The United Nations has been " deeply concerned" by the arrest of women and newborn children evacuated from Homs, the Syrian city under more than 600 days of siege by the regime in Damascus. These men have left the besieged historic town, a neighborhood of opponents, and have been taken to a school in the suburbs of Homs, where they are being questioned by government personnel, without the presence of international observers and local NGOs. The spokesman for the Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Calville, requested clarification on what is being done with these men.
Initially, rescue civilians trapped in the rebel zone of Homs was only going to include women, children and elderly, but the UN reports that came out a group of men between 15 and 55, considered old enough to fight. Melissa Fleming, UNHCR spokesperson in Geneva, explained that 336 men were taken from Homs, of whom 42 were released after testifying. The rest remains in the hands of the Government in a school without use, Andalusia, in an area under control loyalists, no one knows what their destiny.
UNHCR staff has not been present during interrogation but was able to speak with several of them, detailing Fleming, as he left the questionnaire. All of them have expressed their desire to be evacuated to safety with their families, having endured months of misery and bombings in the city regarded as the birthplace of the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.
The governor of Homs, Talal al Barazi, said to The Wall Street Journal that all these men had " surrendered" and now passed to " disposal of the Government " that has to "investigate". Ensures that they are getting a good deal. Those who are guilty of a "crime " will be brought to trial and the remaining will be amnestied. The UN insists that they are not " monitor " what happens with this group, whose output is unexpected, but says it has received "assurances " from Damascus that have a deal " fair and transparent," said Yacoub El Xinlong a group of international press that has been allowed a visit to Homs. Al Barazi has refused to allow the media access to the school where they are detained opponents.
The idea of the UN, UNHCR abounds, is to ask the Red Crescent who cares about the fate of these men, given their track record in dealing with prisoners of war. Sources Crescent in the Syrian capital say they have not yet received this formal request nor had any contact with boys. The Local Coordination Committees, an opposition group takes stock of the damage and casualties in the war, says that several women and children of the detainees have been in contact with them to demonstrate their " fear" that interrogations involving some violence, denounced as a routine practice in both the government and the more radical opposition groups by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
Both the Office of the UN Humanitarian Coordination and Red Crescent confirmed that since Friday began the rescue of Homs, following the agreement reached by the government and opposition in Geneva to assist civilians longest siege have suffered in this conflict, 1,132 people have been evacuated, including 20 pregnant women there. 400 children also have been able to get a polio vaccine after an outbreak was localizase last fall. For logistical reasons not clarified, the output of civilians was suspended yesterday but this morning have already been taken up relief efforts. The UN trucks have brought food to people who were leaving, and after eating some have been taken to a bus, to be moved to a safe area away from the rubble and hunger. Other thousand people, according to estimates by international organizations, remain inside the besieged.
The truce between supporters and opponents of the regime must end tonight (first game set three days and were expanded to six), but the regime has been willing to extend the deadline, indicate the official media. Crescent confirms they have not had more incidents like the weekend, when its workers were involved in bursts of gunfire.
Helping Homs was the only tangible result of the first round of the Geneva talks, which began on 22 January. On Monday they resumed, the process has not been any progress. "We're not making much progress," acknowledged Lakhdar Brahimi, the special envoy of the UN and the Arab League for Syria. Yesterday, in fact, was a "lost day " according to Reuters indicate some of the participants. Supposedly, on Tuesday was devoted to study in depth the end of violence and the possibility of a permanent truce. Today item on the agenda concerned the formation of a transitional government. Assad envoys have argued that there will be a transfer of power to an opposition are installed where the "terrorists " while the Syrian National Coalition, recognized by the West as legitimate representative of the Syrian people, insists that an interim cabinet to President now is not viable.
Tags: arrested, evacuees, Homs, Un, warns