Syria forces using starvation as 'weapon of war': Human rights organizations

ANKARA

Syrian forces are committing war crimes by using "starvation of civilians as a weapon of war," said a report by the the human rights group Amnesty International.

At least 128 individuals have starved to death at the Yarmouk camp, on the outskirts of Damascus since the siege was tightened in July 2013 and access to crucial food and medical supplies was cut off.

“Life in Yarmouk has grown increasingly unbearable for desperate civilians who find themselves starving and trapped in a downward cycle of suffering with no means of escape,” said Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Amnesty International. 

“Civilians of Yarmouk are being treated like pawns in a deadly game in which they have no control.” 

Around 17,000-20,000 Palestinian and Syrian refugees live in the Yarmouk camp.

The report says that government forces and their allies have repeatedly carried out attacks, including air raids and shelling with heavy weapons, on civilian buildings such as schools, hospitals and a mosque in Yarmouk. 

Doctors and medical staff have also been targeted. 

At least 60 per cent of those remaining in Yarmouk are said to be suffering from malnutrition, according to the report. 

Residents told Amnesty International they had not eaten fruit or vegetables for many months and prices have skyrocketed with a kilo of rice costing up to $100. 

“Syrian forces are committing war crimes by using starvation of civilians as a weapon of war. The harrowing accounts of families having to resort to eating cats and dogs, and civilians attacked by snipers as they forage for food, have become all too familiar details of the horror story that has materialized in Yarmouk,” said Luther. 

The camp has also had its electricity power supply cut since April 2013. 

Luther called on both the Syrian government and the opposition to refrain from attacks on medical and other humanitarian workers.

“The siege of Yarmouk amounts to collective punishment of the civilian population. The Syrian government must end its siege immediately and allow humanitarian agencies unfettered access to assist suffering civilians,” Luther added. 

Global campaign for Syria in Times Square

The global humanitarian community has released a joint “Thunderclap” statement signed by 130 organisations, including major UN agencies and International Non-Governmental organizations, demanding “immediate, secure, substantial and permanent humanitarian access for all civilians in Syria."

The statement calls on world leaders on the third anniversary of the start of the Syrian conflict ;  “Don't let the people in Syria, children and families, lose another year to bloodshed and suffering, violating the most fundamental laws of war.”

 “This is part of a Thunderclap social media campaign and it aims to reach 23 million people with the hashtag “LetUsThrough. The “Thunderclap," said UN Relief and Works Agency Spokesperson, Chris Gunness.

"Once we reach 23 million, the campaign image of thousands of civilians waiting for food in Yarmouk Camp will appear on the billboard in Times Square in New York on March 18th, sending a powerful signal to the global diplomatic community in UN Headquarters nearby.”  

“We will then photograph the image in Times Square and tweet it back to the 23 million who supported the campaign, including the people of Syria," he added.

Millions of Syrian children suffering from lack of healthcare

In Syria, three years of civil war has had a "devastating" impact on children and Syria’s health system, revealed a leading children’s advocacy organization in a report issued Sunday.

The report says that several thousand Syrian children have already died as a result of "greatly reduced" access to treatment for life-threatening chronic diseases like cancer, epilepsy, asthma, diabetes, hypertension and kidney failure.

"Children are among the worst affected [...] at least 1.2 million children have fled the conflict, and become refugees in neighboring countries, while another 4.3 million children in Syria are in need of humanitarian assistance," said the U.K.-based charity Save the Children.

The report emphasized that Syria's devastated health system means children unable to receive basic medical care are needlessly suffering and dying from preventable and treatable diseases.

The report said the three-year conflict has left a "shattered health system resulting in brutal medical practices that have left millions of children suffering."

The report explained that the majority of children arriving at health facilities come with crisis related injuries but the clinics no longer have the personnel, equipment or sanitary conditions in which to treat them. 

It says that nearly half of Syria’s doctors have fled the country and "in Aleppo, a city which should have 2,500 doctors, only 36 remain."

In fact, in Syria 60 percent of hospitals and 38 percent of primary health facilities have been damaged or destroyed and production of drugs has fallen by 70 percent.

Save the Children described the statistics as "horrifying" and said the situation threatens children's lives before they are even born because Syrian women face huge difficulties in accessing antenatal, delivery and postnatal care, including: a lack of ambulances; few female hospital staff; and frequent checkpoints and roadblocks encountered on the way to hospitals. 

The NGO considered that the international community is failing Syria’s children and urged world leaders to stand up for the smallest victims of the Syria conflict and "send a clear message that their suffering and deaths will no longer be tolerated."

The NGO said that although many of the facts of Syria's civil war are already recognised worldwide, this report, "for the first time tells another, less obvious, story of the forgotten casualties of war."

The report was based on data from the U.N., World Health Organization, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Medecins Sans Frontieres and other medical research, as well as data supplied by Syria's government.

At least 10,000 children have been killed during Syria's civil war, which is entering it fourth year, and millions more are displaced, according to a February report by the U.N., leading to worries that they will become a "lost generation." 

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