BEIRUT: As Syria’s regime and opposition held high-profile talks in upscale Swiss hotels, their country’s brutal conflict claimed the lives of nearly 1,900 people, far from the international spotlight. President Bashar Al Assad’s government, and the opposition National Coalition, have little to show for the talks that began on January 22 in the Swiss town of Montreux and wrapped up yesterday in Geneva.
On the ground there was no let-up in the brutality that has devastated the country since March 2011, with more than 130,000 people killed in nearly three years and some nine million displaced.
No ceasefire was agreed, talks on a transitional government never began, and a deal to allow aid into the besieged Old City of central Homs went nowhere.
In the nine days between the start of the conference through to Thursday night, 1,870 people were killed in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“There should have been a total halt to military operations and arrests during the talks,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said. Instead, the fighting continued as fiercely as ever, with an average of 208 deaths a day, he said.
The Britain-based Observatory said that at least 498 civilians were among those who died as the peace talks were under way.
Fighting between the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and rival rebel groups that erupted in early January continued unabated.
Activists also spoke of harrowing raids by regime forces on the northern city of Aleppo and the town of Daraya in Damascus province which were both hit by explosive-packed barrel bombs.
“During Geneva II, explosive barrel bombs have rained down on us,” activist Abu Kinan said yesterday from Daraya.AFP
