After more than seven years of war, Syria is suffering the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with 500,000 residents killed, 5.6 million who have fled abroad, another 6 million internally displaced and 13 million in need.
Moreover, some 80 percent of the Syrian population — which may be fewer than 18 million people inside Syria — are living under the poverty line.
The bloody civil war between the dictatorial regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and those seeking to oust him has created an entire generation of children who have grown up to the blasts of bombs and shells and who know nothing but war.
Moreover, while the West is sending billions of dollars to help Syrians, experts say the challenge is getting it to those Syrians most in need.
Residents of the besieged areas and detention centers are deprived of the humanitarian support under Assad’s regime, experts say, calling on the world to take more decisive actions.
“Humanitarian aid is not an ultimate solution without a political solution,” said Mamar Merzouk, team leader of the Syria crisis at Directorate General of European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office, speaking, during the “Averting Humanitarian Catastrophe” panel at the Kyiv Post’s “Bringing Peace to Syria & Ukraine” conference on June 18.
The conflict, which started in 2011 with the peaceful rallies that demanded political change, eventually developed into the bloody war involving the global powers Russia and the U.S., as well as several regional powers — Iran, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, said Wael Aleji, spokesman for the London-based Syrian Network for Human Rights.
“Who is paying the heaviest prize here are the Syrian people on both sides,” he said.
Mohammed Alhammadi, the head of a coalition of local Syrian non-government organizations that assists Syrian people in need, said the Assad regime withholds aid to people who live in areas that are not under the government’s control.
He gave as an example the residents of Eastern Ghouta, a formerly opposition-controlled area in outskirts of Damascus, whose 400,000 residents had to live for five years under siege. While the government eventually forcibly evacuated the majority of the residents from Eastern Ghouta in March, the remaining 100,000 people there are still cut off from any assistance.
“There’s no hostilities anymore in Eastern Ghouta. Why don’t we have access there?” Alhammadi said.
He also showed a picture of a Syrian doctor who had been working in an underground hospital in Hama northeastern countryside, when he was fatally wounded by a chlorine gas attack by Assad’s forces in March 2017.
Aleji added that the Syrian war had led to a huge number of war crimes, and the number increased massively when Russia intervened in the conflict in 2015. Some 6,200 civilians have been killed in Syria by Russian airstrike attacks.
“Over the last few years the number of civilians killed by Russia has exceeded the number of civilians killed by ISIS,” Aleji said, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Aleji’s organization had recorded violations of human rights by all the sides of the conflict, but the greatest number of the human rights abuses, including torture, rape and forced disappearances, were committed by Assad’s forces.
Nickolas Hawton, a diplomatic adviser for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said his organization is providing humanitarian assistance to 13 million Syrians, including 5 million children, which is still a “drop in the ocean.”
“Number one priority is a political solution,” Hawton said.
He added the conflict has created a massive number of young people who know nothing but bombing and shelling. “What type of Syria will they inherit?” Hawton said.
Aleji believes that the European Union, which for years saw Syria as a sphere of first Soviet and then Russian political influence, should become more decisive and impose targeted sanctions against the businesses of the country’s dictator Assad, his family, and his cronies.
“They continue to do business in Spain, the United Kingdom, and France. Something has to be done obviously,” Aleji said, adding that Assad’s corruption was costing the lives of Syrian people on both sides of the conflict.
Alhammadi added that Ukraine, a country that has also become a target for Russian aggression, should “stand along with the Syrian people” against their mutual attacker.
Nickolas Hawton, diplomatic adviser to the International Committee of the Red Cross (Oleg Petrasiuk)
The numbers of young people who have known nothing but war and shelling and bombing and (being) separated from families – this is what concerns all of us.
Is this the generation growing up now? And what type of Syria will they inherit? How will they live in the future?
Let’s remember about all these people, this generation of people who have known nothing but war at such a vast scale. And we have to think about them. We all have to contribute to making the future at least a little bit better for them.
Mamar Merzouk, team leader of the Syria crisis at Directorate General of European Commission
Humanitarian Aid Office (Oleg Petrasiuk)
What I see, unfortunately, in conflicts that we are addressing is the lack of access and protection of civilians and the growing politicization of the conflicts. The humanitarian aid must be based on principles that are not at all going to substitute the effective political actions…Humanitarian assistance has never been intended for more than giving aid to the suffering people. And to do so you have to have mechanisms that ensure that aid reaches people in need.
Mohammed Alhammadi, head of a coalition of local Syrian non-government organizations (Oleg Petrasiuk)
I keep on hearing that people need food, shelter. Yes, it’s important to have these basic needs, but we are human beings, we are not just animals. We need not just food, life security, but also need to express (ourselves), (we) need to have basic rights… And if any solution is to happen in Syria without addressing these justifiable requests I think it’s only bringing people back to slavery and into prisons. That’s not a solution, that’s not peace.
Wael Aleji, spokesman for the London-based Syrian Network for Human Rights (Oleg Petrasiuk)
If we organize we could make a difference. Russians are investing huge resources to create some narratives. We can challenge these lies and present facts from the ground. We can present evidence, survivors. We need an effective framework in order to achieve something on this front… We cannot defeat Russia militarily but we can challenge their narratives and their propaganda. This is a field where we could achieve something.
