TURKEY/FILE: Khaled Abu Salah, a Syrian activist who appeared on an amateur online video revealing the deaths of journalist Marie Colvin and photographer Remi Ochlik, says some 800 families are trapped in Homs

Record ID: 276387

  • Title: TURKEY/FILE: Khaled Abu Salah, a Syrian activist who appeared on an amateur online video revealing the deaths of journalist Marie Colvin and photographer Remi Ochlik, says some 800 families are trapped in Homs
  • Date: 2nd July 2012
  • Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (JULY 1, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SYRIAN ACTIVIST KHALED ABU SALAH WRITING CLOSE OF SALAH WRITING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN ACTIVIST, KHALED ABU SALAH, SAYING: "Some 800 families are trapped there (Homs) and they are waiting for humanitarian aid. They cannot find anything to eat. It is not possible to find any medication or receive medical treatmen
  • Embargoed: 17th July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey, Syrian Arab Republic
  • City:
  • Country: Turkey Syrian Arab Republic
  • Topics: Conflict
  • Reuters ID: LVAF4FLFVG3315GF0JQ3FTXK57EE
  • Story Text: Prominent Syrian activist, Khaled Abu Salah said on Sunday (July 1) he had fled to Turkey in a bid to appeal for humanitarian aid for the besieged city of Homs.
    Salah who has regularly posted video clips of ongoing unrest in Syria became well recognised after he appeared on an amateur video showing him standing in rubble next to the bodies of American correspondent Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik, after they were killed on Feb. 22 when government forces hit the house they were staying in.
    At the time an enraged Salah raised his first and called for international help and aid to treat the wounded in Baba Amro, saying: "The blood of your own has mixed with Syrian blood. You need to move now."
    Speaking to Reuters Television on Sunday, Salah said some 800 families were trapped in the besieged city of Homs and desperately awaited humanitarian aid.
    "Some 800 families are trapped there (Homs) and they are waiting for humanitarian aid. They cannot find anything to eat. It is not possible to find any medication or receive medical treatment. I left there (Syria) and came here to voice their pleas and urge the world to stop the shelling and lift the siege in Homs and we expect the world to urgently deliver humanitarian aid to Homs, especially in the old towns of Homs," said Salah.
    More than 10,000 people have been killed since the Syrian uprising began 16 months ago. Intensive fighting and shelling has now reached the outskirts of Damascus. New tension has also built up on the frontier with Turkey in recent days after Syrian forces shot down a Turkish jet.
    Residents of the Zamalka district on the capital's outskirts were struggling on Sunday to bury dozens of people killed the day before in a mortar attack on an anti-Assad march, opposition activist Susan Ahmad said by phone from the Damascus suburbs.
    More than 40 people were killed in the attack on Saturday when security forces fired a mortar bomb into a funeral procession in Zamalka for a man who had been killed in shelling, activists said.
    Speaking about the recent attacks, Salah laid blame on Russia and its support of the Syrian regime.
    "According to the latest information, yesterday 80 people were killed in Zamalka. Russia is responsible for the death of these people because it provides weaponry and technical support to the regime. The massacres that take place in Homs today are exactly the same with the massacres that Russia committed in Chechnya years ago. Russia should be aware that bilateral relations between the countries are not established through governments but it is established through the people of those countries. No country can watch its interests without having public support," Salah said.
    Conflict in Syria has entered a new phase of heavier fighting near Bashar al Assad's seat of power, as government troops bombed and shelled towns across the country, a day after Russian diplomats rode again to Assad's rescue, blocking language at a meeting of world powers that would have called on the president to leave power.
    Salah dismissed Annan's peace plan for Syria, saying any deal that included officials from the regime was unacceptable.
    "As an activist on the field, I know well how people on the field feel and I would like to tell you about it. There is no way back for us. We don't accept Bashar Assad nor anyone from his government, or anyone who has close relations with the regime in any of the future governments. Unfortunately, Syrian opposition, inside and outside, couldn't take a firm stance on this issue," he said.
    Top level diplomacy regarding Syria has so far been futile, and a much-anticipated meeting in Geneva on Saturday showed that Western and Arab states had yet to persuade Russia and China to drop support for Assad.
    The two countries have repeatedly used veto power at the U.N. Security Council to block calls for Assad to leave power.
    The meeting, convened by peace envoy Kofi Annan, agreed that Syria should seek a transitional unity government, but Moscow and Beijing successfully blocked language that would have suggested the new arrangement should exclude Assad.
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