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Civilians evacuated from Homs, raising hopes for Syrian peace talks Civilians evacuated from Homs, raising hopes for Syrian peace talks
(about 5 hours later)
BEIRUT — The first civilians were evacuated from a besieged area of the central Syrian city of Homs on Friday, raising hopes for progress at a second round of peace talks next week. BEIRUT — The first civilians were evacuated from a rebel-held area of the Syrian city of Homs on Friday after more than a year and half of struggling to survive under a government blockade, a deal which could bolster confidence ahead of a second round of peace talks.
The evacuations from rebel-held areas of Homs, where residents have been without regular access to food or medicine for the past 18 months, followed a United Nations-brokered deal between opposition forces and the government. Aid workers said they had heard harrowing stories from just over 80 people who were evacuated from the besieged Old City – with some recounting how they had been surviving on as little as a spoonful of wheat a day and others saying they had been forced to eat weeds.
Pro-government television channels showed civilians, largely older people and women, wrapped in blankets and being ushered onto buses at a meeting point outside the besieged areas, in front of crowds of journalists. One woman was taken away in an ambulance. A U.N.-brokered agreement for a three-day cease-fire, to allow civilians out and then aid to come in, came just days ahead of the resumption of peace talks in Geneva, which the Syrian government confirmed Friday that it would attend.
A deal for humanitarian aid to be brought into rebel-held areas of the city, where residents say they have survived on little but olives and what could be scavenged from abandoned houses, was a planned confidence building measure at the beginning of peace talks in Geneva last month. However, an agreement failed to materialize during the talks. The first round, which marked the first time the two sides have sat at the negotiating table during the three-year conflict, failed to deliver tangible results.
The deal reached after the first round of negotiations could provide a boost for a second round, which is due to begin next week. The Syrian government on Friday confirmed that its representatives would attend. Western diplomats and aid workers have given the agreement a muted welcome, while urging the Syrian government to allow unfettered humanitarian access.
Under the humanitarian agreement, women, children under age 15 and the elderly will be allowed to leave the cut-off areas, rebels and Syrian officials said. After the evacuations, they are required to submit a list of names of the remaining civilians in besieged area before aid is allowed in, according to rebels. State television showed civilians, largely elderly people and women, wrapped in blankets and being ushered onto buses. One evacuee was taken away in an ambulance.
However, the State Department and other Western diplomats have urged the Syrian government to go further and allow unfettered access. The 83 people the U.N. said were evacuated to places of their choosing are just a fraction of the 2,500 people it estimates are holed up in Homs’s Old City. Humanitarian workers said they handed the evacuees juice, high-energy biscuits and ready-to-eat meals as they left the city.
“There is no suggestion that the regime has done what is required under international law, which is to allow unconditional humanitarian access,” said one Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity to candidly discuss a sensitive issue. “We are deeply concerned about the population that remains.” Dina Elkassaby, a spokeswoman for the World Food Program, said its staff had reported that many of the evacuees were in “very, very bad shape,” with children showing signs of malnutrition.
Homs’s governor, Talal Barrazi, told Syrian state television that men between the ages of 15 and 55 will not be allowed to leave, as they are most likely to be fighters. “One elderly man told us he’d just been eating a spoonful of bulgur wheat a day, he broke down crying and said his wife had passed away a week earlier,” she said. “He was sure lack of food meant she wasn’t able to fight the illness.”
He said the first evacuation would be made up of about 200 people from the neighborhood of Jouret al-Shayah. It is a fraction of the 2,500 civilians estimated to be cut off in the city. Supplies of food and other essentials to areas of the Old City have been stymied since June 2012, with the opposition accusing the government of using starvation tactics to crush support for rebels. Areas of the Damascus suburbs are under similar strangleholds.
Of the handful who were shown leaving just after midday Friday, most appeared reluctant to talk to the crowd of assembled journalists. The residents are expected to be transported to the rebel-held area of al-Waer. Residents say they have survived on little but olives and what could be scavenged from abandoned houses, and there have been unconfirmed reports of deaths from starvation.
“The civilians were afraid to go to areas controlled by the regime,” said Faysal Shareef, an activist in al-Waer who uses a pseudonym for security reasons. “They will be arrested or killed.” A total of 200,000 Syrian citizens are living under siege, according the U.N., the vast majority cut off by government forces, though rebels have been criticized for using similar tactics in areas of Syria’s north.
Only women, children younger than 15 and adults over 55 were allowed to leave Friday. Syrian state television said hundreds more were expected to be evacuated in coming days.
However, residents said some had decided to stay so as not to split up families and because of fears about what might happen to them if they left. Others are holding out for food aid to be delivered inside the besieged areas, as outlined in the second stage of the deal. The World Food Program said it had 500 food parcels and 500 bags of wheat flour in Homs poised for delivery, which it hopes could start as soon as Saturday. Rebels say that the deal requires that they submit a list of names of those who have chosen to stay in the area before aid is delivered.
“The demands of the civilians were never to leave their homes, nor their lands,” said Waleed al-Fares, an activist in the Old City. He said one group of civilians had come under fire while trying to leave, while the U.N. confirmed that there were “isolated reports of gunfire” during evacuations.
A deal on aid to besieged areas of Homs was a planned confidence-building exercise at the first round of peace talks in Geneva, but an agreement failed to materialize during the talks.
Valerie Amos, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, described Friday’s evacuation as a “small but important step towards compliance with international humanitarian law.”
The Syrian government has come under pressure from its allies Russia and Iran to make humanitarian concessions.
But Damascus was keen to portray the humanitarian deal outside the framework of talks, with pundits and parliamentarians taking to the airwaves to tout the deal as evidence of the government’s ongoing efforts to aid civilians.
However, the United States and its allies have been clear in apportioning blame to the government for the Homs siege.
“There is no suggestion that the regime has done what is required under international law, which is to allow unconditional humanitarian access,” said one Western diplomat who declined to give his name so he could speak candidly on a sensitive subject. “We are deeply concerned about the population that remains.”
Ahmed Ramadan contributed to this report.Ahmed Ramadan contributed to this report.