ICRC: No Deal on Evacuating Baba Amr Wounded in Syria
Negotiations between the International Committee of the Red Cross, Syrian authorities and opposition groups to evacuate the wounded from Baba Amr in Homs on Saturday ended in failure, the IRCR said.
The "ICRC and Syrian Arab Red Crescent have been negotiating since this morning with both the Syrian authorities and opposition groups in Homs. The discussion has yielded no concrete result today. Unfortunately, therefore, no emergency evacuation will take place today," a spokesman told Agence France Presse.
However, Saleh Dabbakeh said the Red Cross and Red Crescent will pursue their efforts.
"The ICRC and the SARC will continue to negotiate with the authorities and opposition in an attempt to enter Baba Amr and carry out life-saving evacuations," he said.
A Western diplomat in Damascus said the talks foundered because of "deep mistrust between the two sides" -- Syrian authorities and the opposition.
"This is making the negotiations very arduous," said the diplomat.
A Western journalist who has been involved in Saturday's negotiations told AFP that ambulances entered Baba Amr twice in the afternoon but were blocked by members of the rebel Free Syrian Army.
"At one point they said they could not allow more evacuations, including those of (wounded) foreign journalists, because nine people evacuated on Friday had been arrested," the female journalist said on condition of anonymity.
She said ambulances had entered FSA stronghold Baba Amr at 1300 GMT and 17:00 GMT.
According to the journalist, the ICRC investigated the rebel claim and reported that their allegation that people evacuated previously had been arrested "were totally false."
Dabbakeh confirmed on Friday that the Red Cross and the Red Crescent had evacuated seven Syrians wounded in shelling, as well as 20 sick women and children. They were taken to Homs' al-Amine hospital.
But they were unable to evacuate two wounded Western journalists and the bodies of two others killed on Wednesday in a rocket attack in Homs.
American reporter Marie Colvin and French photojournalist Remi Ochlik were killed when a rocket hit a makeshift media center in Baba Amr.
French reporter Edith Bouvier and British photographer Paul Conroy suffered leg wounds in the attack.
Source: Agence France Presse
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