Eva
Bartlett breaks down the dizzying array of information surrounding
the mounting humanitarian crisis in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta. With
accusations abound, parsing the reality on the ground is becoming
more challenging by the day.
by
Eva Bartlett
Part
5 - Targeting of Afrin civilians met with relative silence
While
UNICEF on January 26 noted having received “alarming reports”
regarding children’s deaths in Afrin, it hasn’t thus far
expressed outrage at the Turkish murder of civilians in the
northwestern Syrian town. On February 20, SANA reported: “Entering
its 32nd day, the Turkish aggression continues to claim more civilian
casualties and causing material damage to properties. Medical sources
at Afrin Hospital told SANA that so far, 175 civilians were killed
and more than 450 civilians, most of them children and women, were
injured due to the continued assault on civilians’ houses and
infrastructure.”
Contrast
the nonspecific and tame title of the January 26 UNICEF statement,
“UNICEF statement on the escalating violence in Syria,” to the
emotive language of February 20, riding on the coattails of corporate
media hysteria around Ghouta: “The war on children in Syria:
Reports of mass casualties among children in Eastern Ghouta and
Damascus; … No words will do justice to the children killed; … We
no longer have the words to describe children’s suffering and our
outrage; … barbaric acts …”
The UN
has yet to issue an updated statement of concern regarding the latest
Turkish bombings of Afrin.
In UN
humanitarian chief Lowcock’s February 22 address, he spoke of “the
killing of civilians and the destruction of entire cities and
neighborhoods.”
However,
he didn’t mean the killing of hundreds (a lower estimate) or even
thousands of Syrian civilians by the U.S.-led coalition, illegal in
Syria — the latest being 12 civilians, “mostly women and
children,” killed in residential neighborhoods in Hajin town in
Deir Ezzor eastern countryside on February 21.
One day
prior, Syrian media reported the deaths of “at least 16
civilians, including nine women,” in al-Bahra village, Deir
Ezzor countryside, noting, “the death toll is likely to rise as
a number of civilians were injured and some of them are in critical
condition as a result of airstrikes…”
A UN
press release on Lowcock’s statement cited him as saying: “You
can still save lives in eastern Ghouta – and elsewhere in Syria. I
urge you to do so.”
But this
is precisely what Syrian officials have been attempting to do, with
offers of amnesty, safe transport of out of Ghouta, and the provision
of medical and food aid.
Recently,
independent researcher Hadi Nasrallah tweeted (in a long thread on
Ghouta): “Even After 7 years of failed negotiations with
terrorists for the sake of civilians held in Eastern Ghouta, the
Syrian government dropped flyers and maps on the terrorist-held city
to give details for civilians on how to flee areas with high tensions
and guaranteed them safety”
Al
Masdar News reported: “…eight projectiles struck the
Al-Wafideen camp site where the Syrian Army has set up an evacuation
point for civilians attempting to escape militant-held areas of East
Ghouta.”
As with
Aleppo, a humanitarian corridor has been established to enable
eastern Ghouta residents to leave the district. However, given that
terrorists repeatedly shelled humanitarian corridors in Aleppo
(including a corridor road I stood on in November 2016), holding
civilians hostage, it is quite likely terrorists in eastern Ghouta
will do the same.
Yet, in
the end, the combination of humanitarian corridors and Syria’s
offer of amnesty and reconciliation enabled the exit of terrorists
and return of life in Aleppo. As of August 2017, over half a million
displaced Syrians returned home, the vast majority
internally-displaced.
In
Madaya, al-Waer, Homs, and many other areas of Syria, the same deals
as in Aleppo enabled the return of stability and life.
In
addition to opening the humanitarian corridors, the Syrian army has
dropped leaflets over eastern Ghouta informing civilians of
designated safe exits for civilians to leave the district to safety
in Damascus.
These
are the types of actions the UN should be focused on and supporting,
not repeating war propaganda that only confuses and prolongs the
fight for peace.
***
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