انتظرت حتى ما بعد منتصف الليل كي أنجح في الحديث معه، حسام شاب يبلغ الثامنة والعشرين من العمر، حدثته عبر سكايب من بلدة مضايا في ريف دمشق الغربي حيث يقيم، أصبحت شبكة الانترنت التي يستخدمها قوية في الليل لنقل الصوت بيننا، طوال أكثر من ساعة، كان حسام يرتاح بين الجملة والجملة، يبلع ريقه يتنهد ويتابع الحديث، لم يأكل في ذلك اليوم، قال لي 'ربما أوفق غداً ببعض الطعام'.. 'في الأمس أكلت ورق العنب، سلقته ورششت الملح عليه وأكلته، الحمد الله' ليس من السهل أن تسأل محاصراً في مضايا عما أكله، تحتاج إلى كثير من اللف والدوران حتى تحصل على الإجابة التي لا يمنعها الشاب عنك، يصف البلدة اليوم 'هياكل عظمية تسير في الطرقات، يختبئون في ملابسهم، اليوم أكثر من 200 شخص أغمي عليهم من الجوع في الشوارع، على طول الشارع الرئيسي تلمح نساء ورجال يسيرون بتعب وإرهاق، لم يأكل أحد منذ أيام'. يستقيظ حسام عند السادسة صباحاً، ينام لساعات قليلة فقط، يقول إن الجوع يسبب الأرق، ويحرمه النوم، يتوجه فوراً إلى السوق كي يتفقد ما إن كان هناك بضائع جديدة دخلت ليلاً، في السوق الذي كان سابقاً يعج بالمواد المهربة، أكثر ما يباع هو المواد المصنوعة يدوياً من السكر، عصير صناعي وشمع عسلي، وبسكويت يصل سعر القطعة منه إلى 5 آلاف ليرة سورية، يقول حسام إنه ليس من الغريب أن تشاهد أشخاصاً يسقطون أرضاَ مغمى عليهم، النقص في سكر الدم يفعل ذلك. نزل وزن حسام من 78 كيلوغراما إلى 60 كيلوغراما، الحصار عمره أكثر من ستة أشهر، لكنه لم يكن محكماً إلى هذه الدرجة، كان لا يزال بالإمكان شراء بعض الطعام، أو الاعتماد على ما تخزنه العائلات من مؤن، وحين فقد البرغل لجأت العائلات إلى العدس، بعد العدس إلى المعكرونة 'كنا نجد الحلول دائما' اليوم عجزنا تماماً يقول الشاب المحاصر. 'لا أريد أن أموت من الجوع'... تعجز عن الرد أمام صوته وهو يقول لك تلك الأمنية، يجف حلقك. عمّا تسأله الآن؟ لكنه ينقذك ويكمل الكلام، 'الأصعب أن أشاهد أمي وأختي الصغيرة جائعتين، أشعر بعجز كبير أمام هذا'. باع حسام منذ يومين سوار أمه الذهبية، وأشترى بها ورق العنب، لم يستطع أن يشتري لحم الماعز، ثمن الكيلو غرام الواحد يصل إلى 25 ألف ليرة سورية أي ما يعادل 64 دولار. بعد السوق، توجه حسام مع شبان آخرين لتوثيق حالات الجوع في البلاد، اليوم كان شاهداً على موقف صعب النسيان، دخل على أم مع أربعة من اطفالها، يقول إن الأم كانت تجلس على الأرض حولها أطفالها، الزوج استشهد معهم في المنزل، وهي ترفض الكلام، كانت تشير لهم فقط، ابنها الأكبر قال إنهم جميعاً لم يأكلوا منذ ثمانية أيام 'كنا نحمل قطعاً من البسكويت، لم نستطع أن نعطي كل فرد منهم أكثر من قطعة، الطفلة الصغيرة التي تبلغ الرابعة من عمرها كانت الأبطأ في الأكل، حين أنهى شقيقها ابن العشر سنوات قطعته، اقترب منها يريد أن يأكل من حصتها، كانت ردة فعلها عنيفة إلى اقصى حد، كقطة تماماً، ابعدت شقيقيها عنها، وأكملت الأكل'. في السوق أيضاَ سجل حسام اليوم مشهداً آخر جعله يعرف أين هو الآن، شاب اشترى بسطة كاملة من الحلويات منزلية الصنع، وقرر توزيعها على الأطفال في الشارع، القطع صغيرة جداً، يقول حسام 'كما ترمي الذرة للطيور فتجتمع حولك، تجمع الأطفال حولنا ونحن نوزع القطع، رمى الشاب القطع في الهواء، تركض الاطفال وتزاحموا وكادوا يشتبكون فيما بينهم، كان المشهد لا يطاق'. والآن من؟ لا يريد حسام لأي طفل في العالم أن يجوع، يقول 'حتى لو كان موالياً أو معارضاً شيعياً أو سنياً أو علوياً، مهما كان لا يجب أن يجوع أحد'. في البلدة المحاصرة مات اليوم رجل مسن من الجوع أو نقص الدواء، لا يستطيع أحد أن يتحقق من الأمر، لا وقت للفحص الدقيق، فيما دخل شاب في العشرين من العمر إلى المشفى، إلى قسم العناية الفائقة، وهو ليس حقاً قسما للعناية الفائقة، فقط بعض السيرون الذي بدأ ينفذ، يعلق للمريض ويترك مستلقياً ونائماً. قليل من السكر تكفي كي تبقى واقفاً، يقول الشاب الذي كان يملك الكثير من الأحلام، لكنه لا يذكرها الآن.. 'الجوع يسبب عدم التركيز، لا أستطيع أن أذكر الكثير من الأشياء، مهما بلغ الجوع مني، لن اتناول القطط، هذا محال، هناك من فعلها نعم، لكني لن أقدر على ذلك، حتى أوارق الأشجار تسبب التسمم للبعض، لم يعد متاحاً تناولها اليو'. 'أريد أن أغادر كل سوريا وإلى الأبد' يقول حسام حين سألته عن أي حلم أو أمنية تراوده الآن. ويضيف 'هم يحاصروننا من أجل ذلك، كي نغادر كل البلاد، أنا صرت جاهزاً، أريد أن أخرج، عبر الإعلام يقولون إننا بحاجة للمال، لا.. نحن نريد الطعام، فكرة أننا نطلب المال تغيظ المدنيين هنا، لا نتابع التلفاز، لكننا نلاحظ أن كثيرا من الصحفيين يتصلون بنا منذ عشرة أيام'. لا يخشى حسام أن يدخل النظام وميليشياته إلى مضايا، طريقة الموت بالرصاص أكثر تفضيلاً بالنسبة له من الموت جوعاً 'اتمنى حقاً أن تقصفنا أي جهة كانت، وبأي شيء كان، طريقة الموت جوعاً أصعب بأضعاف من الموت بالقصف، أنت تموت كل يوم بهذه الطريقة'.
New testimony from residents living inside besieged Syrian villages gathered by Amnesty International, describing their desperate struggle to feed themselves through the winter months, highlights the crucial need to allow unimpeded humanitarian access to all civilians in need and lift all sieges on civilian populations across country.
The organization has spoken to residents in the besieged town of Medaya in the Damascus Countryside governorate, and gathered fresh accounts of conditions in al-Fouaa and Kefraya in the Idleb Countryside governorate. The starving residents described how families are surviving on little more that foraged leaves and boiled water. The villages are due to resume receiving aid following a deal involving the Syrian government, struck on 7 January 2016.
“These harrowing accounts of hunger represent the mere tip of an iceberg. Syrians are suffering and dying across the country because starvation is being used as a weapon of war by both the Syrian government and armed groups. By continuing to impose sieges on civilian areas and only sporadically allowing in aid at their whim they are fuelling a humanitarian crisis and toying with the lives of hundreds of thousands of people,” said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International.
“Using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is a war crime. All parties laying siege to civilian areas – the government and non-state armed groups – must stop impeding relief supplies and allow immediate unfettered access for humanitarian aid.”
Starvation is being used as a weapon of war by both the Syrian government and armed groups. By continuing to impose sieges on civilian areas and only sporadically allowing in aid at their whim they are fuelling a humanitarian crisis and toying with the lives of hundreds of thousands of people
The UN estimates that some 400,000 people are surviving without access to life-saving aid in 15 besieged locations across Syria.
The UN Security Council adopted two resolutions calling on all parties to the conflict to lift all sieges and grant humanitarian access. So far, all parties have failed to comply with these resolutions to alleviate the suffering of civilians in Syria.
TESTIMONES:
Madaya and Boukein
The adjacent towns of Madaya and Boukein, west of Damascus, have been besieged since July 2015 by Syrian government forces. Some 40,000 people are thought to be trapped in the two villages, cut off from electricity and water supplies.
Aid was last delivered to the area in October 2015 and has since run out. A ceasefire agreed in September 2015 was meant to guarantee unimpeded access to aid and the evacuation of injured civilians, but this was not implemented.
Families do not have basic food supplies. Some supplies still make it through the siege lines but these are exorbitantly priced. Families have resorted to foraging in the surrounding woods, where they risk being shot by snipers or blown up by mines.
Mohammad, resident of Madaya Interviewed on 7 January 2016
Every day I wake up and start searching for food. I lost a lot of weight, I look like a skeleton covered only in skin. Every day, I feel that I will faint and not wake up again… I have a wife and three children. We eat once every two days to make sure that whatever we buy doesn’t run out. On other days, we have water and salt and sometimes the leaves from trees. Sometimes organizations distribute food they have bought from suppliers, but they cannot cover the needs of all the people.
In Madaya, you see walking skeletons. The children are always crying. We have many people with chronic diseases. Some told me that they go every day to the checkpoints, asking to leave, but the government won’t allow them out. We have only one field hospital, just one room, but they don’t have any medical equipment or supplies.
In Madaya, you see walking skeletons. The children are always crying.
Um Sultan, resident of Madaya Interviewed on 7 January 2016
The siege became harder and harder as the food ran out. Every day I hear that someone is sick and unable to leave the bed. My husband is now one of them. He can’t leave the bed and when he does, he faints. I don’t recognize him anymore, he is skin and bones. I have asked for help with food but no one can help, we are all in the same mess. The women always protest. We go to checkpoints and beg the Syrian security forces to let us leave or at least allow the food to enter. They told us that “a siege on Kefraya and al-Fouaa means a siege on Madaya”. I have three children and I can’t afford to buy them food. A kilo of rice or sugar is around 100,000 Syrian pounds [equivalent to around US$450]. Who can afford that?
Louay, resident of Madaya Interviewed on 7 January 2016
The last time I had a full meal was at least a month and a half ago. Now I mainly have water with leaves. Winter is here and the trees no longer have leaves, so I am not sure how we will survive. If you have money, you can buy food. But people have also started running out of money because the food is so expensive. I ran out of money a few weeks ago, so now I rely on aid, which does not meet everyone’s needs.
The last time I had a full meal was at least a month and a half ago. Now I mainly have water with leaves.
Al-Fouaa and Kefraya
Al-Fouaa and Kefraya villages, north-east of Idleb city, have been completely encircled by Jaysh al-Fateh, a non-state armed group, since March 2015. Some 30,000 people are believed to be living there. The villages have been heavily shelled. They are also cut off from electricity, water and food supplies. A ceasefire agreed in September 2015 has not been fully implemented.
Mazen, resident of al-Fouaa Interviewed on 7 January 2015
There is no electricity in both villages and there has been no water since March 2015. We have a limited amount of food, and we don’t have vegetables and flour, so there is no bread. We don’t have sugar and rice. Some people are living on the food they saved for emergencies, or on the products that can be prepared without water, or sometimes on supplies that have been dropped by air by the Syrian government.
Three months ago, Jaysh al-Fateh executed two men because they were caught smuggling food to the villages. Their mosques in the nearby villages announced the execution, and warned that the same fate awaited anyone who tried to smuggle even a single loaf of bread.
The armed groups shelled the main water tank a few months ago so we don’t have any water left. We haven’t received any fuel from the UN so we have been using wood to keep warm.
Fadi, resident of al-Fouaa Interviewed on 7 January 2016
Only two weeks ago, the armed groups allowed the Red Crescent to evacuate 336 civilians and injured people. The evacuation should have happened months ago as part of the ceasefire agreement. We don’t have food. I personally do not have any more food left. I used all of the food reserves my family and I had.
Now we are waiting for the aid to arrive but it won’t be enough. We cannot have aid once every few months. People cannot survive. Also, the people with chronic diseases are suffering the most. They do not have access to medicines and many of them were not included on the list of people to be evacuated.
(New York) – The suffering of civilians in the Syrian town of Madaya shows the need for concerted international action to deliver aid to government-besieged areas. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in December 2015 that close to 400,000 people in Syria are under siege, and that only 1 percent had received food assistance and less than 1 percent had received health assistance between September and November.
Local activists and residents in Madaya, under siege since July by both government and allied Hezbollah forces, told Human Rights Watch in phone interviews that the government has prevented aid from going in since October. As a result, residents are suffering from an increasingly severe shortage of food and are dying from lack of medical care, residents and activists said. According to Médecins Sans Frontières, otherwise known as Doctors Without Borders, 23 patients in the health center it supports in Madaya have died of starvationsince December 1.
“The suffering in Madaya should serve as an urgent reminder that the people in besieged areas of Syria are desperate for food, shelter, and health care,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director. “Access to besieged communities should be a test of the intentions of the warring parties, who say they will enter into sincere negotiations later this month.”
The suffering in Madaya should serve as an urgent reminder that the people in besieged areas of Syria are desperate for food, shelter, and health care. Access to besieged communities should be a test of the intentions of the warring parties, who say they will enter into sincere negotiations later this month.
Nadim Houry
Deputy Middle East Director
Under international humanitarian law, all parties to an armed conflict are obligated to facilitate rapid and unimpeded humanitarian assistance to all civilians in need and allow civilians to freely leave an area under siege. Starvation as a method of warfare is prohibited.
On January 7, 2016, the UN said it had brokered a deal with the Syrian government to allow aid to finally enter Madaya and two other towns, Fu`a and Kefraya, in Idlib province, which are under siege by armed groups opposed to the government. The International Committee of the Red Cross said that the aid would be delivered jointly by the UN and the Syrian Red Crescent, hopefully on January 11.
Human Rights Watch spoke to several residents and activists in Madaya. They said the town did not have adequate electricity or water, and that the Syrian government was not allowing people to enter or exit the town, including aid workers trying to reach civilians in need. Doctors said that their patients’ bodies were emaciated and weak due to hunger and that people were resorting to picking through garbage to eat. The UN humanitarian affairs agency said the Madaya area has not had aid or commercial access since October 18, 2015, and that residents were in dire need of food and health supplies.
“Some of us had to kill cats and dogs in order to eat,” Abu Ammar, a Madaya resident, told Human Rights Watch. “Others only have salt and water to keep them going.” The residents are not identified by their full names for their protection.
Um Ayman, a mother of four, said she had lost 30 kilos in just a few months from hunger and was reduced to feeding her children boiled tree leaves with some fat and salt.
“My children wake up in the middle of the night crying because they are hungry,” she said. “But what can I do. I don’t have any food to give them.”
A doctor in Madaya said that medicine and health supplies were in short supply, with health facilities’ emergency rooms flooded with people suffering from fainting spells due to a lack of food and water.
“I can now only give medicine to anyone who is absolutely going to die because otherwise I’ll completely run out,” said Khaled Mohamed, a doctor who works in a field hospital in Madaya. “Sixty percent of the cases I see in the hospital are children suffering from severe malnutrition.”
Doctors sent Human Rights Watch photographs from the field hospital’s emergency room showing emaciated children and adults whom they said were suffering from malnutrition. While the photos could not be independently verified, they are consistent with the conditions residents described.
In February 2014, the UN Security Council passed resolution 2139 to guarantee the delivery of aid, calling all sides in the Syrian war to facilitate humanitarian access to all parts of Syria. In light of the Syrian government’s failure to comply, the council passed resolution 2165 on July 14, 2014, authorizing UN agencies and their implementing partners to deliver aid across four borders not controlled by Syria’s government. Aid organizations have reported that the Syrian government has removed some bureaucratic obstacles but continues to bar access to areas besieged by the government.
On December 18, the Security Council adopted resolution 2254 endorsing a road map for a peace process in Syria and calling on all parties in Syria to “allow immediate, humanitarian assistance to reach all people in need, in particular in all besieged and hard-to-reach areas.”
According to the UN humanitarian affairs agency, 4.5 million people in Syria live in hard-to-reach areas, including 400,000 people in 15 besieged locations. These areas suffer from bombing, and inadequate aid, nutrition, water, and medical care. The agency said, in December, that Madaya had last received a joint convoy of aid on October 18, and that there were medical evacuations in December, but that the Syrian government has denied access to the area since then.
According to the UN, Syrian government forces have 200,000 people under siege in Eastern Ghouta, Daraya, Zabadani, and Madaya; Islamic State (also known as ISIS) forces have 200,000 people under siege in Deir ez-Zour; and armed groups, including the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front, have 12,500 more people under siege in Fu`a and Kefraya, in Idlib.
Madaya, 40 kilometers west of Damascus, the capital, has just over 40,000 people, of whom 17,000 have been displaced from neighboring towns and villages, the UN agency says. The area has been under the control of anti-government forces for almost two years and under siege by government forces since July 2015.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which was allowed to deliver aid to Madaya in October, people were suffering from a shortage of electricity, water, basic medicines, and infant formula.
Countries that are members of the International Syria Support Group, which has been meeting to push for a Syrian peace process, should use their influence with the warring parties to ensure that aid is allowed into all besieged areas, Human Rights Watch said.
“While the Syrian government finally conceded that it would allow aid into Madaya, it shouldn’t take starving children and media outrage for aid to be delivered,” Houry said. “Countries backing a political solution in Syria need to push the warring parties to allow aid to all those suffering in Syria.”
While dozens of Syrian civilians in besieged opposition-held Madaya have starved to death,supporters of Hizballah and the Syrian regime have taunted the dying with images of food on Twitter
Supporters of Hizballah and the Syrian regime are taunting starving residents of besieged Madaya by posting pictures of food on social media.[SICK, SICK!! ARE THESE HUMAN BEINGS??]
Hizballah militants and regime troops have blockaded the village for 200 days, leading to dozens of civilians dying from starvation and hunger-related diseases - including many children.
On Friday, supporters of the Syrian regime and Hizballah posted pictures of thyme pastries, chips, bread, vegetables, and even fully stocked fridges.
A hashtag was started to encourage more opponents of the Syrian revolution to taunt the starving civilians of Madaya by posting pictures of their meals.
"In Solidarity with the siege of Madaya" comes days after thousands used the Twitter hashtag "In solidarity with Madaya" to post images of victims of the siege, and show the world starving children on the brink of death.
It began on Friday with a Facebook post from one Lebanese supporter of the Syrian regime of a picture of manaqeesh - an Arabic pastry - and a full bowl of fresh vegetables.
He mockingly asked his Facebook friends to think of a hashtag to show "solidarity with Madaya" and post more images of food.
The post appears to have been removed by the Bashar al-Assad supporter a day later, perhaps due to the backlash.
Since then, thousands have used the hashtag to mock the starving of Madaya, while many more have used it to attack callous Hizballah supporters.
The Red Cross said on Saturday, that workers would not be able to get critically needed aid to the Syrian town until Sunday.
It is expected that more than50 people could die from hunger or disease each day that aid does not arrive.
حسام كنفاني Link لم يعد بإمكان أحد التشكيك بعملية التجويع القائمة في مضايا السورية، في ظل الصور والفيديوهات الآتية من هناك، والتي تكشف عن ويلات الإبادة الجماعية الحاصلة للشعب السوري على يد النظام وحلفائه، وخصوصاً حزب الله اللبناني المتورّط مباشرة بحصار المدينة وأهلها. الحزب وآلاته الإعلامية ومناصروه، وبعدما أصبحوا في مرمى انتقاداتٍ امتدت إلى داخل البيئة الحاضنة له، وإنْ على استحياء، لم يجدوا وسيلة للتشكيك في الصور، إلا بالإشارة إلى أهدافها، وتحديداً "تشويه صورة المقاومة"، وهي بالنسبة لهم عبارة لها وقع سحري في أوساط الممانعين الذين ربما أضعفت صور مضايا "إيمانهم"، وزعزعت "قناعاتهم". لم يشر بيان الحزب، ولا كلام مناصريه، إلى اسم حزب الله تحديداً، بل بقي الكلام عاماً عن "المقاومة"، من دون الحديث حتى عن مقاومة من. هي "المقاومة" بعموميتها وتفسيراتها وإسقاطاتها وتأويلاتها، والتي يتولى حزب الله الحق الحصري في إدارتها كيفما شاء. وبالتالي، هو يمكن أن يقاتل ويقتل السوريين في مضايا والزبداني وحلب، وغيرها من المناطق، باعتبار هذا جزءاً من "العمل المقاوم"، وهو سيجد من أنصاره المؤازرة والتأييد. وهذا ما حصل فعلياً في أكثر من مناسبة، من دون أن يحتاج الحزب وأنصاره إلى شن حملة مضادة لـ "تبييض صورة المقاومة". لكن، من الواضح أن ما يحدث في مضايا شيء مختلف لم يستطع حزب الله تكذيبه، أو التخفيف من وطأته، إلا باللجوء إلى مثل هذه الشعارات، لإعادة شد عصب مؤيديه، ومن يدورون في فلكه بالدرجة الأولى، خصوصاً أن عملية الفرز الحاصلة منذ اندلاع الثورة السورية لم تترك المجال، إلا قليلاً، لمكان وسطي، فالمؤكد أن حزب الله، وحملته المضادة، لا تستهدف الجموع في الأمة العربية الذين كانوا يقفون إلى جانبه خلال العدوان على لبنان في يوليو/تموز 2006، فتلك مرحلة ولّت إلى غير رجعة، قبل حتى انطلاق الثورات العربية ووصولها إلى سورية. إذ تكفّل الحزب بنفسه بتشويه صورته وصورة مقاومته منذ 2008 وانخراطه الحربي في الداخل اللبناني، قبل أن ينتقل إلى القتال إلى جانب نظام بشار الأسد، وهو ما فاقم وضع "الصورة" سوءاً، حتى في أوساط الفلسطينيين الذين يدّعي الحزب أنهم بوصلة تحركاته. إذاً الصورة مشوّهة تلقائياً، ولا حاجة لها إلى مزيد من التشويه، في حال كان الحزب حريصاً على هذه الصورة خارج محيط بيئته وممانعيه، وهو بالتأكيد غير ذلك، فهو لم يخرج لينفي أنه ضالع في الحصار والتجويع، بل أكد ذلك بشكل غير مباشر. كل ما في الأمر أنه سعى إلى التقليل من حجم ما يحصل في مضايا، مستفيداً من بعض الصور المفبركة التي استخدمتها صفحات مؤيدة للثورة السورية لوصف الوضع في مضايا. وعلى الرغم من أن هذه الصور لا تزيد على اثنتين أو ثلاث، إلا أن الجيش الإعلامي لحزب الله وجد فيها سلاحاً لـ "تحسين الصورة"، متجاهلاً عشرات التسجيلات المصورة، ومئات الصور الأخرى غير المفبركة التي تشهد على ما وصلت إليه الأمور في مضايا. وبناء عليه، أطلق العنان للإعلاميين الموالين له للسخرية من جوع البشر وموتهم في مضايا، فشاهدنا مراسلين وصحافيين يأخذون على عاتقهم تسجيل رسائل خاصة في هذا الإطار، لبثها وسط الأنصار. في الأساس، هذه هي الغاية، فصورة المقاومة باتت مشوهة أساساً في أوساط من كان يناصرها سابقاً، وهذا التشويه بدأ يتسرب فعلياً إلى أوساط أخرى، لم تحسم خيارها، أو لا تزال تميل إلى تصديق أن هناك مقاومة وأهدافاً سامية يسعى إليها الحزب. لأجل هؤلاء، تأتي الحملة المضادة، أما من يضمن الحزب ولاءهم، فلا حاجة لبذل أي مجهود للتأثير على رأيهم المسلوب كلياً، والغارق في "حب المقاومة" إلى درجة العمى. هؤلاء يرددون، بشكل ببغائي، كل ما يورده الحزب، وهم بدأوا فعلياً بترداد معزوفة "تشويه صورة المقاومة" في رده على أي محاججة في قضية مضايا وأهلها وحصارها.
نصري حجاج Link مُحق مخيم تل الزعتر من الوجود قبل أربعين عاماً، بعد حصار استمر حوالى ثلاثة شهور في صيف العام 1976. تم تجويع أهل المخيم والمسلحين الذين دافعوا عنه، وقُتل في الحصار أكثر من ثلاثة الآف إنسان، أطفالاً ونساءً ورجالاً، فلسطينيين ولبنانيين وأكراد، كانوا يسكنون المخيم وأطرافه. أحكم مسلحو الجبهة اللبنانية التي ضمت أحزاباً مسيحية مارونية، تساندهم قوات النظام السوري، وقوات من الجيش اللبناني بقيادة ميشيل عون، وبإشراف الجنرال الإسرائيلي بنيامين فؤاد أليعازر، الحصار على المخيم في بيروت الشرقية، والذي أنشئ بعد نكبة 1948، بقرار من الحكومة اللبنانية، وبدعم من هيئات دولية، ليضم اللاجئين الفلسطينيين، ثم لينضم إلى هؤلاء فقراء لبنانيون من الطائفة الشيعية، وفقراء أكراد لبنانيون، ليشكل فيما بعد، مع مناطق النبعة وجسر الباشا وحرج ثابت، ما سمي حزام البؤس حول بيروت. كان سكان تل الزعتر من المسلمين السنة والشيعة، وبعيداً عن التحليلات السياسية القديمة والحديثة للحرب الأهلية اللبنانية في منتصف السبعينات، فإن حصاره، ومن ثم سقوطه بأيدي قوات المليشيات المسيحية وحلفائها، ومحقه من الوجود وتهجير من تبقوا أحياء من سكانه إلى المنطقة الغربية من بيروت، ومن ثم هجرة غالبيتهم إلى دول أوروبا الغربية، كل هذا كان عملية تطهير عرقي وطائفي، أعادت المنطقة إلى نقائها الطائفي المسيحي، ما قبل العام 1948 ودخول الفلسطينين والأكراد السنة واللبنانيين الشيعة. أدى ذلك الحصار الذي لا يزال ماثلاً في الذاكرة الجمعية الفلسطينية، وأدى إلى موت عائلات كاملة جوعاً، وعطشاً بعد قطع شبكات المياه، وقنصاً في محاولات مميتة لجلب المياه من آبار مكشوفة لبنادق قناصي الجبهة اللبنانية. ولم يكن يخطر في بال أحد أنه سوف يتكرر بعد عشر سنوات في لبنان، بين عامي 1985 و1987، فيما سميّت حرب المخيمات، حيث حاصرت قوات حركة أمل الشيعية، مدعومة من قوات النظام السوري، وبعض الفصائل الفلسطينية التابعة له، مخيمات شاتيلا وبرج البراجنة في بيروت والرشيدية القريب من مدينة صور الجنوبية، في اندفاعة قاتلة، استمرت ثلاث سنوات، لوقف ما رآه النظام السوري، وحليفته حركة أمل، التمدد الفلسطيني العرفاتي في لبنان، بعد الترحيل الأول لقوات المنظمة من بيروت بعد الاجتياح الاسرائيلي عام 1982، والترحيل الثاني من شمال لبنان، على أيدي القوات السورية عام 1983 . كان نهج التجويع والتعطيش السمة المشتركة لحصارَي تل الزعتر والمخيمات في منتصف الثمانينات، ما دفع المحاصرين إلى أكل الحشائش والحشرات والكلاب والقطط، وكان الترحيل سمة مشتركة أيضاً. في تل الزعتر، تم ترحيل من بقوا على قيد الحياة من النساء والأطفال والشيوخ، وتم تجريف المخيم بالكامل. وفي شاتيلا، تم ترحيل المقاتلين الأحياء إلى مخيمات أخرى خارج بيروت، وأحكم اللواء السادس في الجيش اللبناني، التابع لحركة أمل، مع القوات السورية، الحصار على حركة الدخول والخروج من المخيم. وفي الحصارين، كان النظام السوري بيضة القبّان التي رجّحت وقوع الكارثة الإنسانية. يعيد الفاشيون الطائفيون، اليوم، مستفيدين من التجربة الصهيونية، وقبلها النازية، معلمي التطهير العرقي، التجربة من جديد، في أبشع عملية تطهير طائفي عرفتها المنطقة، في سورية، وتحديداً في القرى السنية المتاخمة للحدود اللبنانية مع سورية، الزبداني ومضايا مثالاً، حيث يحاصر جيش النظام السوري وقوات حزب الله الشيعي هاتين القريتين، ويقوم بتجويع السكان، ودفع المدافعين عنهما إلى الاستسلام أمام قسوة جوع الأطفال والمسنين وموتهم، والقبول بالنزوح القسري عن بيوتهم، حيث سيتم إحلال سكان جدد من الطائفة الشيعية مكانهم، بحجة حماية الحدود اللبنانية من خطر التكفيريين! اليوم، يتعرّض سكان مضايا إلى أبشع عملية إبادة، من خلال التجويع على أيدي من يدعّون مظلومية تاريخية، لوثها الحقد الطائفي ونزعة الاستقواء.
Media interest in Isis has overshadowed the humanitarian catastrophe occurring at the hands of pro-Assad forces. The Syrian conflct is more complex than good v evil Lina Khatib
Horrific images and stories of starving children have suddenly flooded the media as the reality of life in the town of Madaya in Syria, besieged by Syrian regime sources and Hezbollah, has surfaced. But what is perhaps more shocking than the images is how the deliberate targeting of the population of Madaya has been taking place since July 2015 without the international community noticing.
This is despite activists in Madaya desperately trying to direct global attention to the atrocities committed there by the Syrian regime and its ally Hezbollah. It is only when the situation in Madaya reached the level of mass starvation that the international media have paid attention.
The Syrian regime and Hezbollah have put Madaya under siege for more than six months now as a response to the siege of the northern towns of Fua and Kefraya by anti-regime forces. In besieging Madaya and neighbouring Zabadani on the Lebanese border, the regime is trying to pressure its rebel opponents to agree to a population transfer between the two sets of towns that would consolidate regime control over Syrian towns bordering Lebanon. The regime’s plan is to empty Zabadani and Madaya from Sunni residents and populate them with Shia who would be brought in from Fua and Kefraya. This “sectarian cleansing” would allow the Shia Hezbollah to consolidate its control over areas serving as supply lines for regime strongholds in Damascus and the Syrian coast (the Sahel) as well as for Hezbollah itself.
Madaya is not the only town in Syria being starved by the regime. And its population is not unique in enduring regime barrel bombing and other atrocities. But the humanitarian catastrophes in Syria have been overshadowed by stories about Islamic State. Much media attention is directed at Isis activities both in Syria and worldwide, while the conditions of life in Syria in areas beyond Isis territories are relatively ignored, especially in the western media.
One reason for this selective attention is that Isis is now a global problem. It has many Europeans in its ranks, and has engaged in attacks in the west. As such, Isis has become closer to being considered “our problem” by the west, while the wider problems faced by Syrians are relegated to the status of issues “far away”.
Isis is also a recognisable evil. It is an entity on which there is agreement by states around the world, probably all of whom consider it a terrorist organisation. Its mode of operation, based on severe violence, may be an upgraded form of what groups such as al-Qaida engage in but it is ultimately familiar. It also fits within the type of “evil” stemming from the Middle East that the western media have been covering for decades – violent Islamic extremism. It is much more comfortable to fall back on familiar tropes that require little explanation than to explore the nuances of a different type of oppression, such as a brutal regime engaged in mass slaughter and starvation of its own populations, especially when this regime tries to sell itself as the best guarantee against extremism in Syria.
And here lies the heart of the issue, which is that the Syrian conflict is proving to be too complicated for a media landscape with a short attention span, and for global audiences with little background in the current affairs and history of the Middle East. It is also a conflict that has been going on for almost five years, generating media fatigue.
What is needed is not spontaneous panic that highlights crises then promptly dies down, but sustained, active focus on the multiple dimensions of the conflict beyond the problem of Isis, and a commitment to seeking to report facts that take us out of our comfort zone.
BRUSSELS—Syrian government forces have laid siege for months to the town of Madaya, in Syria’s Rural Damascus Governorate, depriving roughly 20,000 residents of food and medicine and causing death by starvation, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today, calling for an immediate delivery of lifesaving medicine and medical evacuations, in addition to food supplies.
Since a single food distribution on October 18, the siege has tightened into a complete stranglehold.Twenty-three patients have died of starvation at an MSF-supported health center in Madaya since December 1.
"Madaya is now effectively an open-air prison for an estimated 20,000 people, including infants, children, and elderly,” said Brice de le Vingne, MSF director of operations. "The medics we support report injuries and deaths by bullets and landmines among people that tried to leave Madaya. The desperation is so acute that yesterday people rioted trying to seize the last food available at an MSF-supported distribution point, which was intended to provide for the most vulnerable."
Six of those who died of starvation at the MSF-supported center were infants under one year old, and five were adults over 60 years old. Eighteen were male and five were female. MSF is extremely alarmed for the patients currently under treatment, and for the 20,000 residents who have had little to eat for months.
"This is a clear example of the consequences of using siege as a military strategy," de le Vingne said. "Now that the siege has tightened, the doctors we support have empty pharmacy shelves and increasing lines of starving and sick patients to treat. Medics are even resorting to feeding severely malnourished children with medical syrups, as they are the only source of sugar and energy, thereby accelerating the consumption of the few remaining medical supplies."
The situation in Madaya is an extreme example of sieges that are in place in many parts of Syria, enforced by both the Syrian government and by armed opposition groups.
MSF has been supporting a medical facility and a food distribution point in Madaya since August 2015, when the siege started tightening around the town. Although difficult, at first it was still possible to supply food and medicines, but it has since become totally impossible to get anything through the siege lines.
Below-freezing temperatures in this mountainous area are increasing the suffering, particularly for sick patients. Heating fuel must be included in aid to Madaya, as people trying to collect firewood are at risk of landmines and gunfire.
While there are reports that the Syrian government will now allow food supplies into the area, medical needs are also critical. Local medical staff are working under unbearable conditions, which are now exacerbated by food insecurity. MSF calls for an immediate medical evacuation of sick patients to a safe place for treatment and for immediate and sustained access to lifesaving medical supplies for the civilian population in Madaya.
Lebanon's Hezbollah was, until a few years ago, an inspiration to millions of people in the Middle East and around the world. It was a symbol of heroic resistance putting up a long fight to liberate the occupied territories of south Lebanon and continuing to stand up to Israeli aggression post-liberation.
There was a time when Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, was hailed as “master of the resistance”. His pictures were posted all over Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and were treasured by households across the Arab world. When he gave one of his usually long speeches, people were glued to TV sets and his Almanar satellite TV channel was no less popular than Al Jazeera itself. Many Palestinians truly believed Nasrallah was such a great resistance leader and they wished they had someone like him to lead their own resistance.
Yet today Hezbollah has lost much of the popular support and sympathy it once enjoyed and its leader Nasrallah is ridiculed and condemned by many of those who previously adored him. It is fighting a completely different type of war. Acting upon instructions from its sponsors in Tehran, where a reactionary clerical regime reigns, it is fighting a war in defence of a corrupt despotic regime that reigns in Damascus.
Unlike Hezbollah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement – which saw itself as a partner of Hezbollah in the struggle against Zionism, refused to bow to pressure from the Iranians. Although Syria was, according to Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, the best haven Hamas ever had outside Palestine, the movement opted to sacrifice all the privileges it had there so as to avoid taking any part in oppressing the Syrian people.
Since leaving Damascus four years ago, Meshaal turned down several invitations from the Iranians to visit Tehran, whose rulers made his visit a precondition for the resumption of any financial aid. Undoubtedly, the Syrian crisis drove deep a wedge between Hamas on the one hand and Hezbollah and Iran on the other.
Since the war started more than four years ago, there have been numerous reports of war crimes perpetrated by Hezbollah troops and other Iranian-sponsored Shia militias in various parts of Syria. Yet nothing has been as shocking as what Hezbollah is accused of perpetrating these days.
Videos and images coming out of the district of Madaya on the outskirts of Damascus are reminiscent of World War II images of concentration camp victims of Nazism. Men, women and children have been dying daily due to starvation and harsh winter weather. The victims and activists seeking to bring their plight to world attention have accused Hezbollah forces of laying siege to the district preventing any passage of aid to its several thousand inhabitants. The tragedy is that this was one of the Syrian districts that provided shelter to Lebanese pro-Hezbollah communities when they were forced to flee their towns and villages in the south of Lebanon when Israel waged its devastating July 2006 war against them.
Iran and Hezbollah, who both once claimed to stand in support of the oppressed in this world, are today tools of oppression, tormenting and persecuting the Syrian people. Both Hezbollah and its Iranian sponsor are equal partners with the Assad regime and bear responsibility for the millions who have fled their homes, the hundreds of thousands who have been killed and the many thousands who are today being starved to death.
Yet, Iran and Hezbollah would not have had a free hand to kill, maim and torture the Syrian population had it not been for an international community that seemed unbothered with what was going on. Regional and international players have had their own reckoning and their own priorities. Throughout the past four years, the United States and its Western allies had their eyes set on the goal of concluding a deal with Iran over its nuclear programme.
In order to guarantee themselves success they were keen not to provoke the Iranians or alienate them. At the same time, these Western powers, together with many regional ones, deemed it unhelpful to them for democratic transition to succeed anywhere in the Arab world lest it might deliver to power groups with which they shared little vision if any at all.
The only thing that seems to be worth the attention of the international community has been the war on terrorism, which means specifically the campaign targeting Sunni Islamic groups from the most extreme, such as the Islamic State (IS) group, to the most moderate such as the Muslim Brotherhood. The irony is that IS emerged and rose to prominence only after the Muslim Brotherhood's peaceful quest for democratisation was frustrated, particularly following the military coup in Egypt and the tragedy of Rabaa. We are yet to see what the tragedy of Syria's Madaya will unleash.
Azzam Tamimi is a Palestinian British academic and chairman of Alhiwar TV Channel. His books include: Hamas: Unwritten Chapters (Hurst, 2007) and Rachid Ghannouchi: a Democrat within Islamism (OUP, 2001).
This article was first published by middleeasteye.net on Thursday 7th January 2016.
Residents of a Syrian town a few dozen miles from the capital, Damascus, say they are dying of starvation as a result of a months-long siege by forces loyal to the government of Bashar al-Assad.
Families are eating leaves, grasses and water flavoured with spices in the town of Madaya, where rice is sold by the gram because a kilogram costs as much as $250 (£170). Some have killed and eaten their pets.
“People are dying in slow motion,” said Louay, a social worker from the town told the Guardian in a phone interview, his voice weakened by months of abject hunger. “We had some flowers growing in pots at home. Yesterday, we picked the petals and ate them, but they were bitter, awful.”
He sent pictures of emaciated bodies of several elderly men, recent casualties of the starvation. He had not taken the pictures himself, but said the men were well known in the town.
“We used to say nobody could ever die from hunger, but we have seen people actually die of hunger.”
A boy being pushed in a buggy in Madaya. Activists say many people in town are too weak to walk.
Other activists inside the town also shared pictures of starving children, one being pushed in a buggy far too small for him because he is too weak to walk.
Others who can still move around, and should normally be in school, are risking their lives trying to collect plants in minefields around the town’s outskirts, and several have lost limbs, residents said.
It was not possible to verify their claims because of the siege, but several independent accounts were consistent in describing life in a town desperately short of food, medicine and electricity.
“Whether you are a man, woman, child, whether you’re 70 or 20 years old, you will have lost about 15kg of your weight,” said Ebrahem Abbass, a defector who had served as a sergeant in the Syrian army. “You don’t see a child whose eyes aren’t sunken and staring from hunger.”
Up to 30,000 people have been trapped in Madaya since July, under a tight siege by pro-government forces. They say they are being treated as pawns in a complicated power play, punished for the suffering of two villages hundreds of miles away at the hand of anti-government troops.
In the spring of last year, a rebel coalition known as Jaysh al-Fateh captured large swaths of north-western Syria from the Assad regime, surrounding two Shia enclaves in Idlib province called Fua and Kefraya, whose citizens are also enduring a debilitating siege.
Assad’s forces are now starving Madaya and neighbouring Zabadani, once a stronghold of the opposition, after a punishing six-month campaign.
Under a ceasefire deal, foreign backers of the government and the opposition are attempting to orchestrate a population swap, essentially a peaceful “sectarian cleansing”.
So far they have only managed to agree on an evacuation of wounded individuals on both sides and safe passage for a single aid delivery in October.
That allowed convoys to reach Madaya, Zabadani, Fua and Kefraya simultaneously, but supplies only lasted a few days, residents said.
“I swear by God, and you might not believe me because it sounds fantastical, I tried to buy some food today, but a kilo of rice is 100,000 [Syrian] pounds,” said Louay. “A kilo of rice, bulgur, lentil, sugar – 100,000, 100,000, 100,000. That is if you can find it.”
At the black market exchange rate that would be close to £170 for rice.
“I’ve personally seen people slaughtering cats to eat them, and even the trees have been stripped of leaves now,” he added.
People are so weak that they often faint, and hunger is made worse by the biting cold in an area about 1,300 metres above sea level, near the border with Lebanon.
Though a wooded hill is nearby, snipers have a clear shot, and residents said more than a dozen people had been killed trying to retrieve firewood. They also said children had lost limbs trying to gather grass to eat from nearby fields.
“They blocked all the roads to both towns, and there are a lot of mines,” said one teacher in Madaya, who did not want to give his name because of relatives in areas under government control. “There is no way to explain, the students are always complaining they are hungry, but they have to study.”
An aid official who visited Madaya and Zabadani in October as part of the convoy said he saw “deep suffering”.
“There was a very dramatic appeal from the children in those two places, and the same dramatic appeal from Fua and Kefraya,” he said. “The children should not be suffering.”
The official said he hoped for more agreements to deliver aid. But for now, the people in all the besieged towns suffer in a tragedy that is not of their making.
“Here, we no longer call on anyone,” said Louay. “We have called for help so many times and nobody has heard us. But we want to ask the officials and decision-makers out there, if you were in this position, and your children were dying from hunger in front of you, what would be your reaction to the world outside that let you down? Don’t forget to ask your readers this question.”
