Local Councils Declare Eastern Ghouta a Disaster Area, Demanding Humanitarian Corridors

The local councils and civil society organizations in rural Damascus declared East Ghouta with all its cities and towns a disaster area, calling on the international community and the United Nations to assume their ethical and legal responsibilities to protect civilians, to open humanitarian corridors and to implement the UN resolutions No. 2139 and 2165 concerning the introduction of humanitarian aid to the besieged areas. The calls were made at a press conference held on Thursday, attended by representatives of all civil society organizations and local councils in Damascus and its suburbs. The conferees warned of an impending humanitarian disaster in East Ghouta after the depletion of all medical supplies, the spread of various diseases, frequent cuts of electricity and water for around two years. Nora al-Ameer, vice president of the Syrian Coalition, said that the suffocating siege regime forces have been laying on East and West Ghouta, Al Waer district and Al Houla in Homs province is tantamount to a genocide and is not less atrocious than the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons and barrel bombs against civilians. The silence of the international community towards Assad’s crimes is seen by Syrians as a direct involvement in these crimes and would undermine what remained of the Syrians’ confidence in the international community. Moreover, this dubious silence towards the unethical political blackmail practiced by the Assad regime which uses starvation as a weapon of warfare to bring the Syrian people to their knees is a crime against humanity. We therefore call for the international community to assume its responsibility and pressurize the Assad regime to comply with the UN Security Council resolution No. 2139 and allow unfettered access of aid convoys to all besieged areas. According to the UN resolution, the delivery of relief aid to besieged areas does not require the consent of the Assad regime, an outright recognition of Assad’s deliberate hindering of the delivery of relief aid to the trapped people in the besieged areas. Unfortunately these UN resolutions have so far amounted to nothing more than ink on paper as they were not supplemented by a UN resolution to punish the sides that violate or hinder the implementation of the previous international resolutions.” Al Ameer cited the children’s death during the vaccination campaign as not the result of human error, but also of the consequences of the crippling siege imposed by regime forces on the rebellious populations. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Agencies)