SibaiThe wrath of the Syrian regime has fallen upon the people of Homs which was battered with unprecedented brutality on February 3 to punish the residents for their non-stop anti-government protests and for demanding freedom. Over the past week, the death toll has risen to 1,000, including women and children, according to activists. That accounts only for the dead bodies that have been found and identified. Countless others have yet to be pulled out of the rubble of buildings to determine if they are dead or alive and hundreds of the wounded may not survive if they do not receive quick medical attention. Since the Russian and Chinese veto of an Arab League plan to resolve the Syrian crisis at the United Nations Security Council, which seems to have been interpreted by the regime as a green light to kill unarmed civilians, Homs has become a dangerous war zone. It is a one-sided battle, with the people pitted against Bashar Al-Assad's tanks, missiles, rockets and cluster bombs. Reports from relatives in Syria said that heavy artillery fired from a distance flattened buildings and turned parts of Baba Amro into a wasteland of crushed concrete. The army has surrounded Homs and none can enter or leave the city. Al-Assad intends to cut off the people of Homs from the rest of the world and wipe them out while the world community watches in a terrified, confused stupor. After hours of trying to reach my husband's elderly relative in Homs, she cried out over the telephone: “We have had no water or electricity or gas for heating for three days. All the food I had stored in my fridge to help feed widows and orphans has been spoiled and I am throwing it into the garbage. Many poor families rely on me for food and now I have nothing to offer. There are injured people lying in the street in front of my house but we are too scared to rescue them.” She said hospitals have not been spared from the bombings and shooting. Many private hospitals have been destroyed so the wounded are treated in homes. My mother's second cousin, choking tears, said: “The beasts from Al-Assad's army are roaming around my house. But it is not the house or the walls or the furniture that concerns me. I shudder at the thought of soldiers using my house as a camp and shooting at my own people.” A distraught physician pleaded desperately between sobs: “No ambulances can get into Baba Amro. I have people brought in alive, with missing body parts. We have no medical supplies, no bandages, no medicines, no antiseptics, no anesthesia, and no blood to give. I swear by Allah that I have not slept for three days. Should I stitch up wounds with my wife's sewing needle and thread? Is this the dialogue that Bashar Al-Assad wants?” Danny Abduldayem, a British-Syrian activist in Homs who reports for the BBC, said on Wednesday: “It is only seven o'clock in the morning and a two-year-old child died right beside her two sisters when a tank shell exploded in their home. The world has turned its back on the Syrian people and has left them to die.”Clearly, we have a humanitarian crisis on our hands and more blood will be spilled while the world leaders convene, hold meetings, make decisions, and discuss the Syrian crisis. King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, has done much to support the Syrian people. He has expelled the Syrian ambassador from the Kingdom, shut down the Saudi Embassy in Damascus and condemned the violence against innocent civilians. But the genocide calls for more effective measures. Gulf countries must exert unrelenting pressure to create a safe passage for ambulances and paramedics to enter stricken areas. The Red Cross, Red Crescent, and Doctors Without Borders must demand access to Homs. Syrians who reside in the Kingdom and other Gulf countries said their summer houses in Homs were ransacked. On Thursday, the house of our close relative was seized by the regime's army. People across the world, regardless of race or religion, should help in raising awareness about the plight of the Syrian people, send donations and pray for the hapless civilians whose only weapon is to lift their hands and chant: “Oh Allah! We have nobody to help us except You, Oh Allah!” __
