Posts tagged syria

In Belgrade, about 2,000 people, mainly from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Syria, are currently sleeping in abandoned buildings in the city center, while temperatures plummet far below freezing.

We are witnessing the most cruel and inhumane consequences of European policies, which are being used to deter and victimize those who are only seeking safety and protection in Europe

I was meeting friends for coffee. I heard the missile coming towards me, though I didn’t see it. I sprinted towards a nearby building. I wasn’t fast enough.

 During the bombing raids, I stay in my room — it’s not worth the effort to go downstairs. This house only has three floors, and the missiles they are using tear right through buildings to the ground. I can’t sleep. All the doors here are broken now and the building next to mine was destroyed. The roads are closed. I don’t know how, but I’ll try to leave the house.

27 Years Old. Leg Shattered. Trapped in Aleppo

Nine-year-old Abdul lies on a bed in a hospital ward, watched over by his older brother, after being injured by a barrel bomb while playing outside his home in besieged east Aleppo. When he regained consciousness, he had lost his memory.

He needs a CT scan, but the equipment is not available, and he cannot be referred elsewhere for specialized care because all roads leading out of the city are blocked.

Before the siege was imposed last July, patients needing specialized treatment were referred to hospitals elsewhere in northern Syria or over the border in Turkey. But for most of the past four months, all roads out of the city have been blocked, leaving many patients unable to reach critical specialized care.

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Last Wednesday, airstrikes obliterated Al Quds Hospital in Aleppo.

They blew apart at least 50 men, women and children.

It killed one of the last remaining pediatricians in the city.  

A murderous airstrike.

We are facing an epidemic of attacks on health facilities, impeding our ability to do our core work.

And to date, our calls for independent investigations have gone unheeded.

Accountability begins with independent and impartial fact finding.

Perpetrators cannot be investigators, judges and juries.

Make no mistake: we will relentlessly denounce attacks on healthcare.

We will speak out loudly and with force about what we witness in the field.

Medicine must not be a deadly occupation. Patients must not be attacked or slaughtered in their beds.

Re-commit, unambiguously, to the norms that govern the conduct of war.

This resolution must lead to all states and non-state actors stopping the carnage.  

You must also pressure your allies to end attacks on healthcare and populations in conflict areas.

We will not leave patients behind. And we will not be silent.

Seeking or providing healthcare must not be a death sentence.

You will be judged not on your words today, but on your actions.  Your work has only begun.

Make this resolution save lives.

While the nature of warfare may have changed, the rules of war have not.

You are charged with protecting peace and security.

You therefore must live up to your extraordinary responsibilities, and set an example for all states.

I repeat: Stop these attacks.