The heroic resistance inside the besieged walls of eastern Aleppo is coming from the Syrian people themselves, and not foreign fighters as is often portrayed in the Western media, says a journalist trapped inside the most dangerous place on earth. New Yorker Bilal Abdul Karim went inside Aleppo four months ago during a short break in the siege but his three day assignment has now extended to four months; it is impossible to leave unless he walks from the rebel-held city and into the hands of Syrian government forces.
“I’m a black man with a beard,” he told me. “I don’t think I would last very long in the hands of the regime.” Abdul Karim pointed to UN reports that hundreds of men went missing last week after crossing into government territory.
The journalist was quite blunt about the future. In an exclusive interview marking Human Rights Day, he admitted, “We’re living on borrowed time here but there are still opportunities for good to prevail.”
Although the situation looks bleak now that Syrian regime forces have seized around 85 per cent of the eastern parts of the city from rebels in recent weeks, Abdul Karim said that it is vital for people around the world not to be misled about what is happening on the ground in Aleppo. There are still nearly 300,000 Syrians trapped there, he explained, but out of those only 10,500 chose to leave during a humanitarian pause last Thursday. The number of those leaving last week has been confirmed by all sides, including Russian officials and UN observers; estimates of those left behind, though, vary from 100,000 to 300,000.
“If so many people chose to remain in a siege situation without food and comfort and would prefer to face barrel bombs and bunker busters, shells and missiles,” he asked, “what does that tell you about the Bashar Al-Assad regime?” Nobody, he insisted, was forced to stay. “The fact is, of those who left, hundreds of the men have disappeared. That speaks volumes about the activities of the Syrian government forces.”
Source: As death rains down on Aleppo, why are Western countries so reluctant to act? – Middle East Monitor
