texts translated into English by Alessandra Nucci
An
Appeal from Syria
:
“Please circulate this message so that the world many know what the
consequences of the embargo are on my people”.
The
embargo imposed on Syria by the United States and Europe to the
purpose of ousting its government is plunging the Syrian people,
already debilitated by 8 years of war, into a never ending agony. By
preventing any fuel from entering this martyred country the West is
perilously damaging the daily life of the Syrian people. Buses,
taxis and cars are paralyzed to the point that not even students can
go to school or college.
The
chronically ill, e.g. cancer patients, who come from small towns to
get their free treatment in the state-run hospitals of Damascus, miss
their appointments because they are unable to arrive due to the
paralysis of transportation, due to the lack of fuel (se for
example what happened to Fadi’s mother, who was supposed to get
treated 4 days ago now).
Syria’s
tens of thousands of taxi drivers can no longer support their
families; the lack of fuel has even stopped the ambulances, as in the
case of Homs.
The
“scorched earth” strategy adopted by the United States and by the
countries of the European Union against Syria and its people is only
increasing the suffering of a people who have been undergoing
martyrdom for 8 years now.
A
few European newspapers have clearly seen the dire consequences for
the Syrian people of the West’s resolve to reinforce the embargo on
Syria. The Washington Post has reported the decision of the U.S.
Treasury Department to impose sanctions on whatever ship should go to
Syria, no matter what its cargo and whatever country it hails from.
The upshot is that no one can get anything at all over to us!
Even
if medicine and hospitals are not explicitly mentioned in the
embargo, these do not reach us anyway because banks in every country
are forbidden from doing business with Syrian banks.
Hospitals
work at a minimum, there is a scarcity of medicine, chronic patients
can no longer be treated, hospital machinery is unusable due to the
lack of spare parts, etc ...
According
to Britain’s newspaper, The Independent, not even the humanitarian
aid associations are able to supply food or medical aid.
Now
you can imagine how the Syrians are suffering!
The
European Commission for Foreign Affairs believes that the West’s
scorched earth strategy is hitting out at random civilians and that
the embargo imposed on Syria, to put pressure on the government to
get it to change its policies and adopt the ones of the West is
wrong-headed because it actually harms the weakest and poorest, and
is undeniably destructive and inhuman.
From
the outset all the Western media, in the United States and in the
European Union, have boasted of having the interests of the Syrian
people at heart and of wanting to protect the people’s rights and
give them a better life: this has been revealed to be a grandiose and
shameful lie, as the reality confronting us is quite the opposite! It
is their own policies that are starving the population, made up of
innocent and pacific civilians, and are suffocating them more and
more as the days go by.
original article: https://oraprosiria.blogspot.com/2019/04/appello-contro-lembargo-arma-che-uccide.html
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE LATIN BISHOP OF ALEPPO
Msgr Abu Khazen asks for Prayers: “Please pray that the sanctions on Syria be lifted and we be given back our right to live in peace”
interview by Gian Micalessin
Msgr
George Abu Khazen has been Latin bishop of Aleppo since 2014. There
he has lived out the most difficult moments of the war together with
his flock. Yet – as he explains in this interview with Gian
Micalessin, for Sputnik Italia – today the situation is almost
worse than when the rebel jihadis and Isis encircled the
town.
“The war may be over, or be about to end, but here in Aleppo and in the rest of Syria the weight of the sanctions is becoming unbearable. We lack everything. We Christians, like all Syrians, are living in impossible conditions. Everything, even the most essential things, is rationed. Gas cylinders can be refilled only once every twenty days. Private cars have a right to twenty litres of gasoline every five days… taxi drivers can buy twenty liters every other day. Believe me, the repercussions of this rationing are appalling. Many means of public transport are no longer in circulation and school buses have almost all stopped, so many children, especially the ones that live on the outskirts or in poorer areas of town, are unable to go to class. If you add to all this the enormous rise in cost of living you will understand how difficult the situation is. For the first time in all this we are feeling the weight of the situation to be almost unbearable”.
“The situation is almost worse than before, because we used to have hope and the will to react. Today instead there is only confusion. While the battle for Aleppo was ongoing, people were motivated, they had an energy within that led them to put up with adversity. Today instead people are tired and depressed… they are losing hope…. They no longer know how things are going to end up”.
“The war may be over, or be about to end, but here in Aleppo and in the rest of Syria the weight of the sanctions is becoming unbearable. We lack everything. We Christians, like all Syrians, are living in impossible conditions. Everything, even the most essential things, is rationed. Gas cylinders can be refilled only once every twenty days. Private cars have a right to twenty litres of gasoline every five days… taxi drivers can buy twenty liters every other day. Believe me, the repercussions of this rationing are appalling. Many means of public transport are no longer in circulation and school buses have almost all stopped, so many children, especially the ones that live on the outskirts or in poorer areas of town, are unable to go to class. If you add to all this the enormous rise in cost of living you will understand how difficult the situation is. For the first time in all this we are feeling the weight of the situation to be almost unbearable”.
“The situation is almost worse than before, because we used to have hope and the will to react. Today instead there is only confusion. While the battle for Aleppo was ongoing, people were motivated, they had an energy within that led them to put up with adversity. Today instead people are tired and depressed… they are losing hope…. They no longer know how things are going to end up”.
- Is it just a matter of sanctions?
Yes,
the sanctions are the main obstacle to a return to normal. Syria
could be self-sufficient thanks to its oil and gas pits, but these
resources are in the North East and that is where the Kurds and the
Americans are. The Americans are the main advocates for the economic
blockade. They prevent us not only from using our oil and our gas,
but also from receiving fuel from other countries. The intervention
of Americans and Turks makes everything very confusing, we really
don’t know where this is all going to end up.
–
But at
least there is no more shooting …
That’s
not true either….. around Aleppo the fighting has started up again.
There are no big battles but there is shooting going on. Once again
we are hearing the bombs, the machine guns, the missiles, every
night. At this point the rebels of Jabhat Al Nusra, Syria’s version
of Al Qaida, control the entire province of Idlib. So they are
practically at the gates of Aleppo. Turkey says it wants to cooperate
to send them away, but the truth of the matter is that Turkey is
actually their main ally. And since we know the Turks and we know
that they are in the habit of promising one thing and then doing
something else we are very concerned.
–
Has the
Christian community come home now that the siege is over?
No,
unfortunately! The Christians who have come home to Aleppo are very
few. But what is most worrying is the malaise of the ones who have
stayed on. For the first time I am hearing them say “it was a
mistake to stay here”. During the war no one ever said anything
like that. Now,
instead, many are saying so. And
not just among the Christians. This is a very bad sign.
–
Is
there a risk that the presence of Christians never return to be what
it was?
We have
never lost hope. Not even in the darkest moments of the war have we
ever lost hope. To
hope is part and parcel of our faith….. so I can’t entertain the
thought that Christians may no longer be present here. Our
destiny is not in the hands of men but of God. He is our only savior
and therefore hope can never and must never be lost.
–
Do you
feel supported by the Vatican?
We are
grateful to the institutions of the Church that help us and to all
our benefactors. It is only thanks to them that we manage to support
the Christians and many other Syrian brothers and sisters.
–
And what
about Europe and its countries? Do you get the impression that they
have forgotten you?
I actually
wish they would forget about us…. Unfortunately they remember us
only when they want to strike out at us by imposing the sanctions.
Except for Hungary and Poland all the other European countries seem
to be bent on hurting us.
–
What
about Italy?
Italy
should reflect on the consequences of the economic blockade imposed
on Syria. Please understand that the sanctions do no hurt the leaders
and those high in command in the State, and they don’t halt the
importation of arms either. The
sanctions only hurt the poor. We Christians don’t care at all about
arms. What
we care about are the dire straits of the people. What are millions
of families with their elderly, their ill and their children to care
for guilty of? Why should they suffer? You Italians should realize
that the war may be over, but the sanctions willed by the Americans
make our life more and more difficult. Our message to the Italians is
one alone “Pray that the sanctions be lifted and that we be given
back our right to live in peace”.
–
But
surely there must be someone helping you?
Russia
alone has always helped us out. It is only thanks to Moscow that the
jihadis have not taken over all of Syria. Only thanks to Russia are
there peace talks going on.
FROM THE TRAPPIST NUNS OF AZEIR- SYRIA:
"I
also wanted to tell you a little bit about the sanctions now that we
are once again approaching a new vote on whether or not to renew the
sanctions. I would like to let you know how hard they bear down on
us, because it is the first time in all these years that we are
seeing people really dejected. The renewed sanctions really hurt.
There is no methane gas, no gasoline, no diesel fuel, and in our
region, which is mainly farmland, after the people grow their
crops they find to their dismay that they have no means of taking
them to Damascus or to market. Everything is paralyzed, all our
little activities. Many things even today are preserved
thanks to ice, but those who produce ice can't make any because there
is no electricity to run the freezers on nor gasoline to take the
blocks of ice to customers.
It's
all like this. ..... Same thing with bread. Bread is rationed because
ovens run on diesel .... As I said, the situation is really appalling
and people are truly discouraged. Never until today had we heard
people saying "we wish we had left!"
These
voices are not listened to in the upper spheres.
What
war was unable to obtain is now being obtained by wearing people out:
I think we should react, because everything is getting so difficult,
there is no gas....
Here
we are able to cook because we've got solar panels, which run our
electric burner and the women of the village come over to cook at our
place on our electric burner, but how can the country ever start up
again, under such heavy harassment? There are drafted army recruits
in Homs who can't come home in between shifts because there are no
buses. People who have to go and get something can't find a car, or
even if they can, the gasoline is so expensive that they give up on
the idea of moving anywhere. This way work too becomes harder and
more costly. Merchandise triples in price. Truly
the situation is unbearable."
By Sister Martha