Syria: second bid to evacuate journalists fails

Between 20,000 and 30,000 people live in this district which has now been
under bombardment for 24 consecutive days. Many of the wounded are being
treated in makeshift clinics often located in mosques or private houses.
Injured people are often afraid to seek treatment from state hospitals or
any organisation linked to the government because they fear the security
forces will arrest any patient suspected of opposing the regime.

Jacques Beres, a French surgeon who worked in a makeshift hospital in the
provincial capital for two weeks, described Homs as a “ghost city” and said
the area where Mr Conroy and Miss Bouvier were lying wounded was “hell”. He
added: “The difficulties are huge. We really need a truce.”

Mr Beres, a co-founder of Medecins sans Frontieres, a French medical charity,
told reporters that Miss Bouvier had been seriously injured. “It seems that
she has a fractured femur, you can’t move with such a fracture. It hurts a
lot, it’s dangerous,” he said. “We must pay tribute to the courage of the
journalists who went there and who are still there.”

Intense diplomatic efforts were underway to resolve the situation yesterday
and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France had voiced optimism that the
deadlock would be broken. “We have the beginnings of a solution,” he told
French radio. “It seems that things are starting to move.”

Mr Sarkozy added that Miss Colvin and Mr Ochlik had been deliberately
“assassinated” by the Syrian regime’s forces. He accused the Syrian army of
intentionally bombarding a target which they knew “perfectly well” to be a
rudimentary press centre used by journalists who had managed to reach Baba
Amr. “What’s happening in Syria is a scandal,” added Mr Sarkozy.

The American embassy in Damascus closed earlier this month so US interests in
Syria are now being handled by Poland’s mission in the country. A spokesman
for the Polish foreign ministry said the country’s diplomats were
cooperating with French and British efforts to “obtain the evacuation of
Western journalists from Homs”. Miss Colvin was an American citizen.

However, the Polish spokesman cautioned that the situation was remained
“complicated”. Any movement by members of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent in
Homs is highly dangerous, involving crossing front lines manned by the
Syrian soldiers and rebels from the Free Syrian Army. After the failure of
Monday’s effort, no-one can be sure that another evacuation attempt will be
possible.

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