"Disregard for human life is the story of this war"

Today marks the seventh anniversary of the start of the Syrian conflict.

 

Having lived through seven years of war in Syria - my homeland - and worked in the country as an aid worker for six, I am more angry and worried now than at any other point in the conflict.

 

I am angered by what has taken place in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta in recent weeks. That indiscriminate killing has been allowed to continue there under the nose of the UN Security Council is evidence once again that war criminals can act with impunity in Syria.

 

That it took so long for the Security Council to agree on a resolution was bad enough. That the resolution has been blatantly ignored, resulting in more killing and bloodshed, is worse. The Russian order of a daily five-hour ceasefire, which falls far short of the 30-day truce agreed by all countries, including Russia, is the final ignominy.

 

That Russia would seek to argue that its brutal bombardment of 400,000 civilians can be in any way mitigated by a five-hour daily ceasefire is reprehensible and has been rightly condemned by the UN and the International Red Cross. As I write, very little aid has been allowed to get into Eastern Ghouta.

 

Approximately 1,000 people have been killed since the latest intensive aerial campaign began on February 18th. This disregard for human life is the story of this war.

 

While I am angry, I am also more and more worried about what will happen next. Not just in Eastern Ghouta – many of the people trapped there, some of my friends among them, do not want to leave for fear they will be permanently displaced, imprisoned or worse – but also for the small province of Idlib – that section of Syria to the north that is home to my family, my GOAL colleagues, and 2.5 million of my fellow compatriots.

 

I work with almost 400 fellow Syrian in Syria and I also travel regularly to Turkey, where a further 90 national and international GOAL staff are located, including my colleague and good friend, Derek O’Rourke, from Kells in County Meath.

 

Idlib is, Eastern Ghouta aside, the last place where those opposed to the Assad regime are putting up some sort of resistance. It was also designated as a de-escalation zone under the terms of an agreement brokered by Turkey and Russia in September of last year. And while it has yet to experience the same levels of violence inflicted on Eastern Ghouta, all the signs are there that it is next on the regime’s ‘task list’.

 

The scene of fierce intermittent conflict since the beginning of the war in 2011, the province has lately seen hundreds of people killed from aerial bombardment, shelling and fighting since late last year. Approximately 500 villages have been evacuated and - in what has been described as the largest single exodus of the seven-year war - more than 300,000 people from other parts of Syria have been forced into Idlib since December.

 

People are living in bombed out buildings, abandoned schools, former warehouses and mosques. More are living under trees, and in freezing conditions. They have no choice. All houses are occupied and few tents remain in the established camps. Not surprisingly, the medical service is overwhelmed at a time when it is required most. Malnutrition too has become an urgent problem.

 

As in Eastern Ghouta, the bombs that have fallen on Idlib have been targeted at medical facilities, residential areas, market places, water stations, bakeries and other civilian infrastructure. By taking this approach, the regime ensure that villages, towns and districts are unfit for living so giving people no choice but to keep moving in search of safer territory.

 

As this fighting continues, I find myself wondering on an almost hourly basis why this inhumanity has been allowed to endure for so long, and what the future will hold for those who now call Idlib home.

 

Sadly, I don’t have an answer to either question.

 

What we do know is what happened in Aleppo towards the end of 2016. After a siege that lasted months, in which hundreds of people were killed and tens of thousands forced to flee, those who either chose to remain or could not find a way out were left to fend for themselves without a functioning healthcare system, running water or electricity.

 

What happened in Aleppo then, is happening in Eastern Ghouta right now.

 

Those that survived Aleppo were eventually bussed out to Idlib, joining those who had somehow managed to escape there during the siege. Idlib is also where those lucky enough to last the siege of Eastern Ghouta may also be forced to travel. There will likely be no other option.

 

While Eastern Ghouta burns, we in Idlib wait and wonder. Are we next? Will we soon face a similar fate to the people of Aleppo and Eastern Ghouta? We know only too well that if the regime and their allies decide to make the takeover of Idlib their next priority, then we will be trapped. We cannot escape to safer territory within Syria. We cannot cross into Turkey, which already hosts over 3 million of us. There are no options left.

 

As bad as Eastern Ghouta is now, or as brutal as the conflict in Syria has been for the past seven years, a siege of Idlib could prompt a humanitarian catastrophe worse than anything we have yet witnessed.

 

It will be a massacre.

 

 

Kasem Hijazy is Area Coordinator for GOAL in Syria