanitarian and life-saving services to a war-torn, drought ridden and impoverished part of Africa which was aptly called  'Operation Life-Line Sudan' . South Sudan was in a secessionist war with the North but there was also a brutal internal war between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), led by John Garang and his Deputy Salva Kiir, (now President of South Sudan), and the Sudan People's Defense Force (SPDF), led by Riak Machar (the former Vice President of South Sudan). The tragedy of that internal war, I witnessed then, appears to have come back to haunt South Sudan, the world's youngest nation. My take on what needs to be done to ensure lasting peace in South Sudan. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/siddharth-chatterjee/south-sudan-unravellingth_b_4507207.html

Nelson Mandela once said, "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children."   11,420 children were killed in Syria between March 2011 and August 2013. Among them, 389 were killed by snipers, 764, executed and 100, tortured. Who is protecting the rights of these children? Surely, our humanity and compassion has to be awakened at the prospect of the such grave violation of children's rights, not just in Syria but in over 22 countries all over the world! Here is a link to my OP-ED.     http://www.forbes.com/sites/ realspin/2013/12/06/obama-and- putin-must-stop-the-appalling- slaughter-of-syrias-children/