荒廃と悲惨、シリア内戦１０年目に突入

【ベイルートＡＦＰ＝時事】シリアで残虐な内戦が始まってから、15日で10年目に突入した。（写真はシリア北部アレッポで、政権軍によるとみられる爆撃で負傷した少女を運ぶ男性）
　２０１１年３月１５日、バッシャール・アサド政権に抗議する反体制デモに参加しようと街頭へ繰り出したシリアの人々は、それが反体制派、イスラム教過激派、さらに外国勢力を巻き込んだ複雑な内戦に発展するとは思いもよらなかっただろう。
　南部ダルアーで起きたかつてない反政府デモはシリア全土へ広がった。武力行使による鎮圧が開始されると間もなく、湾岸諸国の後ろ盾を得た反体制派は武器を取り、シリアの主要地域を政権による支配から奪取した。さらにイスラム過激派組織「イスラム国（ＩＳ）」をはじめとするイスラム過激派が台頭。ＩＳは２０１４年にはシリアと隣国イラクの広大な部分を制圧するまで勢力を伸ばした。
　在英のシリア人権監視団の１４日の発表によると、死者は民間人１１万６０００人超を含めて少なくとも３８万４０００人。１１００万人以上が難民や国内避難民となっている。
　「革命の９年間は亡命、爆撃、そして死のはざまで、私たちが知っている苦しみの広がりを示すものだ」。北西部イドリブ県ダナに暮らす人権活動家のハラ・イブラヒムさんは言う。反体制派の最後の拠点が残る北西部には今、政権軍が最終攻撃を加えている。
　シリア内戦にはまた、５か国が絡んでいる。アサド政権軍は、ロシアとイラン、それにレバノンのイスラム教シーア派組織ヒズボラの支援を得て、国土の７０％を奪還した。
　北西部では今月に入り、ロシアと反体制派を支援するトルコが停戦入りすることで合意。合同パトロールを開始することでも一致したが、先行きは不透明だ。
　米軍は昨年、撤退を発表したにもかかわらず今もシリア北東部のクルド人自治区に駐留している。ＩＳと戦ってきた米政府の次なる主な目標は、イランの影響力を阻止することだ。
　国連のゲイル・ペダーセンシリア担当特使は１４日、「この悲劇的かつ悲惨な１０年間にシリアの人々が受けた苦痛は、いまだ理解を超える信じがたいものだ」と述べた。
　アントニオ・グテレス国連事務総長はツイッターへの投稿で「１０年間の戦闘がもたらしたものは、荒廃と悲惨でしかない」「軍事的解決はない。今こそ外交に出番を与えるときだ」と述べた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/03/16-09:46）

Syria's brutal conflict entered its 10th year Sunday with President Bashar al-Assad's regime consolidating its hold over a war-wracked country where foreign powers are flexing their muscle.
When Syrian anti-government demonstrators first took to the streets on March 15, 2011, they could scarcely have imagined their protests would turn into a complex war entangling rebels, jihadists and outside forces.
At least 384,000 people have since died, including more than 116,000 civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor says.
The war has left cities and villages in ruins, shattered the economy and displaced more than 11 million people internally and abroad, with many seeking refuge in neighbouring countries and Europe.
We've lost everything, said one of the displaced, Hala Ibrahim, a rights activist from Aleppo who now lives in Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold.
I left my university, my house which was bombed, said the woman in her 30s.
Nine years of revolution illustrate the extent of the suffering we have known, between exile, bombings and deaths.
Assad, with the military support of Russia, Iran and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, has clawed back control of over 70 percent of the war-torn country.
Neighbouring Turkey, which supports local armed groups, has deployed its troops across the border in Idlib province, now the last rebel bastion and refugee of millions of displaced people.
- 'Collective failure' -
Syria's latest fragile ceasefire came into effect there earlier this month, and Turkish and Russian forces on Sunday kicked off joint patrols in Idlib, Russian and Turkish media said.
The first patrol was however very brief and largely symbolic, as the route was shortened because of provocations, Russia's defence ministry said.
An AFP correspondent, covering a protest against the patrol some five kilometres (three miles) away, said it never arrived on that section of the M4 highway.
Around 200 protesters had gathered on the road near the town of Nayrab, some setting tyres alight or piling tree branches across the thoroughfare.
The March 5 ceasefire has for now stemmed a deadly Russia-backed military campaign on Idlib.
The assault has killed nearly 500 civilians since December, the Observatory says, and forced nearly a million to flee their homes and shelters, according to the United Nations.
Among those displaced, Siham Abs and seven of her children have been living for the past two months in a camp near Bardaqli, not far from the Turkish border.
Among the tents lined up along muddy paths, Abs said she and her family would like to wash, but don't know where.
I am 50 years old and I've never known such difficult times, she said.
Many of those unable to find space in camps have been sleeping in fields or have sought shelter in schools, mosques and unfinished buildings.
The UN special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, on Saturday said the enduring war was proof of a collective failure of diplomacy.
The suffering of the Syrian people during this tragic and terrible decade still defies comprehension and belief.
- 'Ruin and misery' -
The Syrian conflict was born of unprecedented anti-government demonstrations in the southern city of Daraa.
The protests spread across Syria, but a violent crackdown soon saw rebels take up arms and wrest key areas from government control.
Jihadist groups also emerged, notably the Islamic State group which swept across large parts of the country and neighbouring Iraq in 2014.
Other foreign powers still operating in Syria include the United States whose troops, despite an announced withdrawal last year, are still stationed in the northeast, in a semi-autonomous Kurdish zone.
And Israel regularly carries out air strikes on Syrian, Hezbollah and Iranian military positions.
The war has ravaged Syria's economy and infrastructure. The United Nations estimated in 2018 that the conflict had caused nearly $400 billion in war-related destruction.
Over half of all health facilities in Syria are non-functional, and two in five schools cannot be used, the UN children's agency says.
Our message is clear: Stop hitting schools and hospitals, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said. Stop killing and maiming children.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote this week on Twitter that a decade of fighting has brought nothing but ruin and misery.
There is no military solution. Now it is the time to give diplomacy a chance to work.
strs-lar-tgg/ah/fz