SYRIA - Civilians evacuate from Jisreen in Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, on their way to areas under government control. Photo @AFPphoto #AFP: image via AFP Photo @AFPphoto, 17 March 2018
SYRIA - A man carries a child, after being evacuated from rebel-held areas in the Eastern Ghouta, at a school in the regime-controlled Hosh Nasri, on the outskirts of Damascus ahead of being relocated to other areas. Photo Louai Beshara #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 17 March 2018
#Douma #Eastern_Ghouta: image via mouneb taim @mouneb_abo_taim, 18 March 2018
#Douma #Eastern_ Enfance absente dans un monde hypocrite ...... #saveGhouta #GhoutaOrientale: image via mouneb taim @mouneb_abo_taim, 17 March 2018
A wounded #Syrian man waits to receive treatment at a make shift hospital following government bombardment in #KafrBatna in the rebel-held enclave of #EasternGhouta on March 13, 2018. #AFP / Ammar Suleiman: image via Ammar Sulaiman @ammarsulaiman91, 14 March 2018
A wounded Syrian man receives treatment at a make shift hospital following government bombardment in Kafr Batna in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta on March 13, 2018. #SaveGhouta Photo @AmmarSulaiman91: image via Eliane Alhussein @Eliane Alhussein, 13 March 2018
This image is very painful... I have seen it in my sleep, I see it everywhere. This is how the people of Ghouta are killed: image via Yousef Albostany @YousefAlbostany, 17 March 2018
This is the case of some of the displaced in #EasternGhouta, they have lost their home, and they find only the pavements for refuge after the Assad regime and ally Russia destroy almost all infrastructure. Living on the streets, the children’s eyes show the paralyzing fear.: image via Ahmad @Ahmad36120, 17 March 2018
The old woman was still crying after she lost the most precious possession she had, her only son: image via mouneb taim @mouneb_abo_taim, 14 March 2018
This is the reality of the #safe" crossings for civilians exiting from East Ghouta, as "Tiger" Suhail al-Hasan's forces have detained civilians who are being deported to an unknown destination: image via Yousef Albostany @YousefAlbostany, 17 March 2018
SYRIA - Civilians evacuate from Jisreen in Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, on their way to areas under government control. Photo @AFPphoto #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 17 March 2018
SYRIA - Civilians evacuate from Jisreen in Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, on their way to areas under government control. Photo @AFPphoto #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 17 March 2018
Civilians evacuate from the town of Jisreen in Eastern Ghouta.: photo by Stringer / AFP, 17 March 2018
Pleas for safe passage for civilians trapped in eastern Ghouta: Doctors and civil leaders among signatories to open letter to the UN, demanding action to stop massacre by Syrian forces: Kareem Shaheen in Istanbul for The Guardian, 17 March 2018
Doctors and civilians in the besieged enclave of eastern Ghouta have published open letters asking for their safe passage under the supervision of international guarantors, as forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad continue a military offensive that has lasted nearly a month and killed more than 1,500 civilians.
Their messages came as Assad’s forces, backed by Russian airstrikes, took control of two more towns in the region bordering the capital Damascus, which housed 300,000 civilians. A mass exodus of tens of thousands of men, women and children continues.
“Doctors in East Ghouta ask for immediate and unconditional evacuation for them, their families, and all the civilians,” wrote the signatories, who include civil leaders.
“People are trapped in the middle between the advancement and bombardment of the forces of the regime and its allies, and the armed groups on ground. In some areas, the armed groups are preventing civilians and medical teams from leaving Ghouta, in another, the brutal bombardment and shelling of the regime and its allies prevent civilians from leaving underground rooms, seeking safety.”
In another open letter, civilian activists and residents of eastern Ghouta also called for safe passage with guarantees, including freedom of movement to other parts of Syria, a ceasefire and the lifting of the ongoing siege. They also asked for civilians to be part of the negotiations for a possible deal to end the violence.
Medics and activists are at risk of possible retribution, and hospitals in opposition-controlled areas have been systematically targeted during the war.
The Assad regime and its allies last month launched a major military offensive into eastern Ghouta, once the breadbasket of the capital, to crush the last opposition stronghold near Damascus. Local relief groups estimate that more than 1,500 civilians have been killed, with more casualties likely still buried under the rubble of homes.On Saturday government forces captured two additional towns in eastern Ghouta, Saqba and Kafr Batna. Eastern Ghouta is now divided into three blockaded patches of territory that are rapidly shrinking under the government’s onslaught. The three main rebel groups issued a joint statement declaring their readiness to negotiate directly with Moscow, Assad’s main backer, to implement a ceasefire. But the violence has continued in the meantime, with 98 people killed on Friday, according to local civilian authorities.
The bombardment is taking place despite a UN security council resolution passed three weeks ago, supported by Russia, that called for an immediate month-long ceasefire and the delivery of humanitarian aid.
“Ghouta is being annihilated,” said one rescue worker. “People can’t find food, or a place to sleep. We have children and women still under [the rubble of] their homes that we cannot reach. The dead are in the streets.”
He added: “Ghouta will be annihilated if we don’t do something, there is no more time. The wounded we have are in the thousands, and many will be eventually among the dead.”
Regime troops now control more than 80% of eastern Ghouta, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group.
Civilians continued to stream out of rebel-controlled territory on Saturday, seeking any shelter from the bombardment by fleeing to areas under government control. After an initial exodus of some 12,000 civilians, mostly children, women and the elderly on Thursday, the observatory said the number had reached 50,000. Most are being housed in camps near Damascus, according to the UN.
But activists, doctors and military-age men fear that leaving the area without guarantees will subject them to possible retribution for their activities in opposition-controlled areas or forced recruitment into the military.
“We urge the United Nations and members of the security council, and those with the ability to influence on the ground, to ensure that the residents of Eastern Ghouta are provided with safe corridors within Eastern Ghouta and between Eastern Ghouta and the rest of the Syrian territories,” said the Violations Documentation Center, a Syrian human rights group, in a statement. “We urge that there be sufficient international pressure to compel the Syrian government and its allies to lift the siege on the Eastern Ghouta and open humanitarian crossings and end the systematic starvation exercised by the Syrian government on civilians.”
Top UN officials and western countries have repeatedly condemned the ongoing violence in Ghouta, which in 2013 was attacked with sarin gas in the worst chemical atrocity of the war, killing more than 1,200 people. Secretary general António Guterres called it “hell on earth” and the high commissioner for human rights described the ongoing campaign as a “monstrous annihilation”.
“My visit to Syria this week reinforces my view that wars across the region have reached a frightening new normal,” Peter Maurer, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said. “Tit-for-tat battles of retribution increase in intensity with no regard for their devastating impact on civilians.
“The level of suffering in Eastern Ghouta is the latest example, joining Afrin and Mosul, Sana’a and Taiz,” he added. “Too often destruction seems to be the goal as the basic standards of humanity are ignored.”
Letter to the UN
We, the Civil society organisations and members, write this letter to express our deep concerns of this outrageous international failure to safe civilians in East Ghouta. We write this letter to pass a message we received from doctors in East Ghouta to the world leaders, UN, civil societies, and NGOs to take an immediate action to stop the massacres in East Ghouta, and set a process for immediate unconditional civilian evacuation.Doctors in East Ghouta, ask for immediate and unconditional evacuation for them, their families, and all the civilians. People are trapped in the middle between the advancement and bombardment of the forces of the regime and its allies, and the armed groups on ground. In some areas, the armed groups are preventing civilians and medical teams from leaving Ghouta, in another, the brutal bombardment and shelling of the regime and its allies prevent civilians from leaving underground rooms, seeking safety. Even when humanitarian corridors are available, physicians, and civilians themselves request international guarantors so the scenario of Ghouta will not copycat of Aleppo.
What is happening in East Ghouta now, indicates hollowness, inefficacy, and moral bankruptcy of the international community. It also shows that the international society supports the Syrian government’s harrowing push for an outright victory. We strongly condemn, the international community, for its complicity in the massacres of East Ghouta. We condemn the International parties’ inability to back up 30-day ceasefire across East Ghouta and Syria to allow for emergency humanitarian deliveries and medical evacuations for critically wounded, or chronically ill patients, or even to evacuate the casualties of the current attacks on East Ghouta.
World leaders, UN agencies, civil societies, INGOs, and SNGOs, must act today, and have a plan to protect hundreds of thousands of civilians that remain trapped within East Ghouta awaiting their fate including medical teams, and humanitarian workers.
As civil society members, we call for:
Serious immediate negotiations that can lead to unconditional evacuation of all civilians to where they feel safe and protected.
Civilians, especially physicians and paramedics, should be able to choose the place and the city they want to go to, as they have remained to save civilian lives, and not to be forced to go to Idlb.
We insist on the presence of independent observers such as the UN or other external actors to be present, and for civilian evacuations not be allowed to mask political objectives such as population swaps.
Start a mechanism for monitoring this process so what happened in East Aleppo will not happen in East Ghouta.
The signatories, who include doctors and members of civil society in Ghouta, have not been disclosed to protect their identities
Putin
has just cast his vote in the #RussianElections2018 for the next term's
President of the Russian Federation #russianelections: image via Getty Images News @GettyImagesNews, 18 March 2018
#SaveGhouta #7WordsForSyria #7years #EasternGhouta: image via Benedict @benedict36120, 17 March 2018
Today over than 50 civilians have been killed in Zamalka, Ein Tarma, and Hazza. In addition to use of such internationally prohibited weapons as Chlorine, Cluster bombs, Napalm, and Phosphorus. March 17 Via @Dmcpress_en: image via Benedict @benedict36120, 17 March 2018
Destruction of families houses in #alSanadivana neighborhood, #Douma city aftermath several airstrikes.. #7years #EasternGhouta #Syria March 17: image via Benedict @benedict36120, 17 March 2018
Here is a street in the city of #Douma, it was a paradise before the war. Russian warplanes have completely destroyed this street, only scattered ruins remain, and our memories. It became an uninhabited area. Douma, this morning , March 17: image via Ahmad @Ahmad36120, 17 March 2018
Here is a street in the city of #Douma, it was a paradise before the war. Russian warplanes have completely destroyed this street, only scattered ruins remain, and our memories. It became an uninhabited area. Douma, this morning , March 17: image via Ahmad @Ahmad36120, 17 March 2018
Here is a street in the city of #Douma, it was a paradise before the war. Russian warplanes have completely destroyed this street, only scattered ruins remain, and our memories. It became an uninhabited area. Douma, this morning , March 17: image via Ahmad @Ahmad36120, 17 March 2018
#SaveGhouta #7WordsForSyria #7years #EasternGhouta: image via Benedict @benedict36120, 17 March 2018
Joseph Ceravolo: Crazy Death
This morning I know there's a dawn
out there somewhere.
Crazy death drives all the motors
of the world. Radio defiance
flares up in the presence of
the holy vagabonds, and the essence
is erased from my spit.
What number, what song
is lodged like a tic in my ear?
What fever of an unrecorded mist
has turned up inside?
Joseph Ceravolo (1934-1988): Crazy Death, from Millenium Dust (1982)
Today over than 50 civilians have been killed in Zamalka, Ein Tarma, and Hazza. In addition to use of such internationally prohibited weapons as Chlorine, Cluster bombs, Napalm, and Phosphorus. March 17 Via @Dmcpress_en: image via Benedict @benedict36120, 17 March 2018
Destruction of families houses in #alSanadivana neighborhood, #Douma city aftermath several airstrikes.. #7years #EasternGhouta #Syria March 17: image via Benedict @benedict36120, 17 March 2018
Here is a street in the city of #Douma, it was a paradise before the war. Russian warplanes have completely destroyed this street, only scattered ruins remain, and our memories. It became an uninhabited area. Douma, this morning , March 17: image via Ahmad @Ahmad36120, 17 March 2018
Here is a street in the city of #Douma, it was a paradise before the war. Russian warplanes have completely destroyed this street, only scattered ruins remain, and our memories. It became an uninhabited area. Douma, this morning , March 17: image via Ahmad @Ahmad36120, 17 March 2018
Here is a street in the city of #Douma, it was a paradise before the war. Russian warplanes have completely destroyed this street, only scattered ruins remain, and our memories. It became an uninhabited area. Douma, this morning , March 17: image via Ahmad @Ahmad36120, 17 March 2018
Of Ghouta after the World War which has taken place in it #EasternGhouta ©Getty_images @mouneb_abo_taim: image via mouneb taim @mouneb_abo_taim, 14 March 2018
The cavalry that entered the eastern lobby after they destroyed the homes of civilians and children @mouneb_abo_taim: image via mouneb taim @mouneb_abo_taim, 13 March 2018
She is still hungry waiting for a house to live in after her house was destroyed ©Getty_images @mouneb_abo_taim: image via mouneb taim @mouneb_abo_taim, 12 March 2018
Thousands of people in #EasternGhouta seek safety in basements due to bombing...: image via mouneb taim @mouneb_abo_taim, 12 March 2018
A wounded Syrian man receives treatment at a make shift hospital following government bombardment in Kafr Batna in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta on March 13, 2018. #SaveGhouta Photo @AmmarSulaiman91: image via Eliane Alhussein @Eliane Alhussein, 13 March 2018
A wounded Syrian man receives treatment at a make shift hospital following government bombardment in Kafr Batna in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta on March 13, 2018. #SaveGhouta Photo @AmmarSulaiman91: image via Eliane Alhussein @Eliane Alhussein, 13 March 2018
Zamalka in #EasternGhouta on March 12, 2018 @Afpphoto @AFP_Beirut Syrian forces press Ghouta advance despite calls to end 'bloodbath': image via Roba El Husseini @Roba_H, 12 March 2018
#EasternGhouta: image via Ammar Sulaiman @ammarsulaiman91, 18 March 2018
#Syria Syria war has killed more than 350,000 in 7 years: monitor #AFP Photo Ammar Suleiman: image via AFP Photo @AFPphoto, 12 March 2018
#Eastern_Ghouta #continuation View of inflaming fires in residential neighborhoods in the town of #Hazeh by several air strikes
Photo: Abo Mohammed Bilal #Damascus_Media_Centre: image via Damascus Media Center #DMCpress_en, 14 March 2018
#Eastern_Ghouta Smoke columns arise as a result of targeting the residential neighborhoods by the warplanes missiles in the town of #Hazeh Photo: Abo Mohammed Bilal #Damascus_Media_Centre: image via Damascus Media Center #DMCpress_en, 14 March 2018
#Eastern_Ghouta Smoke columns arise as a result of targeting the residential neighborhoods by the warplanes missiles in the town of #Hazeh Photo: Abo Mohammed Bilal #Damascus_Media_Centre: image via Damascus Media Center #DMCpress_en, 14 March 2018
#Eastern_Ghouta Smoke columns arise as a result of targeting the residential neighborhoods by the warplanes missiles in the town of #Hazeh Photo: Abo Mohammed Bilal #Damascus_Media_Centre: image via Damascus Media Center #DMCpress_en, 14 March 2018
#Eastern_Ghouta View of the destruction caused by targeting the residential neighborhoods in the city of #Erbin by air strikes from the warplanesPhoto: Erbin Office #Damascus_Media_Centre: image via Damascus Media Center #DMCpress_en, 14 March 2018
#Eastern_Ghouta View of the destruction caused by targeting the residential neighborhoods in the city of #Erbin by air strikes from the warplanesPhoto: Erbin Office #Damascus_Media_Centre: image via Damascus Media Center #DMCpress_en, 14 March 2018
#Eastern_Ghouta View of the destruction caused by targeting the residential neighborhoods in the city of #Erbin by air strikes from the warplanesPhoto: Erbin Office #Damascus_Media_Centre: image via Damascus Media Center #DMCpress_en, 14 March 2018
#Eastern_Ghouta View of the destruction caused by targeting the residential neighborhoods in the city of #Erbin by air strikes from the warplanesPhoto: Erbin Office #Damascus_Media_Centre: image via Damascus Media Center #DMCpress_en, 14 March 2018
#Eastern_Ghouta Destruction caused by bombing with the warplanes missiles in the city of #Saqba Photo: Osama Almasry #Damascus_Media_Centre: image via Damascus Media Center #DMCpress_en, 14 March 2018
#Eastern_Ghouta Destruction caused by bombing with the warplanes missiles in the city of #Saqba Photo: Osama Almasry #Damascus_Media_Centre: image via Damascus Media Center #DMCpress_en, 14 March 2018
#Eastern_Ghouta Destruction caused by bombing with the warplanes missiles in the city of #Saqba Photo: Osama Almasry #Damascus_Media_Centre: image via Damascus Media Center #DMCpress_en, 14 March 2018
#Eastern_Ghouta Destruction caused by bombing with the warplanes missiles in the city of #Saqba Photo: Osama Almasry #Damascus_Media_Centre: image via Damascus Media Center #DMCpress_en, 14 March 2018
#Eastern_Ghouta #Documentation
2 children martyred "Obada Yasin" and his brother "Mohammed Yasin" as a
result of targeting the residential neighborhoods in the town of #Hamouria by the warplanes missiles Photo: Amer Abo Mohammed #Damascus_Media_Centre: image via Damascus Media Center #DMCpress_en, 14 March 2018
#EasternGhouta: image via Ammar Sulaiman @ammarsulaiman91, 18 March 2018
A police officer arrests a bride-to-be for driving while impaired to her wedding, after responding to a three-car collision in Marana, Arizona: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 17 March 2018
A girl plays with a cardboard box on a street near the wharf of Cite Soleil, Port-au-Prince. Photo hectorretamal #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 17 March 2018
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