Beirut // Under mortar bombardment and gunfire, hundreds more civilians were evacuated from Homs on Sunday, as part of a UN-brokered deal to give temporary respite to the besieged Old City.
A three-day ceasefire - extended for another three days on Sunday by the regime - has failed to stop the shooting, adding to pessimism over the prospects of a new round of peace talks between regime and opposition to begin in Geneva on Monday.
Although the “humanitarian pause”, intended as a confidence-building measure for the negotiations in Switzerland, did not silence the guns, aid workers have nonetheless managed to evacuate more than 600 civilians from a besieged area of Homs, and get limited food and medical supplies in, according to provincial Governor Talal Barrazi.
At least 65 people were brought out in one group on Sunday, according to Syrian state run media, with a second group transferred later.
There were reports of deaths and injuries during the evacuation process. On Saturday, five people inside the rebel-held zone were reported killed by incoming mortar fire, with a volunteer from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) among 20 wounded during the relief mission.
Footage uploaded on YouTube showed a devastated urban landscape, with explosions on a debris-strewn road, as white armoured UN jeeps rushed through the area. The authenticity of the images could not be independently verified
Sana, Syria’s official news agency, said “armed terrorist groups” had attacked the UN convoy. Syria’s opposition said the attacks came from regime-held districts, where militia forces loyal to president Bashar Al Assad hold sway.
At least some of Sunday’s evacuees were taken away by Syrian security forces, according to Sam Dagher, a reporter with the Wall Street Journal, the only independent journalist on the front lines in Homs.
“Tensions high – more than a dozen men among those evacuated from old Homs just whisked away by Syria security forces to unknown place,” he said in a Twitter post from the scene.
The UN has offered evacuees no protection once they have been transported from the siege zone and has admitted that Syrian officials have been registering the names all of those brought out, raising fears they will be interrogated and arrested as rebel sympathisers.
Syria’s feared secret police agencies, which effectively run the state, use torture as a matter of routine, according to UN human-rights investigators.
Ahmed Jarba, head of the Syrian National Coalition, which is representing the opposition at Monday’s Geneva talks, said it was “the UN’s responsibility to ensure safety of those who leave”.
Up to 2,500 people are believed to be inside rebel-held pockets of Homs, where they have been besieged for more than 600 days.
Even food and medical supplies have been blockaded by regime forces as they try to regain control of the cityin central Syria, once home to some 1.5 million people.
Eighty-three people were evacuated from Homs on Friday, many of them showing signs of malnutrition and traumatised, according to the UN.
The last set of peace talks in Geneva, which ended on January 31, sought to make progress on humanitarian issues with little sign of room for manoeuvre on the larger political questions.
Mr Al Assad’s negotiating team has vowed there would be “no concessions” to the opposition, which insists the terms of a previous deal, known as the Geneva communique, requires the Syrian president to hand over his powers to a transitional government of which he is not a part.
psands@thenational.ae
