Alternative Syria: Syria Civil Defence: in training and in action

Thursday 26 June 2014

Syria Civil Defence: in training and in action

The above film, Digging For Life, shows recruits to the Syria Civil Defence service in training to respond to aerial bombing attacks. You can find out more about Syria Civil Defence by following @SyriaCivilDef on Twitter, or by visiting their Facebook page.

The film is by the activist media network Basma Syria, on Twitter as @Basma4Syria, and also on Facebook. You can read more about Basma’s part in collecting evidence of war crimes here, and of the role of UK and US governments in supporting them here.

The film below, A City Left in Ruins: The Battle For Aleppo, is by Medyan Dairieh, Vice News. While it features interviews with fighters in Aleppo, the greater part of the documentary is spent following Syria Civil Defence volunteers risking their lives to save fellow civilians under bombardment. Read more here. Medyan Dairieh is on Twitter: @MedyanDairieh

ABOUT

I’m looking for stories of people working to build an alternative Syria: an alternative to the terror state of the Assad regime, an alternative to the proxy war battlefield, an alternative to extremist tyranny.

Many have fears of what might follow the collapse of Assad’s rule, and some outside of Syria would prefer to see a political solution negotiated with the regime: an orderly transition.

I don’t believe it is realistic to hope that the regime can deliver an orderly transition. I don’t think the millions of people displaced and exiled can realistically be expected to return and live in peace under a regime that has destroyed their livelihoods and their homes, that has starved them, that has killed and maimed their loved ones.

What then is the alternative? How are Syrians working for a transition to a better Syria? And how can the wider world help?

London 2014