Enemies trade blame as evacuation stalls
Diplomats are trying to salvage the evacuation of eastern Aleppo after it stalled amid recriminations by opposing sides in the Syrian conflict.
The evacuation was suspended after a report of a shooting at a crossing point into the rebel-held enclave. The Syrian government subsequently pulled out buses that had, since Friday, been ferrying people out of the ancient city, which has suffered under intense bombardment, fierce battles and a prolonged siege.
The halt also appeared to be linked to a separate deal to remove thousands of people from the government-held Shi’ite villages of Foua and Kfarya, which are under siege by the rebels.
‘‘The carnage in Syria remains a gaping hole in the global conscience,’’ said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. ‘‘Aleppo is now a synonym for hell.’’
The foreign minister of Turkey, a main backer of the rebels, said he was talking with his counterpart in Iran, an ally of the Syrian government, to try to resume the evacuation.
The UN Security Council held a closed emergency meeting on the Aleppo crisis yesterday, discussing a French proposal to have independent monitors oversee the relocation of civilians and fighters. The meeting ended with diplomats saying they would convene again over the weekend.
Announcing the suspension, Syrian state TV said rebels were trying to smuggle out captives who had been seized in the enclave after ferocious battles with troops supporting the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Several opposition activists said Syrian troops shot and killed four people in one bus, but the incident could not be independently confirmed.
Lebanon-based pan-Arab TV network Al-Mayadeen broadcast images of government buses apparently returning evacuees to eastern Aleppo after the road was closed. Al-Manar TV, the media arm of Islamist group Hezbollah, which supports Assad and is backed by Iran, said Syrian government supporters had closed the road used by the evacuees, demanding that the wounded from Foua and Kfarya be allowed to leave.
Syrian state media said rebels shelled a road that was supposed to be used by people leaving the villages. The opposition’s Britainbased Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Hezbollah fighters had cut the road to protest a lack of progress in the evacuations.
Later, two rebel spokesmen who were privy to the talks said the insurgents besieging the villages, including the Fatah al-Sham Front, had agreed to let several hundred wounded leave.
Reports differ on how many people remain in the Aleppo enclave, ranging from 15,000 to 40,000 civilians, along with an estimated 6000 insurgents.
There were still ‘‘high numbers of women and infants, children under 5, that need to get out’’, said Elizabeth Hoff, the Syrian representative for the World Health Organisation, speaking by phone from western Aleppo.
More than 2700 children had been evacuated in the past 24 hours, including the sick, wounded and those without their parents, Unicef said. Hundreds of other vulnerable children, including orphans, remained trapped.
‘‘If these children are not evacuated urgently, they could die.’’
Around 300 people gathered at Auckland’s Aotea Square yesterday afternoon to support victims of Aleppo’s siege. Chants of ‘‘Shame on you’’ and ‘‘They are drowning in blood’’ rang out as Syrian Solidarity group spokesman Ali Akil gave an impassioned speech against Assad’s crackdown.
Auckland’s Syrian community held banners declaring their condemnation of Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Akil urged the crowd to ‘‘imagine tanks coming down the road now, here in Auckland, and killing us. Imagine bombs falling from the sky now, killing us, just because we’re asking for freedom, for justice, and for dignity’’.
‘‘We’re talking about the oldest inhabited city in the world, and its people, being obliterated.’’
IT engineer Wasim Chowma has lived in New Zealand for 13 years, but originally hails from Aleppo.
‘‘I remember the smell of the jasmine and the colour of tiles on the street . . . I remember visiting the castle of Aleppo . . . I still remember my grandfather taking me to all these places, and unfortunately, these places are no longer there.’’
‘‘The old the bazaar, the souq, and the old markets – all of these are not there for my children to see,’’ he said.
Chowma immigrated to New Zealand with his parents and three siblings in 2003. He and his wife have a young son, and the whole family attended yesterday’s protest.