On 22 July 2018, Pupil Barrister at Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers, and Director of the Syrian Legal Development Programme, Mr. Ibrahim Olabi was interviewed by BBC News, concerning the recent effort to evacuate the ‘White Helmets’ from Syria.
As noted by Ibrahim, the White Helmets have undertaken an essential task in the Syrian Conflict, and one that in which its members have faced dangers from all sides in a conflict that has seen half a million civilian deaths and the forced displaced of the half the pre-war population, being responsible for saving more than one hundred thousand lives during the conflict.
It is telling that despite the Syrian Regime and their Russian allies negotiating a deal that allowed combatants to leave the South West of Syria, the White Helmets were specifically precluded from this deal.
The likely reason being that, as highlighted by Ibrahim, the White Helmets, not only saved lives, but also documented the clear war crimes, and crimes against humanity being committed by the Syrian Regime and their Russian and Iranian allies. Accordingly, they are seen as a threat, and one to be eliminated.
Fortunately, the effort to evacuate was successful, and those that have saved countless, have themselves now been saved.
