Trapped Syrian civilians await evacuation in besieged Homs

Share:

SYRIA-CONFLICT-HOMS

Scores of trapped civilians awaited evacuation Friday from besieged rebel-held areas of Syria’s third city Homs as Damascus finally confirmed it will join new peace talks next week.

The evacuation is part of a surprise deal brokered by the United Nations between the two sides on Thursday after months of negotiations that will also see desperately needed aid delivered to the rebel enclave during a “humanitarian pause” in fighting.

But the first consignment of food and medicines will not reach the hundreds of civilians who have been under army blockade for more than 600 days before Saturday, Homs governor Talal Barazi told AFP.

The relief supplies had been held up in a UN warehouse in a government-held area of Homs just kilometres away from the rebel-held Old City while the negotiations for relief access dragged on.

At least 1200 children, women and elderly people are among some 2500 civilians who have been trapped under siege, surviving on little but olives, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.

Mr Barazi told AFP that a joint team from the provincial government, the United Nations and the Red Crescent was already in the Old City to oversee the evacuation but that it was running late because of logistical hitches.

A Syrian man looks for herbs to eat with his family in the heavily damaged neighbourhood of Juret al-Shiyah, which is allegedly exposed to the fire of government forces' snipers, in the central Syrian city of Homs on February 1, 2014. At UN-brokered peace talks between the Syrian government and the opposition in Geneva last week, the only tangible pledge to emerge concerned aid for civilians in rebel-held parts of the central city of Homs, besieged by the military since June 2012.  AFP PHOTO / STR
A Syrian man looks for herbs to eat with his family in the heavily damaged neighbourhood of Juret al-Shiyah, which is allegedly exposed to the fire of government forces’ snipers, in the central Syrian city of Homs on February 1, 2014. At UN-brokered peace talks between the Syrian government and the opposition in Geneva last week, the only tangible pledge to emerge concerned aid for civilians in rebel-held parts of the central city of Homs, besieged by the military since June 2012. AFP PHOTO / STR
An AFP correspondent saw two buses, an ambulance and two Red Crescent vehicles enter the enclave as state television said the relief operation was under way.

“According to our advice from the UN, the number of people expected to leave today (Friday) is nearly 200,” Mr Barazi said.

“Tomorrow (Saturday), the first consignment of food and other relief supplies will reach those in need in the Old City.”

The rebel-held Old City and adjacent neighbourhoods have come under near-daily shelling since the army imposed a blockade in June 2012 after recapturing most of Homs in a counter-offensive launched that February.

In the first year of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule that erupted in March 2011, activists had dubbed Homs the capital of the revolution.

But the bloody 2012 assault by the army confined the rebels to a small enclave in the city centre, which was further reduced in a new advance last summer after pro-government forces recaptured the town of Qusayr cutting off the rebels’ supply route to neighbouring Lebanon.

The enclave’s plight was on the agenda of long-awaited peace talks, between the government and the opposition in Switzerland last month, but the talks broke up without a hoped for agreement on access for relief supplies.

It was left to UN representatives in Damascus to broker the deal between the two sides.

The Syrian government had long insisted that they would allow civilians to leave but would not allow aid to be taken in.

Opposition activists in Homs told AFP that the rebels had agreed to observe a four-day ceasefire while the relief operation was under way.

The Syrian government had left open whether it would even attend a second round of peace talks due to open on Monday, but deputy foreign minister Faisal Muqdad finally confirmed on Friday that Damascus would take part.

“It has been decided that the delegation of the Syrian republic will take part in the second round of negotiations in Geneva,” state news agency SANA quoted Muqdad as saying.

“The Syrian delegation wishes to pursue the efforts it deployed during the first round in Geneva, and insists that the discussions focus on all clauses in the Geneva I communique, beginning with the first clause,” he said.

In the first round of talks last month, the two sides failed to agree on a single point despite persistent pressure from UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, and co-sponsors Russia and the United States.

On Tuesday, Syrian National Coalition chief Ahmad Jarba met Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of Russia, a key Damascus ally, in Moscow.

As they met, Russia’s deputy foreign minister indicated that Moscow expected President Bashar al-Assad to state firmly his delegation’s intention to join the new talks.

Damascus calls rebels “terrorists”, and insists that the priority in the Geneva talks must be to focus on “terrorism”.

For the opposition, the central point of the negotiations is the transition foreseen in the Geneva I communique.

It was adopted by world powers in 2012 but is ambiguous, in that it calls for an interim government but is unclear on Assad’s future, which Damascus insists is not up for discussion.

Top Photo: Under siege … An image of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus hangs on the partially destroyed wall of a house belonging to a Christian family in a neighbourhood besieged by government forces in the central Syrian city of Homs.

News.com .AU

Share:

Comments

12 responses to “Trapped Syrian civilians await evacuation in besieged Homs”

  1. nagy_michael2 Avatar
    nagy_michael2

    what does Assad care if these people are trapped or not or die of hunger.. that’s not his sect and these are terrorists according to him..Anything to justify the mass murder actions..

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      “Top Photo: Under siege” – the place people can ‘return to’ once those ‘terrorists’ are ‘driven out’.

      1. nagy_michael2 Avatar
        nagy_michael2

        it would be nice for the good Syrian people to kick out Extremists and Assad alltogether. then they will have better peace among them and with Lebanon too. If hezbollah didn’t follow Iran rules then would have their way in Syria now in peaceful means and get syrian to fight alongside against Israel. But no they want to become the butchers of Iran and Assad.. so they’re getting a taste of their own medicine.

      2. nagy_michael2 Avatar
        nagy_michael2

        it would be nice for the good Syrian people to kick out Extremists and Assad alltogether. then they will have better peace among them and with Lebanon too. If hezbollah didn’t follow Iran rules then would have their way in Syria now in peaceful means and get syrian to fight alongside against Israel. But no they want to become the butchers of Iran and Assad.. so they’re getting a taste of their own medicine.

      3. man-o-war Avatar

        Fresh herbs!

      4. man-o-war Avatar

        Fresh herbs!

    2. johngilbert Avatar
      johngilbert

      True. Assad has a current policy of trying to force all of those opposed to him with the scorched earth destruction policy of most of Syria except the Alawi west coastal areas which have been heavily fortified and guarded as well as parts of Damascus. He doesn’t care if everyone else dies or the rest of the country is destroyed as long as he and his Alawis survive to kill another day.

      1. nagy_michael2 Avatar
        nagy_michael2

        Good luck with that and that’s what Assad wants. to create more fighting so he can have his ways by playing Chemical Ali on his own people (enemies),,,

      2. man-o-war Avatar

        Of course he’s going to protect his supporters, only makes sense. The way some rebels speak of revenge against all Alwaites makes it more of a logical thing to do, wish he would have used more logic from the beginning. We might not have gotten to this point.

        Arabs do care! They just “pledged” more money at another conference. Should put the Syrians mind at ease. At the very least Qatar and Saudi could muster up a pretty decent Air Force attack, but they’re scared. They can only muster the courage to beat their wives and daughters. No proof that they do that, but also no proof that they don’t. Just mostly talking out my arse out of boredom.

        Saudi:
        “Commander of the Air Force: Lt. General Mohammed bin Abdullah al-Ayish
        Air Force Personnel Strength: 20,000
        Inventory Summary:

        Combat: approx. 330 (total), 261 (in service)
        Transport: 57 (total), 57 (in service)
        Helicopters: 234 (total), 234 (in service)”

        “In March 2011, Qatar announced to participate with its Air Force in the enforcement of the Libyan no-fly zone.[4]” – Wikipedia

        Why don’t they try and set up a no-fly zone in Syria? At least it could deter the barrels from dropping, maybe they could coordinate with Israel. I imagine they would have an interest in helping.

      3. Hind Abyad Avatar
        Hind Abyad

        Guest, stop smoking nargile blowing smoke in the wind .. wishhfull tinking.
        “except the Allawi coastal area swich have been heavely fortified and guarded.?”
        So much fortified that HRW made a report on the worst massacre of Syria civilians
        in their homes, “compared to Sabra Shatila” in its savagery and barbarisme.
        HRW report- “we can still see the blood on the walls”.

    3. True. Assad has a current policy of trying to force all of those opposed to him with the scorched earth destruction of most of Syria except the Alawi west coastal areas which have been heavily fortified and guarded as well as parts of Damascus. He doesn’t care if everyone else dies or the rest of the country is destroyed as long as he and his Alawis survive live to kill and destroy another day. If Arabs really cared about this, they would put together a force of Egyptian, Jordanian and Saudi troops just like they did in 1948 against Israel. Assad is already getting troops from Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah.

      1. nagy_michael2 Avatar
        nagy_michael2

        Good luck with that and that’s what Assad wants. to create more fighting so he can have his ways by playing Chemical Ali on his own people (enemies),,,

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *