Vancouver Courier - Syria evacuates Bedouin from Druze-majority Sweida as ceasefire holds

An AFP correspondent outside the devastated provincial capital saw a convoy of buses and other vehicles enter Sweida and then exit again carrying civilians, including women and children.

They were headed for reception centres in neighbouring Daraa province and to the capital Damascus, in coordination with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

State news agency SANA said 1,500 people from Bedouin tribes were to be evacuated.

The ceasefire announced Saturday put an end to the sectarian violence that has left more than 1,100 dead, most of them Druze fighters and civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, whose toll also includes hundreds of government security personnel.

Clashes began on July 13 between Druze and Bedouin tribes, who have had tense relations for decades, and were complicated by the intervention of Sunni Arab tribes who converged on Sweida in support of the Bedouin.

Witnesses, Druze factions and a monitor have accused government forces of siding with the Bedouin and committing abuses including summary executions when they entered Sweida last week.

"We reached a formula that allows us to defuse the crisis by evacuating the families of our compatriots from the Bedouin and the tribes who are currently in Sweida city," the province's internal security chief Ahmad Dalati told state television.

The ceasefire, though announced on Saturday, only effectively began on Sunday after Bedouin and tribal fighters withdrew from parts of Sweida and Druze groups regained control.

- Unidentified bodies -

The announcement came hours after the United States said it had negotiated a ceasefire between Syria's Islamist government and Israel, which had bombed government forces in both Sweida and Damascus earlier in the week.

Israel, which has its own Druze community, has said it was acting in defence of the group, as well as to enforce its demands for the total demilitarisation of Syria's south.

The deal allowed the deployment of government security forces in Sweida province but not its main city.

The AFP correspondent in the city said security forces had erected sand mounds to block some of Sweida's entrances.

Sunni tribal fighters armed with machine guns were sitting on the roadside beyond the checkpoints, under the shade of trees.

At the main hospital in Sweida city, dozens of bodies were still waiting to be identified, with a forensic medicine official at facility saying that "we still have 97 unidentified corpses".

According to the United Nations, the violence has displaced more than 128,000 people, an issue that has also made collecting and identifying bodies more difficult.

Health authorities have not released a comprehensive death toll.

- Aid convoy -

More than 450 bodies had been brought to the Sweida national hospital by Sunday evening, with more still being recovered from the streets and homes.

"The dead bodies sent a terrible smell through all the floors of the hospital," said nurse Hisham Breik, who had not left the facility since the violence began.

"The situation has been terrible. We couldn't walk around the hospital without wearing a mask," he said, his voice trembling, adding that the wounded included women, children and the elderly.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said hospitals and health centres in Sweida province were out of service, with "reports of unburied bodies raising serious public health concerns".

Humanitarian access to Sweida "remains highly constrained", it said a statement late Sunday.

On Sunday, a first humanitarian aid convoy entered the city which has seen power and water cuts and shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies.

A Red Crescent official told AFP the supplies included body bags.

On Monday, the Observatory said the ceasefire was holding, despite isolated gunfire in areas north of Sweida city with no reports of casualties.

S.Lewis--VC