The Untold Story of One Million Syrians Still Under Siege

Across Syria almost one million people are caught under siege mostly by the Assad regime in appalling conditions, with even children enduring especially horrific suffering in what amounts to an untold story as Anna Nolan, the Director of the Syria Campaign in the United States, told Anne Daly in this special Esperanza report. The scale of the sieges in 52 different areas, given the level of suffering, are effectively not being reported, which is unsurprising for two londstanding reasons. When journalist Marie Colvin and photographer Remy Ochlik were murdered in Syria in 2012 the international media independently covering the conflict were almost all withdrawn en masse; and, secondly, the UN in the way it defined sieges let Assad off the hook completely understating the level of what are gross human rights abuses. For example, when the human crisis in Madaya, under siege for months, came to light in January this year it was NOT defined as under siege under UN criteria. Meanwhile, the UN will only deliver aid to besieged areas with the permission of the Assad regime in violation of its own mandate, making aid a powerful weapon in the hands of the regime. This means taxpayers sending funds to UN agencies thinking they are helping people in besieged areas are in fact bolstering Assad's war against his own people. Esperanza Esperanza Productions was co-founded by award winning documentary filmmakers Ronan Tynan and Anne Daly. web: www.esperanza.ie Follow Anne Daly on Twitter: @annedaly19 Follow Ronan Tynan on Twitter: @ronanltynan