The Assad regime and Russia continue to exert more pressure on residents of the town of Douma in eastern Ghouta to force them to leave their homes to northern Syria in yet the largest mass forced displacement operation in recent years. The Syrian Coalition stressed that these operations constituted a war crime.
The Syrian Interim Government (SIG) pointed out that the sick and injured as well as women and children comprised the majority of the people who had already arrived in northern Syria after they were displaced from eastern Ghouta. It pointed out that its staff received the displaced people and made a preliminary assessment of their most basic needs.
“People of eastern Ghouta have won the respect of all Syrians because of the enormous sacrifices they made,” SIG’s Head Jawad Abu Hatab said as he met with a number of the displaced people. He stressed that the Syrian revolution will continue until it achieves its goals for freedom and dignity and the overthrow of the Assad regime and until all displaced people return to their homes.
Abu Hatab pointed out that SIG would work tirelessly to meet the needs of the displaced people as he said that new projects were already launched to serve the civilian population in all areas where SIG operates.
Eastern Ghouta remained under five-year suffocating siege along with heavy bombardment, including with chemical weapons that claimed the lives of thousands of civilians.
Regime forces, backed with Russian aerial support, waged a ferocious onslaught on eastern Ghouta in early February in which they used internationally banned weapons in blatant violation of all international resolutions. The campaign ended with the mass displacement of the residents of eastern Ghouta.
The Syrian Coalition held the international community responsible for the tragedy in eastern Ghouta as it called for holding perpetrators of violations accountable. It also called for enforcing international resolutions demanding an urgent ceasefire and the delivery of humanitarian aid to those in need. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
