Red Cross convoy bringing Baba Amr aid stopped in Homs
2 March 2012
Footage on state TV on Thursday and Friday showed snow and destruction in Baba Amr and activists' video showed residents in Bab Sbaa
Continue reading the main story
Syria Crisis
Referendum in media spotlight
Syrians flee
Tribute to Colvin
Guide to opposition
The Red Cross has been refused permission to deliver aid to the Baba Amr district of the bombed-out Syrian city of Homs, despite earlier getting the go-ahead from the authorities.
ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger said the hold-up was "unacceptable".
The delay has given rise to opposition allegations that government forces were trying to get rid of evidence of summary killings.
Baba Amr has suffered heavy bombardment by government forces in recent weeks.
The rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) said on Thursday it was leaving the district in a "tactical withdrawal".
On Friday the UN human rights office said it had received reports of a "particularly grisly set of summary executions" of 17 people in Homs.
Two French journalists caught up in last month's shelling and smuggled out of Homs into Lebanon were flown back to a military airport outside Paris.
Edith Bouvier and William Daniels were met on arrival by President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Ms Bouvier was badly injured in the bombardment of a makeshift media centre last week, in which two other journalists were killed.
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
They start shelling at six o'clock in the morning, they finish at six o'clock pm - so there is no place to hide because there are no shelters, just wait in your house and hope that they don't hit your house”
Javier Espinosa
Spanish journalist who escaped from Homs
Reporter's dramatic escape from Homs
The ICRC said it had received the bodies of the two dead journalists, Marie Colvin of Britain's Sunday Times and French photojournalist Remi Ochlik, and will take them to Damascus.
'Green light'
Mr Kellenberger said in a statement that the seven-lorry aid convoy carrying food, medicine and blankets, along with ambulances from the Syrian Red Crescent, would stay in Homs overnight in the hope of entering Baba Amr "in the very near future".
"It is unacceptable that people who have been in need of emergency assistance for weeks have still not received any help," he said.
The statement added that the Syrian authorities had earlier given a "green light" for the convoy to enter, and that the problem was not a technical hitch but something more serious.
The convoy had also been hoping to evacuate the wounded.
Mr Kellenberger said that in the meantime the group would help those families that had fled Baba Amr.
Of the 100,000 people who normally live in Baba Amr only a few thousand remain, with the FSA saying it had pulled back to save those still there from an all-out assault.
Many of those still in the district are without power and running low on basic supplies. The ICRC has said it fears there could be many seriously wounded people there.
The opposition Local Co-ordination Committees reported that in Syria as a whole 56 people had died on Friday, of which 32 were killed in Homs and 16 in the nearby town of Rastan.
The UN estimates more than 7,500 people have died in the 11-month anti-government uprising in Syria.
Javier Espionsa: "The city (of Homs) has been badly damaged by a constant rain of rockets"
'No place to hide'
Spaniard Javier Espinosa, one of two other journalists who escaped to Lebanon, described his flight as part of a group of 50 people who crept through the government lines at night.
"There were a group of kids who were terrified... we tried to just shut [quieten] them down ... but it was too late and they [government troops] started shooting, so we had to run for our life... to hide," he told the BBC.
"I guess there were some people who died."
He also spoke about the suffering he saw while he was in the city.
"We are talking about 20,000 mainly women and old people, civilians, trapped in a very small enclave under constant shelling during the whole day until night," he said.
"It was very systematic. They start shelling at six o'clock in the morning, they finish at six o'clock pm. So there is no place to hide because there are no shelters, just wait in your house [and hope] that they don't hit your house. And there is no basic stuff like milk for the babies, like bread, like water."
Source http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17238220
Footage on state TV on Thursday and Friday showed snow and destruction in Baba Amr and activists' video showed residents in Bab Sbaa
Continue reading the main story
Syria Crisis
Referendum in media spotlight
Syrians flee
Tribute to Colvin
Guide to opposition
The Red Cross has been refused permission to deliver aid to the Baba Amr district of the bombed-out Syrian city of Homs, despite earlier getting the go-ahead from the authorities.
ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger said the hold-up was "unacceptable".
The delay has given rise to opposition allegations that government forces were trying to get rid of evidence of summary killings.
Baba Amr has suffered heavy bombardment by government forces in recent weeks.
The rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) said on Thursday it was leaving the district in a "tactical withdrawal".
On Friday the UN human rights office said it had received reports of a "particularly grisly set of summary executions" of 17 people in Homs.
Two French journalists caught up in last month's shelling and smuggled out of Homs into Lebanon were flown back to a military airport outside Paris.
Edith Bouvier and William Daniels were met on arrival by President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Ms Bouvier was badly injured in the bombardment of a makeshift media centre last week, in which two other journalists were killed.
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
They start shelling at six o'clock in the morning, they finish at six o'clock pm - so there is no place to hide because there are no shelters, just wait in your house and hope that they don't hit your house”
Javier Espinosa
Spanish journalist who escaped from Homs
Reporter's dramatic escape from Homs
The ICRC said it had received the bodies of the two dead journalists, Marie Colvin of Britain's Sunday Times and French photojournalist Remi Ochlik, and will take them to Damascus.
'Green light'
Mr Kellenberger said in a statement that the seven-lorry aid convoy carrying food, medicine and blankets, along with ambulances from the Syrian Red Crescent, would stay in Homs overnight in the hope of entering Baba Amr "in the very near future".
"It is unacceptable that people who have been in need of emergency assistance for weeks have still not received any help," he said.
The statement added that the Syrian authorities had earlier given a "green light" for the convoy to enter, and that the problem was not a technical hitch but something more serious.
The convoy had also been hoping to evacuate the wounded.
Mr Kellenberger said that in the meantime the group would help those families that had fled Baba Amr.
Of the 100,000 people who normally live in Baba Amr only a few thousand remain, with the FSA saying it had pulled back to save those still there from an all-out assault.
Many of those still in the district are without power and running low on basic supplies. The ICRC has said it fears there could be many seriously wounded people there.
The opposition Local Co-ordination Committees reported that in Syria as a whole 56 people had died on Friday, of which 32 were killed in Homs and 16 in the nearby town of Rastan.
The UN estimates more than 7,500 people have died in the 11-month anti-government uprising in Syria.
Javier Espionsa: "The city (of Homs) has been badly damaged by a constant rain of rockets"
'No place to hide'
Spaniard Javier Espinosa, one of two other journalists who escaped to Lebanon, described his flight as part of a group of 50 people who crept through the government lines at night.
"There were a group of kids who were terrified... we tried to just shut [quieten] them down ... but it was too late and they [government troops] started shooting, so we had to run for our life... to hide," he told the BBC.
"I guess there were some people who died."
He also spoke about the suffering he saw while he was in the city.
"We are talking about 20,000 mainly women and old people, civilians, trapped in a very small enclave under constant shelling during the whole day until night," he said.
"It was very systematic. They start shelling at six o'clock in the morning, they finish at six o'clock pm. So there is no place to hide because there are no shelters, just wait in your house [and hope] that they don't hit your house. And there is no basic stuff like milk for the babies, like bread, like water."
Source http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17238220
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