WANTED for targeting hospitals

Putin and Assad’s forces are bombing hospitals—again.

The truth about the White Helmets.

By Flora Bain

Last week Syria was centre stage, not on the news channels for once, but at Hollywood’s biggest event of the year. The Oscar for best short documentary was awarded to The White Helmets, a film showing the heroism of Syria’s volunteer rescuers. The film’s director Orlando von Einsiedel read out a message from Raed Saleh, head of Syria Civil Defence: Their work, he said, is guided by the verse in the Qur’an ‘To save one life is to save all of humanity,’ and he called for peace in Syria. Celebrities rose to their feet in recognition of his call.

In response, Russia’s Embassy to the UK posted this cartoon on their Twitter account. At first I thought it must be a hoax—the real Russian Embassy tweeting this image? The creator of this image Iad Tawil (who describes himself as ‘a secular Syrian’) has playing into the most pernicious stereotypes of his fellow countrymen. Using nakedly racist imagery, the cartoon depicts a thick lipped man, shaggy beard trailing down his chest, a suicide vest beneath an camouflage shirt. On his head is a white helmet, in his hand a shiny Oscar statuette shrinks away from him.

Who would want to attack the White Helmets? To date they have saved over 82,000 lives. Formed as self organised groups of volunteer rescuers in late 2012 in areas that were independent of the regime, these volunteer first responders joined together as Syrian Civil Defence in 2014. Numbering 3,000 people, they are ordinary men (and some 70 women) who risk their lives to help others. These are the people that run towards the burning buildings, the ones lifting rubble with their hands to reach buried children, who they are sometimes able to rescue alive.

Yet people do attack them. The best way to understand this might be to ask who is doing the attacks? And what’s in it for them?

The cartoon is just the tip of the iceberg of the vast quantity of propaganda directed against Syria Civil Defence rescuers. On the night of the Oscars, the first media outlet to post in any depth about the award was Russia Today—or ‘RT’ as they have been rebranded—an outlet funded by the Russian state. They had obviously prepared. The headline? ‘Film about Syrian White Helmets Wins Oscar Amid Allegations of Terrorist Ties’. These allegations come from Russia and from the Syrian Regime.

The term post-truth is used to imply that the truth does not exist, but the truth is still there, it’s just that people are less confident about where to find it, and the trolls are ready to exploit this. Using images and strategies straight out of the propagandists handbook, they repeat lies until they acquire a veneer of truth.

One of the favourite smears of the many propaganda sites and Russian paid trolls is the accusation that the White Helmets are connected to Al Qaeda. They cite their presence in areas in which the Al Qaeda linked Al Nusra Front is present to imply this connection. The White Helmets operate with a policy of neutrality (which has included rescuing regime soldiers) and consequently work in areas controlled by many different groups.

The second favourite smear is that they are Western dupes—by receiving financial support from the US, UK and others they are unwitting pawns in the Western imperialist war. What is most striking is that the accusation itself shows a Western imperialist and racist attitude, unable to imagine that Syrians might think and act for themselves. While the UK should be ashamed of its failure to act against the Assad regime’s killing of civilians, giving practical support to the support the courageous work of the White Helmets (such as equipment donated by London Fire Brigade) is something to be proud of.

So we get to the why. Both these smears play to the advantage of the Assad regime and Russia. The White Helmets are a threat to them. By showing humanity and bravery, the White Helmets prove daily that there is a better alternative to the Assad regime’s savagery. The White Helmets have a media unit to communicate and record their work and through recording their work, people also see the abuses—bombing, chemical weapon use, phosphorus, that have been perpetrated by the Assad regime and Russia upon Syrian people.

In the simplest terms, the White Helmets are also a practical obstacle. They are trying to save the very lives that the Assad regime is trying to control and extinguish, and so the regime treats them as a target. On the same day the Oscar was awarded another Syria Civil Defence centre was hit by aerial bombardment in Idlib. To date 154 volunteers have died in their work.

Syria Civil Defence rescuers are also vulnerable to persecution by the regime. In the evacuation of Aleppo, White Helmets volunteer Abdulhadi Kamel was abducted by pro regime forces, and a forced confession was broadcast. Amnesty International and the White Helmets are campaigning for his release.

We talk of post truth but ultimately the truth must be heard. This is precisely why the documentary, and the award of the Oscar was such a threat to the regime and Russia. Watch the film, follow the White Helmets, and tell people you know about their heroism and about the need for peace in Syria, because that’s what the propaganda cannot be allowed to hide.

Save Aleppo activists call on UK to say no to Putin’s bloody money

Syria Solidarity activists today protested outside the Russian British Business Forum, to call for sanctions on Russia. The conference, which promises to ‘bring together business and finance officials from Russia and the UK,’ has been organised by the Russian Trade delegation in the UK. The event is being held at The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in central London even as Putin’s bombers destroy Aleppo, intentionally targeting hospitals and schools, and indiscriminately killing men, women and children.

Activists in ‘Save Aleppo’ t-shirts offered ‘bloody money’ leaflets to delegates and let off confetti canons as they entered the conference, and offered ‘bloody money’ to the Russian Ambassador as he arrived. Since the resumption of the Russian and Syrian regimes’ bombardment of Aleppo on November 15th, over 500 civilians have been killed. Tens of thousands of them are fleeing from Russian jets—many bombed as they seek escape.



Amr Salahi, a Syrian activist who was outside the conference this morning, said ‘On Monday Theresa May said “business as usual” with Russia is not an option, yet today we witness a trade event going ahead as planned. We urge the UK business community to think carefully: any company that continues to trade with Russia at this time will be associated with its war crimes in Aleppo and risk lasting reputational damage.’

He added: ‘The UK and the EU have already imposed some sanctions on the Putin regime for its illegal annexation of the Crimea, but businesses in the UK are still able to trade with Russia, and Russian banks still have access to the SWIFT international banking system.’

‘The reality is that current sanctions have not been enough to deter Putin from further violence against the Ukraine, nor from his campaign to destroy all popular democratic resistance to the Assad regime. The world has no legitimate business with a regime which is currently exterminating an entire city, and committing war crimes, in order to keep a dictator in power.’

Flora Bain, part of the Syria Solidarity Campaign UK, said ‘The truth is that UK trade with Russia taints us all with the blood of Syria’s children. The price of allowing Putin’s aggression to continue is too high. We must act now.’

Activists will be protesting outside the conference all day to call on the UK Government and business sector to:

• Freeze all trade with Russia until its military stops targeting Syrian civilians.
• Demand that Russia is cut out of the SWIFT international banking system to make it more difficult for Putin’s regime to do business abroad.
• Join the growing calls for a UN General Assembly emergency session to bypass the Russian UNSC veto and allow measures to protect civilians in Syria.

Syria Solidarity UK is a grassroots solidarity group of Syrian and UK activists. Contact: info@syriauk.org

More information on the conference and a full list of speakers is available at www.easternseasons.com/forum2016

Say NO to killer Putin’s bloody money

Russo-British Chamber of Commerce promotes trade with Russia at Westminster event

The world watched in horror over the past few days, weeks and months as Putin’s bombers destroyed Aleppo, intentionally targeting hospitals and schools, deliberately destroying a UN aid convoy, and indiscriminately killing men, women and children.

Since the resumption of Russian and Syrian bombardment of Aleppo on November 15th, over 500 civilians have been killed. As you read this, tens of thousands more are fleeing from Russian jets, many bombed even as they seek escape.

Now, even as these war crimes continue, the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce has decided it would be a good time to promote trade links with Russia with an event at  The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in the heart of Westminster.

Theresa May said yesterday that ‘business as usual’ with Russia is not an option. The UK and the EU have already imposed some sanctions on the Putin regime for its illegal annexation of the Crimea, but businesses in the UK are still able to trade with Russia, and Russian banks still have access to the SWIFT international banking system.

Current sanctions are not enough to deter Putin from aggressive acts against Ukraine, nor from his campaign to keep Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in power by destroying every vestige of popular democratic resistance to the regime.

Putin claims to fight terrorism in Syria, but military observers have documented that hardly any Russian airstrikes actually target ISIS. Instead Putin’s target is those Syrian communities which reject Assad. The world has no legitimate business with a regime which is currently exterminating an entire city in order to keep a dictator in power.

UK trade with Russia taints us all with the blood of Putin’s crimes. Putin’s and Assad’s war against the Syrian population has driven millions to flee, and has helped destabilise politics across Europe. Putin’s actions in Syria and Ukraine undermine the rule of law and threaten all our futures. The price of allowing Putin’s aggressions to continue is too high.

We call on the UK Government and UK business sector to:

• Freeze all trade with Russia until the Putin regime ceases its targeting of Syrian civilians.
• Demand that Russia is cut out of the SWIFT international banking system to make it much more difficult for Putin’s regime to do business abroad.
• Join the growing calls for a UN General Assembly emergency session to bypass the Russian UNSC veto on international measures to protect civilians in Syria.

We urge the UK business community to think carefully; any company that continues to trade with Russia risks lasting damage through association with a regime guilty of ongoing crimes against humanity.

We urge the UK Government to immediately impose a no-bombing zone on Aleppo and all opposition held areas of Syria. We urge the UK Government to carry out emergency aid drops to Aleppo and other besieged areas from its base in Adana, only 15 minutes flying time away. Break the starvation siege that Putin and Assad are imposing on hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

Today’s action at the Russian Embassy, London

Press release:

Peace activists blockade Russian Embassy in London to protest ‘annihilation’ of Aleppo

Campaigners demand action amid fears of major new offensive

London, 3rd November 2016 — A group of 25 peace activists have blockaded the front gate of the Russian Embassy in London in protest at the bombing of civilians in east Aleppo.

At 1400, 25 activists from two campaign groups The Syria Campaign and Syria Solidarity UK placed a structure made from white mannequin ‘limbs’ next to the front gate, while two others locked themselves to the gate itself.

Others scattered over 800 limbs around the gates, to symbolise the horrific impact of Russia’s use of cluster bombs and other banned weapons in the besieged city.

John Dunford from the Syria Campaign is one of those locked on. He said:

“We’re here because innocent children are being killed in their beds, while doctors are being bombed just for trying to save the lives of others. The Russian government and the Assad regime are committing these war crimes in Aleppo and things could be about to get even worse.

“We will not stand by and let this happen. This is a test of our shared humanity, a line we cannot cross. It shouldn’t be up to activists like me to say this – the UK government should be doing far more to protect the innocent and stand up against this barbarity.”

Police are on the scene but no arrests have yet been made.

The campaigners are calling on the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to increase the pressure on Russia, including by announcing new sanctions against Russian financial interests in the UK.

According to leaked intelligence briefings, Russia could be about to launch a major new assault on the embattled city as soon as this week. Warships and submarines have been sent to the region over the past few days, while leaflets dropped on residents have warned of ‘annihilation’ if they fail to surrender.

Amr Salahi from Syria Solidarity UK is also at the protest. He said:

“We have to stop the bombs. We have to stop the attacks on schools, on hospitals, on aid workers. We have to act now to stop Russia and the regime wilfully killing children, mothers and fathers, the deliberate starving of the old, the deliberate targeting of doctors and nurses.

“The Russian government claims to be fighting terror, but bombing aid trucks is not fighting terror. They are inflicting terror on Syria and on all of us, and we reject their propaganda.”

“The bombing of Aleppo is not just an attack on Syrians. It is an attack on humanitarian law. The Russian government and Assad are shredding international agreements and laws that exist for the protection of all of us. To save Syria is to save ourselves.”

ENDS

For interviews contact: media@thesyriacampaign.org

A more detailed briefing on the action can be found here
Photos and video:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fi08j6pcqy5acsz/AACBgek-ssKe7oZXZTtB3DlMa?dl=0

NOTES

827 people have been killed in besieged Aleppo, 140 of them children, since September 20th according to rescue workers from the Syria Civil Defence, or White Helmets.

Last week the UN aid chief Stephen O’Brien described himself as ‘incandescent with rage’ over the current situation in Syria. He cited a leaflet, dropped on the residents of Aleppo by Syrian regime aircraft, which warned that they faced ‘annihilation’ if they refused to surrender.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/27/russia-and-syria-accused-of-planning-the-annihilation-of-aleppo/

The Times newspaper reported on Monday that the Russian government was planning a major new assault on Aleppo, according to leaked intelligence documents. Since then, the Russian government has issued a new ultimatum to residents of Aleppo suggesting that a major assault could begin as soon as this weekend.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/putin-set-to-launch-huge-attack-on-aleppo-ktrfqtq5r

Protest against Russian aggression in Syria and Ukraine

London Euromaidan and Syria Solidarity UK joined the global protest against Russian aggression and Putin’s criminal actions on Friday 14th October. We called upon the UK Government and the international community to confront Putin for his war crimes against the people of Syria, Ukraine and Georgia.

We urge the UK government to work with international allies to introduce a no-fly zone over Aleppo, as well as to apply a blanket freeze on assets of all Russian oligarchs, Russian government officials and their family members in the UK.

Below is our letter to the Prime Minister.

We call on the UK Government to:

• Introduce a no-fly zone over Aleppo, Syria in partnership with international allies.
• Freeze the assets of all Russian oligarchs, government officials and their families in the UK. 
• Introduce further sanctions on Russian Federation, including suspension of the Russian banking system from SWIFT.    
• Investigate the role of the Russian propaganda channel, RT (Russia Today), in promoting extremism, and ethnic hatred in the UK.  
• Support the uninterrupted and comprehensive surveillance of the Ukrainian border with the Russian Federation by an international peacekeeping mission including extending OSCE monitoring of the border to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  

We call on the Government of the Russian Federation to fully withdraw forces from Ukraine and Syria; to return all Russian military personnel, weapons and military equipment back to Russia; and to release all Ukrainian citizens who are illegally held in custody—both in Russia and in Crimea—on politically motivated and trumped-up charges.

We—the people and friends of Syria and Ukraine—want an end to Putin’s killings of civilians, including children, and humanitarian workers in Syria and the east of Ukraine.  We call on the British people to help us stop further loss of human life.  Please support our cause.

The Flames of Aleppo

Syrians and Syria Solidarity activists will picket the Bolshoi Ballet’s last performance of The Flames of Paris at the Royal Opera House in London on Saturday night (tonight). They will remind the audience of the conflagration of Aleppo: the revolution and siege there, and the role of Russia in the merciless aerial bombardment of Aleppo civilians.

The Bolshoi Ballet is one of Russia’s most prestigious state institutions. People need to be reminded that under this most benign facade the Russian state is responsible for thousands of civilian deaths in Syria in its effort to bolster the fortunes of Assad, a tyrant bent on seeing his country destroyed rather than surrender power.

See our Take Action page for ways to support the people of Aleppo.







Projections by Feral X.

Putin’s bombs are driving refugees out of Syria – Shut Russia out of SWIFT to stop the bombing

Putin’s bombs are driving refugees out of Syria—Shut Russia out of SWIFT to stop the bombing

Putin’s bombers have dropped cluster bombs and firebombs across northern Syria.

Putin and Assad have bombed every hospital they could find.

Now Putin’s siege of Aleppo aims to drive 300,000 refugees out of the city and out of Syria. His plan is to make the refugee crisis even worse.

It is time for the UK and Europe to say enough. Make Putin pay for every day he bombs Syrian towns and cities.

UK: join with EU allies to shut Russia out of the SWIFT* bank payment system NOW.

Putin has already brought war to Ukraine, threatening eastern Europe. Now he is worsening the war on NATO’s southern border.

Letting Putin get away with mass murder will cost the UK and Europe much more than the loss of business from shutting Russia out of SWIFT.

And it will cost all of us our humanity if we stand by and do nothing.

Signatories:

Syria Solidarity UK
Syrian Association of Yorkshire
Rethink Rebuild Society
Peace and Justice for Syria
Kurds House
Help 4Syria UK
Syrian Welsh Society
Syrian Platform for Peace
Scotland4Syria
The Syrian Community of Nottinghamshire


Please give your support by writing to your MP and to your MEPs. Call on them to shut Russia out of the SWIFT international bank payment system. You can email your MP and MEPs here.


* SWIFT is the Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication system. SWIFT has to comply with EU decisions because the organization is incorporated under Belgian law. Read more here.

Read more from the signatories: Syrian Association of Yorkshire, Rethink Rebuild Society, Kurds House, Help 4Syria UK, Syrian Welsh Society, Syrian Platform for Peace, Scotland4Syria.

In a single day, six medical centers targeted by Russian and Assad regime planes

Via Rethink Rebuild Society, here is a press release from the Ministry of Health of Free Aleppo on the bombing of six hospitals this weekend. Translation below.

On the situation, Abdulkafi Alhamdo, English professor at Aleppo University and at the Institute of Language Studies, says:

‘Death made by the hands of Assad is chasing civilians everywhere. Air strikes, lack of medical supplies and a serious lack of food are some forms of the scary situation of the life of people in the free part of Aleppo. Only in one day six medical centers were targeted by Russian and Assad's planes. To make the whole story worse, we never see any movements from the international society to prevent these massacres which is considered a real genocide towards Aleppo civilians. Statements without deeds mean nothing tho the poor civilians inside the free part of Aleppo.’

For media enquiries contact advocacy@rrsoc.org


Press release translation:

In the name of God, the most Gracious, the most Merciful
Press Release
Ministry of Health of Free Aleppo

The grave circumstances experienced by the free areas of Aleppo and the siege imposed upon the city by Assad and his allies have made it impossible for any civilians to seek medical treatment outside Aleppo or for any medical supplies to be brought into the city. This is in addition to the continued and unprecedented intense and barbaric shelling on the city, more specifically the targeting of the infrastructure and public services, especially hospitals, including all of the following:

1. Al-Bayan Hospital
2. Al-Daqaqy Surgical Hospital
3. Al-Hakim Hospital
4. Al-Sayyida Zahraa Hospital
5. Central Blood Bank
6. Al-Tababa Al-Shar’iyyah

Airstrikes on these facilities have forced them to stop offering services to the civilian population. The team of medical doctors and health care providers including the Ministry of Health are unable to find any solution to the slaughter which is happening in Aleppo or to fulfill their responsibilities towards the injured. This is resulting in the death of many of the wounded with over two hundred deaths in the city per day, making it imperative for supporting countries and humanitarian agencies to step in.

The Ministry of Health of Free Aleppo, to fulfill its responsibilities, calls upon the international community to bring an end to this humanitarian disaster which is afflicting more than 350,000 civilians inside the city. The regime’s actions towards Aleppo are reaching the proportions of collective genocide. Blood continues to be spilled in Aleppo by Assad and his allies through airstrikes as the international community only meets these actions with silence and a blind eye. The Ministry of Health of Free Aleppo condemns in the strongest language these barbaric and unprecedented indiscriminate attacks as well as the silence of the international community, humanitarian organisations, and all the free people of the world towards the situation in Aleppo and in Syria more generally, and calls upon them to take action to stop these massacres.

Long live free Syria
Aleppo 24 July 2016

Dr. Abdulbasit Ibrahim
Ministry of Health of Free Aleppo


See also:

• Russian airstrikes leave ‘thousands facing starvation’ in rebel-held Aleppo, by Daniel Boffey, The Observer.

• Syria Daily: The Russia-Regime War on the Hospitals, by Scott Lucas, EA WorldView.