'The world must unite to stop the massacre in Syria' says Syrian activist

The General  Workers Union (GWU) secretary-general Tony Zarb, this afternoon addressed a press conference in Valletta, together with representatives from Spring Organisation, a recently formed humanitarian NGO based in Jordan.

A spokesperson for the organisation which aims at helping Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries and raise international awareness about the situation in Syria said "The world must unite to stop the massacre in Syria." He also dismissed accusations against the opposition for being terrorists as "nonsense."

The UN says that 8,000 people had been killed since the start of the conflict just over 12 months ago. The Syrian regime restricts access to foreign journalists and casualty figures cannot be verified.

The GWU chief Tony Zarb thanked the Maltese people for their solidarity and explained that the union's initiative to collect medicines and other objects in aid of the people in Syria was a success.

The union will ship five containers to Jordan via Egypt. The shipment includes clothes, water, food a n medicines. The GWU underlined that the donations came from individual persons and not from companies.

Zarb noted the union is looking at sending more medicine and said that anyone who is interested in donating medicine is more than welcome. The GWU said that the situation in Syria is so dire that there is a shortage of stitching thread in field hospitals.

A spokesperson for Spring Organisation, Imad Abdullah, thanked the union, the Maltese government and the Maltese people for its solidarity. Abdullah managed to make it out of his hometown, Homs, a major focal point for anti-government unrest in Syria and the hardest hit area in the bloody uprising.

Abdullah explained that the NGO which is based in Jordan is coordinating efforts to smuggle medicines and food into Syria. He said that the organisation is doing this with the help of humanitarian agencies such as the Red Cross.

 He added that the organisation is also organising humanitarian aid to help Syrian refugees in Jordan and other neighbouring countries and raise awareness in the international media about the situation in Syria which he described as a "massacre"

"The camera has been our most dangerous weapon as pictures and videos of the violence going on in Syria are exposing the brutality of the Syrian regime," he said. Moreover, Abdullah said that his organisation's aim is to get "journalists around the world to press world governments to take action."

According to Abdullah, the Syrian regime is "torturing and killing innocent civilians by using heavy weapons and planes to capture satellite and internet signals. Children and families have been slaughtered with machetes and field hospitals have been bombarded."

Asked to describe the situation in his country, Abdullah said "at the moment there are no operational hospitals in Syria. State and private hospitals are occupied by security forces loyal to the Assad regime and wounded opposition supporters are being killed by doctors who should be saving lives."

Abdullah described the Syrian regime as a "mafia gang set to rule and ruin the country." He said that Spring Organisation is coordinating efforts to collect medicines and food around the world as the 80,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan are only considered as guests by the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR.

Abdullah said that the organisation is in contact with people in Syria and added "we are in constant contact with people all around the country, especially young people." Asked whether the organisation favours a foreign military intervention, Abdullah answered in the affirmative and said that diplomacy and talking will not resolve the matter. "We hope for an organised military intervention which does not create chaos in Syria. We demand a military intervention which is organised, possibly by the Arab League to end the unrest."