Defiance and desperation inside the siege of Douma

Saturday 29 Mar 2014 For eighteen months the people of Douma, just north east of Damascus, have been besieged. Syrian government soldiers block their way in and out. Rebels from a number of different groups, including the Free Syrian Army, control the suburb. he civilians have had to learn to survive as best they can. As we drove in this morning, accompanying only the second !" relief convoy to reach Douma since the siege began, # watched an old man in a red$and$white kuffieh scarf walk bent almost double under the weight of firewood. Fuel is available % the soldiers on the roadblock make a &uick buck by selling it to the people they hold inside % but these days few can afford it. he !" convoy, bringing food, medical supplies and sanitary necessities such as soap, snaked through the dusty roads past bombed out buildings and empty shops. Fighters smiled and waved as we entered % # spotted one truck with the black flag of the jihadi group 'abat al$"usra, while others had insignia and flags from local brigades. (hildren waved too, and young men, three on a motorbike, sped alongside filming us with small cameras and smartphones. )ar has made journalists of them all. )e stopped so the !" could unload its trucks into a warehouse. A young volunteer from the Red (rescent handed me a piece of paper listing the names of seven colleagues detained by the Syrian authorities, with the date

and place of arrest. !nder each blurred photo were the words* +)e have not received any information about him until now., A young man asked if we wanted to interview the local FSA commander so we went to meet Ahmad aha, a middle$aged man with a grey beard, wearing fatigues. -e was, he said, commmander of the +martyrs brigade,, and there had been many marytrs in Douma. #n other suburbs, worn down by hunger and lack of outside support, opposition fighters have started to surrender under what the government calls the +reconciliation programme., #f they agree to join the Syrian army, or lay down their weapons, they will not be detained. )e will never do that., said /r aha, eyes flashing. +A ceasefire or reconciiation is out of the &uestion. 0ashar 1al$Assad2 has killed our kids and wives and destroyed our houses., -is colleague, a thoughtful looking man with black scarf wound round his head, who said he had more lives than a cat, had similar fighting talk, but no illusions about the suffering war had brought. his used to be a middle$class place,, he said. +"ow everyone is poor., he !" convoy was the result of a truce, agreed by both sides, to allow in humanitarian aid. he fact that we have got both sides to agree on this is a huge step forward,, said /atthew -ollingworth, the head of the !" )orld Food 3rogramme, as bo4es of food parcels were unloaded. 0ut this a drop in the ocean. )e need to come back tomorrow and the ne4t day, and then again., -e hopes they will be able to feed 56,666 people but knows the need is much greater. A few miles on, at the village of /israba, they unloaded more food parcels as several hundred people &ueued % men in one line, women in the other % with their ration books. # asked some of the women, their faces completely covered with black cloth, what they thought about the rebels7 refusal to surrender. )e want both sides to surrender,, said one. +)e want our old lives back., he children, e4plained a teacher, still go to school but the government no longer pays teachers7 salaries because they say the area is full of fighters and all the civilians have left. 8ook at all these women., he said, as they jostled to get their food, tempers beginning to fray. +Are they fighters9, he siege of Douma is not complete % it7s a semi$rural area so people can

grow vegetables and raise livestock. # didn7t see malnourished children, or not overtly so. 0ut their lives have become a constant search for food, money, a bit here, a bit there, any means of survival. And government forces are still bombarding the area. Siege may be the oldest, cruellest, most effective military tactic ever. he Romans used it. So did the "a:is and the 0ritish. he fighters of Douma say it won7t force them to abandon their struggle, but # wonder how long their families can hold out. As we drove away, knots of people pursued our convoy. Some tried to jump on the backs of the vehicles, a woman knocked on our window and shouted. )e sped through the checkpoint, free to leave, but they were trapped, victims of a war with no resolution in sight. Follow ;lindseyhilsum on witter. - See more at: http://blogs.channel4.com/lindsey-hilsum-on-international-affairs/siegedouma/3683 sthash.!"i#$%o&.dpuf