STEFAN J. BOS, of BosNewsLife, reports…
Islamic militants with ties to terror group Al-Qaeda have launched the “ethnic cleansing of minority Christians” in Syria, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee the embattled Syrian city of Homs and other areas, aid workers claimed this week.
At least 90 per cent of Christians living in Homs have fled after “fanatics” forced them to leave their homes, said Dutch aid group ‘Kerk in Nood’, or ‘Church in Need’.
|
UN CALLS FOR PEACE PLAN TO BE IMPLEMENTED; UNICEF HIGHLIGHTS PLIGHT OF CHILDREN The UN estimates the death toll in Syria has topped 8,000 people since an uprising in the country started last March. Other groups have put the figure considerably higher. Tens of thousands more have been displaced. The six point plan was submitted to Damascus earlier this month by Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General and the joint special envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States for Syria. It was reportedly accepted by Syria. “I strongly urge President Assad of Syria to put those commitments into immediate effect. There is no time to waste,” Mr Ban said. Meanwhile UNICEF says that the death toll in Syria has included at least 500 children with hundreds more injured, put in detention or abused. “Every day, heart-wrenching images and stories of children in Syria flash across our television screens,” Maria Calivis, UNICEF’s regional rirector for the Middle East and North Africa, said last week. “There can be little doubt that the vast majority of Syria’s children will be scarred by this crisis – whether physically or psychologically.” – DAVID ADAMS |
It added that the exodus of 50,000 people mainly took place in the last six weeks. “They have fled to villages and in the mountains, sometimes as far as 50 kilometres from their homes. We have reports that Islamists ‘cleansed’ the Homs areas of Hamidiya and Bustan al-Diwan without giving (Christians) the opportunity to take anything with them,” the group told BosNewsLife in a statement.
Kerk in Nood said it has already made available some 80,000 euro ($AUD102,000) for supporting the most vulnerable families, including survivors of last week’s car bomb near a church in the city of Aleppo that authorities claimed killed at least two people and injured 30 others.
Aid workers said the attack happened near the Franciscan Church of St Bonaventure in the area.
Aleppo Bishop Antoine Audo, who supervises the aid program, said people not receiving support fear for their lives. “They don’t know what will be their future,” he said in remarks obtained by BosNewsLife.
“They are afraid that they will not receive back their homes. It’s of utmost importance that we help these people,” the bishop added.
Earlier, aid group Barnabas Fund told BosNewsLife that Christians have also been used as “human-shields” by anti-government rebels, known as the Free Syrian Army, to prevent government forces from retaking control over the region.
The Free Syrian Army blames President Bashar Assad for the situation. Christians, like other Syrian minorities, have been viewed by critics as supportive of Assad, a member of the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Minorities reportedly fear an Islamist takeover should armed rebels, mostly from the nation’s Sunni Muslim majority, manage to overthrow Assad.
Kerk in Nood said there is growing fear that Syria will turn into “a second Iraq” with a similar pattern of attacks against churches, and expulsion or kidnappings of Christians.
“As attacks continue, Syria could experience the same fate as [neighboring] Iraq where the number of Christians living there dwindled from as many as 1.4 million at the end of the 1980s to less than 300,000 now,” the group explained.
The United Nations says more than 8,000 people have been killed in the year long conflict between government forces and rebels seeking the overthrow of Assad’s regime.
Christians say that the crisis in especially Homs has raised fears that Islamists with ties to al-Qaida will use the power vacuum left by the other regimes in the Middle East, when they were forced out by protests that became known as the “Arab Spring”.
