Syrian refugees shame European leaders

This Syrian baby froze to death during the wintry storm "Alexa" chilling the Middle East

European leaders should hang their heads in shame over the pitifully low numbers of refugees from Syria they are prepared to resettle, said Amnesty International.



In a briefing published today, An international failure: The Syrian refugee crisis, the organization details how European Union (EU) member states have only offered to open their doors to around 12,000 of the most vulnerable refugees from Syria: just 0.5 per cent of the 2.3 million people who have fled the country.



“The EU has miserably failed to play its part in providing a safe haven to the refugees who have lost all but their lives. The number of those it’s prepared to resettle is truly pitiful. Across the board European leaders should hang their heads in shame,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.



The closest European capital, Nicosia, lies a mere 200 miles from Damascus. Yet collectively, EU member states have pledged to resettle just a very small proportion of Syria’s most vulnerable refugees. Amnesty International’s briefing breaks down the figures: 


1. Only 10 EU member states offered resettlement or humanitarian admission places to refugees from Syria.
2. Germany is by far the most generous – pledging to take 10,000 refugees or 80 per cent of total EU pledges.
3. Excluding Germany, the remaining 27 EU member states have offered to take a mere 2,340 refugees from Syria.
4. France offered just 500 places or 0.02 per cent of the total number of people who have fled Syria.
5. Spain agreed to take just 30 or 0.001 per cent of refugees from Syria.
6. Eighteen EU member states – including the UK and Italy – offered no places at all.


As winter approaches, conditions for the 2.2 million people who have fled Syria to neighboring countries are deteriorating rapidly.



With only 12,000 places offered by EU member states for resettlement or humanitarian admission, others attempt the journey under their own steam.

Tens of thousands have reached Europe trying to claim asylum having risked life and limb in arduous journeys, on boats or across land. 


Amnesty International’s research reveals that first they have to break through the barricades of Fortress Europe.

Many are faced with violent push backs by police and coastguards, or detained for weeks in deplorable conditions. 


The journey to Italy by sea: 
Hundreds of people die attempting to cross the Mediterranean every year.

In October it is estimated that as many as 650 refugees and migrants died when three boats sank attempting to reach Europe from North Africa. 


More than 10,000 refugees from Syria are reported to have arrived along Italy’s coast in the first 10 months of this year. 


Amnesty International’s briefing gives first-hand accounts of those who have attempted to reach Europe by sea. 


Awad, a 17-year-old boy from Damascus, described how he managed to escape through a window of a sinking boat and swim to the surface. There were reportedly 400 people on board. He saw people clinging to dead bodies and boat wreckage to stay afloat, while others fought over life jackets.

Awad lost his mother as well as other family members. 
  
“I have no idea where my family are… I used to have ambition but now I have lost my mother, I don't want anything, I just want stability, everything else is second to that.” 


Another boy from Syria lost both his father and nine-year-old brother in the accident. 

“My experience didn’t just destroy my dreams; it destroyed my family’s dreams. I am destroyed completely.” 


Fortress Europe: 
In two of the main gateways to the EU, Bulgaria and Greece, refugees from Syria are met with deplorable treatment, including life threatening push-back operations along the Greek coast, and detention for weeks in poor conditions in Bulgaria. 


Greece’s pushback into the sea: 
Refugees have told Amnesty International how Greek police or coastguards, wielding guns and wearing full face hoods, ill-treat them, strip them of their belongings and eventually push them back to Turkey. 

A 32-year-old man from Syria described how the Greek coastguard near the island of Samos confronted him and his mother in October.

They were part of a group of 35 people including women and young children pushed back to Turkey. 

“They put all the men lying on the boat; they stepped on us and hit us with their weapons for three hours. Then at around 10 in the morning, after removing the motor, they put us back to our plastic boat and drove us back to the Turkish waters and left us in the middle of the sea.’’



The number of unlawful pushback operations from Greece is not known; however, Amnesty International believes hundreds have been affected. 

In the last two years the European Commission has provided €228 million to bolster border controls. 

In comparison, for the same time period, just €12 million was allocated to Greece under the European Refugee Fund, which supports efforts in receiving refugees. 


Bulgaria -- detained and contained: 
In Bulgaria, an estimated 5,000 refugees from Syria arrived between January and November 2013. The majority is housed in emergency centers, the largest of which is in the town of Harmanli. It is effectively a closed detention centre. 


Amnesty International found refugees living in squalid conditions in containers, a dilapidated building and in tents. There was a lack of adequate sanitary facilities with limited access to food, bedding or medicine. 

A large number of people was in need of medical care, including some injured in conflict, individuals suffering chronic diseases and those with mental health problems. 

Some of the refugees in Harmanli told Amnesty International they had been detained for over a month.



“Tens of thousands are risking perilous journeys by boat or land to try and reach Europe. We have seen hundreds lose their lives in the Mediterranean. It is deplorable that many of those that who have risked life and limb to get here, are either forced back or detained in truly squalid conditions with insufficient food, water or medical care,” said Salil Shetty.



Europe must act 
“The platitudes of Europe’s leaders ring hollow in the face of the evidence,” said Salil Shetty.

“The EU must open its borders, provide safe passage, and halt these deplorable human rights violations.” 


Just 55,000 Syrian refugees (2.4 per cent of the total number of people who have fled Syria) have managed to get through and claim asylum in the EU. 


For those who manage to break through the barricades of Fortress Europe, many head for Sweden or Germany, which have offered the most help to asylum seekers. In the two years to the end of October 2013, Sweden has received 20,490 new Syrian asylum applications and Germany received 16,100 such applications.

Less than 1,000 people have claimed asylum in each of Greece, Italy and Cyprus. 

Amnesty International is calling on European member states to: 


• Significantly increase the number of resettlement and humanitarian admission places for refugees from Syria;
• Strengthen search and rescue capacity in the Mediterranean to identify boats in distress and assist those on board;
• Ensure that those rescued are treated with dignity and have access to asylum procedures;
• Ensure that unlawful pushback operations are ended;
• Provide legal safe passage for Syrian asylum seekers wishing to travel to European member states.

The EU, its member states, and the international community should continue to provide support to countries hosting the largest numbers of refugees, particularly Jordan and Lebanon.

Palestine wins upgraded UN status by a mile

Electronic screen lights up with the final vote and Ban Ki-moon congratulates Mahmoud Abbas

In an extraordinary lineup of international support, the UN General Assembly voted overnight by a more than two-thirds majority to recognize the State of Palestine within the 1967 borders, a move vehemently opposed by Israel and the United States.

The 193-member world body approved the resolution upgrading Palestine’s status to a nonmember observer state at the United Nations late Thursday by a vote of 138 in favor to 9 against, with 41 abstentions.

The vote was a victory decades in the making for the Palestinians after years of occupation and violence. It was a sharp rebuke for Israel and the United States.

The vote grants Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas an overwhelming international endorsement for his key position: establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, the territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

A Palestinian flag was quickly unfurled on the floor of the General Assembly, behind the Palestinian delegation, after an electronic screen lit up with the final vote.

With its newly enhanced status, the Palestinians can now gain access to UN agencies and international bodies, most significantly the International Criminal Court, which could become a springboard for going after Israel for alleged war crimes or its ongoing settlement building on war-won land.

Abbas told the assembly the vote was the "last chance to save the two-state solution" with Israel.

Israel's envoy to the UN said the bid pushed peace process "backwards," while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the vote "unfortunate and counter-productive.”

"Sixty-five years ago on this day, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 181, which partitioned the land of historic Palestine into two states [one Arab, the other Jewish] and became the birth certificate for Israel," Abbas said shortly before the vote in New York.

"The General Assembly is called upon today to issue a birth certificate of the reality of the State of Palestine," he said.

Joining Israel and the United States in voting “no” were Canada, Czech Republic, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Panama.

Of the “Big Five” permanent members of UN Security Council, three voted in favor (China, France and Russia), one abstained (UK) and the fifth voted against (U.S.).

The vote highlighted the lack of unity as well among the 27 member states of the European Union. But it also marked a drain in sympathy for Israel in Europe.

Just one EU country -- the Czech Republic -- voted against Palestine upgrading its status within the world body.

Fourteen others -- Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Spain and Sweden -- voted in favor (as did non-EU members Norway and Switzerland).

The remaining 12 EU members -- notably Bulgaria, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and United Kingdom -- abstained.

The vote grants the Palestinians the same status at the UN as the Vatican, and they will keep their seat next to the Holy See in the General Assembly chamber.

The Holy See promptly issued a communiqué after the vote stating in part: “Considering the outcome of today’s vote of the General Assembly of the United Nations, and to encourage the International Community, and in particular the Parties directly concerned, towards concrete action in view of the aforementioned objectives, the Holy See welcomes with favor the decision of the General Assembly by which Palestine has become a Non-member Observer State of the United Nations.

“It is a propitious occasion to recall also the common position that the Holy See and the Palestinian Liberation Organization expressed in the Basic Agreement of 15 February 2000, intended to support the recognition of an internationally-guaranteed special statute for the City of Jerusalem, and aimed, in particular, to safeguarding the freedom of religion and of conscience, the identity and sacred character of Jerusalem as a Holy City, respect for and freedom of access to its Holy Places.”

Syria: “We are witnessing the fall of humanity”

Malek Jandali

Malek Jandali is a Syrian composer and pianist considered to be among the most versatile and creative musicians in the Arab world.

He is the first Syrian and only Arab musician to arrange music based on the oldest music notation in the world, which was discovered in the Bronze Age city of Ugarit, Syria.

He has recently attracted widespread international attention for his strong stand against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Martina Sabra met the artist in the country of his birth, Germany, where she interviewed him for Qantara.de. The Arabic word “qantara” means “bridge.” The Internet portal Qantara.de represents the concerted effort of the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Federal Center for Political Education), Deutsche Welle, the Goethe Institut and the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations) to promote dialogue with the Islamic world. The German Foreign Office funds the project.

Following are the Qs & As of the interview with Jandali as conducted by Martina Sabra, edited by Lewis Gropp and published yesterday by Qantara.de:

Mr. Jandali, you said you would bring something special with you to our interview?

Jandali: Yes. I have a piece of what’s known as a "shepshep" here – the front part of a small, colorful rubber slipper. This slipper belongs to a child who managed to escape from Syria to Turkey and survive in spite of heavy bombardments by the Syrian army. Some Syrian students brought it after visiting refugee camps in Turkey and gave it to me in Toronto. This rubber slipper was an item in a charity auction organized on the occasion of my concert in Offenbach, Germany. The audience donated thousands of Euros. This is the most expensive shoe I ever saw. It's not Gucci, it's not Armani -- it's freedom. Look at it. Isn't it great?

During the past two years you have given many successful concerts around the world, among others in London and at the Konzerthaus in Vienna. What was it like for you?

Jandali: I was born in Germany and went to Kindergarten here, so this was where my first introduction to music occurred. We moved to Syria when I was six. But until the age of 12, I used to come to Germany every summer, to the "Sommerschule" in Waldbröl, a small town not far from Bonn, and take piano lessons. Unfortunately, I lost touch with my teacher, Mrs. Schneider. So my last visit here dates back to the 1980s, almost 30 years ago.

 It is wonderful to be back. Germany is a beautiful country. The concert at the Capitol in Offenbach was a great way to meet the Germans and the Syrian community and support the Syrian children in their revolution for freedom.

From the age of six, you grew up in the city of Homs. How did you manage to study piano there, more than 30 years ago?

Jandali: Actually it was pretty challenging to find a piano teacher at the time, because there wasn’t a music school in Homs. But there was an excellent piano teacher at the Tchaikovsky conservatory in Damascus. I had to travel every Thursday from Homs to Damascus for two hours, take my piano lesson and come back by bus. Later I applied for studies abroad and I got a full scholarship for the U.S.

You grew up under the Baath regime and travelled between the US and Syria when the Baath regime was still stable. To what extent did you internalize the Baath ideology and how did you manage to rid yourself of it?

Jandali: To be honest, you're sitting in front of a professional liar. I lied every morning. I loved Bashar in the morning and I hated the system in the afternoon. They force you to say: I sacrifice my soul and my life to Assad.

Every morning at school. Then you go home, and your parents tell you that Assad is not good. This is schizophrenic, and it all happens when you are still a child.

After I came to the US, it took me a good 10 years to cleanse my soul, to be honest, to tell the truth and not lie.

Many famous Arab artists, like the Lebanese singer Fairouz or the Syrian singer Sabah Fakhri, have so far remained silent over the violence of the Assad regime. Why this silence, do you think?

Jandali: It's disgusting. This regime has applied a strategy to hijack minds, including the minds of artists. It has succeeded in withdrawing the humanity and freedom and the essence of feelings, of human feelings from people’s hearts. An artist who does not stand alongside the children of Syria at this moment in time is not a human being. I call them "the empty drums", since they are just drumming to the crimes of the dictator.

Malek Jandali’s Freedom Qashoush Symphony

Do you think that musicians in Germany and Europe should take a clearer stand in favor of the Syrian revolution?

Jandali: We need to differentiate between ordinary people and governments. My album "Emessa", which was the old name for the city of Homs and which I dedicated to the Syrian revolution, was recorded together with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra. To me this means that the people of Russia are with the people of Syria, not with the government. Some of the musicians in Moscow cried when we recorded the piece "Al-Qashoush". For me, art is a universal message, the search for beauty and truth.

You composed the piece "Al-Qashoush symphony" in 2011 and dedicated it to Ibrahim Al-Qashoush, a firefighter from Hama who stood up in public and sang a very famous song against Bashar Al-Assad. Al-Qashoush was brutally tortured, murdered and mutilated, the perpetrators were most probably thugs in the pay of the Assad regime. What do we know about Al-Qashoush? Did he really compose the song "Go away, Bashar"?

On July 4, 2011, Qashoush was found dead,

his throat cut and his vocal cords ripped out

Jandali: Every revolution throughout history has a legend. The legend of the Syrian revolution in music is Ibrahim Al-Qashoush. To me, even though Ibrahim Al-Qashoush was just a firefighter from Hama, he was the first true Syrian artist to break through the wall of fear and lead the way for other musicians and artists – he actually ignited the cultural revolution. This revolution is not only about freedom and human rights. It's a cultural revolution. No freedom, no art; no freedom, no progress.

After you published the Al-Qashoush Symphony in the spring of 2011, regime bandits in Homs targeted your parents. Their apartment was looted and they were both badly injured. How did you feel when that happened? Did you ever think of stopping your public statements against the Assad regime?

Jandali: It was very difficult, to be honest with you. You feel very guilty, useless and weak. It was a shameful act to go and beat my mother and break her teeth, at a time when they couldn't come after me. I am a US citizen; they could not touch me. But you know, to me this was a measure of honor. If this is freedom, I love it to death; I am ready to die.

Recording of Ibrahim al-Qashoush stirrting up protesters with his ballade

The attack on Malek Jandali’s parents and their home in Homs

Some people argue that even if Assad disappears, the Syrian people will not be better off, because Syria will fall apart, socially and geopolitically…

Jandali: Every moment of delay makes the situation more difficult, because we are witnessing the fall of humanity. But I don't want to give up hope. I think that we can build a new, better Syria. The people of Syria have the potential to become a beautiful symphony with different colors. The only thing we are missing is the beat of freedom. The soil of Syria is the cradle of 10,000 years of civilization. The alphabet and the first musical notation were developed in Ugarit, and even the inventor of the Apple computer, Steve Jobs is somehow related to Syria – his biological father was a Jandali from Homs and a cousin of my father.

We don't want to have a little crook, a liar telling us: "Oh, your civilization is only 40 years of Assad!" Let me put it differently: We are already free. There is no return. Bashar Al-Assad is a war criminal who must answer to the ICC for all his crimes.

Are you able to be creative, seeing the endless violence and horrors in Syria?

Jandali: We are witnessing disturbing news every day, but it is an historical moment for the Syrian people and for me personally this is an immense source of inspiration. They bomb people who are lining up for bread in the street – it is horrible, but it reminds you of the price of freedom.

Do you have any new projects?

Jandali: My upcoming project is a Syrian symphony, with four movements, full orchestra, close to 60 minutes of music. It is going to be a major symphony and it is almost finished. Most of the themes and motives are from the streets of Syria, from the revolution. At a later stage, I would like to introduce it to big orchestras and venues around the world. I see it as my duty to present the nobility of this revolution in some of the most respected places on earth. Because that's what art is: it is soft power.