'No Concrete Step' yet for Homs Evacuation, Aid

No concrete steps have been taken to evacuate women and children or provide aid to the besieged Old City of Homs despite an agreement at Syrian peace talks in Geneva, the Red Cross said Monday.

"Until today noon, there has been no concrete step taken for any operation of this type in Homs Old City," Robert Mardini, head of operations for the Middle East at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told AFP.

On Sunday at the U.N.-brokered negotiations in Geneva, Syria's regime agreed to allow women and children safe passage from rebel-held areas of the city of Homs where they have been under siege for months, with near-daily shelling and the barest of supplies.

It was the first tangible promise to emerge from the talks, which on Friday saw Syria's opposition and the regime of President Bashar Assad sit down in the same room for the first time since the war erupted in 2011.

Opposition activists in Homs expressed skepticism, however, saying they first wanted aid supplies and "guarantees" that those leaving would not be arrested.

Mardini underlined that offering civilians the chance to leave the besieged community should not mean that they must do so.

"In no way should anybody be forcing civilians to leave," he said.

"We know from our experience that people will not wish to leave their homes, their personal belongings, without no guarantee of what they will be facing outside," he added, saying aid agencies should be allowed into the besieged districts to assess needs.

"There won't be any quick wins. We should be under no illusion that this will solve the problem. And access is not a one-off, where you get in with some food parcels and medical aid," he said, noting that longer-term relief efforts would be essential.

The ICRC has not been inside Homs since November 2012, Mardini said.

Earlier on Monday, activists said that more than half of the 500 women and children trapped in Homs refuse to be evacuated, saying they fear leaving male relatives behind.

"Some 200 women and children, those suffering the worst as a result of the lack of food and medical supplies because of the army siege, are ready to be evacuated," said Abu Ziad, an activist in the besieged, rebel-held part of the central city.

"Those willing to leave would only do so if there are guarantees they won't be detained by the regime... But many others do not want to leave their husbands behind."

He spoke a day after the U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria, who is leading peace talks in Geneva, said that women and children trapped in besieged areas of Homs would be allowed to leave Monday.

Lakhdar Brahimi also said the government had agreed to allow humanitarian aid into the rebel areas, which have been under siege for nearly 600 days.

By Monday afternoon, however, there was no confirmation that any aid would be brought in, or that anyone would be allowed out, said Abu Ziad.

"The shelling is still non-stop. Many houses are on fire. People are still getting killed."

Activists in Homs's rebel districts, which cover only a tiny section of Syria's third city, cautiously welcomed the proposal.

But they also said the aid must be sufficient to meet their needs, while demanding guarantees that any women, children and wounded people who choose to leave will not be detained.

Some 3,000 people are trapped in Homs' rebel-held areas, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group with a network of sources inside the war-ravaged country.

Fighting rages on the edges of the besieged districts, which come under daily shelling, and food and medical supplies have all but run out.

"One of the women who is desperate to go has been eating nothing but olives, one meal a day, for weeks. She is breastfeeding her infant child, and can give him nothing," said Abu Ziad.

"There are many tragic stories here."

Rights groups have repeatedly condemned the siege of Homs' Old City and called for all parties in Syria's conflict to facilitate immediate humanitarian access.