ICRC help in Homs is said to be biased

Vatican appeal from Homs: “Respect the humanitarian truce”

me. The ICRC had been active in the Homs district to protect civilians, who can be assigned to the rebels and had accused the government troops of having set houses on fire. In the same area, however, the ICRC had refused to be active for the benefit of Christian families, who were persecuted by the rebels. Only when the Vatican put pressure on the matter the ICRC stated it would also care for Christian population groups. Unfortunately, the ICRC’s partiality in this case was apparent. This is what Thierry Meyssan, chairman of Voltaire Network, who is currently staying in Syria reports in a short dispatch.

Agenzia Fides, information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies, reports as follows: Christian and Muslim families trapped in the old city of Homs still have the hope that the team of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, yesterday forced away due to fire bullets despite the agreed humanitarian truce, are able to deliver humanitarian aid and evacuate civilians.

As sources of Fides in Homs report, there are two distinct areas to consider in the old city: Hamidiyeh neighborhood and Bustan Diwan, where 800 civilians are trapped, 400 Christians and 400 Muslim Sunni; the areas of Al Khalidiya and Al Qoussour, not far away, where there are about 1,000 Muslim families.

Fides sources in Homs notice that the Red Cross and Red Crescent have spoken so far only of civilians trapped in Al Khalidiya and Al Qoussour, while the situation is very serious for women, the elderly, the sick, the children in Hamidiyeh and Bustan Diwan. Interviewed by Fides, a spokesman for the Red Cross in Geneva, Bijan Farnoudi, said that “the Red Cross, present in Homs, is trying to enter the old city. The districts mentioned are those we had information about, we will not make any difference and we will try to save all civilians. “Meanwhile, the Christian priests in Homs, who receive daily news from the trapped families, refer to Fides that “the situation deteriorates by the hour: the families are terrified, desperate, squeezed between gunshots, lack of food and medicine.”

^{Source: Agenzia Fides, 22 June 2012}

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A spokesperson of the ICRC could not have been contacted on Sunday. What we do hope is that the ICRC will live up to its reputation of impartiality and the principles of the Geneva Conventions in Homs, too.    •