Syria crisis: Meet volunteer emergency relief groupthe White Helmets - 'We save everybody. That means everybody'
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Version 0 of 1. A two-week old baby is pulled – slowly, slowly – from the rubble of a barrel-bomb blast that hit the family home. After a 12-hour mission the sight of his tiny, crying body brings tears to the eyes of rescuers. It is what passes for good news in Syria. The men pulling the baby to safety were the White Helmets, volunteer emergency response units operating in the country’s contested areas. “We are here to give hope to people that if they are under rubble they will not be forgotten,” says Ammar al-Salmo, the head of the Aleppo branch of the Syrian Civil Defence, as the White Helmets are officially known. The rescue, filmed on a mobile phone, happened last summer. But every day the White Helmets face similar situations. Tragedies are not hard to find: Syria’s four-year civil war has killed more than 250,000 people and forced eight million into exile. But another video featuring the White Helmets which appeared online earlier this month was less of a cause for celebration. In it, a young man dressed in black kneels with his back to the camera. His hands are bound. It is an execution video, filmed by the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra in Aleppo province. The man is shot dead and two White Helmet responders appear to remove his body. The video caused a ripple. The White Helmets were accused of being in the pocket of Nusra, of carrying out their dirty work. The Aleppo arm of the organisation quickly put out a statement saying they had merely been called to pick up a body, as they often do. “Syria Civil Defence does not act in favour of, or against any party to the Syrian conflict,” it said. “We unequivocally condemn the killing of civilians no matter who the perpetrator.” In fact, as Mr Salmo tells The Independent, it “was the parents of the man being executed who called us”. Powerless to stop the ruling of the shariah courts being carried out, they wanted the Syrian Civil Defence to take away his body in the hopes of at least providing him a measure of dignity in death. There are 2,600 White Helmets working in cities across Syria. They are needed now more than ever. They are the first to attend the aftermath of shelling or barrel bombs. They put out the fires, take people to hospitals, and provide first aid. Staying neutral among the many factions in Syria’s civil war is no easy task. But it is one that is integral to the ethos of the Syrian Civil Defence, and necessary for them to continue their work. The group is supported by the Syrian National Coalition, one of the reasons they came under such fierce attack when the Nusra video appeared. But the vast majority of its members are all ordinary local civilians with no medical training. In a past life they were carpenters, engineers, shopkeepers. Mr Salmo is an English literature graduate. Nowhere is the problem of staying neutral more acute than in the divided city of Aleppo, but nowhere is their work more vital. Amnesty estimates over 3,000 civilians died as a result of government barrel bomb attacks on the governorate last year, and attacks by the opposition forces killed over 670, it said. The day before The Independent spoke to Mr Salmo, a barrel bomb dropped on a bus station, killing dozens. “Every day in Aleppo there is a massacre,” says Mr Salmo. The four White Helmet units working across Aleppo province are available to back each other up when necessary. Except in one region, al-Bab. There, north-east of Aleppo, Isis, the self-proclaimed “Islamic State”, is in control, and the White Helmets from outside the area cannot go in. In al-Bab, staying neutral means resisting Isis’s pressure for them to join. “They want [the White Helmets] to be affiliated with Isis,” says Mr Salmo, who adds that the jihadists offer money and supplies to the group. “But they keep their independence.” Yesterday it was claimed that Isis fighters had executed at least 400 people in Palmyra since capturing the city last week. “The terrorists have killed more than 400 people and mutilated their bodies, under the pretext that they co-operated with the government and did not follow orders,” Syria’s state news agency said, citing residents. On the back of victories at Palmyra and in Ramadi in Iraq, there are fears it is only a matter of time before Isis overruns Aleppo. But on the question of whether the White Helmets would rescue Isis supporters, Mr Salmo says it’s “nothing to argue about”. He adds: “We save everybody. And that means everybody.” Despite their efforts, the White Helmets remain a target. Mr Salmo says that in this regard Isis and the regime have something in common: “They both think that those who are saving their enemies should die,” he says. They have lost White Helmets this way. After they rescued a fighter from the Free Syrian Army, Isis targeted their vehicle. Meanwhile, the regime bombs positions twice, meaning that rescuers often die. Last Ramadan, as a team went out to put out a fire, they were burnt in their truck by a second bomb. Mr Salmo quotes the Koran: “‘Whoever saves a life, it is like they have saved all mankind,’” he says. “It doesn’t say a Muslim life; it doesn’t say this or that affiliation. We don’t choose who we save.” In the horror of Syria’s civil war, the work of the White Helmets is remarkable. They are largely not paid for their work. Many of them have family in neighbouring countries, and could leave. But they choose to stay. “We are a part of the people of Syria,” Mr Salmo says. “We know that if we stay, we might die. But if we leave, many others would die.” |