"Submit or Starve" - Assad

“In Syria one million people are being systematically starved as a weapon of war and no one seems to know about it. This was the message from “The Break the Sieges” - a campaigning online organisation which is focusing world attention on what they say is “one of the most cruel and hidden sides of the war in Syria: Bashar al-Assad’s “submit or starve” policy.

Earlier this week the world got a glimpse of what this means when UN Aid Convoys reached Madaya only a one hour drive from the Syrian capital Damascus, which has been under siege for the last six months.

The images which filled our TV screens were truly horrific, starving men, women and children pleading for food medicine and end to the siege. The portrait of life as told by the citizens of Madaya brought back images of the World War 11 Warsaw Ghetto as survivors described having to eat grass and leaves to stay alive. While the siege of Madaya has captured the media’s attention there have been others such as at Homs and Douma.

On Saturday Jan 16th as part of a call by the 'Break the Sieges' campaign the Irish Syria Solidarity Movement held a protest in Dublin to focus attention on the worsening situation in Syria especially the impact on the civilian population of the sieges.

Anne Daly, Esperanza co-founder attended the protest and compiled this report.

Esperanza Productions was co-founded by award winning documentary filmmakers Ronan Tynan and Anne Daly.

web: www.esperanza.ie

twitter: @esperanzadocs

Follow Anne Daly on Twitter: @annedaly19

Follow Ronan Tynan on Twitter: @ronanltynan