Generational Dynamics World View

[John J. Xenakis]

*** 6-Mar-18 World View -- The Ghouta 'ceasefire' turns into a Syrian army scam to steal humanitarian aid

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• The Ghouta 'ceasefire' turns into a Syrian army scam to steal humanitarian aid
  
• Syria says close to defeating Jaysh al-Islam in Eastern Ghouta
  

****
**** The Ghouta 'ceasefire' turns into a Syrian army scam to steal humanitarian aid
****


Trucks from humanitarian convoy in Eastern Ghouta on Monday (Reuters)

Syria permitted a humanitarian aid convoy to enter Eastern Ghouta for
the first time on Monday, but the Syrian army confiscated 70% of the
humanitarian supplies as it entered the region, suggesting that the
entire humanitarian aid program is a scam to use Western money to
provide supplies to the Syrian army.

It was only in the last two weeks that Russia announced that it would
permit a "ceasefire" in Eastern Ghouta for five hours a day, from 9 am
to 2 pm. This ceasefire would permit civilians to leave, and
humanitarian aid to be brought in.

So here are the results so far:

• There's been no ceasefire. Syrian and Russian warplanes
  continue bombing between 9 am and 2 pm each day. The "ceasefire"
  agreement was a lie.
  
  
• Civilians are not leaving because they're afraid to leave.
  Interviews with Eastern Ghouta civilians indicate that they don't
  trust the Syrian army, and believe that if they try to leave, the
  Syrian army will kill them. This is what happened in Aleppo.
  
  
• Humanitarian aid was allowed in on Monday for the first time, but
  70% of the supplies were confiscated by the army.

The humanitarian aid convoy contained 46 trucks. The convoy reached
its destination in Douma, in the north of Eastern Ghouta, amid
continuing bombing by Syrian and Russian warplanes. The trucks were
said to contain food for just 27,500 people, out of the 400,000 people
under siege in Eastern Ghouta.

However, not all the food could be unloaded because the convoy had to
leave abruptly, because of incessant bombing by Syrian and Russian
warplanes. So Syria prevented even that extremely limited amount of
humanitarian aid from being delivered.

There's really nothing surprising about what's going on. During
Syria's siege of Aleppo in 2016, there were similar ceasefires that
weren't ceasefires, and people who tried to leave were permitted to
leave, but then were killed as they were leaving. There was
humanitarian aid, but Syria's army confiscated most of it before it
could reach its destination, and on some occasions the humanitarian
aid convoy was targeted by Syrian and Russian warplanes. Arab News
and Reuters and BBC and
AFP

****
**** Syria says close to defeating Jaysh al-Islam in Eastern Ghouta
****

Although Syria's president Bashar al-Assad considers pretty much all
the 400,000 people in Eastern Ghouta to be terrorists, his army is
particularly targeting an anti-Assad militia called "Jaysh al-Islam,"
or "Army of Islam."

After al-Assad began targeting peaceful protesters in 2011, and
particularly after he massacred thousands of innocent women and
children in a Palestinian refugee camp in Latakia in August 2011,
anti-Assad militias began to form. These militias were generally very
small, but in 2013, Jaysh al-Islam was formed through a merger of
about fifty Damascus-based opposition groups. In addition to opposing
al-Assad, it was equally opposed to the so-called Islamic State (IS or
ISIS or ISIL or Daesh), and was responsible for expelling ISIS from
the Damascus area.

Today, Jaysh al-Islam has about 10,000 fighters in Eastern Ghouta, and
is the major group opposing the Syrian army in Eastern Ghouta.
Eastern Ghouta has been under the control of Jaysh al-Islam and other
anti-Assad militias since 2012.

The Syrian government now says that its army have reclaimed a third of
Eastern Ghouta in the last few days. Furthermore, the army "has been
rapidly advancing through the East Ghouta region of Damascus recently,
capturing several areas that were under the control of Jaysh
Al-Islam," according to Syrian media.

The current objective of the Syrian army is to split Eastern Ghouta
into two pieces, so that it's divided horizontally. Syrian media says
that the army has taken control of several villages and farms
"eliminating large numbers of terrorists and destroying their bases,
tunnels, trenches, and ordinance." If it's successful in splitting
the region, then the Jaysh al-Islam in the north will be cut off from
supplies, giving the Syrian army control of the northern half.
Al Masdar News (Damascus) and Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) and
Mehr News (Iran) and Stanford - Jaysh al-Islam and Deutsche Welle

Related Articles:

• Russia's 'humanitarian pause' in Syria turns into farce on first day (28-Feb-2018)
  
  
• Syria's Bashar al-Assad steps up use of chemical weapons on his own people (06-Feb-2018)
  
  
• Syria's Bashar al-Assad targets civilians and hospitals in never-ending war of extermination (07-Jan-2018)
  
  
• Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin hug and declare the end of war in Syria (27-Nov-2017)
  

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Syria, Ghouta, Russia, Bashar al-Assad,
Eastern Ghouta, Hama, Idlib, barrel bombs, chlorine, Sarin gas, Aleppo,
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh,
Jaysh al-Islam, Army of Islam, Douma

Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal

John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe