Beirut (dpa) – Shortly after news spread about a massacre in the Homs neighborhood of Karm al-Zeitoun – and that women were raped and children slaughtered – Asma decided that she had to escape no matter at what cost. Along with her three daughters and two sons, Asma was smuggled into Lebanon on Monday night with the help of opposition activists, abandoning her home in Bab al-Sibaa, close to where the bodies were found. “We heard and saw on television what happened in Karm al-Zeitoun, and how women were raped in front of their fathers and husbands, and how children had their throats slit, so we decided to escape,” said Asma, who is now staying at the Islamic hospital in the northern city of Tripoli. Activists said Monday that 57 people, mostly women and children, had been slaughtered by the forces of the regime in Karm al-Zeitoun. The Syrian authorities accused “terrorist gangs” of being behind the killings with the aim of sparking an international outcry against Damascus. As the violence against protesters intensified over the past year, women have organized women-only protests across Syria to highlight the suffering of their families. Pro-government thugs attacked their protests and a few women were killed in separate incidents, but Monday's killings are believed to show they are now being targeted with lethal violence. “I had to take the risk of walking in the woods with my children into Lebanon, but at least they are safe here,” she told dpa by phone. “The world hears 20 per cent of what this regime is doing to the people of Syria,” she said. News from Syria cannot be independently verified as the government bans journalists from entering restive areas. Abu Raad, head of the Syrian Relief Council in Tripoli, said that 50 families had crossed into Lebanon in the past 24 hours, most of them women and children. A doctor at the hospital, who requested anonymity, said that most of the recently arrivals, including children as young as 5, “have not slept for the past 24 hours, have not had a hot meal, and spent long hours walking in the cold.” Many are being treated for flu, ear infections and intestinal pains, he added. Raidaa, a 20-year-old girl, who escaped Homs with her mother, left a father and two brothers in the area of Bab al-Sibaa. “We do not know if we will go back to our house soon, or if we will see my father and two brothers again,” she said tearfully. “I tell the world community the meetings will not do the people of Syria any good,” Raidaa said in reference to ongoing talks with President Bashar al-Assad. “The people are awaiting a firm stance to protect them, because this regime is heartless and has no mercy, not even on children.” The number of displaced Syrians currently registered with the United Nations and the High Relief Commission in north Lebanon is 7,088 persons. They are mainly concentrated in the Wadi Khaled, Akroom, Bire, Halba, Old Akkar and Tripoli areas. Abu Raad, from Homs, said that the Syrian refugee families are not all registered. He is concerned that as long as the violence continues, their situation will worsen. On Monday, UN human rights investigator Paulo Pinheiro called for urgent action. “The exodus continues to Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. The desperate situation of civilians needs to be addressed as a matter of utmost urgency,” he told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/16K0z Tags: Children, Escape, Rape, Syria, Women Section: Editor's choice, Features, Latest News, Lebanon, Syria, Women
