In Mideast wars, hunger grips millions across the region

ZEINA KARAM

Associated Press

January 29, 2016

ricky lin 12 seconds

The cutting of the supply lines should only be used on ISIS daesh militants - to force their unconditional surrender and bring them to justice.

It should not be applied to civilians or other groups - and this is against humanitarian moral.

ricky l10 seconds ago

And when the ISIS daesh militants are weakend through thirst and hunger, the invading force suppose to capture them alive and treat them with humanitarian moral - not to torture them or make them die of hunger or thirst - which is a humanitarian crime.

ricky l1 minute ago

In case the fighting groups did not get the message correct, here are the main messages :-

(1) this technique should only apply to ISIS daesh militants - not civilians or other groups.

(2) force unconditional surrender from ISIS daesh - by weakening them through thirst and hunger - not to torture them until they die.

(3) capture the ISIS daesh militants - when they are weakened by hunger and thirst - as they are not able to fight.

The messages are not meant to be used on civilians or other groups - as a mean of torture not techniques used for non-ISIS group if you still have not understood. Misuse of this technique is against humanitarian crime.

Pse see the original post :-

17 December 2015

ricky l

ricky l1 second ago

Make no mistake, ISIS daesh must be completely defeated and pay for their crimes - for committing extreme atrocities.

International cooperation and determination is key to defeat ISIS daesh.

In addition to military pressure, cutting the supply lines of ISIS daesh - eg. finance, oil revenue, manpower, internet, communication, food, water, logistics, ammo, weapons, medicine etc ----- will be the fastest way to defeat ISIS daesh, force unconditional surrender and arrest them if possible and put them on international trial for war crimes and meted out punishment as per their crime.

ricky l24 seconds ago

The original post to cut supply line from ISIS daesh - is meant to be a "Compassionate approach" - to defeat ISIS daesh militants - without committing to combat - so as to reduce casualties from both forces and minimize civilian casualties.

Why is this technique misused - and now turn into torture - causing torturous death.

This is against Divinity original intention - a "Compassionate technique" to defeat ISIS daesh - with minimum casualties due to minimum combat contact.

Those who used it - has completely misused it for bad intent - and cause undue sufferings to civilians - which will cause the Wrath from the Divinity - Universal Law of Karma.

In Mideast wars, hunger grips millions across the region

ZEINA KARAM

Associated Press

January 29, 2016

View photos

In this Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016 photo, a malnourished child lies in a bed waiting to receive treatment at a therapeutic feeding center in a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen. This child is one of millions of people across countries like Syria, Yemen and Iraq are gripped by hunger, struggling to survive with little help from the outside world. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

BEIRUT (AP) — In a Middle East torn apart by war and conflict, fighters are increasingly using food as a weapon.

Millions of people across countries like Syria, Yemen and Iraq are gripped by hunger, struggling to survive with little help from the outside world. Children suffer from severe malnutrition, their parents often having to beg or sell possessions to get basic commodities including water, medicine and fuel.

The biggest humanitarian catastrophe by far is Syria, where a ruinous five-year civil war has killed a quarter of a million people and displaced half the population. All sides in the conflict have used punishing blockades to force submission and surrender from the other side — a tactic that has proved effective particularly for government forces seeking to pacify opposition-held areas around the capital Damascus.

Since October, Russian airstrikes and the start of yet another winter have exacerbated a humanitarian crisis and led to deaths from starvation in some places.

Humanitarian teams who recently entered a besieged Syrian town witnessed scenes that "haunt the soul," said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He accused both the government of President Bashar Assad and the rebels fighting to oust him of using starvation as a weapon, calling it a war crime. Although sieges are an accepted military practice that are often carried out by forces seeking to avoid intense urban conflict, the conduct of forces carrying them out and their behavior toward civilian populations are regulated by international humanitarian law. Past cases include the sieges of Gorazde and Sarajevo during the Bosnian war. The Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, home to 1.8 million people, has also been under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade, restricting the flow of many goods into the war-torn Palestinian territory.

The U.N. and aid agencies have struggled with funding shortages and growing impediments to the delivery of humanitarian assistance despite Security Council resolutions insisting on the unconditional delivery of aid across front lines.

In Yemen, the Arab world's most impoverished nation, nearly half of the country's 22 provinces are ranked as one step away from famine conditions.

Here's a look at major areas in the Middle East under siege or suffering starvation:

SYRIA

The United Nations estimates more than 400,000 people are besieged in 15 communities across Syria, roughly half of them in areas controlled by the Islamic State group. In 2014, the U.N. was able to deliver food to about five percent of people in besieged areas, while today estimates show the organization is reaching less than one percent.

In 2015, the World Food Program was forced to reduce the size of the food rations it provides to families inside Syria by up to 25 percent because of a funding shortfall. The agency says it has to raise $25 million every week to meet the basic food needs of people affected by the Syrian conflict.

Some of the hardest hit blockaded areas in Syria are:

Madaya: A town northeast of Damascus with a population of 40,000. The town has been besieged by government and allied militiamen for months and gained international attention after harrowing pictures emerged showing emaciated children. Doctors Without Borders says 28 people have died of starvation in Madaya since September. Two convoys of humanitarian aid were delivered to the town last week. Aid workers who entered described seeing skeletal figures; children who could barely talk or walk, and parents who gave their kids sleeping pills to calm their hunger.

Fouaa and Kfarya: Two Shiite villages in the northern province of Idlib with a combined population of around 20,000. The villages have been blockaded by rebels for more than a year. Pro-government fighters recently evacuated from the villages describe desperate conditions there with scarce food and medicine, saying some residents are eating grass to survive and undergoing surgery without anesthesia. Aid convoys entered the villages simultaneously with the aid to Madaya after months-long negotiations between the government and armed groups.

Deir el-Zour: An estimated 200,000 people living in government-held parts of this city in eastern Syria are besieged by the Islamic State group. The U.N. says most of the residents are women and children facing sharply deteriorating conditions due to the ban on all commercial or humanitarian access, as well as the inability of residents to move outside of the city. While government stocks continue to provide bread, there are severe shortages of food, medicine and basic commodities. Opposition activists say they have documented the death of 27 people from malnutrition. Water is available only once a week for few hours.

Syrian opposition head to peace talks as Madaya starvation toll rises

Error! Unknown switch argument.

Nina Larson and Maya Gebeily

AFP News

January 31, 2016

View photos

A rebel fighter, reportedly belonging to the Faylaq al-Rahman brigade, looks up from his hiding spot in the rebel-controlled area of Arbeen, on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus, on January 29, 2016

Syria's main opposition body headed to Switzerland Saturday to demand progress on the dire humanitarian situation before formally joining peace talks, as the starvation death toll in the besieged town of Madaya rose.

The High Negotiations Committee (HNC) late Friday begrudgingly bowed to US and Saudi pressure to at least show up in Geneva to test the waters for joining the biggest push to date to end a five-year-old civil war.

But the body insisted it will not engage in negotiations, even indirectly, with President Bashar al-Assad's regime until UN Security Council resolutions requiring an end to sieges of towns are adhered to.

Highlighting the dire situation, medical charity MSF on Saturday raised the death toll from starvation to at least 46 since December 1 in Madaya, one of more than a dozen Syrian towns blockaded by regime or rebel forces.

"We will not sit down at the negotiating table if our people continue to be massacred," HNC spokesman Salem al-Meslet said Friday after the group finally announced its attendance in Geneva after four days of wrangling in Riyadh.

On Friday, the scheduled start of a planned six months of talks under an ambitious roadmap set out in Vienna in November, protesters highlighted the plight of ordinary Syrians with "siege soup" of grass and leaves.

- Complexities -

The HNC are also pressing for bombardments of civilians to cease.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday that Russian air strikes, which began in late September to support Assad, have killed 3,578 people in total including 1,380 civilians.

The Observatory also reported regime shelling on the Aubin camp for displaced people in Latakia in northwest Syria, in the second such case in as many days.

A source close to the HNC said that the group was sending 17 negotiators and 25 others to the Swiss city. A 16-member delegation representing Assad's government arrived on Friday.

Backed by external powers embroiled in Syria's war, the talks are seeking to end a conflict that has killed more than 260,000 people and fuelled the meteoric rise of the extremist Islamic State group.

Millions of those fleeing the conflict have sought refuge in neighbouring countries and hundreds of thousands have risked their lives to reach Europe, causing political tensions there.

On Saturday, dozens of migrant men, women and children, including Syrians, drowned when their boat sank off of Turkey -- joining the almost 4,000 who died trying to reach Europe by sea in 2015.

But the complexities of the Syrian conflict, involving a tangled web of moderate rebels, Islamist fighters, Kurds, jihadists and regime forces backed by Moscow and Iran, pose a huge challenge to the talks, experts say.

- Meeting Sunday? -

"There is every reason to be pessimistic, and there is no realistic scenario in which a breakthrough would be reached," said Karim Bitar, an analyst at the Paris-based Institute of International and Strategic Relations.

The future of Assad, emboldened by recent territorial gains against rebels thanks to Russian support, in any peace deal remains uncertain.

Attacks claimed by IS in Paris, Lebanon, Indonesia and the downing of a Russian airliner over Egypt last year have led Western powers to moderate their demands for him to go, seeing him as the lesser evil, experts say.

For now, no face-to-face talks between the opposition and the regime are expected. Instead "proximity talks" are envisioned whereby UN envoy Staffan de Mistura will shuttle between the participants.

The UN envoy was to meet with HNC delegates "perhaps tomorrow (Sunday)", HNC spokesman Makhous said.

In a controversial move, the alliance has named Mohammed Alloush, member of the Army of Islam rebel group, as its chief negotiator, but sources hinted he was not among those travelling to Geneva.

Excluded meanwhile, in the initial stages of the talks at least, are Kurdish representatives, with Saudi Arabia and in particular Turkey vehemently opposed to their participation.

Kurdish figures -- including Saleh Muslim, head of the powerful Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) -- hoping to be included have left the Swiss city after not receiving invitations to negotiations, sources told AFP on Saturday.

The PYD has been one of the most successful fighting forces against the extremist Islamic State group, clearing jihadists out of swathes of territory in northern Syria.