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EDUCATION UNDER ATTACK 2014
schools were used as barracks or bases in operations,
particularly in states most affected by the
Maoist insurgency. 70 Police and paramilitary forces
occupied school buildings, either temporarily or for
extended periods ranging from six months to three
years during their counter-insurgency operations.
Some were occupied for over a decade. 71 In Thailand,
security forces occupied at least 79 schools in 2010 72
and continued to use schools as barracks and bases
for at least the next year, Human Rights Watch
reported. 73
Colombia and the Philippines specifically prohibit the
military use of schools in military policy, 74 and
national legislation bans the practice unequivocally
in the Philippines. 75 Yet in Colombia, the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) recorded 75 cases
of occupation of school facilities by all armed actors
during 2009-2012; 76 and in the Philippines, the
military was responsible for most of the 56 incidents
of military use of schools in 2010-2012 recorded by
the UN. They used some schools as barracks or bases
for over a year; 77 used functioning schools as
weapons and ammunition stores in 2010; 78 and, in
2011, used at least 14 schools during the course of
counter-insurgency operations. 79
In many countries, the military use of schools led to
them being attacked or was employed as a justification
by perpetrators of attacks. In Somalia, for
instance, Al-Shabaab fighters used a school in
Mogadishu as a firing position while the students
were still in the classrooms, drawing return fire from
pro-government forces. Five rockets hit the school
compound, with one striking and killing eight people
just as the students were leaving the school. 80
In some places, such as India, rebels claimed they
were attacking schools because they were or had
been occupied by security forces even though this
was not always the case. 81 When using schools,
police often fortified the buildings, set up sentry
boxes and lookout shelters and dug trenches or
created barriers from rings of barbed wire and
sandbags, leaving schools resembling military installations
rather than neutral places of learning. This
may have increased the risk that they might be viewed
as military targets even after the troops had left. 82
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