Executive director Anthony Lake said: “As millions of children inside Syria
and across the region witness their past and their futures disappear
amidst the rubble and destruction of this prolonged conflict, the risk
of them becoming a lost generation ...
Syria crisis: Assad's army faces troop shortage - Tuesday 12 March 2013
• Syria's grand mufti calls for more recruits to the army
• MSF calls for UN to step in to end 'humanitarian paralysis'
• Germany and France split on arming Syrian rebels
I was a captive of the Free Syrian Army military council. At about
6am this morning I ran away from a Homs suburb. I was held in al-Bueida,
a south Homs suburb; there is a lake there and this morning I was
carried across that lake. I walked and walked, and the first person I
met was the one I needed. It was bad. Their [the abductors’] living
conditions are poor and my conditions were even worse. I will now have
to undergo medical treatment for a long time and at great cost.
Ukraine's foreign ministry has confirmed that journalist Anhar
Kochneva, who was kidnapped in Syria, is free after more than 150 days
in captivity.
Ministry spokesman Yevhen Perebiynis says the reporter is expected to
contact the Ukrainian embassy in Damascus later on Tuesday.
Kochneva, who has written for Syrian and Russian newspapers, was
kidnapped in western Syria on October and reportedly held by members of
the Free Syrian Army opposition group. Perebiynis said he had no further
information on her.
Kochneva announced her escape on brief blogpost, adds Miriam Elder in Moscow.
“Your Alice has come back through the looking glass. More later," the post read.
She confirmed the escape in subsequent interviews with Russian media,
claiming she fled a decrepit house and walked 15 =km before finding a
Syrian army checkpoint.
Kochneva, who has worked for various outlets including the
Kremlin-run television channel Russia Today, said she would stay in
Syria, a country she called “a friend in need”.
“The world is just blind,” Kochneva told Business FM, a radio
station. “I will do everything for the people to know what is really
going on here.”
Kochneva claimed to have been kidnapped by members of the Free Syrian
Army in October near Homs. Her captors initially demanded a $50m ransom
and said they would kill her if it was not paid. They later lowered
their demand to $300,000 and said no authorities had been in touch.
Updated
Shadow government
Britain and the US are holding up Syrian opposition plans to set up a
shadow government on Syrian soil, according to the Obama
administration's former head of Syria policy.
In his latest post for the Atlantic Council, Frederic Hof,
who until last September was the state department's special
representative on Syria, said British and US fears about repeating
mistakes in Iraq were behind their reluctance to back the plan. He
wrote:
There is no reason why a provisional government, with strong support
from the Friends of the Syrian People, could not establish itself as the
legitimate Syrian government on liberated Syrian territory and still
negotiate with a regime-designated team to establish a national unity
government enjoying full executive powers over the entire country. No
reason, that is, except for the reluctance of the United States and
United Kingdom to see the opposition go down that path.
That reluctance is also understandable, though profoundly
regrettable. British and American officials take the position that the
establishment on Syrian soil of a government—especially one that would
receive near-universal recognition as Syria's legal government—would
produce two bad results: it would preclude the transition talks
envisioned by the Geneva agreement; and it could cause Syria's existing
ministries and government offices to collapse, pouring tens of thousands
of unemployed officials onto an already moribund economy and perilous
security situation. One can imagine a blunt Anglo-American warning to
the opposition, one that would resonate in the ears of Syrians: "We
don't want to create another Iraq."
Although it is understandable that continuity of government is a high
priority for anyone wishing to minimize the possibility of a 2003
Iraq-like catastrophic meltdown, it is simply not true that the
establishment of an alternate government on Syrian territory would
either violate a principle worth preserving or cause a meltdown worth
avoiding.
Such a government could (and should) make clear from the outset its
readiness to negotiate the composition and program of a fully empowered
transitional national unity government, and its intention to keep
government employees (including security forces) on the payroll for
whatever agreed period of time defines the word "transitional."
In short, there is no reason why a government, as opposed to an
opposition, could not be the interlocutor with regime-designated
negotiators in talks aimed at producing the peaceful, managed, and
complete regime change transition agreed to by the five permanent
members of the UN Security Council at Geneva last year. British and
American reluctance on this score has less to do with who does the
talking and the implications for continuity of government than it does
with their own preparedness to take the next step on Syria.
Updated
Syria accuses UN panel of bias
Syria has dismissed a UN report that highlights increased bombardment of civilian areas by government forces as biased and misleading. Monday's report by Paulo Pinheiro,
chairman of the UN's commission of inquiry on Syria, said:
"Indiscriminate and widespread shelling, the regular bombardment of
cities, mass killing and the deliberate firing on civilian targets have
come to characterise the daily lives of civilians in Syria."
Syria's ambassador to the UN's human rights council, Faisal al-Hamwi,
accused Pinheiro's panel of deliberating ignoring evidence presented by
the Syrian government. Reuters quoted him saying:
"There is a conspiracy against Syria. Qatar has financed and armed tens
of thousands of mercenaries from 30 countries. Turkey has provided the
military bases and sent them into Syria on their jihad."
Syrian ambassador to the UN's human rights council Faisal al-Hamwi. Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters
Updated
Humanitarian crisis
The UN should step in to break a “humanitarian paralysis” that is
preventing virtually any aid reaching millions of people who desperately
need help in Syria, according to the head of the leading aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières.
Christopher Stokes, MSF’s general director, said the system of aid
delivery should change to allow cross border aid deliveries from
neighbouring countries.
As it stands “extremely little assistance” is reaching rebel control areas despite dire needs, Stokes warned in an interview with the Guardian.
The system has to change. MSF is asking the UN to open up
humanitarian operations cross border from neighbouring countries, for
example from Lebanon and Turkey, into opposition areas without the
authorisation of the government.
It requires a much wider political commitment, probably from the
security council, to allow cross border operations without the
authorization of the Syrian government. But without that we are going to
continue to have very little humanitarian assistance going into the
country, and practically none in opposition areas.
I find it astounding that two years into the conflict everyone seems
to be accepting the fact that there is very little humanitarian
assistance going in. In the absence of a political solution we shouldn’t
have this humanitarian paralysis.
This isn't a war that can be won by Assad under any circumstances. This war might be won by Russian and Iran working together to completely level Syria like they have been doing. But I wouldn't consider that really a victory for anyone. It makes sense that Syrians seeing that they are only destroying the country they love would disappear into their surroundings and be gone. This is not a war that Assad can win. It might be at this point the only ones who can win this war is Al Qaeda and the Islamists. And that is really sad and pathetic but also might be true. Even Hezbollah whose army is bigger than the Army of the government of Lebanon cannot win this war against the Sunni Muslims of the Middle East and all their friends from around the world.
Syria has become a place only for fighters on both sides. It likely is true that families who wish to survive are mostly leaving Syria if they can afford to. Because it looks like there won't be enough humanitarian aid not to starve to death in many areas. And in many if not most areas without humanitarian aid families cannot survive very long if at all.
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