Where Compassion Lies

"I was so happy to be in communication with you and I hope that we can stay in communication, if God decides that. Please say hello to your families for me and I hope you arrive safely."
Nusra Front rebel

The Nusra Front, famously, bears the imprimatur of Al-Qaeda. "May good reward every person who sought to resolve this problem", said a nun, recently released from three-months' captivity by the Nusra Front rebels. Held hostage by the rebels, an exchange was made for their release through an agreement, rare as it was, between the regime and the rebels, seeking themselves the release of 150 female Syrians taken prison by government troops.

Nuns who has been held by Syrian insurgents for over three months arrived at the border with Lebanon on Monday after being released. Credit Khaled Al-Hariri/Reuters

The thirteen nuns claimed to have been treated very well by the rebels. And they looked in excellent health as well, in a video of the release issued by the Nusra Front Islamists. A masked gunman was shown carrying an elderly nun too frail to walk on her own to a waiting vehicle. The nuns were warmly welcomed at the Church of the Cross in the Christian neighbourhood of Qassaa.

Qatar had mediated the exchange. Known for its support of the rebels, it seems to spare no effort to ameliorate fraught situations. The video revealed a dialogue between the nuns and the rebels that appeared peculiar in the familiarity with which each addressed the other. One rebel's voice is heard to state: "What we did was less than what we should have done", off camera. God, he said, would favour the nuns for their suffering.

One of the group of 13 nuns and three maids kidnapped in December talks to reporters. Photograph: Louai Beshara/AFP/Getty Images

 

The nuns prayed in Damascus later, then left for the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Old Damascus where they are meant to remain. Bishop Luca Al-Khoury led an official church reception to welcome the nuns, accusing the rebels of targeting Syria's religious minorities. As a defender of Mr. Assad's regime, the patriarchal assistant spared little venom for those meaning to overthrow Syria's tyrant:

"Syria, which does not differentiate between Muslims and Christians, is targeted ... by the armed terrorist groups who don't understand anything but the language of killing and destruction", he thundered.

And then, there's another facet to the situation prevailing in Syria where the government forces use all means at the disposal of a head of state who is completely involved in restoring the status quo by destroying the country's infrastructure, demolishing entire neighbourhoods and heritage places of worship, while using crude bombs to persuade rebel forces that the military intends to crush them, just incidentally slaughtering innocent civilians in the process.

A government that doesn't hesitate about using weapons of mass destruction against its vulnerable civilians, strafing and bombing neighbourhoods, abducting, torturing and killing those whom it suspects shelter rebels in their areas, in its zeal to destroy all opposition to its continued rule. And which has left its health care system in ruins, on the brink of collapse, where medical personnel are forced to use "brutal medical practices" to save lives.

A view shows damages inside a room at Raqqa national hospital, hit by what activists said was a Syrian Air Force fighter jet loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in Raqqa province, eastern Syria June 20, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Nour Fourat

Hospitals where anaesthesia is no longer available, requiring patients to be struck with metal bars to knock them into unconsciousness before surgery, where infants' limbs are amputated because no other means exist to treat their injuries. Power outages have caused newborns to die in their incubators, and millions of Syrian children are exposed to deadly pathogens, preventable with vaccines and basic medical equipment, but none is available.

Hospitals have been bombed by government forces in rebel-held areas. Armed men, fighting for the opposition force their way into clinics for emergency treatment for injured fighters. Doctors flee the country to escape the vortex of lunacy. "This humanitarian crisis has fast become a health crisis. The desperate measures to which medical personnel are resorting to keep children alive are increasingly harrowing", advised Roger Hearn, regional director of Save The Children.