Published on Aug 24, 2013
Video Description: Video portrays an a building inspection in which a number of families are found dead 36 hours after a chemical weapons attack which took place on Damascus suburbs on the 21st of August 2013 early morning time (presumed at 2:00am). This video was taken in the Zamalka area of the Eastern Ghouta of Damascus suburbs.
United Nations (United States) (AFP) – Actress Angelina Jolie on Friday criticized the UN Security Council’s failure to end the war in Syria, as she appealed for urgent help for the growing ranks of Syrian refugees.
The Hollywood star spoke at the council in her role as special envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which has seen her visit camps hosting victims of the Syrian crisis 11 times.
An estimated 3.9 million people have fled the country in four years of civil war.
“The purpose of the UN is to prevent and end conflict, to bring countries together, to find diplomatic solutions and to save lives,” said Jolie, dressed in a white blazer.
“We failed to do this in Syria.”
She fumed at the stalemate, as ambassadors and ministers gathered for a debate on the humanitarian crisis tearing the country apart.
“The crisis is made worse by division and indecision within the international community preventing the Security Council from fulfilling its responsibilities,” Jolie said.
The Security Council has been split between Western powers seeking to pressure Damascus and the regime’s allies Russia and China, which both wield veto powers.
Jolie called for council “unity” to solve the crisis, and aid for the millions of Syrians who have fled to neighboring countries.
Some have died trying to cross the Mediterranean in rickety, overcrowded vessels to reach Europe.
“If we cannot end the conflict, we have an inescapable moral duty to help refugees and provide legal avenues to safety,” Jolie said.
The actress spoke of a “sea of excluded humanity.”
“The crisis in Syria illustrates that our inability to find diplomatic solutions causes mass displacement, traps millions of people in exile, statelessness and displacement,” she said.
Earlier, UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres and the head of UN humanitarian operations Valerie Amos drew a dark picture of the crisis.
“One thing is clear: the situation in the region has become utterly unsustainable,” said Guterres. “There has to be massively increased support to the neighboring countries.”
He noted the “growing fatigue” of host nations, and that some are even imposing harsher policies on refugees.
With some 220,000 people killed, 7.6 million displaced and 3.9 million refugees, Amos warned that “people have become numb to figures that should every day shock our collective conscience and spur urgent action.”
Amos, who is due to leave her post soon, called for negotiating “humanitarian pauses,” enforcing an arms embargo and targeted sanctions.
She also urged that attacks on schools and hospitals be investigated, as well as those in zones where civilians are trapped by conflict. The UN estimates that 440,000 people are in that situation.
Children suffer from malnutrition in Eastern Al-Ghouta due to siege imposed by the Assad regime. They are in need for children milk, foods, and medicines. Also, pregnant women, infants and breast feeding women are suffering. Infant are born in a bad condition with low weight. In many cases, some of them died.
We call all the world and International organizations to help Syrian children.
The Unified Medical office in Eastern AL-Ghouta # Al-Marj District
Al-Marj Hospital
#WithSyria
#TheRevolutionContinues
#WhatDoesItTake
#AssadHolocaust
#AssadWarcrimes
#EnoughwithAssad
#SyriaWarCrimes
#IranOurEnemy
#Save_Syria
#SaveAleppo
#Syria_Speaks_Out
#FreeSyria
#استنشاق_الموت
#BreathingDeath
#Speakup4SyrianChildren
#GrantThemAwish
Syrian Civil Defence sources, at least 10 people, including students and teachers were killed by vacuum bomb attack on an elementary school Saad Al-Ansari in the northern city of Aleppo on April 12, 2015.
Published on Apr 12, 2015
Read more Articles:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/12/us-mideast-crisis-syria-idUSKBN0N30I020150412
http://www.worldbulletin.net/headlines/157755/assad-army-dropped-vacuum-bomb-on-school
18,000 Palestinian refugees include 3,500 children are trapped between Assad’s barrel bombs and ISIS beheadings in the besieged Yarmouk Camp in Syria.
The camp is under siege for 612 days by Assad regime, 700 days no electricity, 188 days without water, 77 people starved to death as of April 2, 2015.
Question is: What does #ISIS really want with the refugee Yarmouk Camp?
— Yarmouk is being annihilated’: Palestinians in Syria are left to their fate
— “Turn off your electricity, water, heating, eat once a day, live in the dark ”
— Why is that UN now supporting Assad who killed thousands of Muslims? Where is UN, when Assad starved thousands of Muslims in Yarmouk Camp?
— Beyond Inhumane
— The refugees of Yarmouk deserve better than silence
— UN agency voices ‘deep concern’ as violence in Yarmouk Camp intensifies
— Head of UNRWA calls for safe passage for civilians to leave Yarmouk Camp under ISIS attack
— Quote one former resident of Yarmouk Camp: “It’s a battle within a battle in a siege within a siege…”
Published on Apr 13, 2015
People of Al Yarmouk are not asking for much. They just need your support wherever you are in the world. Raising your voice and a simple act of solidarity can get them out of hell.
Must see! Warning: It will make you cry!
Watch it on Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1598972957011976&fref=nf
Graphic exhibition of photographs showing the victims of atrocities carried out by Assad regime goes on display at UN headquarters.
The photographs were part of a cache of 55,000 smuggled out of Syria on flash drives last year by “Caesar”, the code name given to a former Syrian military photographer who defected. Caesar had been tasked with taking pictures of the corpses of those who died inside facilities run by the Assad regime. The thousands of images were taken between 2011 and 2013, and according to forensic analysis depict 11,000 deaths. Caesar and his team recently began posting photos from the cache of victims’ faces on Facebook, to help families and prosecutors identify their missing relatives.
Article from:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/11/images-syrian-torture-shock-new-yorkers-united-nations#
Helicopters from Bashar Al-Assad’s regime attacked the Syrian village of Sarmin in Idlib province last week, dropping barrel bombs filled with chlorine gas that killed at least six people and wounded dozens more, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and pro-opposition Local Coordination Committees reported.
“There is extreme fear and panic among the people of Sarmin, combined with serious population displacement,” said Abdullah Jada’an, an activist from Idlib. “They are waiting for the international community to penalize the Syrian regime.”
Multiple sources have also claimed that residents of the southern Damascus neighbourhood of Al-Qadam were targeted on Tuesday overnight by a gas attack; the number of victims is not yet known.
These attacks came two weeks after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution condemning the use of chemical weapons in Syria; it stressed that those who use such weapons will be held accountable. The resolution, however, did not specify the perpetrators of the known chemical attacks, but promised to take action if it such attacks occur again.
Footage from the attack on Sarmin revived memories of the faces of those who were targeted in the August 2013 chemical attack on East Ghouta, near Damascus; civilians, including children, were unable to breathe and were choking to death. The world powers failed to hold the regime accountable for the attack in 2013. They did, however, strip the Assad regime of its chemical arsenal thanks to a US-Russian agreement under Article VIII of the Chemical Weapons Convention to prevent such crimes.
“I think the international community is completely ignoring what is going on in Syria,” said Samir Nashar, a Syrian opposition figure and member of the Syrian National Coalition. “Bashar Al-Assad derives his strength from [the weakness of] the international community. As such, he is using internationally prohibited weapons repeatedly.”
After obtaining reports confirming the use of chemical weapons, the UN drafted four resolutions to intervene militarily in Syria, but all four were blocked by Russia’s veto which, along with China’s, protected Assad’s grip on power in Syria. The UN failure to intervene has destroyed the hopes of many Syrians that the international community will really hold Assad and his regime accountable.
The US has had a strained relationship with Syria since 2003, when it threatened sanctions due to Assad’s development of chemical weapons; Damascus denied the American allegations. Prior to the regime’s first attack using chemical weapons, US President Barack Obama warned that a chemical weapon attack would make the US minded to intervene in Syria.
In mid-2013, Assad’s forces used Sarin gas in an area near Damascus. Obama was close to declaring a war against the Syrian regime before changing his stance after brokering a deal with Russia, Assad’s main ally.
In June 2014, a joint mission of the UN and the Netherlands-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) announced that the removal of Assad’s chemical weapons materials was complete. Chlorine gas was not included in the disarmament agreement, however, though it is considered to be a chemical weapon internationally. Damascus did not list chlorine on the declaration of its chemical weapons arsenal.
In response, the Syrian opposition issued a statement condemning the use of chlorine gas as part of the attack on Sarmin, calling on the UN Security Council to investigate the incident. “We call on the Security Council to send a fact-finding mission to the scene as quickly as possible and investigate the regime’s use of chlorine gas. Assad knows that he can get away with murder… Unless the UN Security Council takes enforceable measures to ensure accountability,” added opposition spokesman Salem Al-Meslet in a separate statement.
The OPCW concluded its fact-finding mission to Syria recently and announced that chlorine gas was used “systematically and repeatedly” in northern Syria. US Secretary of State John Kerry’s remarks made it clear that he believes that the whole world must condemn the attack and indicated the need for an investigation. “The international community cannot turn a blind eye to such barbarism,” said Kerry. “The Assad regime continues to flout international standards and norms.”
According to Samir Nashar, the current priority for American foreign policy, which he thinks dictates international policy, is its discussions with Tehran over Iran’s nuclear capability. “If an agreement [with Iran] is signed by the beginning of the [next] month, I believe that major shifts will happen,” he concluded.
Chemical Chlorine gas attacked on Idlib city 29-31st, March 2015
Chemical Chlorine gas attacked on Sarmin near Idlib on March 26, 2015
Chemical Chlorine gas attacked on Binnish, Idlib on March 24, 2015
Chemical Chlorine gas attacked on Qmenas, Idlib on March 23, 2015
Chemical Chlorine gas attacked on Sarmin near Idlib on March 16, 2015
Abdulrahman Al-Masri is a freelance journalist based in Canada. His work covers politics and news in the Middle East, and Syria in particular. He analyses international politics and the crises in the region, bringing attention to the way that foreign interests influence conflicts. Follow him on twitter at @AbdulrhmanMasri.
Article published on Thursday, 26 March 2015
Collateral Damage 